43.22 - Willamette Week March 29, 2017

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Federal immigration crackdown tar gets Portland. P. 9 how much money do bartenders make, really? p. 21

WILLAMETTE WEEK PORTLAND’S NEWSWEEKLY

Please stop making your own bitters. p. 17

“HE’S LIKE BUTTAH.” P. 14

r e d i s t u The O Steve Novick was

. l l a H y t i C f o t u o kicked

WWEEK.COM

VOL 43/22 3. 29. 2017

Now he offers his boldest i deas to shak e up a brok en council. page 12


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CAMERON LEWIS

FINDINGS

PAGE 17

WHAT WE LEARNED FROM READING THIS WEEK’S PAPER VOL. 43, ISSUE 22.

Commissioner Chloe Eudaly has hired Nick Caleb, an activist best known for publicly accusing an Asian American cycling advocate of being an undercover cop spying on him, citing as evidence that the Asian man looked kinda vaguely like an Asian American police captain. 6

As part of his rehabilitation, hero Steve Novick now has the guts to call for defunding neighborhood associations controlled by old white people who own homes. 12 Yes, there are lots of Portland servers and bartenders who make $60,000 a year. 21

The officer who killed Quanice Hayes shot him without seeing a gun. It was the second time he had fatally shot someone in the line of duty. 7

The city’s archive holds a few select porno mags. 39

ON THE COVER:

OUR MOST TRAFFICKED STORY ONLINE THIS WEEK:

Steve Novick photographed by Christine Dong.

The Oregon Zoo has come a long way from its start as a humble bear pit . 44 We’re No. 1… in racism! (And not because we shoot unarmed black teens and say Asian people look alike.)

STAFF Editor & Publisher Mark Zusman EDITORIAL News Editor Aaron Mesh Arts & Culture Editor Martin Cizmar Staff Writers Nigel Jaquiss, Rachel Monahan, Corey Pein Copy Chief Rob Fernas Copy Editors Matt Buckingham, Nicole Groessel, Maya McOmie Stage Editor Shannon Gormley Screen Editor Walker MacMurdo Projects Editor Matthew Korfhage Music Editor Matthew Singer

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POKER ROOMS FACE SCRUTINY

This is a very in-depth, interesting and wellcrafted story [“Burning Down the House,” WW, March 22, 2017]. Why should the state of Oregon essentially bend over for the Washington card rooms and the Oregon tribes? People wanted to get their gamble on, so finally, Oregon got smart and allowed legalization and taxation. So now the state has a new revenue stream. This crackdown on Portland poker clubs is stupid. The city and state should take Memorial Coliseum and allow a private entrepreneur to build something like Great Wolf Lodge [in Centralia, Wash.], with amusements for kids and gaming for adults. Screw Washington. “Why —“Jake”

[“Half Off,” WW, March 22, 2017]. Affordable housing on the vast, empty lots along the MAX Orange Line would seem to be a no-brainer. Also east of 82nd Avenue would be prime. Maybe Rob Justus should run against Chloe Eudaly to see who’s the real advocate for affordable housing in this town. —“babcock123” I applaud the concept of building more units with less money, but doing so by cutting corners on wages and not meeting energy standards is shortsighted. Cheaper isn’t necessarily better. —Karstan Lovorn Speaking as someone who desperately needs one of these apartments, I can say, “Just build them!” —Dennis Hutchinson

should

This is another example of dysfunc- Oregon bend tional city and state government—more over for the laws passed but not enforced. I don’t NURKIC IS A WELCOME think selective enforcement sends the Washington ADDITION TO BLAZERS card rooms?” desired message to the public. Jusuf Nurkic has really transformed Maybe there should be an automatthe Blazers into winners [“The Nurk ic grandfather clause; if a law is ignored by enforce- Itch,” WW, March 22, 2017]. He doesn’t like to ment agencies for at least two years, it expires. lose, and he instills this in every team member by —“Seems2Me” example. I wish we (the Golden State Warriors) had The Portland Meadows card club is low-key and him. The Cleveland Cavaliers wouldn’t stand a popular. It doesn’t seem to harm anyone and chance, and Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and amuses many. Kevin Durant would be immortal. —“Spicey Bacon” Moreover, it provides local folks with work. —“Clatskanie”

OFFER OF AFFORDABLE HOUSING

Wow, someone wants to build affordable housing at an affordable price, and the city goes “meh”

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: 2220 NW Quimby St., Portland, OR 97210. Email: mzusman@wweek.com.

BY MA RT Y SMIT H

The POTUS told mayors of so-called “sanctuary cities” he’ll cut off their federal funds. What happens if mayors retaliate by cutting off IRS withholding tax payments from city employees, to be sequestered in escrow accounts? —Artix PDX I’m not trying to drop a deuce on your quinceañera, Artix, but I’m afraid you and your orangetinted foe share the same oversimplified view of how modern taxation actually works. The term for what you’re proposing is “tax strike,” and it’s no coincidence that this search term leads directly to the impractical conspiracytheory fever swamps of both political extremes. There was certainly a time, back when taxation was more or less indistinguishable from simple extortion, when a ruler and his subjects could have a spirited cut-and-thrust through this avenue of protest. Consider Wikipedia’s admirably succinct summary of a tax strike in medieval England: “In 1041, residents of Worcester rebelled against [the tax] being collected by King Harthacnut, and killed two of his tax collectors. Harthacnut responded by burning Worcester to the ground.” I am quite sure Donald Trump wishes he lived 4

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in the simpler days of King Harthacnut, but the truth is that not only does he lack the power to burn Portland to the ground, it’s not at all clear he has the power to cut off our federal money (see Dr. Know, WW, Nov. 30, 2016). The flip side of this good news, however, is that it’s also not clear there is any effective way to stage a tax strike of the sort you’re proposing. It’s not like we can just ambush Trump’s tax collectors when they sweep into town on St. Swithin’s Day. (It’s true that California is studying ways to suspend federal transfer payments, but it’s a big legal and logistical challenge.) Instead, may I suggest the Tax Day protests that will be held nationwide April 15? Those assembled will be demanding the release of the tax returns that Kellyanne Conway said no one cares about. Plus, there may be giant Trumpshaped inflatable chickens—how can you say no? QUESTIONS? Send them to dr.know@wweek.com


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Wyden Gets a Crack at Trump’s Russian Ties

U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) is finally getting the opportunity he’s been seeking since last year to look into Russia and the Donald Trump campaign (“Tinker Tailor Senator Spy,” WW, Feb. 22, 2017). On March 30, the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, on which Wyden serves as a key minority member, will hold its first open hearings in its investigation to “examine disinformation, focusing on a primer in Russian active measures and influence campaigns” in the 2016 presidential election. That puts Wyden near the center of the biggest scandal plaguing the Trump administration. And he’s made it clear he wants to follow the money. On March 29, Wyden wrote to Senate intelligence committee leadership requesting “a thorough review of any and all financial relationships between Russia and President Trump and his associates.” The Senate hearings are scheduled to start at 7 and 11 am Pacific Standard Time, and can be streamed live at c-span.org.

Nicholas Caleb Goes to Work at City Hall

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Nicholas Caleb, an instructor at Portland Community College and a lawyer, has scored a job at City Hall—as a staffer to City Commissioner Chloe Eudaly. Caleb ran for the Portland City Council in 2014 and made a respectable showing, winning 18 percent of the vote against City Commissioner Dan Saltzman. He started last week in a parttime job for Eudaly, working for the next two months on environmental issues, specifically renewable energy and related policies. “The mayor has a climate agenda that’s

being compiled right now, and Chloe wants to engage in that process,” he says.

Another Police Chief Under Investigation

On March 24, Mayor Ted Wheeler relieved Portland Police Chief Mark Marshman of his duties, placing him on paid administrative leave while the Independent Police Review conducts an investigation. The mayor’s office offered no details, but The Oregonian reported that Marshman’s deputy may have falsified a training log, signing Marshman into a training session of the Employee Information System—a session Marshman allegedly didn’t attend. The electronic system is required under the city’s settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice, and is intended to identify officers with numerous citizen complaints or engaged in excessive use of force.

PitchFest Winner Soothes Menopause Symptoms

The winner of PitchFestNW 2017 is Madorra, a Portland startup that uses ultrasound to ease vaginal dryness during menopause. Madorra was selected from 74 startups that pitched high-tech THOMAS TEAL

THOMAS TEAL

MURMURS

wares before a panel of investors March 23 and 24 at the Portland Art Museum. Those 74 were selected from about 400 applicants for TechFestNW. (Disclosure: TechFest is presented by WW.) “It’s really exciting to have won,” says Holly Rockweiler, founder and CEO of Madorra, which uses a handheld ultrasound device to relieve post-menopausal vaginal dryness, a condition she says affects 32 million U.S. women. “It’s really strong validation that women’s health has been overlooked for a long time.”


Portland graffiti cataloged by the Office of Neighborhood Involvement since Nov. 1, 2016, as a priority for cleanup.

F uc k Tr u mp (22 times)

(1 time)

STOP TRUMP BITCH DIE YUPPIE SCUM FUCK TRUMP, HILLARY, IMPEACH F*CK ALL YOU LIBERAL N*GGERS DIE FUCK TRUMP MOTION FAG FUCK THE POLICE FAGGOT #FUCKTRUMP #GROPERINCHIEF END WHITE SUPREMACY

(1 time)

FUCK FEM EAT TRUMPS KIDS FUCK COPS BLEACH FUCK YOU BITCH (HEART)TRUMP BIGOTTYNESS FUCK FEMINISM FUCK TRUMP TRUMP EATS FARTS NEO NAZIS GET PUNCHED OUT ACAB PKC NO COPS EAT COPS SS; KILL ‘EM ALL

(21 times)

FUCK F EMINISM

(12 times)

F UC K COPS KILL TRUMP (5 times)

Andrew Hearst

THE OFFICER WHO SHOT QUANICE HAYES RECOUNTS THE KILLING.

On March 21, a Multnomah County grand jury ruled that the Feb. 9 police shooting that killed Portland teenager Quanice Hayes was justified. This week, the Multnomah County District Attorney ’s Office released 509 pages of testimony given to the grand jury—including the words of Portland police Officer Andrew Hearst, who shot Hayes twice in the torso and once in the head with an AR-15 rifle when the black 17-year-old reached for his waistband. (A fake gun was later found next to Hayes’ body.)

THE MOST COMMONLY LOGGED POLITICAL OR HATE GRAFFITI IN PORTLAND.

On March 23, city officials logged the latest incident of hateful graffiti in Portland: The bronze sculptures in Grant Park portraying Beverly Cleary’s beloved children’s book characters Ramona Quimby and Henry Huggins were tagged with swastikas. By last weekend, the swastikas in the Northeast Portland park had been covered up with competing graffiti: a five-pointed star on Ramona’s forehead and the word “antifa” on Henry’s. The scrawl on the statues is just the latest exchange in a war of bad words playing out across Portland. Since Nov. 1, officials with the Office of Neighborhood Involvement have cataloged 99 instances of what they list as “hate” or “political” graffiti in the city. T h e Po r t l a n d Mercury first reported in Jan-

(3 times)

FUCK DONALD TRUMP

IN HIS OWN WORDS

Bad Words

(2 times)

Hearst is a seven-year veteran of the Police Bureau who has pulled the trigger before in a fatal shooting: the 2013 killing of a mentally ill man named Merle Hatch, who charged officers carrying a broken phone. On Feb. 9, Hearst was assigned to provide “lethal cover” as he and fellow officers pursued Hayes, a suspect in a robbery and carjacking. In this excerpt from the transcript, Hearst describes the final moments before he shot Hayes, as the teenager crawled out of an alcove outside a Northeast Portland home. AARON MESH. Andrew Hearst: As he has crawled out, I have also stepped out of the flower bed and am now also in the driveway right in line with him. And we start telling him, “Now you are going to go down to your face. Hands out in front of you. Slowly go down to your face.” As he does—as we give those commands, I start noticing

that he’s looking around. And I perceived it as either he’s—you know, this is the final moment. He knows he’s about to go into handcuffs. At least that’s my perception.

So when he’s looking around, I’m thinking either he is looking for an avenue of escape to run or he’s looking at a target, an officer, to shoot. And as he’s doing that, he takes his right hand and he drops it to the small of his back. But immediately, as he kind of puts it down, he pulls it back out.

uary that ONI was keeping a list of hate and political graffiti. WW has now exclusively obtained that list through a public records request. It shows that the most common hate or political tag in Portland since the November election isn’t a swastika or a racial slur. It’s the phrase “Fuck Trump.” In fact, 46 of the 99 graffiti logged by ONI involved a reference to the president, only three of which could be construed as favorable. But swastikas were close behind: The city has recorded 24 reports of graffiti including them since the beginning of November. Here are some of the graffiti phrases ONI has logged since Nov. 1. The full logbook, w i t h d a t e s a n d l o c a t i o n s, can be found at wweek.com. RACHEL MONAHAN.

RAMONA QUIMBY SCULPTURE IN GRANT PARK

MILAN ERCEG

NEWS

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW THIS WEEK

It’s like a fluid motion. And it just took my breath away. And I just remember, oh, I almost shot you. Do you not realize what’s about to happen? I was just reeling from this reality that I almost shot this person. But the second that that emotion kind of just went through me, in the same kind of fluid movement, once it’s brought out front, he reaches to the front of his waistband, and I fired my rifle. I hear it go off three times. Boom. Boom. Boom. And he immediately falls to his face. Questioner: Because you carry the AR-15, did you believe any other officers were in a position to use deadly force at that time, or did you believe that was your responsibility? I believed it was my responsibility. And I knew that—I was kind of at the front of this team of officers. I don’t know of any other rifles present or any other pistols out that could provide

that type of cover. I know that was my responsibility. You didn’t, to be clear, you didn’t see, as I understand your testimony, you did not actually see a gun in his hand at the time that you pulled the trigger in your rifle; is that correct? That’s correct. I did not see. And why not wait until you see a gun pointed at you or see a gun? I can’t wait, because if I let him get his hand on his gun, he will be able to pull that gun out and shoot me or my co-workers before I’m able to react to it. I just—I can’t perceive what he’s doing, have that go through my thinking process and then make a decision faster than he’s able to shoot me. And how do you know that? All through the training from basic to advanced, and then seeing it on the street.

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NEWS E M I LY J O A N G R E E N E

Why are Trump and Sessions targeting sanctuary cities?

They promised to. “This has been part of their mean-spirited rhetoric since the campaign,” says dos Santos. “They promised to punish cities that dared stand up for their immigrants. I think they’re delivering.” After his inauguration in January, Trump threatened to revoke all federal funding of sanctuary cities, but decades of federal court precedent suggests such a move could quickly be ruled unconstitutional. The latest announcement from Sessions is still vague but far more specific in that it limits the federal funding in question to U.S. Department of Justice grants. Oregon’s U.S. senators, Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, denounced Sessions’ plan to withhold Justice Department grants as detrimental to public safety and, in Wyden’s words, “as un-American as it gets.”

Will they target Portland? STANDING VIGIL: Demonstrators for immigrants’ rights crowded outside ICE offices on Southwest Macadam Avenue on March 27 to demand the release of Francisco J. Rodriguez Dominguez.

Dream Turned Nightmare A SWEEP OF “DREAMERS” TURNS UP THE HEAT ON PORTLAND AS A SANCTUARY CITY. BY R AC H E L M O N A H A N and CO REY P E I N

243-2122

The largest reported deportation sweep in the U.S. under President Donald Trump of previously sanctioned immigrants known as “Dreamers” took place last weekend in the Portland area. In the last week, federal immigration agents arrested three people who had been given limited amnesty under President Barack Obama, according to multiple sources. The three people had at one time all registered with the U.S. government under an Obama-era program called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, which allows undocumented immigrants who arrived in the U.S. as children to legally remain here. One, Luis Gerado Zazueta, had not renewed his DACA paperwork, says his immigration attorney, Maria Zlateva. Another, Emmanuel Ayala, had gone in for fingerprinting to renew his DACA three days before his arrest, as first reported by local Spanish-language talk show Cita Con Nelly. The arrests of the Dreamers added to a growing sense that the White House is targeting so-called “sanctuary cities” like Portland for crackdowns on undocumented immigrants. Two of the DACA arrests came Sunday morning, a day before U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions declared his Justice Department would no longer award millions of dollars in grants to sanctuary cities that decline to cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The first arrest, reported by WW on March 26, inflamed the fear and confusion felt in Portland since ICE started conducting raids in and around federal courthouses in January (“The ICE Storm,” WW, Feb. 1, 2017). “They’re showing up on a Sunday morning. That’s an increased level of aggression,” says Andrea Williams, executive director of immigrant advocacy group Causa. “It just seems cruel to me, knowing what kind of terror they would create in the immigrant community.” Here’s what has changed in the ongoing standoff between Portland and ICE.

Why are Sunday’s ICE arrests a big deal?

The three arrests in the Portland area aren’t the first of Dreamers under Trump—there were high-profile arrests in Seattle and Jackson, Miss., last month—but they are the most documented so far in one metro area.

Among them: the March 26 arrest by ICE of Francisco J. Rodriguez Dominguez, a longtime resident of Southeast Portland who came to the U.S. at age 5. Rodriguez Dominguez, a church volunteer and Latino Network activist, had entered a court-ordered diversion program last December following a drunk-driving charge. If he completes the program, as he was on track to do, the conviction will be stricken from his record. The arrest of an immigrant who had officially entered a diversion program for a DUII violation represents a change in the way immigration laws are being enforced. “We’re starting to see a scary trend,” says Mat dos Santos, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon. “It is a big change. It’s shocking to me that [ICE agents] would interfere.” Driving under the influence is dangerous if common. But it’s typically punished with probation and community service. People who violated immigration laws as children are suffering more severe consequences for the same or lesser crimes—simply because of where they were born. Regional ICE spokeswoman Rose Richeson tells WW that Rodriguez Dominguez “was targeted for arrest based upon his guilty plea in December to a charge of driving under the influence of intoxicants, an offense ICE deems a threat to public safety.” ICE released him on bond Monday afternoon as friends, family and supporters rallied outside the agency’s offices on Southwest Macadam Avenue. His case will be heard by a federal immigration judge.

Is ICE changing its strategy in Portland and other sanctuary cities?

ICE’s Richeson tells WW the agency has not adjusted its policies since March 6, when Trump signed the most recent of three “Executive Orders on Protecting the Homeland” (his modified Muslim ban). But immigrant advocates and lawyers say they’ve noticed an increase in enforcement and a more aggressive ICE presence in Portland. As in historical mass deportation campaigns, creating fear and uncertainty may be part of that strategy. Romeo Sosa, director of the Portland Voz Workers’ Rights Education Project, which runs the day labor center on Northeast Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., says the increase in reported ICE activity in public places spreads fear and encourages self-deportation. “It’s an intimidation tactic,” he says. By making its agents visible on the streets, ICE hopes “people will be afraid, and they’ll pack their stuff and leave the country.” Some, Sosa adds, have already done so.

Probably so. ICE now labels Multnomah and Washington counties as “non-cooperative jurisdictions” and intends to publish a weekly report of how many immigrants wanted by the agency were not handed over by county jailers as a result of sanctuary policies approved by state and local elected officials. The first such report, released March 20, was a mess of jumbled statistics and drew swift criticism from local officials in counties labeled “non-cooperative.” The ICE report named Washington County as one of the “highest volume” sanctuary jurisdictions, as it received seven ICE “detainer” orders demanding the transfer of immigrants in local custody during the week of Jan. 28 through Feb. 3. This seemed to imply the county protected seven foreign criminals from deportation that week—even though not all of those individuals had been convicted of a crime, nor had their immigration cases been adjudicated. The report also noted that because local law enforcement does not typically inform ICE when denying a detainer, the numbers essentially represented guesswork by ICE personnel. Two immigrants held in the Multnomah County Jail on charges of assault and amphetamine possession were listed in the report—although their alleged crimes were not necessarily any more serious than those of the approximately 1,200 other inmates in county custody on any given day.

How much money can Trump actually withhold?

The county and the city say they received $5.5 million from the Department of Justice during fiscal year 2016. Any attempt by Sessions to yank that money will set off a court battle not unlike what happened when the president signed an executive order to bar refugees from entering the country. “In Multnomah County, we follow federal and state laws,” says County Chairwoman Deborah Kafoury. “So we do not expect to lose any of the $2.5 million in federal money that either comes directly to us or passes through the state or city.”

Can Portland officials really do anything to protect immigrants?

As the arrest of Rodriguez Dominguez shows, Portland has limited powers when it comes to protecting immigrants from deportation. “The city had no role in this arrest, and I am against it,” said Mayor Ted Wheeler in a statement. “However, ICE has the power to operate within our city, and does not have to inform us of their activities.” City officials have taken actions, from creating a training program for city employees to providing $50,000 toward the legal defense of immigrants’ cases. But advocates argue the city could go further—by making fewer arrests for low-level offenses, for instance.

Will immigration policy be a litmus test for the national search for a police chief?

Yes. “Our Police Bureau leadership is in total agreement with our status as a sanctuary city,” says Wheeler spokesman Michael Cox. “We expect any bureau leadership under Mayor Ted Wheeler to hold the same view on this important issue.” Willamette Week MARCH 29, 2017 wweek.com

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Rev. Dr. Michael Bernard Beckwith in Person - Two Events!

The OHSU Brain Institute’s

Life Visioning:

Evolutionary Technology for Finding Your Life’s Highest Purpose Friday April 7, 2017 7pm Event Location: Lake Oswego High School Auditorium 2501 Country Club Rd. Lake Oswego, OR 97034 Tickets availble through Brown Paper Tickets Reserved Seats: $60; General Admission: $40 & $25 http://michaelbb.brownpapertickets.com

Life Visioning Workshop Saturday April 8, 2017

9:30am-12 Noon

AN OPPORTUNITY to GO IN-DEPTH following Friday night’s presentation Event Location: New Thought Center for Spiritual Living 1040 C Avenue - Lake Oswego, OR 97034 Tickets: $95 - workshopmichaelbb.brownpapertickets.com

2 0 1 7 BR AIN AWARENESS LEC TURE SERIES

The Secret Life of the Brain APRIL 4

Sleep, Memory and Dreams: Putting it all Together Robert Stickgold, Ph.D. Harvard Medical School

Is there a scientific reason we dream? Explore why dreaming and sleep are key to retaining and processing new memories.

All lectures take place at The Newmark Theatre in Portland and begin at 7 p.m. To learn more, visit www.ohsubrain .com/ww or call 8 0 0 -273-153 0.

1040 C Avenue • Lake Oswego, OR 97034 503-296-9922 www.newthoughtcsl.org office@newthoughtcsl.org

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READERS’ POLL Nominate your favorites from March 1—31 wweek.com/BOP2017

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C O L I N H AY E S

NEWS

Tearing Down the Goalposts OREGON’S LARGEST TEACHERS UNION IS ABOUT TO CRUSH FORMER GOV. JOHN KITZHABER’S LAST REMAINING SCHOOL REFORM. BY NIG E L JAQ U I SS

njaquiss@wweek.com

The last of former Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber’s education reforms is in the crosshairs of the state’s powerful teachers union. In 2011, Kitzhaber pushed through big changes to Oregon’s struggling K-12 public schools. He convinced lawmakers they should replace an elected state superintendent of public instruction with an education czar appointed by and reporting to the governor. He created the Oregon Education Investment Board to coordinate school spending from cradle to grad school. And Kitzhaber required that each of Oregon’s 197 school districts tell the investment board what outcomes the state could expect for its money. The investment board has since been repealed, the czar position has been gutted, and Kitzhaber is long gone. He resigned in February 2015 in the wake of allegations of influence peddling by first lady Cylvia Hayes. And his last remaining change to Oregon’s schools—the outcomes he asked schools to achieve—may soon become history, too. A bill sponsored by state Rep. Paul Evans (D-Salem) and backed by the Oregon Education Association would scrap Kitzhaber’s goal of having 40 percent of all students earn college degrees by 2025, another 40 percent earn two-year degrees, and the remaining 20 percent at least graduate from high school. House Bill 2587 would replace that goal with a more subjective goal of ensuring every student has “access to a well-rounded education.” State Rep. Jeff Reardon (D-East Portland) says the bill removes any measurable standard for judging how schools are performing. If you give someone a bow and arrow and tell him to shoot, the first response would be, “At what?” Reardon said last week at a legislative hearing. “When there is no target, there is no purpose for shooting.”

Six years ago, Kitzhaber called the 40/40/20 goal the “North Star, the compass setting that will guide us.” OEA lobbyist Lori Wimmer now calls the goal “a corporate, non-educator vision of schooling.” Kitzhaber developed the goal in consultation with business leaders, and teachers have long resented having their work directed by outsiders. Killing the goal is a top priority for the OEA, the 44,000-member teachers union. On the union’s website, HB 2587 is one of only two bills highlighted as priorities in the current session. The bill is the focal point in a larger battle over whether school success should be judged by measurable outcomes like graduation rates. The Oregon Legislature allocates about two-thirds of the funding for K-12 schools, yet lawmakers have little control over how that money is spent. By yardsticks such as graduation rate, Oregon’s results are awful—47th in the nation—although spending is in the middle of the pack, at about $10,000 per student per a year. Some lawmakers want to align district spending with the money the state actually has available and hold districts accountable for their results (“Feed the Beast,” WW, May 5, 2015). The 40/40/20 goal was an attempt to do that. But Wimmer told the House Education Committee last week that 40/40/20 places too much emphasis on getting a college degree—and sets up students for disappointment and debt. “It is magical thinking to assume that a surfeit of students with post-graduate educations will entice companies to locate here and pay them what they are worth,” Wimmer testified March 22. “It is almost cruel to set these students up for a future of debt and unemployment.” Wimmer and OEA allies want to shift from an emphasis on student outcomes to providing a wellrounded program that includes more than just a narrow focus on math and reading. They say too much emphasis on measurement has narrowed the curriculums schools offer, short-changed students with special needs, and proven a distraction from the fight for more school funding. But state figures actually show big spikes in educational dollars. Spending on K-12 has increased 29.9 percent since 2011, even as outcomes have remained among the lowest in the nation. HB 2587 now faces an uncertain future. The bill’s most vocal opponents include state Sen. Mark Hass (D-Beaverton) and Reardon, a former high school shop teacher and teachers union member. Last week, he took the unusual step of coming to the House Education Committee to testify against HB 2587. He closed his testimony by citing a quotation attributed to Michelangelo. “The greater danger for most of us isn’t that our aim is too high and we miss it,” Reardon said, “but that it is too low and we reach it.” Willamette Week MARCH 29, 2017 wweek.com

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HE’S BACK. For years, Steve Novick was the darling of Portland progressives. His distinctive physical profile—he stands 4-foot-9 with a metal hook in place of the left hand he was born without—was paired with big policy ideas and a barbed wit. He nearly upset Jeff Merkley in a 2008 Democratic primary bid for the U.S. Senate, then breezed into Portland City Hall in 2012. But life in that building was a struggle. During four years as a city commissioner, Novick helped make hundreds of houses safer from earthquakes, reformed a disabled-parking permit system that had long been abused, and ended an epidemic of suicides on the Vista Bridge with a simple but contentious solution: a fence. Most notably, he persuaded voters to pass a 10-cents-a-gallon gasoline tax to fund street repairs—fighting for dollars on a pothole-strewn battleground where predecessors for years had given up. But that victory came at a cost: Novick warred with colleagues and the public, and those donnybrooks took a toll on his popularity. In November, bookstore owner and upstart candidate Chloe Eudaly rode a wave of antiestablishment sentiment and anxiety about housing costs to sweep Novick from office with 54 percent of the vote. (WW endorsed Eudaly.) But nothing keeps Steve Novick down for long—not even Portland City Hall. He’s been monitoring the increasingly toxic atmosphere in the building. And this week, he agreed to share with WW readers five simple steps to making Portland work a little better. AARON MESH.

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The

r e d i s Out Steve Novick was

Hall. y t i C f o t u o d e k c i k

o s boldest ideas t hi rs fe of he ow N ok en council. shak e up a br

CHRISTINE DONG

BY STEVE N OV ICK

Maybe you’ve noticed: People are unhappy with Portland City Hall. In November, I became the first sitting commissioner to lose re-election in 24 years. Poor Mayor Ted Wheeler has barely had time to change the drapes, but people are already lining up to yell at him. And polling shows “the City Council” as a whole is less popular than any individual. I’m not sure to what extent the public’s unhappiness is based on objective failings by the City Council. All politicians are affected by the free-flowing national anger that elected Donald Trump. Our local news media have increasingly adopted the view that only negative news about government is news. And the specific issues people are most concerned about are rising housing prices and homelessness. These problems also plague other major West Coast cities, suggesting there simply are no silver-bullet solutions. (Many people think rent control might come close, but state law prohibits rent control, so you can’t quite blame City Hall for not implementing it.) And yet I do think something is broken at City Hall— and we need to fix it. I spent four years on the City Council aware that we weren’t facing up to some major problems. But they aren’t the issues that people are protesting about. They’re slow-developing, long-term issues. Those are the kind of crises that humans as a species aren’t very good at dealing with—global climate disruption being the most dramatic, and far deadliest, example. But I believe we might have a chance to harness the unhappiness with City Hall in a way that will improve its ability to address those long-term problems —by changing the basic shape of Portland’s government. Making that fundamental change could go a long

way to solving a series of large problems. Here are five solutions—starting with the one that fuels all the others.

PORTLAND’S FORM OF GOVERNMENT MUST CHANGE. Portland has an almost unique form of government, in which the mayor appoints his or her fellow commissioners to oversee various bureaus. Commissioners—except, occasionally, the mayor— love the commission form of government. You have a lot more power if you directly control bureaus than you would in a city where councilors’ jobs are purely legislative and a city manager is hired to run city operations. But it’s not a good form of government. As soon as you assign bureaus to a commissioner, two things happen: Those bureaus become incredibly important to that commissioner, and everything else the city does becomes relatively unimportant. Suddenly, each commissioner’s primary constituents are the people in the city who care most about that bureau, and its employees—and nobody wants to bring bad news to their primary constituents. It means the council as a whole is never truly committed to a particular priority, because every commissioner’s real priority is his or her bureaus. I’ve seen it happen to myself and others. Before I had bureaus, I brought in outside experts to talk to the council about evidence-based policing; after I got bureaus, I lacked the time and energy to continue that push. In 2013, before Amanda Fritz was assigned the Portland Parks & Recreation, I don’t recall her prioritizing parks in the budget; afterward, she always fought fiercely for parks to get its “share.” CONT. on page 14 Willamette Week MARCH 29, 2017 wweek.com

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All of these factors make it harder for the city to take on big, slow-developing problems. Let’s take transportation. City Hall knew, since at least 1987, that we weren’t getting enough money from the state and federal gas tax to maintain streets. Other jurisdictions in Oregon came to the same conclusion, and they did something about it. Medford adopted a street fee in 1991. Washington County adopted a property tax for transportation in 1986. But Portland, which is not known for being anti-tax, did not adopt a local funding source for transportation until voters approved my proposed 10-cents-per-gallon gas tax in May 2016. Why is that? I think part of the answer is, there’s only one transportation commissioner at a time, meaning that at any given time, there was only one member of the City Council who might make new funding a priority. In the 1990s, Commissioner Earl Blumenauer pushed Mayor Vera Katz to spend more of the general fund on transportation. Katz said no, perhaps partly because she and Blumenauer still had bad blood from the 1992 mayoral election. The other three commissioners could have taken Earl’s side. But why would they? Not their bureau. In fact, those with general fund bureaus would have seen Blumenauer’s request as a threat to their bureaus. Now, I don’t think there was anything stopping Blumenauer or any of my other predecessors from doing what I ultimately did: ask the council to send a measure to voters to raise money for streets. They just didn’t happen to have the stomach for it. Sam Adams, for example, apparently ran a much better process than I did leading up to his 2008 “street fee” proposal. His process was praised, while mine was justly criticized. But when it became clear he would have to go to the ballot, he simply gave up. I was more stubborn. But if there were no such thing as a transportation commissioner, if transportation were a shared responsibility, any of the five commissioners, at any given time, might have decided new transportation funding was a sufficient priority to push the council to take the risk of going to voters. The existence of the commission system reduced the universe of potential transportation champions by 80 percent. The city would be best served by a truly normal form of government: council elections by district with a city manager. (For one thing, elections by district would mean less expensive campaigns.) But even if we kept all council elections citywide, we’d be better off without putting council members in charge of bureaus.

WE NEED FEWER POLICE OFFICERS WITH GUNS. Portland, like other cities, has far less serious crime than we had 20 or so years ago. In 2014—the latest year for which the Portland Police Bureau has published data—there were 35,218 “Part 1 crimes” (murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny, arson and motor vehicle theft). Twenty years earlier, in 1995, there were 56,251 Part 1 crimes in Portland. Major crimes are down by more than 35 percent. Intuitively, you would think that if crime is down, we could get by with fewer police and redirect the savings into areas where our problems have gotten worse—like homelessness and transportation. But that hasn’t happened. The number of sworn officers has declined by just 5 percent, from 1,001 in 1995 to 950 in 2014. In the 2016-17 fiscal year, the city of Portland will spend $177 million—35.4 percent of the discretionary general fund budget—on the Police Bureau. And the city recently approved a new police contract that is so expensive that, even with record revenues, the city is facing a deficit. And yet the police say they need far more officers. Police leadership will say that crime might be down, but the num14

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ber of calls they get is up. And that is absolutely true— partly because cellphones let people call 911 more easily than ever before. And somebody has to respond to the calls. But the vast majority of those calls are not about serious crime, or about crime at all—such as calls to the scene of noncriminal traffic accidents, or “welfare checks” on people who look messed up. So my question is: Why do we need sworn police officers, carrying guns, to respond to all those calls? Couldn’t a lot of them be handled by unarmed staff—“community service officers,” such as those Milwaukee, Wis., and Colorado Springs, Colo., are now hiring? If you replaced, say, one-third of the armed police with CSOs, for one thing, you’d save money: In San Jose, Calif., community service officers start at $52,000 a year, while sworn, gun-toting officers start at $78,000. You’d also dramatically expand the hiring pool, and probably get applicants whose views on a variety of issues are more consistent with those of most of the community. In a recent national survey by the Pew Research Center, 92 percent of white police officers said “the country has made the changes needed to assure equal rights for blacks”—as opposed to 57 percent of all white American adults. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that when a job involves carrying a gun, you get applicants with different views than the community as a whole. And I’m pretty sure that if fewer cops had guns, cops would shoot fewer people. Police in Britain or Norway or New Zealand don’t shoot a lot of people. Most of them don’t carry guns. The latest Portland police contract at least opens the door to having staff without guns. It allows the bureau to hire community service officers, who would be unarmed. That’s good. But I would be pleasantly surprised if we saw a major transformation in the composition of the police force. The mayor, like any other commissioner, comes

to see the Police Bureau as a primary constituency. They’re the people you spend the most time with. You don’t want to upset them. When the bureau is thoughtful and creative, that’s fine. But when it isn’t, it’s a barrier to progress. In 2014, I proposed cutting the budget of the Police Bureau’s Drugs and Vice Division. I argued that we all know the war on drugs is a failure, so why are we wasting resources on it? I lost, 3-2. I’m pretty sure then-Mayor Charlie Hales knew the war on drugs was a failure— but I was asking for something the Police Bureau didn’t like. There is, however, a ray of hope on this issue—coming from Portland Fire & Rescue. Fire Chief Mike Myers faces a very similar situation: fewer fire calls, but more overall calls, primarily for medical reasons. But Myers doesn’t want to respond by asking for more firefighters. He thinks he can stop sending a fire engine to every medical call. He thinks some calls, which aren’t life-threatening, can be addressed with “nurse triage”: 911 would refer the call to a nurse, who might conclude that a cab to urgent care is the best recommendation. Myers is a rare gem. (He’s like buttah.) Maybe he can inspire the Police Bureau, and the mayor, to be creative.

LET’S FIX OUR CRUMBLING PARKS—AND GET RICH PEOPLE TO PAY. Portland has a fine parks system, and a laudable commitment to expand green spaces to underserved areas. But there isn’t enough money to maintain the parks we already have. The City Budget Office estimates it would take an additional $14.9 million a year to adequately maintain our current system, plus $3 to $5 million a year to maintain planned new parks. So the parks, like the streets,


The

THOMAS TEAL

Outsider

THANKLESS JOB: The Portland City Council is besieged by weekly protests. The council currently consists of (from left) Chloe Eudaly, Amanda Fritz, Mayor Ted Wheeler, Dan Saltzman and Nick Fish.

will gradually deteriorate. Right now, the roof of Peninsula Park Community Center is leaking, and we can’t afford to fix it. Ditto for the roof at the Lan Su Chinese Garden. And the terra cotta tiles of the roof apron at the Multnomah Arts Center are breaking—and might at some point start falling on people’s heads. The recent parks bond, which raised $68 million, addressed only a fraction of the problem. But parks have an advantage streets don’t: There is a history in America of rich people contributing money to support public parks— especially high-profile parks in wealthy neighborhoods. That frees up public funds for humbler parks. In New York, the Central Park Conservancy provides the vast majority of the park’s $46 million annual budget. Brooklyn’s Prospect Park Alliance provides two-thirds of that park’s $12 million annual budget. In Chicago, a conservancy raises over $5 million a year to help maintain Millennium Park. Now, I know New York and Chicago have more rich people than Portland does. But we have a decent number. And there might be a way to smoke them out. What if the city simply announced that as of 2022, say, it is no longer going to pay to maintain certain high-profile parks in well-heeled areas: Washington Park, Hoyt Arboretum, Council Crest Park? That would give rich residents five years to decide if they want to keep those parks alive. That suggestion won’t come from the parks commissioner, who won’t want to upset his or her primary constituents: people who care a lot about parks. No politician would, but if you’re “the parks commissioner,” it’s much harder. I don’t love the idea of relying on private resources for public services. But if we don’t do something, we’re eventually going to have to start closing facilities anyway— when their roofs start falling in.

BRING TAX FAIRNESS TO EAST PORTLAND. Everyone at City Hall has spent the past several years expressing their commitment to helping East Portland. But they haven’t spent much time talking about the worst injustice perpetrated on East Portland: the unfair property tax system.

FLASHBACK: Steve Novick first appeared on the cover of WW on Jan. 31, 2007. He outlined a hypothetical strategy for how to unseat then-U.S. Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.). Later the same year, Novick entered the race, narrowly losing the Democratic primary to Jeff Merkley—who did beat Smith.

Measure 50, passed in 1997, says that the assessed value of any property may grow by only 3 percent a year. In the past 20 years, the real market value of properties in inner east Portland has gone up by a hell of a lot more than 3 percent a year. Meanwhile, property values east of 82nd Avenue, and especially east of 122nd, haven’t gone up so much. Imagine if income taxes worked this way. Bill and Jill each made $30,000 in 1995. Bill’s income has gone up at a steady 3 percent a year ever since—but Jill has become the new Warren Buffett. In a Measure 50-type income tax system, they would each pay the same amount in income tax today. As a result, you see people in East Portland paying far higher tax rates than people in recently gentrified areas. The Oregonian has done good work on this issue. In a 2015 article, Elliot Njus gave the example of a house on Southeast 148th Avenue, market value $224,810, with a $3,539 tax bill, compared to a house on Northeast 17th, market value $446,540, with a tax bill of $2,048. And every time voters pass a bond measure, homeowners in East Portland are hit much harder than those in Alberta or Richmond, relative to the value of their homes. City Hall can’t fix this problem by itself. The voters of the entire state would have to vote to change Measure 50. But City Hall could make lobbying the Legislature to reform tax inequity a top priority. Commissioners could spend lots of time begging legislators to act, and highlighting the issue in the media. Although I did raise the issue with legislators and colleagues periodically, I certainly did not give it nearly the attention it deserves— and I’m supposed to be a tax policy wonk. Part of the reason neither I nor any other commissioner has sufficiently prioritized this issue is simply that overall property tax fairness is not part of anyone’s bureau assignments. And it’s really hard for commissioners to summon up much time and energy for issues outside their bureaus. But let’s say we held elections by geographic district. Odds are that East Portland’s representative would obsess over this injustice. CONT. on page 16 Willamette Week MARCH 29, 2017 wweek.com

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The

Outsider CITY HALL NEEDS TO HEAR FROM CITIZENS—NOT JUST THE WHITE HOMEOWNERS. The city’s neighborhood associations are Portland’s official squeaky wheels. They also get greased with a substantial amount of city cash. Portland has an Office of Neighborhood Involvement, which provides $2.3 million this year to regional neighborhood coalitions representing the city’s 95 neighborhood associations. What kind of citizen involvement does that get us? Well, the kind of people who show up at neighborhood association meetings tend to be middle-class white homeowners over the age of 50. In other words, the kind of people who you might expect to get involved in City Hall issues even if there were no Office of Neighborhood Involvement. They’re fine people. They just aren’t very representative, and are becoming less so in an increasingly diverse city. And they have an agenda. In the context of planning and zoning, they tend to oppose, for example, the idea of increasing and diversifying the housing supply by allowing more duplexes and triplexes (“middle housing”) in single-family zones. (And some of them speak darkly of the prospect that such policies would result in—heaven forfend!—more renters.) That will be a hot issue later this year, when zoning votes face the City Council. ONI tries to offset this bias by funding its Diversity and Civic Leadership Program ($990,000 this year), which engages underserved communities. But that doesn’t change the fact that when City Hall hears from “the neighborhoods,” it’s really hearing from a self-selecting segment. The city could use the money it spends on neighborhood coalitions for a different model of citizen engagement. In Toronto, chief planner Daniel Fusca also noticed that “a disproportionate number of the people we engage in planning processes tend to be white male homeowners, and over the age of 55.” So they sent letters to 12,000 people asking them if they were willing to be part of a planning review panel, and selected 28 from 500 respondents, including 13 renters, eight people under 30, and 14 “visible minorities.” As a consultant who helps assemble these panels says, panels are given “a clearly defined task, sufficient time to learn about the issue from different perspectives [and] access to impartial expertise.” Oh—and they’re reimbursed for child care, too. That $2.3 million could fund a lot of citizen panels—if the commissioner in charge of ONI would make the change. I hope that Chloe Eudaly, elected as a tribune of renters, will break the mold and reform the citizen involvement model. But it would be easier to reform the system if there were no one commissioner on whom the neighborhood associations could concentrate their fire.

PORTLAND CAN BE A CITY THAT WORKS BETTER.

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READERS’ POLL Nominate your favorites from March 1—31 wweek.com/BOP2017

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Replacing the commission form of government won’t automatically solve all of Portland’s problems. Other cities, too, have crumbling streets, deteriorating parks, and an overreliance on police with guns. And I’m not joining the naysayers who say Portland doesn’t work at all. But it can be a city that works better. Portland can be a city that beats guns into plowshares. It can be a city where public funds are concentrated on low-profile parks frequented by people of modest means, and where the property taxes people pay bear some relationship to what their homes are worth. Where citizen involvement means the involvement of everyone—especially renters and people of color. I am convinced we can take a major step toward being such a city by eliminating the commission form of government. The voters have repeatedly rejected such a change. But right now, when City Hall as a whole is pretty unpopular, the timing might be perfect. Anything billed as “shaking up City Hall” could have a real chance. Who’s up for gathering signatures to get that on the ballot?


CAMERON LEWIS

Please, Dear God, Stop Making Your Own Bitters

The Bump

THEY TASTE BAD, AND THE WORLD DOESN’T NEED THEM. BY M AT T H E W KO R F H AGE

mkorfhage@wweek.com

You remember that rack of vanilla or pepper tequila infusions that used to be at every Portland bar? Those are almost all gone now. Housemade bar shrubs are also back in the weeds. You don’t find many bartenders brewing their own beer, either. But housemade cocktail bitters remain, the one bar trend that somehow will not fucking die. That little eyedropper of Angostura aromatic bitters that makes your Old Fashioned old-fashioned was invented nearly 200 years ago by a German doctor in Trinidad, and it is perfect. The Peychaud’s in your Sazerac has been unchanged since 1833, a blend of booze-soaked herbs and aromatics whose recipe is older than the oldest cocktail in the world. But for some reason, a bartender who’s been mixing drinks for three years figures, well, he’s probably got a better idea. Have you tried the Herbsaintmandarin-five-spice bitters he made last week in his garage? His buddy Austin says it’s bomb. Don’t get us wrong—the Pearl District’s urcocktail mecca Teardrop Lounge makes really good bitters, and it’s been doing it for years. But even Teardrop does it only when it can’t find a commercial bitters with suitable flavors. “Things like dandelion leaf?” says Teardrop’s Micah Ellis. “There’s already a good version on the market.” But Belmont Street whiskey bar Circa 33 is not Teardrop Lounge, and it is most definitely not the House of Angostura. So what’s with the “Old Fashioned” housemade bitters it debuted with a big ol’ party two years ago? Why does Victory Bar need to have its own take on orange cardamom bitters? Who asked otherwise perfectly fine bar the Rambler to contribute a bitters blend to the pantheon? The house bitters has jumped so many birchscented sharks that even our local science museum is holding a bitters making workshop promising amateur fun with anise and cinchona. The class will be held April Fools’ Day. It is, of course, sold out.

“THEY’RE LOOKING FOR NEW WHIZ-BANG THINGS.

THAT’S WHAT GETS THE RETWEETS.

YOU HAVE BARTENDERS WHO FEEL PRESSURE FROM OWNERSHIP TO MAKE THEIR OWN BITTERS.”

To everyone but Teardrop Lounge and the Rum Club— who just make a single bitters, a falernum recipe that’s no longer sold by Hale Pele’s Blair Reynolds—I have a very personal plea. Stop it. Please. All of you. Stop it. Most housemade bitters are bad. I will use, as an example, a place I walk by near our newspaper’s office that actually makes me cringe in postaromatic stress response. It is called Solo Club, and it is a bitters-themed bar from the owners of Besaw’s. The 7-month-old bar’s main decorative feature is an entire wall of eyedroppers with labels in olde-tymey fonts. For $10, you can get three 4-ounce glasses of Portland Cider Co. semi-sweet cider with a different bitters in each pour. Unfortunately, this is not a pleasant experience—not if you’re grabbing house bitters. Solo’s housemade grapefruit bitters is passable, if no better than grapefruit bitters available on the market. Its Cajun, meanwhile, is a mess of licoricey flavor with a peppery bite that catches unpleasant acid without pleasant heat. The hopped bitters is all mouth-sucking alpha acid, like a parody of what people hate about IPA applied to sweet cider: Portlandia through a shot glass and a bitters-dropped squeeze. When you see how badly this goes, you come to understand why very few top-end bartenders in Portland make their own bitters by choice. Clyde Common’s Jeffrey Morgenthaler mocks birch-bark bitters makers on his blog. Wayfinder’s Jacob Grier says he leaves it to the pros. A bartender at Bible Club told me it’s Icarus-caliber hubris. “People have devoted their lives to making a consistent and balanced product,” Grier says. “It’s the height

of arrogance to think yours are going to be better after three batches.” Shift Drinks’ Alise Moffatt carries three bitters—Peychaud’s, Regan’s and Angostura, a trinity that suffices for just about every classic cocktail in human existence. “I think when something becomes a gimmick, a lot of bartenders want to jump on that gimmick,” Moffatt says. “A bar will have strawberry-infused liquor, and those strawberries have been in that bottle forever. I’m not about to go to My Father’s Place or Gil’s Speakeasy and try their house bitters.” “They’re looking for new whiz-bang things,” says bitters maker Avery Glasser of Bittermens. “That’s what gets the retweets. You have bartenders who feel pressure from ownership to make their own bitters.” Just as badly made house tonics make your stomach hurt—and stupid infusion ingredients like bacon can go rancid if you don’t use them quickly—dumb ingredients in bitters can make you sick. You’ll hear about bars that soak fruit pits without figuring out they’re leaching cyanide, or soak cigars without realizing they’re going to give you nicotinic heart palpitations. “Calamus root or tonka bean can get a bar shut down,” Glasser says. “One person stuck a cigar in some cognac, was drinking it, and he said it made his heart feel funny. I said, ‘Did you stop drinking it?’ He said he finished the bottle. I said, ‘You’re a fucking idiot.” Indeed. GO: The bitters making workshop is at OMSI, 1945 SE Water Ave., 503-797-4000, omsi.edu, on Saturday, April 1. 11 am. Sold out. Willamette Week MARCH 29, 2017 wweek.com

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READERS’ POLL

STARTERS

B I T E - S I Z E D P O RT L A N D C U LT U R E N E W S

IS BACK!

Nominate your favorites from March 1—31 wweek.com/BOP2017

GRIMM: Bitsie Tulloch.

FOOD FIGHT: Suburban food-cart pod Happy Valley Station is getting sued for almost $100,000 after a cart owner claimed pod owner Valerie Hunter was abusive, libeled her to other cart owners, charged her noncontractual fees when she didn’t open and held her cart hostage when she tried to leave the pod. The lawsuit by Melody Lydy of Rose City Waffles, filed in Clackamas County, alleges Hunter sent an email to other cart owners claiming “multiple people had stalking orders against plaintiff Lydy,” which the suit says is false. (Lydy had a harassment charge dismissed on the same day it was filed in 2013.) The suit also alleges Hunter prevented Lydy from removing two carts she owned from the pod under threat that anyone trying to do so would be “removed from the station by police.” Happy Valley Station was previously in the news after raising rents on its food carts 150 percent in December 2015, within weeks of new carts moving into the pod. “We are countersuing her, and all of her items are false,” Hunter tells WW. “When we send the countersuit, all will be dropped.” GUTTER BALL: The bowling alley on Southeast Powell Boulevard at 31st Avenue will close in August. The space is slated to be developed into a “national retailer” by the MAJ Development Corporation, which bought the property housing AMF Pro 300 Lanes last August for $4.8 million. AMF 300 released a statement promising to stay open until August, when its lease ends, “and perhaps longer.” It wrote that MAJ is requesting a zoning change to allow the national retailer to go in. But according to the Portland Bureau of Development Services, the address is already zoned for retail, which means the national retailer is allowed. The only application MAJ has pending is to change the size of the sign. GETTING CREEPY: Owners of White Owl Social Club have purchased Southeast Morrison Street bar Charlie Horse, a block away from Dig a Pony. They plan to call the new place “Creepy’s” and offer “East Coast-inspired bar food,” including Jersey-style Taylor ham and a spicy fried chicken sandwich inspired by the Commodore in Brooklyn. The bar will hang on to its game room with pool, pinball and Big Buck Hunter, but add window seating and a lot of art on the walls, including Ghanaian movie posters and a vintage beer sweater collection. The owners hope to open Creepy’s by the end of April.

BUY SOME SPELLS: Following the series finale of supernatural detective series Grimm this Friday, more than 500 props from the Portland-shot show will go up for auction on the website ScreenBid. Beginning at prices as low as $25, bidders can compete for items as mundane as phone cases and ID cards or as fantastic as spell books and spiked maces. The auction starts at 7 pm Friday, March 31, and runs through April 6. To participate, sign up at screenbid.com. 18

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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 29 Salt and Fire Werner Herzog is back after his ambitious 2016 internet documentary, Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World,, with a new international eco-thriller starring Gael Garcia Bernal, Veronica Ferres and Michael Shannon. The ’Couv is getting a one-of-a-kind early screening. Kiggins Theatre, 1011 Main St., Vancouver, 360816-0352, kigginstheatre.net. 7:30 pm. $10.

How to Be Ultra Spiritual Are you conscientious enough of your hippie neighbors’ consciousness, bro? If not, this appearance by YouTube sensation JP Sears is for you. With topics like “How to become gluten intolerant” and “How to get offended,” Sears will transform you from basic omnivorous pleb to dogma-spewing New Age zealot in no time. Namaste, dude. New Renaissance Bookshop, 1338 NW 23rd Ave., 503-224-4929, newrenbooks.com. 8:30-10:30 pm. Free.

THURSDAY, MARCH 30

FRIDAY, MARCH 31

Get Busy

WW Presents Erotica Awareness Month: The Climax To cap off WW’s Erotica Awareness Month (see our feature, page 39), we teamed up with the Clinton Street Theater and Portland film collector Ian Sundahl to screen an hour of rare, vintage trailers from the Golden Age of Porn on 35 mm: a once-in-alifetime chance to see surprisingly arty, weird glimpses from a forgotten time in cinema. Clinton Street Theater, 2522 SE Clinton St., 503238-5588, cstpdx.com. 10 pm. $6 advance, $8 day of show. 18+.

SATURDAY, APRIL 1

Red Baraat New York’s Red Baraat will soon put out its first album in four years, which is good but not necessary. The nine-piece band’s natural habitat isn’t the studio but onstage, where its mash-up of D.C. go-go funk, New Orleans second line and North Indian Punjabi music incites a U.N. party. Star Theater, 13 NW 6th Ave., 503-2484700, startheaterportland.com. 9 pm. $18. 21+.

B R I A N C R AW F O R D PHOTOGRAPHY

Ali Wong Ali Wong might have been the first comedian to perform her standup special while pregnant. But somehow, Wong’s actual material in Baby Cobra—jokes —jokes based on her brash and unexpected take on everything, but particularly what it’s like to be a woman—managed to be just as memorable. Newmark Theatre, 1111 SW Broadway, 503-248-4335, portland5.com. 7 and 9:30 pm March 30-31. $39.75-$59.75.

WHAT WE'RE EXCITED ABOUT MARCH 29-APRIL 4

Umbrella Festival Dirty Cabaret Now in its sixth year, the Umbrella Festival is a weekend of six showcases featuring a different segment of Portland variety, from neo-vaudeville to aerial dance. The Saturday night show is dedicated to some of the performers keeping alive Portland’s reputation for adult entertainment that’s as arty as it is nasty. Alberta Rose Theatre, 3000 NE Alberta St., 503-719-6055, albertarosetheatre. com. 8 pm. $12-$40. Minors permitted with guardian.

Holy Mountain Seattle’s hottest new doom-metal-themed brewery is finally bringing its barrel-aged farmhouses to Portland. Sipping on new classics like Crystal Ship Saison and Midnight Still Imperial Stout in a man cave with the Steve Miller Band on the stereo may not be what brewmasters Colin Lenfesty and Mike Murphy had in mind as the ideal tasting environment, but the beer speaks for itself. Beermongers, 1125 SE Division St., 503-234-6012, thebeermongers.com. 6 pm. 21+.

Farmhouse & Wild Ale Fest If you’ve been itching to get your lips on critically acclaimed farmhouse ales from De Garde, Logsdon and Wolves & People but can’t justify driving from one small town to the next to find the funk, this is the fest for you. Saraveza, 1004 N Killingsworth St., portlandfarmhousefest.com. 11 am-9 pm. $25. 21+. Also 11 am-6 pm Sunday, April 2.

SUNDAY, APRIL 2 Game of Thrones Live Concert Experience Watch as a weird old man’s pervy medieval fantasies come to life before your eyes! This massive touring show uses a live orchestra and high-tech visual technology to immerse audiences in George R.R. Martin’s bleak world of dungeons, dragons and more goddamn dragons. Think of it like Walking With Dinosaurs, except with more castrations and violent sex. Moda Center, 1 N Center Court St., 503-235-8771, rosequarter.com. $39-$275. All ages.

Power Trip Dallas thrash/crossover band Power Trip found themselves on the right side of a Pitchfork Best New Music rating with new album Nightmare Logic, a sub-40-minute blast of uncommonly good songwriting, massive hooks and solos with zero fat. If it’s possible for heavy metal to have a popular resurgence, this is what it’s going to sound like. Analog Cafe, 720 SE Hawthorne Blvd., 503206-7439, analogpdx.com. 7:30 pm. $13. All ages.

MONDAY, APRIL 3 Bassem Youssef You hear a lot of talk about dangerous comedy, but how many times did Amy Schumer or Jim Jefferies go to jail for a joke? Because Bassem Youssef—the “Jon Stewart of Egypt”— sure as hell did. Expect paid hecklers from the Sisi regime to show up, because they always do. Newmark Theatre, 1111 SW Broadway, 503-248-4335, portland5. com. 7:30 pm. $40-$50. All ages.

Augusten Burroughs Best-selling memoirist Augusten Burroughs opens his new book, Lust & Wonder, by sending a shirtless selfie to his favorite author, an act that compels said author to go on a date with him, thus breaking Burroughs’ hard-fought sobriety, which turns out to be a major life improvement. It’s compulsively readable, if unbelievable. Powell’s City of Books, 1005 W Burnside St., 800-878-7323, powells.com. 7:30 pm. Free.

TUESDAY, APRIL 4

Floating Points Sam Shepherd, aka Floating Points, has been a key DJ in London for close to a decade. On 2015’s Elaenia, his debut for David Byrne’s Luaka Bop label, the part-time neuroscientist weaves complex, jazzlike structures with spectral ambience, and conjures a sound more lively than you might anticipate—a sound that grows even livelier when backed by his seven-piece touring band. Doug Fir Lounge, 830 E Burnside St., 503-231-9663, dougfirlounge. com. 9 pm. $17 advance, $20 day of show. 21+.

Sleep, Memory and Dreams: Putting It All Together Ever wonder about the science behind what your brain is up to while you’re having that dream for the 100th time about your teeth falling out in high school chemistry class? Join Harvard Medical School professor and biochemist Dr. Robert Stickgold for a stimulating discussion on just what dreams are made of and why even the worst ones are important to your body’s daily functions. Newmark Theatre, 1111 SW Broadway, 503-248-4335, portland5.com. 7 pm. $17-$50. All ages. Willamette Week MARCH 29, 2017 wweek.com

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Stree t

LOOKS WE LIKE OUR FAVORITE STYLES THIS WEEK. PHOTOS BY CHR ISTIN E DON G

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Willamette Week MARCH 29, 2017 wweek.com


W W S TA F F

FOOD & DRINK FEATURE

Hot Tip

HOW MUCH ARE PORTLAND BARTENDERS AND SERVERS MAKING? THE ANSWER WILL APPARENTLY SURPRISE YOU. BY M A RT I N C I Z M A R

mcizmar@wweek.com

When I go to an upscale restaurant, I assume my server makes more money than I do. That’s not something I resent—when I go to a doctor or dentist, I also assume they’re making more money than I do. I work in the media, so pretty much everyone my age, and with my experience and education, makes more money than I do. But that server might also make more than you do— even if you work at Nike or Intel or for the city. This is a town where food and drink dominate the economy. Bartenders and servers are Portland’s middle class every bit as much as the much-touted creatives of the tech economy. Last week, this issue was trending locally after we made an offhand Facebook comment to a reader who didn’t think anyone working in a bar or restaurant could possibly afford a $1,500-per-month apartment, explaining that, yes, some servers do actually make $60,000 a year or more. The Portland Mercury seized on this, calling Willamette Week “out of touch.” To make the point, The Mercury cited a May 2015 survey by the U.S. Department of Labor called the Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates, which showed Oregon servers make only $23,690 a year with an average hourly wage of $11.39—that’s minimum wage plus an average of $2.14 per hour in tips. Bartenders statewide made minimum wage plus $2.17 per hour in tips, according to the statistics. Put another way: According to the official statistics, repeated by The Mercury, for every bartender who closes $80 in tabs over the course of an hour netting $16 in tips, there are seven other bartenders working who don’t get a penny in tips. Hmmm. We’ve done a lot of reporting on this subject, especially as restaurants adapt to new wage and labor laws. We’ve previously reported that Kurt Huffman, whose ChefStable operates 10 restaurants, said some servers at one of his group’s spots are making upward of $100,000. They’re not alone—he’s seen numbers for a steakhouse that has a Portland location, where the average server makes $85,000 a year. “There’s no server out there that makes less than $20 per hour,” Huffman says. “If you’re a server and you’re working a

six- to eight-hour shift, and you’re doing only $600 [in business] for the night—that’s a very low number, if you have a night where your server is only doing $600, you’re probably overstaffed—you’re keeping $120. You’re going to tip out a third of it. You’re going to walk with $80, plus your wages. And that would be a very not-busy restaurant. “It’s hard for me to imagine the economics of a restaurant working—just working at all—if a server is making less than $20 per hour. So you extrapolate that out to the full employment, and you’re at $40,000.” Servers and bartender do not like to talk publicly about what they make. Few of us do. But I talked to a dozen people and got a few to dish—anonymously, given the sensitivity of the subject. Even anonymously, those interviewed

drink or 20 percent if you’re patronizing a bar, tavern, pub, brewpub, food cart, taco stand or restaurant in America. Now that we have all that out of the way, let’s talk more about the actual numbers. The owner of a well-regarded cocktail bar, who has been in the business for almost 30 years and worked at an upscale restaurant bar and a music venue, among other places, estimates the average bartender and server in the Portland area makes “probably, like, $40,000 to $50,000, if you adjust for untaxed income.” And, he says, “They’re working 30- to 35-hour weeks.” Those hours are hard—dealing with picky and difficult people, cleaning up barf and cutting off drunks. They also have a tough time getting health care. But it’s also a lifestyle many people enjoy. “People that work in a more traditional 9-to-5 job where they’re in a cubicle or whatever might have a misconception about how great of a blue-collar job serving is,” he says. “This is a career where people have houses, jobs, retirement accounts.” Our source says when he tended bar in the ’90s, he often made $600 to $700 a week in tips, and only paid taxes on 10 percent of that. “Then, I worked at a nightclub where I was making $800 to $1,000 per week,” he says. That’s double the most recent statistics, which say an average bartender or server in Oregon makes less than $500 per week if he works a full 40 hours. (According to the 1999 statistics, he should have made less than $16,000 a year.) “The Mercury posts this thing, ‘This is what the average server gets paid.’ But at many, many places, the servers are not required to declare very much,” the source says. “At most neighborhood bars, they’re required to declare 10 percent of their tips. There’s so much gray income. People say you can’t get a house on undeclared income. Well, I bought a house on undeclared income. I bought a bar on undeclared income. There are ways to show unreported income.” And, he says, the best places for tips aren’t necessarily the ones you’d guess. “Neighborhood bars—those are probably the best service jobs of all,” he says. “If you work at Bonfire or Sandy Hut, you’re taking home $300 and probably declaring $50.” A bartender, who left her dive-bar job for a place that pools tips, confirmed this. “When I was bartending at a dive bar, four nights a week, my average was about $350 a shift, cash,” she says. “So what’s that? Just under $70,000? Average for servers in this town is probably about $100 a shift—you don’t want to walk with less—and for bartenders probably $200 a shift, on average. I’d say take-home wage is around $40,000 to $60,000, depending on the gig.”

“There’s no server out there that

makes less than $20 per hour.” —Kurt Huffman

went off the record at points. (Others offered to talk, but only in person, which my deadline did not allow.) A partner at one of Portland’s consensus best restaurants says servers at local fine-dining spots make $50,000 to $100,000 a year. “Admittedly, that’s a pretty big range—but it’s definitely far above the menial-wage work people associate with it,” he says. “I think a lot of people might be surprised to learn that. Maybe they’re making $100,000 working in an office, but they’re making less per hour than the server waiting on them at a fine-dining restaurant.” OK, let’s go through the obvious caveats: Many, many restaurant jobs suck. Back-of-the-house staff gets hosed almost everywhere. No one in the restaurant industry needs a pay cut or should be blamed for this nation’s unfair economy. It’s tough work and the money is well-earned. No matter how much you think anybody makes, you should tip $1 per

Our source who is a partner at one of the city’s best restaurants, agrees that busy dive bars are the best gigs. And he says those servers are the only ones who still get away with not claiming income in the age of credit cards. Skilled service workers are in huge demand, they say, though they could be forgiven for avoiding the subject. “The appearance of not making a lot is part of the tip economy, but the truth is that servers make a lot of money, and as an employer you have to offer competitive compensation to get the best,” the source says. “The misconception is based off all service jobs being grouped together: a teenager who’s waiting tables at an ice cream shop to someone in a diner to someone who’s waiting tables at a restaurant that focuses on tasting menus. There’s a huge scale of training that goes into the latter that doesn’t go into the former. People think this is unskilled labor, a thing they could do, when it’s really not.” Willamette Week MARCH 29, 2017 wweek.com

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FOOD & DRINK

Shandong = WW Pick. Highly recommended.

By MATTHEW KORFHAGE.

www.shandongportland.com Editor: MARTIN CIZMAR.

Email: dish@wweek.com. See page 3 for submission instructions.

FRIDAY, MARCH 31

Shandong www.shandongportland.com

Holy Mountain Takeover

Seattle’s hottest new doom-metalinspired brewery is finally bringing its barrel-aged farmhouses down I-5 to Portland. Sip new classics like Crystal Ship Saison and Midnight Still Imperial Stout. Beermongers, 1125 SE Division St., 503-234-6012. 6 pm. 21+.

SATURDAY, APRIL 1 Farmhouse & Wild Ale Fest

Simple ApproAch

Bold FlAvor vegan Friendly

open 11-10

everyday

If you’ve been itching to get your lips on critically acclaimed farmhouse ales from De Garde, Logsdon and Wolves & People but can’t justify driving from one small town to the next to find the funk, this is the fest for you. Saraveza, 1004 N Killingsworth St., portlandfarmhousefest.com. 11 am-9 pm. $25. 21+. Also 11 am-6 pm Sunday, April 2.

Upright Brewing 8th Anniversary

Upright’s got a birthday, and that always means rare beers at the brewery, including a four-caskblended “total geek beer” called Ives, an anniversary saison, the last of 2015’s Fantasia peach beer, and a 2-year old barleywine. Nice. Upright Brewing, 240 N Broadway, portlandfarmhousefest.com. 11 am-9 pm.

SUNDAY, APRIL 2 Fukami Pop-Up

500 NW 21st Ave, (503) 208-2173 kungpowpdx.com

When Fukami closed on Belmont, Jesus wept. But at Davenport each Sunday and Monday the finest sushi in the city is back as part of a 19-course omakase menu spanning complex masaba, heavenly winter snapper, tamago like sweet clouds and a spring-vegetable nettle salad that might as well be a field’s distilled essence. It’s $95, but I promise: That’s cheap as hell. Davenport, 2215 E Burnside St., fukamipdx.com. 7 pm.

(CAMERON WINERY)

Stanko Radikon was a giant of wine. Known for making wines with extended grape-skin contact—orange wine—at his family’s winery in the far northeast of Italy, near the Slovenian border, Radikon helped inspire countless winemakers around the world to experiment with this style. If you’ve ever tried an orange wine and marveled at its deep, compelling weirdness, pour a little out for Radikon. who died last September at age 62. Here in Oregon, noted Cameron Winery winemaker John Paul has authored a loving tribute to Radikon in the form of Cameron’s Rouge de Gris, made from pinot gris grapes grown at Cameron’s Abbey Ridge vineyard. The wine first appears off-red, then orange, then glowing amber, a mercurial little splash with tons of savory umami notes paired next to zippy cranberries, creamy butterscotch, fresh flowers and cannabis tincture. It is deeply complex, a zooming symphony of a wine, and a fitting Oregon tribute to Radikon the legend. JORDAN MICHELMAN.

Where to eat this week. 1. Bless Your Heart

(YACHATS BREWING)

2. Wares

2713 NE Sandy Blvd., 503-954-1172, warespdx.com. Smallwares is back, small, as Wares in the Zipper food mall: fried kale, chicken ramen, sichuan noodles and killer brunch congee. $$.

3. XLB

4090 N Williams Ave., 503-841-5373, xlbpdx.com. XLB took a second to get its bearing—but on our last visit they served up dumplings bursting with beautifully savory soup, great mushroom bao and five-spice popcorn chicken. $$.

4. Stacked

1643 SE 3rd Ave., 971-279-2731, stackedsandwichshop.com. Stacked is a deli sandwich shop loaded with ideas from fine dining, like smoked trout or elk tartare open-facers. But the oxtail French dip ($13) with melted havarti and rosemary jus is pure comfort. $-$$.

5. Güero

200 NE 28th Ave., 503-887-9258, gueropdx.com. Güero is back, serving city-beating tortas on 28th—but now with margaritas and mezcal, in a casually comfortable space. $.

Willamette Week MARCH 29, 2017 wweek.com

Rouge de Gris

Intellectual Prophet

126 SW 2nd Ave., 503-719-4221, byhpdx.com. Oh hot damn—real-deal East Coast hamburgers, whether Carolina-style or straight-up double-cheese on a Martin’s potato roll. Life is good. And bless your heart. $.

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DRANKS

Charlie Van Meter is pretty much killing it. Back in 2013, he designed a beer we named one of our 10 favorites of the year— Sasquatch’s Vanilla Bourbon Cream Ale, which still graces the brewery’s tap list. After a side jaunt at Logsdon making Peche ’n Brett, Van Meter is now at the Oregon Coast as head brewer at the new Yachats Brewing—which has turned out a mess of wild improvisations since opening in 2015, including a Salal Sour that netted the brewery an Oregon Beer Award. Yachats’ Intellectual Prophet—a dry-hopped saison made with mango and brettanomyces yeast—stood alongside coastal cousin De Garde’s Petit Blanc as the belle of the recent BrettFest at Bailey’s Taproom. The earthier notes of the mango played against complex brett notes and hop aromatics for a heady mix across the midpalate, with just a touch of juiciness. The beer is not quite tart, not quite funky, but a little bit of both—call it sassy, maybe. Recommended. MATTHEW KORFHAGE.


APRIL/MAY 2017

Magic & Loss: Coming of Age Onscreen New Czech Cinema Northwest Tracking PLUS... CONSTRUCTING IDENTITY: BLACK CINEMA THEN AND NOW FRIDAY FILM CLUB SPECIAL SCREENINGS LOOKING, REALLY LOOKING! THE FILMS OF CHANTAL AKERMAN 1968–2015

details at nwfilm.org

Crooklyn

Magic & Loss: Coming of Age Onscreen (ML)

In literary theory, the Bildungsroman is a novel in which we witness the formation of an individual who undergoes a profound change due to knowledge gained through experience. Generally speaking, the protagonist in such works is a young member of society and the shift in consciousness that occurs during the story will transform them and hasten their advancement into adult understanding of the world in which they live. With Magic & Loss we present films from around the globe intended to draw parallels between the literary convention of the Bildungsroman and the celebrated coming-of-age narrative as it exists in the cinema. Since coming-of-age stories are historically among the most commonly produced in the film industry of any country, our attempt is not intended to be viewed as a comprehensive overview, rather a concentrated journey through a theme as expressed by some of the greatest visionaries of the cinema. Saturday, April 1, 7 pm Ivan’s Childhood, USSR, 1962

dir. Andrei Tarkovsky (95 mins., Drama, 35mm)

In this World War II period piece, an orphan scurries across Soviet and German lines, having been recruited as a spy by Russian forces.

Sunday, April 2, 7 pm Walkabout, UK/Australia, 1971

dir. Nicolas Roeg (100 mins., Adventure/Drama, 35mm)

dir. Michael Haneke (144 mins., Thriller, 35mm)

Something dire is transpiring just below the surface of a charming, preWorld War I German village in Michael Haneke’s unflinching examination of the roots of evil.

dir. Lynne Ramsay (94 mins., Drama, 35mm)

When James witnesses the accidental death of a friend, he feels responsible, becoming increasingly isolated and racked with guilt. preceded by

Two loners in a small town find each other and become a little less (and a little more) lonely.

Saturday, April 29, 4:30 pm The White Balloon, Iran, 1995

preceded by

A Girl’s Own Story, Australia, 1986

dir. Jane Campion (27 mins., Drama, digital)

Beatlemania has taken hold of three Australian teenagers as they try to navigate the adult world they’re about to enter into.

Sunday, April 9, 7 pm Crooklyn, US, 1994

Thursday, April 20, 7 pm Fish Tank, UK, 2009

A warmly rendered family drama set in 1970s Brooklyn involving a young girl and her large, loud, and sometimes embarrassing family.

15-year-old Mia must navigate her rough and tumble home life and uncertain future. But all she wants to do is dance.

dir. Andrea Arnold (123 mins., Drama, 35mm)

Art of Filmmaking I The 101 of digital filmmaking

Basic Lighting

Primer on our rental light kits

April 29 (half day)

Canon XA-10 Camera Operation

The Grandmother, US 1970

dir. David Lynch (34 mins., Horror, DCP)

dir. Lukas Moodysson (89 mins., Comedy/Drama/ Romance, 35mm)

SPRING CLASSES & WORKSHOPS Starts April 11 (12 weeks)

Sunday, April 23, 7 pm Ratcatcher, UK/France, 1999

Sunday, April 16, 7 pm Show Me Love, Sweden, 1998

A teenaged girl and her young brother wander through the desert in search of civilization.

dir. Spike Lee (115 mins., Comedy/Drama, 35mm)

Saturday, April 22, 7 pm The White Ribbon, Germany/Austria, 2009

A young boy grows a grandmother in his bedroom.

Primer on our rental cameras

April 29 (half day)

Digital Cinematography In-depth shooting techniques

dir. Jafar Panahi (85 mins., Drama/Family, 35mm)

Starts April 12 (9 weeks)

Razieh and her brother set off to market to buy a “chubby” goldfish in advance of the Iranian New Year in this film written by the late Abbas Kiarostami.

Digital Moviemaking for 4-6th Grade

Sunday, April 30, 7 pm The Tree of Life, US, 2011

Documentary Editing

The lives of one family in Texas are placed against the big bang and the formation of the cosmos in Terrence Malick’s most autobiographical film to date.

Film Directing Studio

dir. Terrence Malick (139 mins., Drama, 35mm)

Constructing Identity: Black Cinema Then and Now Constructing Identity: Black Cinema Then and Now is a collaborative, retrospective series of films that explore the paradigm of resistance against the dominant culture and define the African-American narrative through the artistry of Black filmmakers. Mirroring the development and flowering of 20th and 21st century Black and African-American art practice, the history of this cinema is a testament to the visionaries, rebels and pioneers that were willing and able to tell it like it is. Featuring key works by critical figures like Julie Dash, Charles Burnett, Kathleen Collins, and Spencer Williams—among many other notable filmmakers—this series seeks to upend the idea that historically (most pointedly within the Hollywood studio system), Black bodies have been relegated to be either background figures or racist caricatures. Here, African-American identity is foregrounded through the representation of lived experience; in addition, the films included embody and explore the Black gaze through sole focus on work made by Black filmmakers. Presented in conjunction with the Portland Art Museum’s Constructing Identity exhibition, and programmed by André Middleton, Mia Ferm, and Morgen Ruff. Find the full program details at nwfilm.org.

Spring Break hands-on fun

Starts March 27 (5 days) Edit your no-low budget doc.

Starts April 12 (9 weeks) Develop your eye for talent and story

Starts June 14 (5 days) April 1–June 11

iFilmmaking Basics Shoot and edit on your iDevice

May 6 (two half days) Screenwriting Fundamentals The basics of dramatic scriptwriting

Starts April 11 (9 weeks) Sound Recording

How to record high quality audio

Starts April 20 (5 weeks)

Bamboozled

Hands-On Learning for Creatives & Community Members


James Beard: America's First Foodie

Special Screenings (SS) Saturday, April 8, 7 pm Sunday, April 9, 12 pm Hypernormalisation, UK, 2016

dir. Adam Curtis (166 mins., Documentary essay, DCP)

Curtis connects the storylines of the Middle East, the rise of radical Islam, the invention of the internet and social media, Silicon Valley, Putin, Trump, and more, in a meditation on how we ended up in a “post-truth democracy.”

Sunday, May 7, 4 pm Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer, US/Israel, 2016 dir. Joseph Cedar (118 mins., Drama, DCP)

Norman (Richard Gere), a small-time operator hoping to hit it big in New York City, finally has his ship come in, but what goes up must come down. Portland Jewish Film Festival event

Friday, May 19, 8 pm Saturday, May 20, 2 & 7 pm Sunday May 21, 2 & 7 pm Truman, Spain/Argentina, 2016

Northwest Tracking

Northwest Tracking programs showcase the work of independent filmmakers living and working in the Northwest—Alaska, British Columbia, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington—whose work reflects the vibrant cinematic culture of the region. Whether presenting single artist retrospectives, new features, documentaries, or inspired collections of short works, Northwest Tracking offers testimony to the creativity and talent in our flourishing media arts community. Northwest Tracking is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts. All screenings will feature a visiting artist

Saturday, April 1, 2pm Apple Pie, Oregon/New Zealand, 2016

dir. Sam Hamilton (83 mins. Experimental, DCP) Our species' relationship with celestial bodies as told through a series of lush choreographed vignettes, this first feature from Sam Hamilton was shot on Super 16mm in Aotearoa, New Zealand, and a remote mountaintop astrophysics observatory in Oregon’s high desert. Co-presented with the Portland Art Museum’s APEX exhibition Sam Hamilton: Standard Candles.

Thursday, April 6, 7 pm Moving History: Portland Contemporary Dance Past and Present, Oregon, 2016

dir. Eric Nordstrom (70 mins., Documentary, DCP)

How do today’s dancers stand on the shoulders of decades of performers and choreographers who have made Portland a contemporary dance mecca? Reception preceding film.

Thursday, April 13, 7 pm Five Minute Form, Oregon, 2016

dir. Scott Ballard (70 mins., Documentary, DCP)

Ballard explores the workings of novelists, poets, songwriters, and memorists as he engages award-winning local and regional authors on their creative process. Reception preceding film.

Saturday, April 15 The Native Wisdom Films

Wisdom of the Elders, a Portland cultural organization, records and preserves the history and arts — music, dance, storytelling and traditional arts — of exemplary Native Americans and shares them through a variety of multimedia productions and public events throughout the region. We are pleased to co-present with Wisdom of the Elders a special Native Wisdom Film Festival featuring four recently produced works through their Climate and Native Wisdom Films project, which explores the impact of environmental change on the cultural and economic lives of Native peoples in the Northwest. Accompanying the films is a selection of shorts made by students in Wisdom’s Native Film Academy.

Saturday, April 15, 2 pm Alaskan Native Wisdom: The People of the Whale, Oregon, 2014

dir. Lawrence Johnson (27mins., Documentary, HD)

The Inupiaq people are experiencing unprecedented changes and yet continue to cherish their rich way of life in the uppermost part of arctic Alaska. Short: Ericha’s Huckleberry Project, Ericha Casey (5 mins.) followed by

Alaskan Native Wisdom: The People of the Caribou, Oregon, 2016 dir. Lawrence Johnson (25mins., Documentary, HD)

Athabascans have inhabited Alaska for over 14,500 years. Also known as the Caribou People, there are 12 distinct linguistic groups that share language, a rich sub-arctic environment, and dynamic cultural arts. Short: The Salmon People, Devin Bruno (6 mins.) 3:30 pm—Intermission with food and music.

Saturday, April 15, 4:30 pm Native Wisdom: The People of the Oregon Coast, Oregon, 2017

dir. Lawrence Johnson (30 mins., Documentary, HD) Native American elders, indigenous scientists, and cultural leaders from the Pacific Coast–including the Confederated Tribes of Siletz, Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians, and The Coquille Indian Tribe–share observations about emerging environmental issues. Short: Chuush, Tiyana Casey (4 mins.) followed by

Native Wisdom: The People of Oregon’s Interior, Oregon, 2017

dir. Lawrence Johnson (30 mins., Documentary, HD)

Featuring several of Oregon’s interior tribes, including the Confederated Tribes of Umatilla Reservation, Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, and Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, indigenous scientists and elders share observations of their changing environment, natural resource issues, and the beauty of tribes’ traditional arts, music, and storytelling. Short: Roots of Tradition, Meadow Wheaton (5 mins.)

subtitles

visiting artist

northwest tracking

friday film club—$5

dir. Cesc Gay (108 mins., Drama, DCP)

Thursday, April 27, 7 pm Best of the We Like ‘Em Short Film Festival, Oregon, 2016

Winner of the Audience Prize for Best Feature Film at this year’s Portland International Film Festival and a multiple Goya Prize winner, Truman is a warm tale of friendship in the face of imminent mortality.

This Baker City, Oregon film celebration showcases animated and short comedic films from throughout the world, including the Northwest. Presented by festival founder and director Brian Vegter.

Saturday, May 27, 7 pm Sunday, May 28, 7 pm The Ornithologist, Portugal/France/Brazil, 2016

(70 mins., Narrative/Animation, Digital)

Friday, May 5, 8 pm James Beard: America’s First Foodie, Oregon,

2017 dir. Beth Federici (60 mins., Documentary, DCP)

Dubbed the “Dean of American Cookery” by The New York Times, Beard was a Portland native who loved and celebrated the bounty of the Pacific Northwest and spoke of the importance of localism and sustainability long before those terms had entered the vernacular. Reception following film.

Saturday, May 6, 4:30 pm Documenting J20: On the Streets of D.C.,

Washington, 2017 dir. Georg Koszulinski (61 mins., Documentary, Digital)

Seattle director Georg Koszulinski and crew capture the reactions, thoughts, and emotions of the many people gathered in the nations capital for the inauguration of the new president.

Thursday, May 11, 7 pm That Way Madness Lies, Oregon/New York, 2017 dir. Sandra Luckow (100 mins., Documentary, DCP)

Sandra Luckow’s very personal documentary chronicles her 40-year-old brother's rare late-onset paranoid schizophrenia told, in-part, from his point-of-view with a collection of iPhone video clips he made before being committed to the Oregon State Hospital. Reception preceding film.

Thursday, May 25, 7 pm Electronic Elsewhere: Videos by Carl Diehl, Oregon, 2010 – 2017

dir. Carl Diehl (70 mins., Experimental, Digital)

Breaking down the very signals that make up analog and digital images, Portland filmmaker Carl Diehl examines the frayed world that is both make believe and just out of reach.

Wednesday, May 31, 7 pm An Evening with Kathy Kasic, Montana, 2016 dir. Kathy Kasic (75 mins., Experimental/ Documentary, Digital)

Montana filmmaker Kathy Kasic presents a program of short works made at the Tippet Rise Art Center. Her films utilize natural light as it bends and reflects off of the sculptures installed around the 11,500 acre art ranch.

dir. João Pedro Rodrigues (117 mins., Adventure, DCP)

Rodrigues’ personal metaphorical film follows an unnamed Ornithologist who seeks rare birds in the tranquil rivers and forests of northeastern Portugal—but ends up experiencing a series of strange encounters and transformations. “Delightful and narratively adventurous.”—Manohla Dargis, The New York Times

Friday, June 9, 8 pm Saturday. June 10, 7 & 9:15 pm Bill Frisell: A Portrait, Australia, 2017

dir. Emma Franz (114 mins., Documentary, DCP)

A unique and masterful musician, composer, and bandleader, Frisell is recipient of countless accolades from critics and fans from all genres of music and corners of the globe.

Friday Film Club Special Admission: $5

Friday, April 14, 5:30 pm Black Orpheus, Brazil, 1959

dir. Marcel Camus (107 mins., Drama, 35mm)

The Greek myth of Orpheus springs vividly to life in this vibrant adaptation set amongst the dancing and music of Carnival in Rio de Janeiro.

Friday, May 19, 5:30 pm Ugetsu, Japan, 1953

dir. Kenji Mizoguchi (96 mins., Drama, DCP)

Mizoguchi’s haunting, poetic ghost story centers on two peasant couples displaced by a marauding army in late-16th century Japan, and their travels and travails through the countryside and back.

Friday, June 9, 5:30 pm Bluebeard, France, 2009

dir. Catherine Breillat (78 mins., Drama/ Fantasy, 35mm)

The dark, twisted fairy tale of Bluebeard, a lord rumored to have killed his wives, parallels the story of two sisters secretly reading the fable to each other in an attic.


Mr. Gaga

Contact Dance (CD)

The Northwest Film Center and BodyVox, Portland’s premiere dance company, are pleased to partner in presenting our second Contact Dance Film Festival, a showcase featuring award-wining collaborations between filmmakers, dancers, and choreographers from around the world. Find the full program details at nwfilm.org. Thursday, April 27, 7:30 pm @ Bodyvox Dance Center Saturday, April 29, 4 pm @ Bodyvox Dance Center Dance@30FPS

New Czech Cinema (NCC)

Czech filmmakers have long been recognized for their innovative contributions to international cinema. The legacy of the Czech New Wave, the period of stylistic experimentation and social critique that accompanied political and social reforms in mid-1960s Czechoslovakia and included such acclaimed directors as Miloš Forman, Ivan Passer, Jiří Menzel, and Jan Nemec, still resonates in a new generation of voices offering skilled takes on diverse genres from comedy to gritty realist drama, from stylish period thrillers to animation, and more. They share, however, a deft eye for lyric beauty and absurdist humor even in the most mundane or difficult circumstances as they probe social and economic conditions and questions of Czech identity and culture. We are pleased to open the series with the new film by celebrated director Jan Hrebejk, who will be on hand to talk about his work. Hrebejk, known for mixing humor, irony and humanity in equal measure, brings his satirical skills to bear on a meditation about making moral choices—a film that impressively adds to a body of work that includes Divided We Fall (2000), Up and Down (2004), Beauty in Trouble (2006), and Kawasaki’s Rose (2009), Honeymoon (2013) and The Icing (2014), all of which screened in past years in the Portland International Film Festival. The Northwest Film Center presents this selection of influential and emerging voices in Czech cinema in conjunction with the nationally touring program Czech That Film, organized by the Embassy of the Czech Republic, Washington, D.C.; Consulate General of the Czech Republic, Los Angeles; Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences; Honorary Consul of the Czech Republic, Portland; and the Czech Society of Oregon. Special thanks to Lasvit, R. Jeliner, Milk & Honey Films, Progue Studios, Pilsner Urquell, and Pavol Šepelák, Consul General of the Czech CZECH THAT Republic in Los Angeles, for making these films’ presentation in Portland possible. FILM Friday, May 12, 7 pm The Teacher, Slovakia/Czech Republic, 2016

dir. Jan Hrebejk (102 mins., Drama, DCP)

In this comic meditation on the nature of totalitarianism, a teacher uses her Communist Party power to bully her students and teachers for personal gain. preceded by

The New Species, Czech Republic, 2014 dir. Katerina Karhánková (6 mins.)

Three children discover a mysterious bone.

Saturday, May 13, 7 pm Tiger Theory, Czech Republic, 2016

Sunday, May 14, 6 pm Little from the Fish Shop, Czech Republic/

Slovak Republic/Germany, 2015 dir. Jan Balej (72 mins., Stop motion animation, DCP)

Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid, the fairy-tale story of a love capable of forgiving even the greatest betrayal, takes new form in an adult story transposed from the depths of the sea to lives set in a bustling city harbor. Ages 18+ preceded by

The Little Cousteau, Czech Republic, 2014 dir. Jakob Kouril (9 mins.)

In this animated homage to Jacques Cousteau, a little boy longs for deep-sea adventure.

dir. Radek Bajgar (101 mins., Drama, DCP)

double feature

double feature

Poland, 2016 dir. Petr Kazda, Tomás Weinreb (105 mins., Drama, DCP)

An ageing veternarian decides that his life is heading in the wrong direction; the start of a tragicomic road journey.

Saturday, May 13, 9 pm The Noonday Witch, Czech Republic, 2016

dir. Jiří Sádek (85 mins., Drama, DCP)

This daytime psycho-horror story chronicles the unwinding of a single parent mother and her daughter, adrift in a new town and family secrets. Ages 15+ preceded by

O-Ring, Czech Republic, 2016 dir. Ondrej Hudecek (11 mins.)

After hitting a man with his car in the middle of a snow-covered countryside, a young actor has to improvise to escape from punishment.

Sunday, May 14, 7:30 pm I, Olga Hepnarová, Czech Republic/France/

Olga Hepnarova, aged 22, was the last woman executed in the former Czechoslovakia—for a sudden crime that shocked the nation. Ages 18+. preceded by

How To Get People To Like You, Czech

Republic, 2014 dir. Alexandra Yakovleva (4 mins.) Simple rules for social success.

All screenings with English subtitles.

A vibrant selection of new short works born of the marriage between dancer and filmmaker.

Friday, April 28, 7 pm Saturday, April 29, 8:30 pm Mr. Gaga, Israel/ Sweden/Germany, 2015

Friday, April 28, 7:30 pm @ Bodyvox Dance Center Saturday, April 29, 7:30 pm @ Bodyvox Dance Center International Steps

Bodyvox’s co-artistic directors Jayme Hampton and Ashley Roland have had their eyes out for cutting-edge works that have dazzled audiences worldwide.

Saturday, April 29, 7 pm dir. Tomer Heymann (100 mins., Documentary. DCP) Broken, Canada, 2016 Ohad Naharin, artistic director of the Batsheva Dance Company, is celebrated as one of the most important choreographers in the world for his daring form of dance and “movement language” known as Gaga.

Looking, Really Looking! The Films of Chantal Akerman (CA)

Looking, Really Looking! The Films of Chantal Akerman 1968-2015 is a film and performative program which surveys the work of the Belgian/French artist and filmmaker Chantal Akerman and places it within a conceptual, thematic, and historical context at the intersection of film and contemporary art. Akerman, whose work defies easy categorization, is often placed within feminist, queer, Jewish, and avantgarde circles, yet her oeuvre moves across genres from fiction to documentary/essay, to musical, to multi-media installations. Akerman (1950-2015) presents us with complexities and doubts in a body of work that spans forty years and revolves around her personal family history, identity, memory, and displacement, often portrayed in long takes within the modest aesthetics of everyday life. “Dialogues” brings together theory, scholarship, and Akerman’s artistic practice in performative and discursive events, staged reading performances and music events with leading thinkers, artists, curators, writers, actors, musicians and guests from other fields. Looking, Really Looking! is presented by the Northwest Film Center and Zena Zezza, a Portland-based contemporary art project, and is curated by Sandra Percival and Morgen Ruff. The project commenced in June 2016 and runs through May 2017.

dir. Lynne Spencer (68 mins., Documentary, DCP)

How many dancers feel pressure to hide their injuries and soldier on.

Friday, April 14, 8 pm Almayer’s Folly, Belgium/France, 2011

dir. Chantal Akerman (127 mins., Drama, 35mm)

Akerman transports Joseph Conrad’s 1895 debut novel to the decolonizing 1950s, in which a Dutch trader doggedly seeks elusive treasure and the jungles of Cambodia come alive.

Friday, April 21, 7 pm Sud, Belgium/France, 1999

dir. Chantal Akerman (71 mins., Documentary, digital)

Investigating the brutal hate crime murder of James Byrd Jr., in Jasper, Texas, 1998, Akerman paints a typically meditative and ingeniously powerful portrait of a specifically American brand of racial hatred.

Saturday, May 6, 7 pm From the Other Side, Belgium/France/

Australia/Finland, 2002 dir. Chantal Akerman (99 mins., Documentary, Digibeta)

An in-depth, probing, and sensitive look at migration specifically centered around the deserts of Arizona and the Mexican states of Agua Prieta and Sonora, which Akerman approaches with a characteristically nuanced perspective.

Saturday, May 13, 4:30 pm No Home Movie, Belgium/France, 2015

dir. Chantal Akerman (115 mins., Documentary, DCP)

Akerman’s final film is solely focused on conversations between the filmmaker and her mother Natalia Akerman, a Holocaust survivor. Through a series of kitchen talks and Skype conversations, Akerman reveals the profound depth of their relationship.

All films are directed by Chantal Akerman and screen with English subtitles.

Friday, April 7, 7 pm Toute une nuit, Belgium/France/

Netherlands/Canada, 1982 dir. Chantal Akerman (90 mins., Drama, DCP)

A sweltering Brussels night leads a diverse and restless cast of characters (led by longtime Akerman collaborator Aurore Clément) into the city’s streets, alleys, and bars for a series of chance encounters. No Home Movie

The Northwest Film Center is a regional media arts resource and service organization founded to encourage the study, appreciation and utilization of the moving image arts; to foster their artistic and professional excellence; and to help build a climate in which they flourish. Little from the Fish Shop

WATCH. LEARN. MAKE. NWFILM.ORG


watch film all year round . join the silver screen club .

APRIL/MAY 2017 SUNDAY

MONDAY

northwest tracking

friday film club—$5

subtitles

visiting artist

TUESDAY

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FRIDAY

$9 General Admission

$8 PAM Members, Students, Seniors

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7 pm Moving History: Portland 7 pm Toute une nuit (CA) Contemporary Dance Past and Present

12 pm Hypernormalisation (SS) 4:30 pm Constructing Identity Film 7 pm Crooklyn (ML)

4:30 pm Constructing Identity Film 7 pm Show Me Love & A Girl's Own Story (ML)

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4:30 pm Constructing Identity Film 7 pm Ratcatcher & The Grandmother (ML)

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4:30 pm Constructing Identity Film 7 pm Hypernormalisation (SS)

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5:30 pm Black Orpheus

2 pm Native Wisdom Films

8 pm Almayer's Folly (CA)

4:30 pm Native Wisdom Films 7 pm Constructing Identity Film

April 2—Walkabout

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SATURDAY

2 pm Apple Pie 4:30 pm Constructing Identity Film 7 pm Ivan's Childhood (ML)

Unless otherwise noted, all films screen at the Northwest Film Center—Whitsell Auditorium located inside the Portland Art Museum, 1219 SW Park Avenue

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4:30 pm Constructing Identity Film 7 pm Walkabout (ML)

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4:30 pm Constructing Identity Film 7 pm The White Ribbon (ML)

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7 pm Best of the We Like 'Em Short Film Festival @ bodyvox 4 pm Dance@ 30FPS

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7 pm Mr. Gaga (CD) @ bodyvox 7 pm International Steps

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4:30 pm The White Balloon (ML) 7 pm Broken (CD) 8:30 pm Mr. Gaga (CD) @ bodyvox 4 pm Dance@ 30FPS 7 pm International Steps

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8 pm James Beard: America's First Foodie

2 pm Winter Term Student Screening 4:30 pm Documenting J20 7 pm From the Other Side (CA)

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4 pm Norman (SS) 7 pm Constructing Identity Film

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7 pm That Way Madness Lies

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7 pm The Teacher preceded by The New Species (NCC)

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4:30 pm No Home Movie (CA) 7 pm Tiger Theory (NCC) double feature

9 pm The Noonday Witch & O-Ring (NCC)

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7 pm Constructing Identity Film

5:30 pm Ugetsu 8 pm Truman (SS)

2 pm Truman (SS) 4:30 pm Constructing Identity Film 7 pm Truman (SS)

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7:30 pm I, Olga Hepnarová & How to Get People to Like You (NCC)

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4:30 pm Constructing Identity Film 7 pm The Ornithologist (SS)

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4:30 pm Constructing Identity Film 7 pm TBA–see nwfilm.org

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5:30 pm Bluebeard 8 pm Bill Frisell (SS)

4:30 pm Constructing Identity Film 7 pm Bill Frisell (SS) 9:15 pm Bill Frisell (SS)

7 pm An Evening with Kathy Kasic

4:30 pm Constructing Identity Film 7 pm The Ornithologist (SS)

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May 19-21—Truman

5 03-221-115 6 • FILM DESCRIPTIONS A ND TRA ILERS AT N WF I L M .O RG


MUSIC COURTESY OF BILLIONS

PROFILE

= WW Pick. Highly recommended. Prices listed are sometimes for advance ticket sales. At-the-door increases and socalled convenience charges may apply. Event lineups are subject to change after WW’s press deadlines. Editor: MATTHEW SINGER. TO BE CONSIDERED FOR LISTINGS, go to wweek.com/ submitevents and follow submission directions. All shows should be submitted two weeks or more in advance of event. Press kits, CDs and especially vinyl can be sent to Music Desk, WW, 2220 NW Quimby St., Portland, OR 97210. Please include show or release date information with all physical mailings. Email: msinger@wweek.com. Fax: 243-1115.

THURSDAY, MARCH 30 Oathbreaker, Khemmis, Jaye Jayle, Ireshine

[BLACK DOOM] As melodic as it is sonically forceful, Belgium’s Oathbreaker runs the course of black metal’s various strands, touching on notes of punk and thrash along the way. One of its most notable hallmarks is the vocal might of Caro Tanghe, who transitions between brutal growls and operatic melodies with ease. For recent proof, check last year’s Rheia, which completes a holy trinity of emotive savageness Tanghe has been leading the band through. We’ve seen its hybrid sound live as support for other acts, but now Oathbreaker gets the headlining spot it deserves. CERVANTE POPE. Ash Street Saloon, 225 SW Ash St., 503226-0430. 9 pm. $12 advance, $14 day of show. 21+.

Helvetia, J&L Defer, Clarke and the Himselfs

[HOT FUZZ] Portland’s musical saturation is typically a good thing, but it can function as a con when the occasional act gets buried amid the fray. Helvetia arrived from Seattle years back and has been turning out polymorphous noise rock since well before that. It’s tough to blame the band for not being prolific, especially since its members have been busy with various side projects. Besides, the mutated rock it does turn out—per 2012’s Nothing in Rambling and 2015’s Dromomania—takes time to genuinely comprehend and appreciate. MARK STOCK. Bunk Bar, 1028 SE Water Ave., 503-328-2865. 9 pm. $8. 21+.

Colony House, Knox Hamilton

[BRIGHT INDIE] Tennessee four-piece Colony House is at its most Cold War Kids-like on sophomore release Only the Lonely, replacing the sunnier energy of When I Was Younger with a deeper, pulsating indie rock, and amplifying the soulful, tremulous vocals. It’s a better fit for the theme of loneliness, but the takeaway is far from despairing. The refrain of “Lonely” declares, “Sometimes I feel like this whole world has got me wrong,” but there’s also hopefulness in songs like “You & I” and “1234.” Maybe the fact that the father of members Caleb and Will Chapman is a contemporary Christian pop musician has something to do with the band’s positive outlook, despite the dark emotions lying underneath. MAYA MCOMIE. Doug Fir Lounge, 830 E Burnside St., 503-231-9663. 9 pm. $14 advance, $16 day of show. 21+.

Elohim, Autumn in June

[INDIE DANCE] You will never hear Elohim’s spoken voice, and you will rarely see her face. She speaks only through a robotic text-to-voice system while hiding her face behind animal masks and dark sunglasses. Live, she performs behind racks of synthesizers and drum machines, singing of numbness, heartbreak, social anxiety and spirituality with the dark complexities of Radiohead and the heartfelt melodies of Sigur Rós. Now she’s riding high on the coattails of her latest release, “Love Is Alive,” a collaboration with the electronic duo Louis the Child that has gained soaring success in the indie-dance scene since its release last month, quickly racking up well over 1.5 million plays. For her, every show is an experience and an open invitation to see life through her shaded eyes. WILLIAM VANCE. Holocene, 1001 SE Morrison St., 503239-7639. 9 pm. $12. 16+.

Red Baraat, DJ Anjali & the Incredible Kid, Ganavya

[WORLD PARTY] See Get Busy, page 19. Star Theater, 13 NW 6th Ave., 503248-4700. 9 pm. $18. 21+.

Nails, Toxic Holocaust, Gatecreeper

[TOUGH GUYS] Nails titled its 2016 album You Will Never Be One of Us to let poseurs know that only a select few can enter the hallowed halls wherein men like Nails make extreme music. Don’t sweat it, poseurs—you’re better off out here with the weak and feeble folks who have things like ideas and feelings. Nails is undeniably proficient at blending hardcore, grind and metal into minutelong blasts of rage, but the band’s gimcrack nihilism and macho posturing are just cartoonish reminders that meaner, smarter and just plain better bands have already done this. And Nails will never be one of them. CHRIS STAMM. The Analog Cafe, 720 SE Hawthorne Blvd., 503206-7439. 7 pm. $15 advance, $18 day of show. All ages.

FRIDAY, MARCH 31 Andre Nickatina, Husalah, Cool Nutz, Anonymous That Dude

[RAP] Our favorite living thizzler, Andre Nickatina, has been West Coasting on his extensive back catalog for a minute now. Last we heard, Dre Dog raised over $100,000 through a Kickstarter campaign to fund the release of a new solo album, but that was two years ago. We still haven’t heard even a single track, so let’s hope he’s been in the studio coming up with some fire to share with us on this night of his Birthday Tour. Until then, let’s keep pretending we’re Tony Montana whenever “Ayo for Yayo” comes on. CERVANTE POPE. Roseland Theater, 8 NW 6th Ave., 971-230-0033. 7 pm. $25. All ages.

The Slants, the Shrike, Kill Frankie

[DANCE ROCK] As you may have heard, Portland dance-rock outfit the Slants have been tied up in a bit of a legal imbroglio the last couple years. Chances are, if you’ve heard of the Slants at all, it is because of that legal imbroglio. But if this is all news to you, the CliffsNotes version is that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has repeatedly denied the band’s attempt to trademark its name, on the grounds that four Asian Americans going by “the Slants” is racially insensitive, with the case reaching the Supreme Court in January. It’s tempting to say the case has overshadowed the Slants’ music—which exists at the intersection of the Killers and New Order—but given that it is essentially a fight over identity, the truth is they’ve always been inextricably linked. So it makes sense that the group’s new EP, The Band Who Must Not Be Named, amounts to a concept album about this whole mess, from the unambiguous title to opening track “From the Heart,” which essentially amounts to their closing argument on the matter. MATTHEW SINGER. The Analog Cafe, 720 SE Hawthorne Blvd., 503-2067439. 9 pm. $10. 21+.

Pynnacles, Sex Crime, Flip Tops, Super Sonic Space Rebels

[SYNTH PUNK] In terms of imagery, multilingual synth-punk foursome Sex Crime presents itself as a sort of politically incorrect carny horror show. On record, though, the theatrics are dialed down in favor of relentlessly precise, hook-heavy punk that

CONT. on page 29

Mature Themes JUSTIN TOWNES EARLE GREW UP, GOT MARRIED AND MADE THE BEST MUSIC OF HIS CAREER.

BY ISA B EL ZACHA R IAS

and arriving at the proper response, he answers: “Fine. Just fine.” It’s hard to tell whether this is the new Earle Someone like Justin Townes Earle must get asked daily to define the current state of contemporary or the old Earle, minus all the tattooed, put-on American roots music. But as he’s the first to street smarts and the labels too easily applied to him—like, ahem, Americana. Either way, his admit, he doesn’t have a good answer. “I really have absolutely no fucking idea what new companion set of albums, Single Mothers ‘Americana’ means today,” says the 35-year-old in and Absent Fathers, shows a reflective, seasoned a low-slung Tennessee drawl. “In 1998, it seemed songwriter who’s arrived at the other side of it meant you probably had a guy that played a his youthful anger, settling into stability and Telecaster in the band, and you sold less than determining what’s important to him. “There’s a closing of a chapter of life,” Earle 10,000 copies of every record you made, and you says. “Not that there’s any new great underhad stickers all over your guitar.” standing as to what happened before, Whether he likes it or not, though, but sometimes it’s time to just Earle—who’s been in Portland the move on. I got married and I have last month for a string of inti“I’M FROM a kid on the way.” mate shows at Doug Fir Lounge In a pop-country landscape that wrap up this week—is the THE SOUTH. dominated by faux-vintage arbiter of all modern concepts ‘AMERICANA’ IS BAD poseurs like Nathaniel Rateliff, of “Americana.” That’s what Earle’s recent work grapples happens when you’re born to ARTWORK PAINTED earnestly with the sometimes alt-country picker Steve Earle disappointing realities of growand named for country-folk ON BARN WOOD.” ing up, starting a family and master of melancholy Townes —Justin Townes Earle being unable to change one’s past Van Zandt. Given his pedigree, for the better—and the caliber of the his career has unfolded the way music itself shows, with every note, how you might imagine, playing fingerhard Earle has worked to get where he is. For picked ballads alongside hard-driving, steel pedal-laced tales of blues and trouble, made some people, the drive to finally get to where you sadly more real by the struggles with addiction he want to be, in both the personal and professional sense, is sparked by a single, monumental event. appears to have inherited from his father. But even while disparaging some Portlander But for Earle, the process happened gradually. “It was just the passing of time,” he says. “Not unlucky enough to tell him the Decemberists are Americana, Earle is actually a thoughtful, slow- that I’ve grown up, but I’m grown up enough moving kind of person. He has the poetic way of now to realize what my great-grandmother meant speaking that only Southerners do, in a series of when she looked at me and said, ‘Honey, is it learned aphorisms told as truth. “I’m from the gonna matter in a thousand years?’” South,” he says at one point. “‘Americana’ is bad artwork painted on barn wood.” He takes long SEE IT: Justin Townes Earle plays Doug Fir Lounge, 830 E Burnside St., with Courtney Marie pauses before he speaks, even after the question, Andrews, on Wednesday, March 29. 8 pm. $14 “How are you?” After thinking it through fully advance, $16 day of show. 21+. 503-243-2122

Willamette Week MARCH 29, 2017 wweek.com

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MUSIC never downshifts from top speed. Refreshingly brash, the band’s 2016 self-titled debut finds frontwoman and Parisian expat Cecilia Meneau in full freak-out mode for all of the album’s dozen tracks— think Plastic Bertrand’s dancefloor-filler “Ca Plane Pour Moi” led by Poison Ivy and Lux Interior of the Cramps. Tonight, the band celebrates its impending Japanese tour alongside garage-punk vets the Pynnacles. CRIS LANKENAU. The Know, 3728 SE Sandy Blvd., 503-473-8729. 8 pm. Contact venue for ticket prices. 21+.

OCnotes, Marbletop Orchestra

[EXPRESSIONIST HIP-HOP] Portland’s Old Grape God raps the way Jackson Pollock paints, using tripped-out beats—typically devised by his main collaborator, produced Skelli Skel—as a canvas to splatter his oft-abstract, stream-of-consciousness musings against. Tonight, the recent Best New Band finalist takes his expressionist brand of hip-hop to the next level, teaming with fellow cosmic traveler Snugsworth and a host of guests to record a fully improvised live album under the name Marbletop Orchestra. Experimental Seattle rapper, producer and multi-instrumentalist OCnotes—who runs in the same genre-bending circles as Shabazz Palaces—headlines. MATTHEW SINGER. The Fixin’ To, 8218 N Lombard St., 503-477-4995. 9 pm. $5. 21+.

SATURDAY, APRIL 1 Dan Cable presents All These Foolz with Tribe Mars, Rasheed Jamal, Sumalienz

[FULL-BAND RAP] Through 50 episodes, local music aficionado Dan Cable’s Dan Cable Presents podcast has separated itself from the rest of the pack. In contrast to other, more pedestrian Portland music podcasts and radio shows, Cable is out there actually breaking acts, not just putting his finger to the wind and seeing who’s hot this week—or, as is the case with

many “influencers” in town, who was hot in 2015. This curated live show represents another step in that process, and is an excellent snapshot of Portland’s emerging live-band hip-hop scene. Tribe Mars has turned heads for the past few years with its eclectic blend of funk, jazz and hiphop, while Sumalienz continue to wow crowds in advance of their unreleased material. Rasheed Jamal typically performs with a DJ, but has the flow and stage presence to steal any show. This night is something the Portland scene should not miss. BLAKE HICKMAN. The Secret Society, 116 NE Russell St. 9 pm. $10. 21+.

SUNDAY, APRIL 2 Lila Downs

[UNWALLED MUSIC] Lila Downs is a poster child for everything most rabid Trumpistas despise. The Oaxaca-born offspring of a mixed-marriage between a Mexican cabaret singer and British-Minnesotan academic—and married herself to an American saxophonist—the Grammy-winning singer-songwriter was inspired to write music after hearing about a migrant who drowned trying to cross from Mexico to the U.S. An activist as well as musician, her songs often touch on social justice concerns. Her music surmounts walls both linguistic—singing in Mixtec, Zapotec, Mayan, Nahuatl and Purépecha, as well as Spanish and English—and stylistic, blending rock, Mexican folk and pop, among many other influences from both sides of that impending wall. BRETT CAMPBELL. Newmark Theatre, 1111 SW Broadway, 503248-4335. 7:30 pm. $39-$69. All ages.

Tinariwen, Dengue Fever

[ARAB SPRING] North African rockers Tinariwen have every right to laugh at the average sad-sack musician. Breakups and petty broken dreams are nothing compared to the executions of

CONT. on page 31

C O U R T E SY O F FAC E B O O K .C O M

PREVIEW

Biffy Clyro, O’Brother

[SCOTCH ROCK] Biffy Clyro is one of those head-scratching cases of a band whose success in its homeland is bafflingly impossible to translate across the pond. The Glaswegian power trio has been selling out arenas and headlining festivals across Europe for the better part of a decade, and the ambitious, bombastic crunch of its music—which hits the same pleasure centers as early Foo Fighters—is a direct reflection of the spaces the band members seek to fill with their anthems. Alas, 2016’s Ellipsis hardly moved the dial for their prominence in the States—which, in turn, may be a good thing if you’d prefer to get as close as possible to oft-shirtless frontman Simon Neil’s onstage antics. PETE COTTELL. Hawthorne Theatre, 1507 SE Cesar E. Chavez Blvd., hawthornetheatre.com. 8 pm Saturday, April 1. $20 advance, $25 day of show. 21+. Willamette Week MARCH 29, 2017 wweek.com

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MUSIC CO U R T E SY O F 4 5 T H PA R A L L E L

FEATURE

PUNCH-OUT: Tristan Bliss (left) and Greg Ewer.

Follow Your Bliss

It started as a typical internet flame war. Writer criticizes something. Target reacts with inflammatory defensiveness. Comment thread explodes, grows simultaneously nastier and less relevant to the original subject. Site moderator cuts off comments to avoid alienating disgusted readers. Pretty much par for the online world these days—but not in the cloistered confines of classical music. That changed in 2015, when Tristan Bliss, a Western Oregon University student and composer, sparked the tempest in an antique teapot, calling out local chamber music ensemble 45th Parallel for continuing to present, in his words, “the same old shit.” “Why would those institutions change a system they’re benefiting from? Why would they stop throwing concerts of dead composers’ music when they can sell the same stodgy audience members tickets season after season?” Bliss wrote for Oregon ArtsWatch. (Full disclosure: Brett Campbell contributes to the site.) “I don’t know, but I have an answer for why they should: They’re killing the tradition they claim to love.” “I got a lot of pushback from people frustrated that I used the review format as a way to explore and comment on larger issues in the classical music world,” says Bliss, 23, whose own compositions are influenced by everything from modernist avant-garde music to metal. “The classical music world is uninviting to people that don’t have an in into that culture, who weren’t raised in it, and don’t have a reason to be there. That’s a hindrance to it growing.” A bit chagrined at the intemperate course the comments had taken, 45th Parallel artistic director Greg Ewer issued a challenge. What, he asked, would a 45th Parallel show look like if Bliss were in charge? The two decided to collaborate. The upcoming Classical Crossroads program will include new music by young composers from Portland and Eugene, as well music by composers who are very much still alive: Chen Yi’s 9/11 response, “Burning,” John Zorn’s cartoon-inspired “Cat o’ Nine Tails,” and even an arrangement of Guns N’ Roses’ “Sweet Child o’ Mine.” The centerpiece, though, is Bliss’ own aptly named “Requiem for a Tradition,” which quotes from famous classical themes, then manipulates those melodies in modern ways. “I wrote the opening after the commission challenge came up,” Bliss says. “It was meant to be a ‘fuck you’ to the classical tradition—distorting these beloved heirlooms. The overall structure is an attempt to move through different eras of music history and use those recognizable things to create a new and unrecognizable thing. I’m not saying any of that music doesn’t have value. It’s just that the world has changed wildly since those pieces were written, so the way we interact with them needs to change.” The way Bliss and Ewer—two musicians from different generations—resolved their conflict suggests that maybe such change is actually possible. And maybe beyond the cozy classical music world, too. “We have a really good relationship now, which is a really interesting and cool development,” Bliss says of his former antagonist. “It’s worked out way better than I ever imagined.” BRETT CAMPBELL. Tristan Bliss challenged the local classical music establishment to do better. Then it challenged him.

SEE IT: 45th Parallel presents Classical Crossroads at Artists Repertory Theatre, 1516 SW Alder St., on Wednesday, March 29. 7:30 pm. $10-$25. All ages. 30

Willamette Week MARCH 29, 2017 wweek.com


family members and playing electrified Arabic pop against the state’s orders, amid war-ravaged stretches of the Sahara. In short, the sprawling Malian-born band is genuine rock ’n’ roll—defiant, deliberate and damn good. On its latest record, Elwan, Tinariwen continues its mastery of traditional nomadic music, adapting ever-shuffling and incredibly rhythmic desert folk to Western ears with the aid of electric guitar. MARK STOCK. Revolution Hall, 1300 SE Stark St., 503-288-3895. 8 pm, through April 3. $35. 21+.

Power Trip, Destruction Unit, Gag, U-Nix

[CROSSOVER THRASH] See Get Busy, page 19. Analog Cafe, 720 SE Hawthorne Blvd., 503-2067439. 7:30 pm. $13. All ages.

MONDAY, APRIL 3 The Wind and the Wave, Allison Pierce, Haley Johnson

[UPBEAT AND WEIGHTY] With alt-country, blues rock and indie folk all being apt descriptors of the Wind and the Wave’s sonic landscape, it’s hard to distill the Austin, Texas, duo into any single category. But each song on 2016’s Happiness Is Not a Place is unified by one thing: the soaring vocals of singer Patricia Lynn. Just like the mix of musical influences, the songs vary in theme as well. The loud and fastpaced “Grand Canyon” is about Lynn almost losing her brother in a car accident, while the folkier title track betrays both fragility and steadfastness, too. Lynn not only deals with difficult subjects, she does it with conviction. MAYA MCOMIE. Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi Ave., 503-288-3895. 9 pm. $12. 21+.

TUESDAY, APRIL 4 Floating Points

[COOL & COMPLICATED] See Get Busy, page 19. Doug Fir Lounge, 830 E Burnside St., 503-231-9663. 9 pm. $17 advance, $20 day of show. 21+.

CLASSICAL, JAZZ & WORLD Chanticleer

[LOVE SONGS] Music has changed a lot in half a millennium, but love is constant. Well, the subject of love, at least, not necessarily any particular relationship. In fact, lovers and wannabes have been writing songs about love’s power and fickleness since approximately the day after music was invented, as demon-

strated in this centuries-spanning program by one of the world’s most acclaimed vocal ensembles, Chanticleer. The San Francisco choir’s show includes settings of some of the Bible’s lustiest passages by Renaissance composers like Palestrina and Guerrero, French troubadour songs, 20thcentury classics by everyone from Rachmaninoff to Queen, and contemporary classical compositions—some commissioned by Chanticleer—from Eric Whitacre, Augusta Read Thomas and Jaakko Mantyjarvi. BRETT CAMPBELL. Kaul Auditorium at Reed College, 3203 SE Woodstock Blvd. 7:30 pm Wednesday, March 29. $30-$52. All ages.

Gil Shaham

[VIOLIN VIRTUOSO] Master violinist Gil Shaham was born on U.S. soil, but his prodigious skills were discovered during his upbringing in Israel. He played with the Jerusalem Symphony at age 10, and eventually returned to study at Juilliard. The award-winning Shaham cemented his career by standing in for an ailing Itzhak Perlman for a series of concerts in 1989. Apparently, Shaham’s busy schedule allows for only a single matinee in Portland this time, to perform a half-dozen classics showcasing his talents. Heuberger, Korngold and Suppé, and works from three different Strausses (Richard, Josef and Johann Jr.) should sound divine on Shaham’s loaner Stradivarius. NATHAN CARSON. Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, 1037 SW Broadway, 503-248-4335. 2 pm Sunday, April 2. $23-$105. All ages.

Black Violin

[CLASSICAL MEETS HIP-HOP] Florida high school buddies Wilner Baptiste and Kev Marcus grew up enjoying hip-hop and studying classical music. After college, they started adding their own viola and violin lines to rap beats, sent a tape to Showtime at the Apollo and won the top prize in 2005. That led to more Apollo performances, opening gigs for Aerosmith and Tom Petty, collaborations with Alicia Keys and Wu-Tang Clan and even an appearance at President Obama’s second inauguration. In concert, the duo combines is apt to blend Bach with Drake and socially conscious raps with R&B grooves. among other stereotype-shattering combinations. BRETT CAMPBELL. Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, 1037 SW Broadway, 503-248-4335. 7:30 pm Monday, April 3. $19.50$39.50. All ages.

For more Music listings, visit

STRING TIME: Black Violin plays Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall on Monday, April 3. Willamette Week MARCH 29, 2017 wweek.com

31


MUSIC

DATES HERE

D Y L LY N N G R E E N W O O D

HOTSEAT

Ain’t No Stopping The career of Portland rapper Tope lies somewhere between the pre-streaming-era giants like Cool Nutz and Sandpeople and the current New Portland ascension of Aminé and the Last Artful, Dodgr. Those who followed Tope’s music saw him rise from a local diamond in the rough to an artist being written about in national publications like The Source, all through DIY hustle. Part of what made Tope such an engaging presence was that his relentless drive was his muse. His songs inspired you to work smarter, party harder and not let where you came from limit the places you can go. And then, he left. In 2015, a few months after the release of his album BrokeBoySyndrome, Tope announced he was leaving Portland for the Bay Area. With him returning to play the monthly Mic Check party, we caught up with the MC born Anthony Anderson to ask him about watching the Portland scene evolve from afar, staying motivated and why he feels like late-period Michael Corleone. BLAKE HICKMAN. Every time Tope thinks he’s out of the rap game, the game pulls him back in.

WW: What brought you to the Bay Area? What opportunities were available there that weren’t on the table in Portland? Tope: For the most part, my opportunities have gotten a little bit smaller because it’s such a larger market, with a lot more competition and money as compared to Portland. The Bay Area is the sixth-largest media market in the U.S.; Portland is 24th, I believe. So it’s a pretty big jump. I would say the biggest difference is that everyone, and I mean everyone raps here. If you don’t rap now, you probably did at one point. What keeps you motivated as you continue building your career? To be honest, I’ve been trying to find that motivation. I think for the first time since I was a teenager, I thought about doing something else for the majority of last year. Sometimes I feel like Al Pacino in The Godfather Part III with music. Like, I want to leave, but I really love this shit; it’s in my blood. I had my laptop stolen, with all the music I had made in the last four years, at a show recently and couldn’t make music for like a month, which might not sound like anything to some people, but I was going crazy. That kind of refreshed things for me again. What has it been like to watch the rise of artists like Aminé and Dodgr from afar? It’s been really, really dope. I remember Luck One and I having a conversation back in the day about him maybe being the one from Portland that could really pop, at a time when a lot people were talking about him and I. I knew it was real when I was living in L.A., and I was walking out to my car and people were driving by playing the song [Aminé’s “Caroline”]. I know it’s cool to hate on the popular guy, but I’m happy for Aminé. And he has a way nicer Benz than mine, so I have to give him props [laughs]. SEE IT: Tope plays Mic Check at White Eagle Saloon, 836 N Russell St., with Rare Vibe, on Thursday, March 30. 10 pm. $7. 21+. 32

Willamette Week MARCH 29, 2017 wweek.com


MUSIC CALENDAR WED. MARCH 29 Alberta Rose Theater

3000 NE Alberta St Gaby Moreno, Goodnight Moonshine

Ash Street Saloon

225 SW Ash St Stochastic Mettle Union

Dante’s

350 West Burnside Bob Log III

Doug Fir Lounge

830 E Burnside St. Justin Townes Earle, Courtney Marie Andrews

Duff’s Garage

2530 NE 82nd Ave Nick Schnebelen; Corey and the Tribe

Holocene

1001 SE Morrison St. Calm Candy, Swim Team, Earth World

Kaul Auditorium (at Reed College)

3203 SE Woodstock Blvd. Chanticleer

LaurelThirst Public House

2958 NE Glisan St Sean O’Neill Band; Pig Honey

Mississippi Pizza

3552 N Mississippi Ave Tallulah’s Daddy

Mississippi Studios

3939 N Mississippi Ave. Emma Ruth Rundle, Dark Red Seed, Braveyoung

The Analog Cafe

720 SE Hawthorne Blvd. BOX THE OXFORD, ANIMALS IN THE ATTIC

The Goodfoot

2845 SE Stark St Chance Hayden + DJ OG One

The Liquor Store

3341 SE Belmont St, Everyone Is Dirty, Laura Palmer’s Death Parade

The Lovecraft Bar

421 SE Grand Ave Lavender, Marc Kate

The Old Church

1422 SW 11th Ave Montclaire & G. Liu Jr.

The Old Church

1422 SW 11th Ave Olivia Aurich, piano

Twilight Cafe and Bar

1420 SE Powell Dance With Us: Moth Hunter, Justin Smith, Moogwynd, MKUltramegaphone, Red Panda Death March

White Eagle Saloon 836 N Russell St JoyTribe, Cloud Six

THUR. MARCH 30 Alberta Street Pub 1036 NE Alberta St Will West

Ash Street Saloon

225 SW Ash St Oathbreaker, Khemmis, Jaye Jayle, Ireshine

Hawthorne Theatre

1507 SE César E. Chávez Blvd. Red

LAST WEEK LIVE

1001 SE Morrison St. Elohim, Autumn in June

LaurelThirst Public House

Ash Street Saloon

225 SW Ash St Dwight Church, Dwight Dickinson, Eddie Kancer

Mississippi Studios

3939 N Mississippi Ave. The Maldives and Dick Move

Dante’s

350 West Burnside KARAOKE FROM HELL

Star Theater

Doug Fir Lounge

13 NW 6th Ave. Red Baraat, DJ Anjali & the Incredible Kid, Ganavya

830 E Burnside St. Methyl Ethel

Hawthorne Theatre

1507 SE César E. Chávez Blvd. Katatonia

The Analog Cafe

720 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Moose Blood; Nails, Toxic Holocaust, Gatecreeper

LaurelThirst Public House

The Goodfoot

2958 NE Glisan St Portland Country Underground; Kung Pao Chickens

2845 SE Stark St A Tribute to Jimi Hendrix

The Know

3728 NE Sandy Blvd. Grey Waves, Cool American, Two Moons

Mississippi Pizza

ARC FLASH

The Secret Society

232 SW Ankeny St Last Giant, Air Knives

White Eagle Saloon

836 N Russell St Mic Check: Tope, Rare Vibe

FRI. MARCH 31 Aladdin Theater

3017 SE Milwaukie Ave Dumpstaphunk

Alberta Street Pub

1036 NE Alberta St The Dovecotes, Team Evil

Ash Street Saloon

225 SW Ash St Brass Tacks, Yonder Blue, Anywhere West

FORTIFIED: Treefort is the festival that FOMO forgot. At bigger, more ostentatious music festivals, the sense that you’re always missing out on something better is a pervasive, even debilitating feeling. “What if Future and Justin Bieber show up during Martin Garrix’s set, and I’m stuck in a tent watching Calvin Harris and all we get is an Alessia Cara cameo?! I’ll just die!” That’s not the Treefort experience. Those sort of shock-and-awe moments—the kind that reverberate across Twitter and turn giant grass fields into a constellation of cellphone cameras—aren’t what the festival aims for. Sure, there’s a main stage set up in a downtown parking lot, where last week, hundreds gathered to swoon over Angel Olsen and watch a King Kong-sized gorilla puppet twerk to Lizzo. But you’re not going all the way to friggin’ Boise to see the band you already know. You’re going to discover the best band you never even knew existed. At its heart, that’s what Treefort is built on: thousands of tiny moments of personal discovery. You walk into the nearest fast-casual Mexican joint for lunch and have your ears blown out by a raging two-man punk band. Or you grab a cup of coffee and stumble across a husband-and-wife duo playing traditional Sufi music. It’s one of the vanishingly few festivals you can go to without a plan and leave without any regrets. After all, you can’t fear missing out on something when you truly have no idea what you’re missing. MATTHEW SINGER. See wweek.com for a complete Treefort recap. daBPArty, Coloring Electric Like

Star Theater

The Analog Cafe

Wonder Ballroom

Crystal Ballroom

720 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Titans of Industry, Scuz Bros. Lousy Bends; The Slants, the Shrike, Kill Frankie; School of Rock

128 NE Russell St. Rebel Souljahz

Dante’s

The Firkin Tavern

Aladdin Theater

1028 SE Water Ave. Maszer, Flaural, Queen Chief 1332 W Burnside St Greensky Bluegrass 350 West Burnside The Blasters, Clownvis Presley

Doug Fir Lounge 830 E Burnside St. José James

Duff’s Garage

2530 NE 82nd Ave Paris Slim

LaurelThirst Public House

2958 NE Glisan St Wheels; The Lower 48, Luz Elena Mendoza, Rory Van James

13 NW 6th Ave. The Werks

1937 SE 11th Ave Little Furry Things, The Shrill Tones, Redneck Baby

The Fixin’ To

8218 N. Lombard St OCnotes, Marbletop Orchestra, Tay Sean

The Know

3728 NE Sandy Blvd. Pynnacles, Sex Crime, Flip Tops, Super Sonic Space Rebels

The Old Church

Mississippi Studios

3939 N Mississippi Ave. Laith Al-Saadi

Bunk Bar

Roseland Theater

The Secret Society

Dante’s

350 West Burnside Dirtybird

Doug Fir Lounge

830 E Burnside St. Colony House, Knox Hamilton

White Eagle Saloon

836 N Russell St Maurice and the Stiff Sisters, The Cabin Project, The Loved

Bunk Bar

8 NW 6th Ave Andre Nickatina, Husalah, Cool Nutz, Anonymous That Dude

Skyline Tavern

8031 NW Skyline Blvd Spuds Siegel & The Columbians

Slim’s PDX

8635 N Lombard St.

836 N Russell St Justin Rayfield Band, Josh and Max, Lucas Biespiel

Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall

3552 N Mississippi Ave Red Yarn

Valentines

White Eagle Saloon

1037 SW Broadway Black Violin

Mississippi Pizza

116 NE Russell St Thursday Swing featuring Birch Pereira & the Gin Joints, Swinging Doors

1420 SE Powell Tomboi

MON. APRIL 3

2958 NE Glisan St Lewi Longmire & the Left Coast Roasters; Jake William Capistran, The Colin Trio, Toothbone

835 NE Broadway Havania Whaal, Somber, Helens 1028 SE Water Ave. Helvetia, J&L Defer, Clarke and the Himselfs

Twilight Cafe and Bar

Holocene

1422 SW 11th Ave Mozart’s Sonata with David Rothman; Greater Flute Society presents Peter Sheridan

Black Water Bar

[MARCH 29-APRIL 4]

For more listings, check out wweek.com.

M AT T S I N G E R

= WW Pick. Highly recommended.

Editor: Matthew Singer. TO HAVE YOUR EVENT LISTED, send show information at least two weeks in advance on the web at wweek.com/ submitevents. Press kits, CDs and especially vinyl can be sent to Music Desk, WW, 2220 NW Quimby St., Portland, OR 97210. Please include show or release date information with all physical mailings. Email: music@wweek.com.

116 NE Russell St Hot Club Of Hawthorne

Tonic Lounge

3100 NE Sandy Blvd. Noothgrush, Nepenthes, Atriarch

Twilight Cafe and Bar

1420 SE Powell Super Brown, Low Flyer, Mantis, Perikaryon

SAT. APRIL 1 3017 SE Milwaukie Ave Robert Randolph & the Family Band, Raquel Rodriquez

Ash Street Saloon

225 SW Ash St Kingdom Under Fire, Amerikan Overdose, Beyond Theory, Von Doom

Dante’s

350 West Burnside Scott H. Biram, Jesse Dayton, Alien Knife Fight

Doug Fir Lounge

830 E Burnside St. Life During Wartime

Duff’s Garage

2530 NE 82nd Ave JumpTown Aces; Ben Rice

Hawthorne Theatre

1507 SE César E. Chávez Blvd. Biffy Clyro, O’Brother

LaurelThirst Public House

2958 NE Glisan St Jawbone Flats (all ages); The Resolectrics; Fernando (full band), Stan McMahon

Mississippi Studios

3939 N Mississippi Ave. Jerry Joseph & Friends Iraq Refugee Benefit

Plew’s Brews

8409 N Lombard St, All the Colors of the Dark XVIII: First Sat Psych Nights with Quiet!, Big Breakfast and Wilmoth Axel

Roseland Theater 8 NW 6th Ave Clean Bandit

Slim’s PDX

8635 N Lombard St. The Ornery, The Do Betters, Cory Call

Star Theater

13 NW 6th Ave. Envy on the Coast, Tennis System, Oxymoron

The Analog Cafe

720 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Busty & Bass, Lawrence

The Goodfoot

2845 SE Stark St Shafty

The Know

3728 NE Sandy Blvd. ThirstyCity: Devonwho, Zackey Force Funk, Thoto_leing, Wood ox

The Secret Society

116 NE Russell St Dan Cable presents All These Foolz with Tribe Mars, Rasheed Jamal and Sumalienz; Joe Baker & The Kitchen Men

Turn! Turn! Turn!

8 NE Killingsworth St

BAUS, ZZ Narc, Dr. Identity, Pumping Iron

The Junebugs, The Pearls, Jacob Westfall

Twilight Cafe and Bar

Mississippi Studios

Valentines

Moda Center

White Eagle Saloon

Newmark Theatre

1420 SE Powell Maniak, Chemical Warfare 232 SW Ankeny St Get Real, Gloomsday (SD), Frenz 836 N Russell St MOsley WOtta, General Mojo’s, Cedar Teeth

Wonder Ballroom 128 NE Russell St. G. Jones

SUN. APRIL 2 Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall

1037 SW Broadway Gil Shaham

Ash Street Saloon 225 SW Ash St Quiet Oaks

Dante’s

350 West Burnside Peelander-Z, Unusual Subjects

Doug Fir Lounge 830 E Burnside St. That 1 Guy

LaurelThirst Public House

2958 NE Glisan St Doc Slocum’s Old-Time Jam (all ages); Freak Mountain Ramblers

Mississippi Studios

3939 N Mississippi Ave.

3939 N Mississippi Ave. The Bronx, Dave Hause 1 N Center Ct St, Game of Thrones Live Concert Experience 1111 SW Broadway Lila Downs

Revolution Hall

1300 SE Stark St #110 Tinariwen, Dengue Fever

Rontoms

600 E Burnside St Federale, Pat Kearns

Roseland Theater

8 NW 6th Ave Tech N9ne, Brotha Lynch Hung, Krizz Kaliko, Stevie Stone, Ces Cru

The Analog Cafe 720 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Power Trip, Destruction Unit, Gag, U-Nix; Major Powers, The Lo-Fi Symphony

The Know

3728 NE Sandy Blvd. The Stops, Royal Brat, Soft Butch

The Old Church

1422 SW 11th Ave Latin Passion with Darin Qualls

The Secret Society

3552 N Mississippi Ave Mr. Ben

Mississippi Studios

3939 N Mississippi Ave. The Wind and the Wave, Allison Pierce, Haley Johnson

Revolution Hall 1300 SE Stark St #110 Tinariwen with Dengue Fever

The Goodfoot

2845 SE Stark St Ural Thomas and The Pain

Valentines

232 SW Ankeny St Vanishing Point

TUES. APRIL 4 Ash Street Saloon

225 SW Ash St Buried For a Day, Tonight We Launch

Doug Fir Lounge 830 E Burnside St. Floating Points

Fremont Theater

2393 NE Fremont Street The Murphy Beds (Eamon O’Leary and Jefferson Hamer)

Hawthorne Theatre

1507 SE César E. Chávez Blvd. Senses Fail, Counterparts, Movements

LaurelThirst Public House

2958 NE Glisan St Songs in the Round: Taylor Kingman, Barna Howard, Haley Heynderickx; Jackstraw

Raven and Rose

1331 SW Broadway, Na Rósaí

The Analog Cafe

720 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Rose Room Swing Dance

The Ranger Station

4260 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Bluegrass Tuesday

Twilight Cafe and Bar 1420 SE Powell The Kegels, Toxic Kid, Question Tuesday

White Eagle Saloon

836 N Russell St TK Revolution Jam First Tuesday

116 NE Russell St Portland Lindy Exchange 2017 feat. Pete Krebs and his Portland Playboys

Willamette Week MARCH 29, 2017 wweek.com

33


MUSIC COURTESY OF KING TIM 33.3

NEEDLE EXCHANGE

King Tim 33.3

Years DJing: I’ve been studying the craft for over 30 years. I started making pause tapes and mixes and playing around with loops in the mid-’80s. My first actual DJ gigs were in 1992. Genres: True-school hip-hop, galactic funk, rare grooves of all genres. Where you can catch me regularly: Sunday nights 10 pm to midnight on The Movement on KBOO; first Fridays at Beulahland for the Awakening; every second Friday at Moloko. Craziest gig: A favorite gig of mine was in the early 2000s with my turntablist crew, the Clan of the Cave Mack, at the Tiger Bar. We hosted Cut Chemist, DJ Shortkut and DJ Disk on a four-turntable set. Crazy night. I think there is a recording out there somewhere. My go-to records: There has always been some Prince in my crate; anything on MoFunk Records, Omega Supreme and Liquid Beat. Don’t ever ask me to play…: I’m not a computer DJ, so I don’t really honor requests. But my DJ nights are meticulously curated. Trust the DJ! NEXT GIG: King Tim 33.3 spins at Beulahland, 118 NE 28th Ave., on Friday, April 7. 9 pm. 21+. White Owl Social Club 1305 SE 8th Ave East Taken by Force (rock ‘n roll)

FRI. MARCH 31 WED. MARCH 29 Dig A Pony

736 SE Grand Ave. Brother Charlie (Brazilian)

Ground Kontrol

20 NW 3rd Ave Ladies Night (rap, r&b, club)

Dig A Pony

Killingsworth Dynasty

Jade Club

736 SE Grand Ave. Gwizski (new jack swing)

45 East

315 SE 3rd Ave Dirtyphonics

Black Book

20 NW 3rd Ave The Cave (rap, r&b, club)

Crush Bar

1400 SE Morrison Rapture

Dig A Pony

Swift Lounge

315 SE 3rd Ave Open House feat. Christian Martin

Holocene

The Lovecraft Bar

3341 SE Belmont St, Sure Thing PDX: Shifted (techno)

The Lovecraft Bar

Jade Club

1932 NE Broadway St AMtroduction: Bad Boy vs Wu Tang Clan Party 421 SE Grand Ave Event Horizon

Tube 18 NW 3rd Ave. Easy Egg

Willamette Week MARCH 29, 2017 wweek.com

Black Book

511 NW Couch St. TRONix: Logical Aggression (dark electro) 832 N Killingsworth St Sensoria (goth, industrial)

34

THUR. MARCH 30

The Liquor Store

421 SE Grand Ave Shadowplay (goth, industrial, 80s)

736 SE Grand Ave. Battles & Lamar (boogie, hiphop) 1001 SE Morrison St. Snap! 90s Dance Party 315 SE 3rd Ave You Are Real (techno, house)


Where to drink this week. 1. The Know

HENRY CROMETT

BAR REVIEW

3728 NE Sandy Blvd., 503-473-8729, the knowpdx.com. Well, the restroom at the new Know—the Knew, perhaps?—might need a little more graffiti to feel the same. But “EAT SHIT, KYLE” is a good start.

2. NightCap 2035 SE Cesar E. Chavez Blvd., 503-477-4252. Brunch spot by day, Trinket turns into a lovely dessert-andliquor place by night— with Mumbai margaritas and salted honey pie.

3. Game Knight Lounge

4. Breakside Brewery

1570 NW 22nd Ave., 503-444-7597, breakside.com. Breakside is open in Slabtown. It’s a tripledecker pub, with a rooftop bar planned for summer, and has an opening lineup that includes a killer plum gose and—gasp—a hazy IPA.

5. Mt. Tabor Vancouver

3600 NW 119th St., 360-696-5521, mttaborbrewing.com Mt. Tabor, after finally moving back to its founding city of Portland, opened another spot in Vancouver—a pizza pub with voluminous, soft, pleasant dough.

Killingsworth Dynasty 832 N Killingsworth St DJ Bad Wizard

Moloko

3967 N. Mississippi Ave. Jackal (lounge tech)

Saucebox

214 N Broadway St Ring In Spring w/ Chelsea Starr

Spare Room

4830 NE 42nd Ave The Get Down

Star Bar

MARG MADNESS: Once upon a time, there was a Northwest Vaughn Street barbecue joint called Slabtown Ribs. It was perhaps the most decorated rib shop in Portland—literally, with every ribbon and plaque on the wall. Next door, there was a watery-bean-and-chimichanga spot called Acapulco’s Gold, better known for stiff margaritas than Mexican food. Now, the two restaurants have merged, and there is only The Gold (2610 NW Vaughn St., 503-220-0283). Times were tight, and instead of running both shops, owner Tim King combined the two in December into a Tex-Mex bar that serves barbecue Wednesday to Friday. The interior of the former Slabtown Ribs looks like an entire apartment took a dump inside a bar. The food at the Gold, next door, is not good—although somehow it’s charming that it’s not good. The brisket is leaner than Depression times, and weirdly dry smoked chicken comes stuffed with a weirdly wet chimichanga whose beans tasted like the insole of a shoe. But the Gold’s bar side is nonetheless a supreme Mexican dive—a mauve-and-blue hallway of a bar where $5 happy-hour margaritas come loaded with so much liquor they’re translucent, and where you receive not one but two options in bulk margaritas. Either you get a full pitcher for $21, a quantity of liquor that amounts to a miracle, or you can get intimate in a bar already made romantic by deco paintings of Mexican bare butts. In a classy twist on the punch bowl—there are at least three different ones available for $19 each—you can get your margarita for two in a giant piece of stemware that looks like a martini glass made for Jusuf Nurkic. At 11 am, two 20-something women were already getting toasted on one. Meanwhile, a sheriff’s deputy strolled in armed for unholy war, looking dissatisfied, and the whole place went silent. Turned out he was merely confused about the new layout. “Tim!” he yelled to the back of the house. “What’s happening?” Spend an hour here, and you won’t know either. MATTHEW KORFHAGE. SAT. APRIL 1 45 East

315 SE 3rd Ave TJR

Beech Street Parlor

412 NE Beech Street Beech Slap w/ DDDJJJ666 & Magnolia Bouvier

Black Book

20 NW 3rd Ave The Ruckus (rap, r&b, club)

Crush Bar

639 SE Morrison St. Trip City! w/ DJ Drew Groove

1400 SE Morrison Pants OFF Dance OFF: Comic STRIP (Superhero theme)

The Goodfoot

Crystal Ballroom

2845 SE Stark St Soul Stew (funk, soul, disco)

The Liquor Store

3341 SE Belmont St, Grilled Cheese Disco

The Lovecraft Bar 421 SE Grand Ave Electrocution

Tryst

19 SW 2nd Ave, DJ Jason Wan + DJ F

1332 W Burnside St Come As You Are: 90’s Dance Flashback

Fremont Theater

2393 NE Fremont Street 2017 Nina’s Starry Night: Bollywood Dance Party

Holocene

1001 SE Morrison St. Fleetmac Wood Presents Rumours Rave

Killingsworth Dynasty

832 N Killingsworth St Questionable Decisions: Funky Lit Dynasty Dance Party

Saucebox

214 N Broadway St GothSauce (post punk, goth)

The Liquor Store

3341 SE Belmont St, Wake The Town (bass)

The Lovecraft Bar

421 SE Grand Ave Expressway to Yr Skull (shoegaze, deathrock, goth)

Whiskey Bar

31 NW 1st Ave Global Based: Ma-LESS

SUN. APRIL 2 Black Book

20 NW 3rd Ave Flux (rap, r&b, club)

Ground Kontrol

511 NW Couch St. Black Sunday: DJ Nate C. (metal)

Star Theater

13 NW 6th Ave. Church of Hive (goth)

The Lovecraft Bar 421 SE Grand Ave Sad Day

MON. APRIL 3 Ground Kontrol

511 NW Couch St. Reagan-O-Mix w/ King Fader

The Analog Cafe

720 SE Hawthorne Blvd. “A Night For Dancers” Mambo/Salsa Social

The Lovecraft Bar 421 SE Grand Ave Black Mass (goth, new wave)

TUES. APRIL 4 The Lovecraft Bar

421 SE Grand Ave ComaToast (future, glitch)

Tube

18 NW 3rd Ave. Tubesdays w/ DJ Jack

A CU LT U R A L I N T E R S EC T I O N O F S TO RY T E L L I N G , D O C U M E N TA RY, M U S I C, A N D PE R S O N A L E X PRE S S I O N W H E RE A L L VO I C E S H AV E T H E R I G H T TO B E H E A R D

ART WORK BY JASO N GREE NE

3037 N Williams Ave., 503-236-3377, pdxgameknight.com. Well, the impossible happened: Somebody made a board game bar that’s actually usable as a real-deal hangout, with Candy Land for the kids while dad plays a first-edition Blood Bowl or epic Twilight Struggle.

HO S T E D BY JUL I ANNE R. JO HNS O N

G UE S T S P E AKERS MARGARE T JACO BS EN SO L AN GE I M PAN OY I MANA M O E LI N CO LN

EVERYONE WELCOME - SLIDING DONATION SUGGESTED WE CAN LISTEN EVERY 2 ND TUESDAY AT THE OLD CHURCH CONCERT HALL 142 2 SW 11TH AVE . PORTL AND, OR | 50 3. 2 2 2 . 2 0 31

MORE INFO T H EOLDCHURCH .O RG Willamette Week MARCH 29, 2017 wweek.com

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PERFORMANCE OWEN CAREY

REVIEW

= WW Pick. Highly recommended. Most prices listed are for advance ticket sales. At-the-door increases and so-called convenience charges may apply, so it’s best to call ahead. Editor: SHANNON GORMLEY (sgormley@wweek.com). TO BE CONSIDERED FOR LISTINGS, submit information at least two weeks in advance to: sgormley@wweek.com.

THEATER OPENINGS & PREVIEWS Chapatti

Portland’s Irish theater company, Corrib, is bringing back their production of Chapatti. The play tells the stories of Betty, a cat lover, and Dan, a dog lover; two aging and lonely widowers who are brought together by a plan to bury a dead cat that was run over by a car. It might sound like little more than an average gooey rom-com with some quirky dark humor thrown in, but what made Corrib’s last production of it successful was the performances by Allen Nause and Jacklyn Maddux as Dan and Betty, both of whom will be reprising their roles. SHANNON GORMLEY. Artists Repertory Theatre, 1515 SW Morrison St., corribtheatre. org. 7:30 pm Monday-Tuesday, April 3-4, 2 pm Wednesday, April 5, 7:30 pm Thursday-Saturday, April 13-15, 2 pm Sunday, April 16. $20-$25.

ALSO PLAYING Feathers and Teeth

Part campy horror story, part metaphor for grief, Feathers and Teeth is about a 13-year-old girl who’s dealing with the death of her mother, as well as a mysterious cooking pot full of murderous, undead creatures. Beneath its campy, bloody exterior, Artists Rep’s production of the genre-bending play offers a genuine and compassionate look at how we process grief. SHANNON GORMLEY. Artists Repertory Theatre, 1515 SW Morrison St., artistsrep.org. 7:30 pm Wednesday-Sunday and 2 pm Sunday, through April 2. Additional show 2:30 pm Saturday, April 1. No 7:30 pm show Sunday, April 2. $25-$50.

Jaffa Gate & Noisemaker

Brand new theater company Northwest Theatre Workshop hopes to provide a launching pad for local playwrights to produce their newly written work. They’re starting off by staging two world premiers at once: Noisemaker and Jaffa Gate. Noisemaker starts with an intriguing premise: We learn through a drunken dialogue between a father (Joe Healy) and son (Murri Lazaroff-Babin) that there’s a dead body in their house, but we don’t know who it is or how they died. The relationship of the two men and another, Todd (Murren Kennedy), to the deceased unfolds as the play progresses and the three men deal with their grief. Then there’s Jaffa Gate, a narrative that features an occasionally confusing mix of sex and religion. Set in 1900 Palestine, three kidnapped travelers try to change the heart and mind of their captor with the Biblical story of King David and Bathsheba. Arguments over scripture might be a little esoteric in Portland— the kidnapped all subscribe to different Abrahamic religions. But Jaffa Gate also seems very earnestly concerned with the power of storytelling, which is a fitting value for a company focused on local emerging work. SHANNON GORMLEY. Shaking the Tree Warehouse, 823 SE Grant St., nwtw.org. Matinee and evening performances Thursday-Sunday, through April 8. See website for full schedule. $25.

Lydia

Set in the living room of a Mexican American family, Lydia is a play full of not-so-quiet desperation: Ceci (Maya Malán-González) is a teenage girl who was left in a vegetative state by a car

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crash. Her oldest brother, Rene (Rega Lupo), has graduated high school and doesn’t have life plans other than living at home and getting into drunken fights. Ceci’s mom, Rosa (Nurys Herrera) works a day job, cares for Ceci, and does everything around the house. Rosa’s abusive husband Claudio (Tony Green) works a night job, and when he’s home, is either sleeping or sitting unresponsive in front of the TV with headphones on and a beer in his hand. The family seems like they’ve accepted their disarray, but Lydia (Marian Mendez), an illegal immigrant and the family’s new live-in maid and Ceci’s caregiver, is fearless in the face of issues that make everyone else uncomfortable. That fearlessness allows her to see and understand what other’s can’t, but it’s also what leads to the slow unraveling of the family. SHANNON GORMLEY. Milagro Theatre, 525 SE Stark St., milagro.org. 7:30 pm Thursday-Saturday and 2 pm Sunday, through April 8. $20-$27.

DANCE Sir Cupcake’s Queer Circus Goes Inside the Body

In Sir Cupcake’s newest production, Cupcake is sick and his circus performers go inside his body to find his missing heart, while robot nurses take care of Cupcake from the outside.The performances personify different parts of Cupcake’s body—blood vessels are aerialists and the spleen is a contortionist dressed as a cat. Along with the unexpected narrative for a circus, show is ripe with the traits that have led to Sir Cupcake’s local following: a campy sense of humor scattered with proqueer positivity. SHANNON GORMLEY. Echo Theater, 1515 SE 37th Ave., sircupcake.com. 8 pm Friday-Saturday and 3 pm Saturday, through April 1. $22-$30.

Umbrella Festival

Now in its sixth year, the Umbrella Festival is a very large sampling of (mostly) Portland variety. This year’s festival features six showcases over four nights, each of which will feature a different theme or genre: there’s a vaudeville show that will feature physical comedy, a unicycle act, and the dynamic Matthew Kerrigan performing something that’s only referred to as a ladder act; family-friendly aerial dance; and Dirty Cabaret, which hopes to continue to assert Portland’s reputation for thoroughly arty and nasty adult entertainment. SHANNON GORMLEY. Alberta Rose Theatre, 3000 NE Alberta St., albertarosetheatre.com. 8 pm Thursday-Sunday, 2 pm SaturdaySunday, March 30-April 2. Individual tickets $12-$40, weekend passes $80$150. Minors must be accompanied by adult. 8 pm Saturday show 21+.

COMEDY River City Podcast Federation Launch Show

Early this year, Portland comedians and podcast-havers Caitlin Weierhauser, Chris Khatami, Randall Lawrence and Shane Hosea decided to band together and create the River City Podcast Federation, a network of 11 podcasts. The federation has been around for a few months now and has already been producing live shows, but it’s not until now that they’re holding a launch party to assert their existence. The show will feature live recordings of four different federation shows: hosted by Weierhauser, there’ll be tapings of A Very Special Episode, founder Shane Hosea’s Hosea

Willamette Week MARCH 29, 2017 wweek.com

THE ESTABLISHMENT: Quinlan Fitzgerald as a Miss World contestant.

Anarchy in the UK

THE ANGRY BRIGADE DEPICTS A BOMB PLOT TO DISMANTLE SOCIETY. BY SHA N N ON GOR MLEY

sgormley@wweek.com

Two days before the opening night of The Angry Brigade, a terrorist drove a car through a crowd near the British Parliament, killing several and injuring dozens. The tragedy significantly raised the stakes of Third Rail’s American premiere of the 2014 English play: The Angry Brigade was a radical leftist organization that orchestrated a series of non-fatal bombings in London between 1970 and 1972. But liberation, not terrorism, is the play’s real concern. The brigade’s bombings were an attempt to “wake up” society from everyday life, an endless toil for wages and rent to fulfil insatiable wants fed to us through pop culture. The first half follows Scotland Yard’s search for the Angry Brigade, and the second half follows the brigade itself. It’s a fast-moving play delivered with charismatic performances by a cast of four actors who hurtle through an array of characters that range from absurdly hilarious to deeply compelling. The soundtrack includes the Sex Pistols, the Clash and Stiff Little Fingers, all of which were preceded by the real-life Angry Brigade by at least three years, but it feels entirely appropriate and only adds to the play’s enticing aesthetic. Smith (Nick Ferrucci) is a recently promoted, overly polite detective who’s been tasked with leading the search for the Brigade. Smith and his team of three are far from radicals, but compared to the higher-up who assigns Smith the job (Ben Tissel)—a mustachioed man who thinks dunking a biscuit into his tea is an act of rebellion—they’re the best chance Scotland Yard has of getting into the minds of the anarchists. As their investigation progresses, Smith and his crew become seduced by the philosophy of the enemy. Their office in Scotland Yard’s basement becomes disheveled, ties are taken off and shirt tails are left untucked. By the end, Smith is wide-eyed and leaping across overturned tables. “It’s good to see a fire in your belly, blood running through your veins,” Albert (Tissel), an anarchist and one of the team’s sources, menacingly tells Smith.

But the life that Smith and crew gain seems lacking in the four anarchists themselves. In the second half of the play, the faceless terror looming over Act One materializes as four disillusioned university dropouts. The set that was formerly a Scotland Yard office has been transformed into a barely furnished flat with busted-up walls. Anna (Kerry Ryan) and Jim (Tissell) stand in the middle of the rubble around a toilet—Jim’s just destroyed the bathroom walls in protest of social constructs. Along with Hilary (Quinlan Fitzgerald) and John (Ferrucci), they sardonically act out commercials and share their life experiences that caused their disgust with life’s complicit patterns. Jim’s mom ironed his dad’s shirts every night while he sat around, “fat off of meals she made him.” Hilary once looked up into the windows of a multistory housing complex and noticed that two men were sitting in their separate apartments tuned in to the same TV show. They sleep on the floor and wear dirty clothes, and everyone has sex with everyone. Except for Anna. She finds the rigid structures of everyday life frustrating, but she also yearns for the kind of comforts normalcy provides—tea pots, a partner who cares only for her—and she doesn’t want anyone to get hurt in the brigade’s attempt to dismantle society. Ryan’s performance gracefully encompasses that tension: Anna’s trapped by an ideology meant to be liberating. What makes The Angry Brigade (and many of Third Rail’s other productions this season) so supremely imaginative is the creative team’s willingness to try to comprehend something simply for the purpose of experiential discovery, and not in the service of some end like morality. But for viewers who, like Smith, become startled by just how much they find the Angry Brigade’s severity tempting, Anna’s struggle is far more comforting than the literal prison where the brigade ends up: For the four anarchists, there’s no going back. SEE IT: The Angry Brigade plays at Imago Theatre, 17 SE 8 Ave., thirdrailrep.org. 7:30 Thursday-Saturday, 2 pm Sunday, through April 15. $25-$42.50.


Hustle, JoAnn Schindler’s Control Yourself (the longest-running showcase in Portland), and Sexual Awake’n’ Baking, in which hosts Maddie Downes and Natalie Holt talk about sex (usually while high). SHANNON GORMLEY. Alberta Street Pub, 1036 NE Alberta St., albertastreetpub.com. 6:30 pm Sunday, April 2. Free, donations accepted.

Ali Wong

Ali Wong might have been the first comedian to be pregnant in a standup special. But somehow, her actual material in her Netflix

special Baby Cobra is just as memorable. Wong’s material manages to challenge social conventions and seem deeply unexpected without shoving ideology down your throat. But the real reason it sticks with you, due in part to the fact that Wong has such a unique, brash take on everything, is that it’s super funny. SHANNON GORMLEY. Newmark Theatre, 1111 SW Broadway Ave., portland5.com. 7 and 9:30 pm Thursday-Friday, March 30-31. $39.75-$59.75.

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READERS’ POLL

For more Performance listings, visit

BLAINE TRUITT COVERT

REVIEW

STRIKING A BALANCE: (In front, from left) Daniel Kirk, James Healey and Eric Skinner; (in back, from left) Brent Luebbert and Chase Hamilton.

Mr. Misery

Nominate your favorites from March 1—31 wweek.com/BOP2017

Burn It Backwards is not about Elliott Smith. The show, by longtime Portland dance ensemble Skinner|Kirk, is set to a selection of 14 Smith songs, and the title is taken from a lyric in “Sweet Adeline.” But Daniel Kirk and Eric Skinner’s thoughtful choreography is not intended to be biographical, or even a tribute to the late Portland singer-songwriter. Instead, it simply explores the space in which we experience our lives and interact with others, both in joy and heartbreak. A team of five male dancers—Chase Hamilton, James Healey and Brent Luebbert along with Skinner and Kirk—perform a series of routines with grace and agility, the movements alternating between the fluid and the frenetic. The show illustrates the nature of falling—physically, in love, in life. Sometimes we have to push ourselves back up, and other times someone will give us a hand. The choreography set to “Pretty (Ugly Before)” embodies the magnetic push and pull of relationships, and Hamilton’s solo piece during “Say Yes” is simply hypnotizing for the level of skill he displays with ease. Two of the routines incorporate partially screened-in boxes that lower from the ceiling, the meaning of which is unclear and feels more distracting than anything else. Props are unnecessary next to the precision of the movements, which are like acrobatics performed in slow motion—each lift, fall, flip and spin executed as if underwater. The music, arranged by Portland composer and pianist Galen Clark and performed along with Bill Athens, Catherine Feeny and Chris Johnedis, serves not as background but backbone. The gently jazz-tinged interpretation marries perfectly with Smith’s pervasive melancholy and becomes more tribute than cover. Feeny’s gorgeous vocals mirror the soaring movement of the dancers, delicately wrapping around their bodies to fill the spaces in between. Burn It Backwards manages to hold its own against Smith’s large legacy, and the result is beautifully cathartic. Because sometimes we just need to find solace in a beautifully sad song. PENELOPE BASS. Skinner|Kirk’s latest work is choreographed to Elliott Smith’s music.

SEE IT: Burn It Backwards is at BodyVox Dance Center, 1201 NW 17th Ave., bodyvox.com. 7:30 pm Thursday-Saturday, 2 pm Saturday, through April 1. $24-$64. Willamette Week MARCH 29, 2017 wweek.com

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VISUAL ARTS C O U R T E S Y O F E M I LY C O U N T

= WW Pick. Highly recommended. By JENNIFER RABIN. TO BE CONSIDERED FOR LISTINGS, submit show information—including opening and closing dates, gallery address and phone number—at least two weeks in advance to: Visual Arts, WW, 2220 NW Quimby St., Portland, OR 97210. Email: jrabin@wweek.com.

Angel City West

Photographer Mark Steinmetz gives us a series of his early blackand-white photographs—never before printed—that capture the Los Angeles of the early ’80s. The images provide a nostalgic record of a place that continues to exist but at a time that is long gone. In this series, Steinmetz captures the culture of L.A.—with photos of leotard-clad rollerskaters in Venice and young kids gathered around a boombox—but he also captures the forgotten, derelict landscapes of empty parking lots, abandoned plots of fenced-off land, and palm trees bearing witness to nothing. Taken together, we get the true spirit of the city, both abiding and defiant. Charles A. Hartman Fine Art, 134 NW 8th Ave., 503-2873886. Through April 1.

Extinction Anxiety

Conceptual sculptor Heidi Schwegler is interested in human ruin and the lifeless objects that tell the story of our discarded human existence. In the gallery you will find crushed TV-dinner containers and a suspended slaughterhouse meat hook. But it is Schwegler’s use of materials that function as commentary: The TV-dinner containers are cast in glass, and the hook, waiting for a carcass, is cast in ceramic. The artist gets us to look at the life of mundane objects— for which we show absolutely little to no regard—and how they may go on to represent us long after we’re gone. Upfor Gallery, 929 NW Flanders St., 503-227-5111. Through April 1.

Bloodsport: Bluebloods and Mudbloods in the Era of Magical Thinking

Ronna Neuenschwander’s sculptural series—featuring what looks, at first glance, like found ceramic figurines that you would discover in your grandmother’s curio cabinet—is a powerful example of conceptual ceramics. Some of Neuenschwander’s sculpted female figures, with their voluminous pre-revolutionary skirts made from broken commemorative plates and spent ammunition where the petticoats should be, have white heads on black bodies. Others have caricatured black faces on what we perceive, culturally, as white bodies. There is so much imagery and symbolism to unpack that I don’t want to give it all away here. But suffice it to say that the artist makes a strong and considered statement about colonialism, racism, and our country’s history. Froelick Gallery, 714 NW Davis St., 503-222-1142. Through April 1.

Testimony

Artist Tara Sellios starts out by creating intricate watercolor compositions of fragility and decomposition. She then translates the tableaux into sculptures, using real-life skulls, animal cadavers, and reconstituted bugs to make 3-D Bacchanalias of death, with chicken feet overflowing from wine glasses. Finally, she photographs the 3-D pieces using a large-format camera. The resulting largescale photographic still lifes fool the eye by drawing the viewer in with images of beauty and abundance while delivering the realities of death. Blue Sky Gallery, 122 NW 8th Ave., 503-225-0210. Through April 2.

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Willamette Week MARCH 29, 2017 wweek.com

BY EMILY COUNTS, FROM FORM FACTOR

Northwest Perspectives in Clay

The National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) is holding its annual convention this month in Portland, so many galleries are tipping their hat to the organization by showing ceramic work; Russo Lee is one of them. A disarmingly realistic human figure by artist Tip Toland—that seems like it couldn’t possibly be rendered from clay—waits for you in the front gallery, along with the work of other well-respected NW ceramic artists. It is worth a trip to the nonceramics back gallery, though, to see Samantha Wall’s large-scale ghost-like drawing that was last shown at the Portland Art Museum. Across the room, don’t miss Jo Hamilton’s larger-than-life-size crocheted male nude, complete with tattoos. These three artists, in particular, are pushing the boundaries of their mediums. Russo Lee Gallery, 805 NW 21st Ave., 503-2262754. Through April 1.

The Narrow View

In her series of paintings, The Narrow View, artist Zemula Fleming wrestles with the conservative Christian dogma in which she was raised, re-imagining images of Mary as a “strong, creative, nurturing Mother of us all, sustaining Earth.” Fleming adds intricate beadwork to many of her paintings, using a material most often associated with women’s crafts, to reinforce the nature of the feminine. In addition, Fleming has created a series of humorous small-scale, wall-hung sculptures incorporating the ubiquitous Mary figurines that are found everywhere from car dashboards to pants pockets. Her personal and, at times, subversive look into religious imagery and icons offers something for us all to consider. Wolff Gallery, 618 NW Glisan St., Suite R1, 971-4131340. Through April 29.

Form Factor

Sculptor Emily Counts does things with ceramic that you’ve likely never seen before. Her highly tactile show incorporates 2-D mosaicked collages and large-scale sculptures that call to mind ritual objects like drums and talismans. Some of the pieces are threaded through with textiles, while others are strung together with large chains of ceramic beads, like umbilical cords between ideas. One interactive piece—a wooden box with ceramic buttons of different sizes, shapes, colors, and textures—looks (and behaves) like a

sophisticated version of a child’s toy: Press the buttons and different sounds fill the gallery. If you get your timing right, you can conduct a ceramic symphony. Nationale, 3360 SE Division St., 503-477-9786. Through April 6.

Constructing Identity

Constructing Identity, which features over a hundred 2-D and 3-D works by 84 African-American artists, asks something important of us as viewers. It remains to be seen whether or not we are up to the task. In order to understand or evaluate this collection of work—or the work of any underrepresented artists—we need to expand our line of sight, retrain our eye and rethink our perspectives. It requires that we give up the dominant gaze, which will be difficult, because it will make us feel uncomfortable in the short term. But until we are willing to do so, we will not be able to appreciate or to assess the true contributions of marginalized artists to the canon of American art. So when you go to this show, read what is written on the wall, spend time with the work, let it challenge your perspective. Portland Art Museum, 1219 SW Park Ave., 503-226-2811. Through June 18.

Golden Age

Artist Adrian Landon Brooks’ paintings speak of folklore, oral histories, and pagan times. Gilded suns and crescent moons rise and set throughout his compositions, guiding his animal-human figures. Brooks’ use of rounded feminine forms combined with impossibly perfect geometric patterns provide the series with rare aesthetic balance. His linework is so precise that it appears to have been painted with a brush the width of a human hair. And in another gesture of balance, this precision is set off by the fact that in addition to painting on panel, he also paints on three-dimensional hunks of wood, rusted-out cans, and the tattered sides of wooden crates. You have to see and feel it for yourself to understand how it is one of the most calming shows in recent memory. Stephanie Chefas Projects, 305 SE 3rd Ave., Suite 202, 310990-0702. Through March 31.

For more Visual Arts listings, visit


BOOKS FEATURE

J AY H O R T O N

= WW Pick. Highly recommended. BY ZACH MIDDLETON. TO BE CONSIDERED FOR LISTINGS, submit lecture or reading information at least two weeks in advance to: WORDS, WW, 2220 NW Quimby St., Portland, OR 97210. Email: words@ wweek.com. Fax: 243-1115.

TALK:

5am 7am – 2pm

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 29

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MUSIC:

17

2pm – 5am

The White Noise Project

Trump keeps serving up his bans on travel from Muslim-majority countries, and the federal courts keep blocking them like Dikembe Mutombo launching a weak-ass layup attempt into the nosebleeds. Nevertheless, it’s no time to slack on camaraderie with people from those countries. The White Noise Project solicits poems from writers originating from all seven banaffected countries to share art and solidarity with those unjustly targeted. High and Low Art Space, 936 SE 34th Street, 503-7080838. 7 pm.

SATURDAY, APRIL 1 Poetry Month at Lan Su Chinese Garden

Every Saturday during the month of April, Lan Su Chinese Garden offers poetry readings to celebrate the tradition of poetry being one of the five elements necessary for a Chinese garden (rocks, architecture, water and plants rounding out the remaining four). Fresh greenery, water near rocks, words in air. What better ways could you spend those early-spring afternoons? Lan Su Chinese Garden, 239 NW Everett St., 503-228-8131. 3 pm. $7-$10.

SUNDAY, APRIL 2 The Greatest Story Ever Told—So Far In but a scant 336 pages, the new book The Greatest Story Ever Told—So Far by theoretical physicist Lawrence Krauss finally defines reality once and for all. The bestselling author of A Universe From Nothing takes readers from the unimaginably small to the unfathomably large in his unifying scientific history. It could all be made up out of whole cloth, but who’s the physicist here? Powell’s City of Books, 1005 W Burnside St., 800-878-7323. 7:30 pm.

MONDAY, APRIL 3 Renee Macalino Rutledge

Renee Macalino Rutledge’s new novel, The Hour of Daydreams, weaves contemporary novel with Filipino folktale. When a village doctor spots his new wife sprout wings and fly to the cosmos, he becomes paranoid about what she’s really up to when she lives on his side. Told through the perspectives of those close to the new couple, the book spans from reality to myth and back. Powell’s Books on Hawthorne, 3723 SE Hawthorne Blvd., 800-878-7323. 7:30 pm.

Augusten Burroughs

Best-selling memoirist Augusten Burroughs opens his new book, Lust & Wonder, by sending a shirtless selfie to his favorite author, an act which compels said author to go on a date with him, thus breaking Burroughs’ hard-fought sobriety, which turns out to be a major life improvement. It’s compulsively readable, if not unbelievable. Powell’s City of Books, 1005 W Burnside St., 800-878-7323. 7:30 pm.

For more Books listings, visit

READERS’ POLL

CAMERON’S BOOKS & MAGAZINES

The Little Corner Porn Shop BY JAY H O RTO N

@Hortland

Ages ago, back when “Young Adult” sections were far more disturbing, rather different providers hosted pages for repeated visits by the world’s oldest publishing demographic. When courts affirmed the sweeping protections of Oregon’s uniquely proobscenity constitution following the 1970 arrest of a Portland cigar shop owner for intent to distribute Lesbian Roommate, Puddletown porn stores heretofore clustered in decaying downtown began to unfold from the center. And yet, this is Portland—a city united by mutual pride in the size of our bookstores, health of our sex industry, and fervor of our lunatic resistance to change. As the final thrust of Erotica Appreciation Month, WW dove deep into the trembling crevices of this oncethrobbing marketplace and spread open the few remaining nudie magazine vendors to see what still sticks to the pages.

Nominate your favorites from March 1—31 wweek.com/BOP2017

Bingo Used Books

3366 SE Powell Blvd., 503-231-4091, bingousedbooks.com,

MUSIC MILLENNIUM PRESENTS

Reversing every accepted principle of adult section feng shui, visitors entering Bingo must step over drifting stacks of recent gay/straight skin mags, evade DVDs piled waist-high, and avoid falling inside the big box of hentai (Velvet Love). Keep strolling through the surprisingly voluminous confines, past the sports/music/gossip mags, and along the farthest wall, a darkened row of shelves (Courtly Love, Of Human Bondage) conceal something called “World Literature.” Bingo has learned well: Never bury the lede.

Cameron’s Books & Magazines 336 SW 3rd Ave., 503-228-2391.

Advertised as Portland’s oldest bookstore, Cameron’s is an inimitable civic resource safeguarding our periodical heritage. Turning left at Vogue up a few rickety flights, the Playboy archive bleeds into a jaw-dropping glimpse into the evolving American male hive mind as the 1950s’ swinging photographer (Sunbather) turned ’60s Lothario (Escapade), ’70s rocker (Adam) and ’80s perv weekender (Nugget).

FEATURING LIVE PERFORMANCES FROM

7PM

There’s a difference between dirty bookstores and, well, dirty bookstores. Longfellows Books has survived for more than 25 years as a ramshackle library subsumed by daunting stacks of unlikely periodicals (Gun Moll, Chess Life, Scale Woodcraft) plucked at random from throughout the past century and organized by apparent whimsy. Specific requests for prurient material lead the youngish proprietor down a darkened stairway, where an undisclosed trove of the more fanciful ’60s and ’70s mags lie locked behind a basement door. Call ahead for specific requests, he says, a bit too eagerly. All the hardcore’s at home.

Portland Archives & Records Center

1800 SW 6th Ave., No. 550, 503-865-4100, portlandoregon.gov/archives.

In fairness to both our readers and the tireless employees of Portland’s Archives & Records Center, PARC isn’t much of a porn shop. It has preserved the last four surviving copies of ’73-74 Oregon Playmate Review—a forgotten stripper showcase featuring top production values, genuine wit, and recognizably local flavors on parade. There are recurrent touchstones whispering of old Portlandia. Hard to define, exactly, but you know it when you see it.

JOEL RAFAEL W/

JOHN TRUDELL’S BAD DOG

9PM

PORTUGAL. THE MAN Pre-buy new single on Flexi-Postcard 7” for guaranteed entry!

Longfellows Books

1401 SE Division St., 503-239-5222, longfellowspdx.com

RADIO IS YOURS

BOOK SIGNING SESSION WITH

TIME TBD

SUSANA MILLMAN

Author of ALIVE WITH THE DEAD

OPEN EARLY

at 8am!

FREE

Coffee & Muffins at 7am!

FREE GIFT BAGS while they last!

450

+ Ltd. Edition Vinyl Releases!

MUSIC MILLENNIUM RECOMMENDS

ANGEL OLSEN & STEVE GUNN

LIVE AT PICKATHON: ANGEL OLSEN / STEVE GUNN Regularly $21.99 on Vinyl Just $12.99 through 4/7 (or while supplies last) Exclusive vinyl pressing of live performances by Angel Olsen (side A) & Steve Gunn (side B), recorded live at Pickathon 2014 in Portland, OR. The sixth release in the ‘Live At Pickathon’ vinyl-only series.

Willamette Week MARCH 29, 2017 wweek.com

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heNRy cRoMett

MOVIES get youR R e PS IN

Bamboozled (2000)

one of Spike Lee’s most overlooked films kicks off NW Film center’s new series constructing Identity: Black cinema then and Now. Bamboozled follows a black, harvard-educated producer, Pierre Delacroix (Damon Wayans), who, in a fit of desperation, creates a modern minstrel show, which becomes a massive hit. NW Film Center’s Whitsell Auditorium. 4:30 pm SaturdaySunday, April 1-2.

Ivan’s Childhood (1962)

In Andrei tarkovsky’s first film, you’ll see a lot of the conventions that defined the legendary Soviet director’s career, particularly his absolutely stunning visual direction translated into the twisted wreckage of World War II’s eastern Front. this dark story of a Russian orphan who joins the front lines is not to be missed. NW Film Center’s Whitsell Auditorium. 7 pm Saturday, April 1.

I’M on A boAT: boathouse Microcinema.

Down by the River

The Miraculous Virgin (1967)

When a young woman meets a group of artists, she inspires love and desires that blur the line between fantasy and reality. Part of the church of Film’s excellent series on czech New Wave, if you’re a film buff who hasn’t yet attended one of these DIy screenings, you must rectify it immediately. North Star Ballroom. 8 pm Wednesday, March 29.

Psycho (1960)

If you’ve already seen Get Out but you’re too squeamish for Raw, it’s time to head back to the classics. A rare opportunity to see one of hitchcock’s greats, one of the most influential horror films in history, on 35 mm. Hollywood Theatre. 7:30 pm Friday, March 31.

They Live (1988)

John carpenter’s sci-fi horror classic about a drifter who finds a pair of sunglasses that lets him see aliens that have taken over earth kicks off a month of excellent science-fiction throwbacks at the Academy. Academy Theater. March 31-April 6.

AlSo PlAyIng: Clinton Street Theater: 1984 (1984), 7 pm Monday, April 3. Hollywood Theatre: Wonder Woman double feature (1976), 7:30 pm Wednesday, March 29; To Be or Not to Be (1942), 2 pm Saturday-Sunday, April 1-2; Get Crazy (1983), 7:30 pm Sunday, April 2; Top Dog (1995), 7:30 pm tuesday, April 4. laurelhurst: The Road Warrior (1981), March 29-30; Serenity (2005), March 31-April 6. Mission Theater: Mean Girls (2004), March 29-30; Mamma Mia! (2008), March 29-30 and April 1. nW Film Center’s Whitsell Auditorium: Nuit et Jour (1991), 7 pm Friday, March 31; Walkabout (1971), 7 pm Sunday, April 2.

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BOATHOUSE MICROCINEMA BRINGS TOGETHER DIY PORTLAND FILMMAKERS IN A CONVERTED FIREHOUSE. BY Walker MacMurdo

wmacmurdo@wweek.com

You exit Interstate 5 into a part of industrial North Portland where concrete silos and shipyards line wide, empty streets. Between an idle coal car and a vacant security booth is a single-story concrete bungalow that used to be a fireboat station, around which about a dozen cars are parked. Matt McCormick, filmmaker and Portland State professor, tapes a “SOLD OUT” sign to the door, which opened only 11 minutes ago. Along with Portland filmmaker Chris Freeman, he’s hosting tonight’s screening of eight shorts organized by Portland’s PDX Film Fatales collective of women filmmakers. The last three screenings at the Boathouse Microcinema have sold out. McCormick and Freeman think the rest will, too. Space is extremely limited at the weekly screenings, which McCormick and Freeman have been running since late February. Stepping inside the cozy screening room—the station’s former bunkhouse—is like stepping into a who’s who of Portland’s film scene. Alicia J. Rose, who’s behind the wildly popular web series The Benefits of Gusbandry, is screening a music video tonight. Cambria Matlow is showing an excerpt from her hauntingly beautiful 2016 snowboard documentary, Woodsrider. Before the lights dim, the crowd of about 30 talks and laughs across the room while seated on folding chairs. Everyone here knows or kind of knows one another. “The whole point is to celebrate what’s already here,” says McCormick. “We aren’t

Willamette Week MARCH 29, 2017 wweek.com

trying to build anything new, but reinforce these communities that have been in Portland for quite some time, and to help them continue to flourish on their own.” Boathouse Microcinema has roots in the Portland film scene of the ’90s, which McCormick joined “fresh out of art school” when he moved to Portland in 1995. McCormick’s Peripheral Produce film series—a mashup of experimental local film, music and art— introduced a generation of art kids to Portland’s DIY film scene. “By the late ’90s, we’d do shows, and hundreds of people would show up,” says McCormick. “When I started Peripheral Produce, so much of it was about access to this work. It felt like this was an important thing, and the way audiences in Portland reacted confirmed that suspicion. We’d sell out the Hollywood on a regular basis.” Peripheral Produce evolved into the PDX Film Festival in 2002, which McCormick ran until 2009. By then, the proliferation of Netflix, Vimeo and other streaming services had greatly expanded the availability of indie and experimental film. “Things that had truly felt like subcultures were becoming networked on the internet, and [PDX Film Festival] didn’t quite feel as vital,” he says, “so I let it go on indefinite hiatus.” But years later, the sense of community fostered by regular events began to wane. “We were missing real-life, interactive experiences where we could come together and hang out,” says McCormick. When space opened up in the Boathouse, which he has leased as a studio and art space alongside other artists since 2001, McCormick and Freeman took a chance at rekindling this slice of the Portland film scene.

“We wanted to fill [the Boathouse] up and have the screenings feel fun and comfortable; to have a good time,” explains Freeman. “I think, too, with the current political climate in our country, it feels even more vital. It reminded us of the need for community and these real-life connections. Having an event in a secret boathouse can be a revolutionary act when you’re in a world like this.” McCormick and Freeman invite filmmakers, who choose their own programming. This week’s screening, titled Keep Portland Portland, features works by award-winning DIY filmmaker Vanessa Renwick and Pacific Northwest College of Art professor and animator Lori Damiano. Freeman, who organizes the technical aspects of the screenings, is the only one who sees any of the works ahead of time. “The only requirement is that the filmmaker has to be in the audience,” says Freeman. “These screenings are about community.” After the microcinema’s inaugural season wraps up at the end of May, McCormick and Freeman are unsure whether there will be another. “There’s still a whole lot of filmmakers I want to include in this series that I realize I can’t,” McCormick says. “There’s a lot of really talented people in Portland. This gives us a chance to rekindle some energy that had been lost over the past couple of years.” SEE IT: Keep Portland Portland screens at Boathouse Microcinema, 822 N River St., with filmmakers Vanessa Renwick and Lori Damiano in attendance, on Wednesday, March 29. 7:30 pm. See boathousemicrocinema.com for a full schedule. $8 suggested donation, cash only.


20

Editor: WALKER MACMURDO. TO BE CONSIDERED FOR LISTINGS, send screening information at least two weeks in advance to Screen, WW, 2220 NW Quimby St., Portland, OR 97210. Email: wmacmurdo@wweek.com. Fax: 243-1115. : This movie sucks, don’t watch it. : This movie is entertaining but flawed. : This movie is good. We recommend you watch it. : This movie is excellent, one of the best of the year.

OPENING THIS WEEK Apple Pie

Dessert enthusiasts, be warned— Apple Pie is not sweet, it’s not particularly comforting or familiar, and it certainly isn’t like anything your mom used to make. Directed by first-time feature filmmaker Sam Hamilton, this fascinating and vexing piece of experimental cinema is made up of a series of bizarre and beautiful images that are sometimes accompanied by narration that fills the film with scientific musings. Much of this is magnificent to behold—Hamilton’s visual imagination is impressive, not least of all in a striking black-and-white scene in which two men face each other in a shadowy void. Unfortunately, the majority of the film is confusing and dull. In a film ostensibly about the relationship between humans and “celestial bodies,” it’s difficult to tell what Hamilton is getting at. It doesn’t help that his “narrative” is devoid of character development, and relies on some tiringly redundant imagery. That’s not to say there isn’t an audience for Apple Pie—its strangeness will probably be catnip to adventurous viewers. If, however, your idea of adventurous is a Terrence Malick movie starring a guy who played Batman, you’re in for a shock. NR. BENNETT CAMPBELL FERGUSON. NW Film Center’s Whitsell Auditorium. 2 pm Saturday, April 1.

The Boss Baby

C O U R T E S Y O F D R E A M W O R K S A N I M AT I O N

What do you do if you’re new brother is a baby who carries a briefcase and speaks in the deliciously smug and honeyed voice of Alec Baldwin? If you’re 7-year-old Tim (Miles Christopher Bakshi), you team up with said baby to stop a sinister corporation from selling a new breed of eternally youthful puppies. That’s the plot of this animated children’s farce, which is based on a book by Marla Frazee and exists in a world where hyper-intelligent babies like Tim’s brother undertake missions for a secret society dubbed “Baby Corp.” Sadly, this breathtakingly ludicrous premise is undermined by the film’s insultingly obvious lessons about the virtues of teamwork—like many makers of movies for kids, director Tom McGrath (Madagascar) talks

down to his audience. Yet he also unleashes plenty of delightful slapstick madness, including an uproarious chase in which the baby takes the wheel of a toy car with a ferocity that could make Jason Bourne quiver, as well as a battle with an evil baby sitter who has Arnold Schwarzenegger’s muscles and Mary Poppins’ umbrella. It’s all good, wacky fun, which is why The Boss Baby is likely to charm kids on spring break without causing a parental stampede to the exits. PG. BENNETT CAMPBELL FERGUSON. Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, City Center, Clackamas, Division, Lloyd, Oak Grove, Pioneer Place, Tigard, Vancouver.

The Freedom to Marry

A presentation of Eddie Rosenstein’s 2016 documentary about the fight to legalize same-sex marriage in the U.S. NR. Kiggins Theatre. April 1-2.

Ghost in the Shell

A lot of people are pissed that they cast a white actor (Scarlett Johansson) to play the cyborg cop Major instead of an Asian one, but the trailer looks cool, so I don’t know how to feel. Review to come next week. PG-13. Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, City Center, Clackamas, Division, Eastport, Fox Tower, Lloyd, Oak Grove, Tigard, Vancouver.

Life

It’s safe to say, without giving away anything the trailer doesn’t give away already, that a much more appropriate title for this movie would be Death. The story of seven astronauts on the International Space Station studying a newly found sample of life on Mars, Life begins much like The Martian, with a balance of scientific jargon and out-of-place, unsuccessful humor. But then, it flips jarringly to a full-on monster movie once the itty-bitty jelly life form grows enough to (ding! ding! ding!) deliver every character to his or her violent, long, gruesome, painful death. Like most Ryan Reynolds movies, this tries and fails to be campy and fun, its one try at poignancy shattered by Jake Gyllenhaal’s totally emotionless, obtuse observation that “watching people die is hard.” Bearing, as it grows, a more and more suspicious resemblance to Stranger Things’ Demogorgon, the lazy choice of villain and the throwaway story it occupies

serve as reminders that big-budget movies, even given every opportunity to be great, often aren’t very good at all. R. ISABEL ZACHARIAS. Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, City Center, Clackamas, Division, Eastport, Lloyd, Oak Grove, Pioneer Place, Tigard, Vancouver.

Lovesong

17

READERS’ POLL

IS BACK!

A woman, neglected by her husband, goes on a road trip with her best friend. Years later, after a falling out, they try to rebuild their relationship. Not screened for critics. NR. Clinton Street Theater.

Nominate your favorites from March 1—31

Power Rangers

wweek.com/BOP2017

At once awful and awfully amusing, this ramshackle franchise reboot fuses bad acting, worse writing and enough spunk to make the whole thing seem charming in its monumental stupidity. Set in the sleepy burg known as Angel Grove, the film follows five teenagers (Dacre Montgomery, Naomi Scott, Ludi Linn, Becky G., and RJ Cyler, in one of the film’s only compelling performances) who use their vaguely defined superpowers to battle the tyrannical Rita Repulsa (Elizabeth Banks). Rita seeks a magical crystal hidden beneath the local Krispy Kreme, and if that kind of brashly dumb product placement gives you no pleasure, you should skip Power Rangers. Connoisseurs of cinematic ludicrousness, however, may want to show up for the movie’s irritatingly shaky cinematography, incoherent editing and unintentionally hilarious attempt to seem relevant by including a patronizingly dumbed-down subplot about cyberbullying. Plus, the film is directed so clumsily by Dean Israelite (Project Almanac) it almost plays like a sophisticated caricature of Batman v Superman. What’s not to love? PG-13. BENNETT CAMPBELL FERGUSON. Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, City Center, Clackamas, Division, Eastport, Lloyd, Oak Grove, Pioneer Place, Tigard, Vancouver.

Raw

“Traitors, they refused initiation,” says Alexia (Ella Rumpf), explaining to her younger sister Justine (Garance Marillier) why the faces of some upperclassmen are cut out of a photo at the veterinary school they attend. Soon, Alexia will coerce her vegetarian, wunderkind sister to eat a raw rabbit kidney in a hazing ritual. One of many the sheltered teenager will undergo in French director Julia Ducournau’s debut, Raw, which made waves when attendees at the Toronto Film Festival passed out during the film’s screening. Ostensibly about a young woman who develops an insatiable taste for human flesh, Raw is more a coming-of-age than a vicious European horror film. Ducournau uses gore to drive home a story about the hellish world of millennial collegiate competition, blooming sexuality and sororal bonding, captured in swirling, beautifully lit shots of paint-covered, booze-soaked parties and nightmarish imagery of restrained animals. As Justine, Marillier seamlessly transitions from cloistered nerd to hypersexed party wastrel, playing her discovery that she’s a beautiful young woman who’s too smart for her own good with the squirmy, frantic energy of a real-life teenager. A lot of horror films are about fear of death. Raw is about fear of life. R. WALKER MACMURDO. Cinema 21.

Salt and Fire

Auteur/weirdo Werner Herzog is back after his ambitious 2016 internet documentary, Lo and Behold, with a new international eco-thriller starring Gael García Bernal, Veronica Ferres and rival weirdo Michael Shannon. The ’Couv’s Kiggins Theatre is getting a one-of-a-kind early screening. NR. Kiggins Theatre. 7:30 pm Wednesday, March 29.

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THE BOSS BABY Willamette Week MARCH 29, 2017 wweek.com

41


MOVIES PREVIEW C O u R T E S Y O F B R u C E WA R D

Willamette Week Presents: Erotica Awareness Month: The Climax

To cap WW’s Erotica Awareness Month (see our final feature on page 39), we teamed up with the Clinton Street Theater and Portland film collector Ian Sundahl to screen an hourlong collection of rare, vintage shorts from the Golden Age of Porn on 35 mm: a once in a lifetime chance to see surprisingly artsy, weird glimpses from a forgotten time in cinema. Clinton Street Theater. 10 pm Friday, March 31. $6 advance, $8 day of show. 21+.

Wilson

for ThE TrEES: Chuck Leavell.

Sticks and Rolling Stones Trees are not silent partners. This Saturday, longtime touring keyboardist of rock-’n’-roll icons the Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd Chuck Leavell, and Bruce Ward, president of the American Hiking Society, are bringing awareness to Oregon’s woods in their new anthology docuseries, America’s Forests. “A mutual friend, Bob Williams, a forester from New Jersey, introduced us,” says Ward. “Bob had done a sustainable forestry video with Chuck and really liked Chuck’s perspective. Chuck later came to Colorado and helped me out with a couple of fundraisers, like the U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree, that I was coordinating in Colorado with the U.S. Forest Service. The idea grew from there, but we’ve been talking about ideas for a series since 2012.” Each episode of the series, produced by Oregon Public Broadcasting, is dedicated to trees and contemporary related industries, from recreational tourism to the rise of cross-laminated timber. Each episode takes place in a different state, but Oregon was the first place to spring to Ward’s mind. “Portland is one of the most progressive and beautiful cities in America,” says Leavell. “Portlanders are excellent stewards of their land and of their community.” Incredibly, Leavell’s interest in forestry developed concurrently with his musical career. “In 1981, my wife, Rose Lane, inherited some land from her grandmother. We investigated several options for what to do with it, and settled on long-term sustainable forestry,” says Leavell. “That same year, I was called to do an audition with the Stones. By the following year, I was studying forestry and planting trees and touring with the Rolling Stones.” The Oregon-centric pilot will be chopped up into three meaty, nine-minute segments. The first sees Leavell and Ward visit innovative architects from Portland architecture firm Lever, which constructs high-rise towers out of cross-laminated timber. Part two brings the men to Bend, where they interview firefighters and Forest Service employees who are working together to contemplate techniques to prevent catastrophic wildfires, while also dedicating themselves to the development of scenic mountain bike pathways. The third segment takes us into the heart of the historic squabble between environmentalists—“old-school Oregon hippies”—and the timber industry. Today, the two have joined forces in providing habitat restoration in the Siuslaw National Forest, which is strung along the Oregon Coast. No other episodes of America’s Forests have yet to be produced, but Ward says he wouldn’t mind his retirement consisting of nothing but this project. “It doesn’t just have to be America,” says Ward. “It could be North America. I want to go to Canada and Mexico to do an episode someday, too.” JACK RUSHALL.

A new OPB series starring Rolling Stones sideman Chuck Leavell spotlights Oregon and its trees.

SEE IT: America’s Forests premieres on OPB at 7 pm Saturday, April 1. It will be available to stream on americasforestswithchuckleavell.com beginning Sunday, April 2. 42

Willamette Week MARCH 29, 2017 wweek.com

Wilson, the story of a smug, friendless middle-aged man’s quest for a place in the lives of his drugaddled ex-wife (Laura Dern) and the daughter he just found he had (Isabella Amara) is one of those movies that can’t quite decide who it was made for. Daniel Clowes fans, having read the original graphic novel, will no doubt find Woody Harrelson’s disheveled buffoonery an oddly charming complement to his role as this story’s protagonist, who constantly finds himself saying the rudest thing possible with the best of intentions. But the rest of us, without the same contextual tools, will have trouble seeing the point of it all. In part because the graphic novel’s initial intention was to parody the Sunday funnies, which it executed with an impeccable wit and subtlety that cannot, no matter the cartoonishly exaggerated characters and original block font titles, be translated perfectly to film. What Wilson does have going for it are bang-up performances from all its leads, and a script by Clowes that affords a few moments of perfectly lifelike disappointment, frustration, vulgarity and uncontrollable laughter at the absurd hopelessness of it all. R. ISABEL ZACHARIAS. Bridgeport, Cinema 21, City Center, Clackamas.

Wolf OR-7 Expedition

A new documentary following the GPS-collared wolf called “OR-7” and the expedition team that tracks him through Oregon and California. NR. Hollywood Theatre. 7:30 pm Thursday, March 30.

The Zookeeper’s Wife

Set in the Warsaw Zoo during Nazi rule, The Zookeeper’s Wife is perfectly capable of evoking the emotions most Holocaust retellings do: dread, despair, helplessness, the moment of first resistance. From 1939 to 1945, the zoo’s proprietors—Antonina and Jan Zabinski (Jessica Chastain and Johan Heldenbergh)—ferry Jews out of the Polish capital’s infamous ghetto, using empty cages and feeding tunnels to avoid detection. While that’s an intriguing based-on-a-true-story starting point, the filmmaking paints by the tragic numbers. Chastain delivers an effortful, tight-jawed homage to Meryl Streep’s Polish accent in Sophie’s Choice, but the Antonina character isn’t developed, which is mind-boggling in a movie both based on her diary and suggesting a lionizing character study with its title. She cradles baby animals and suffers the indignity of sexual advances from Nazi zoologist Lutz Heck (Daniel Brühl), but there’s no nuance to any of the ample torment. Meanwhile, the script’s keenest insight is into the particular misfortune of Warsaw, an occupied city trapped between two bloodthirsty European powers. Frankly, it’s the kind of movie that if it were any good would have been released in November as quintessential awards bait. To be a middling Holocaust film in 2017 is to be almost unbearable. PG-13. CHANCE SOLEMPFEIFER. Bridgeport, Clackamas, Fox Tower.

STILL SHOWING Arrival

Arrival inspires because of sorrowful linguist Louise Banks (Amy Adams), who enters a spaceship hovering above Montana shrouded in grief but still has compassion for both aliens and humanity. PG-13. Academy, Laurelhurst, Valley.

Beauty and the Beast

Did we need this remake? Probably not. Is is pretty good? Yes. PG. Bagdad, Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, Cinemagic, City Center, Clackamas, Division, Eastport, Living Room Theaters, Lloyd, Milwaukie, Moreland, Oak Grove, Roseway, St. Johns Twin, Tigard, Vancouver.

Before I Fall

A mean girl learns to play nice in this slick, soulless riff on Groundhog Day that isn’t half as heartfelt as it pretends to be. PG-13. Clackamas.

A Dog’s Purpose

Filmgoers were barking mad when they thought the producers of A Dog’s Purpose had abused a canine on set. But this tale of doggy death and rebirth exploits every inch of furry adorability to blot out critical faculties and fan the sparks of true emotion. Who’s a good movie?! PG-13. Avalon, Beaverton Wunderland, Vancouver.

Donald Cried

This is a Will Ferrell-style manchild comedy gone horribly awry, and every second is deeply, deliciously uncomfortable. NR. Kiggins, Living Room Theaters.

Fences

Denzel Washington swings for the fences with his adaptation of August Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play about a struggling African-American blue-collar family in 1950s Pittsburgh, hitting a home run and, uh, stealing third base? PG-13. Academy, Laurelhurst, Vancouver.

Fifty Shades Darker

Land of Mine

This period drama about teenage prisoners who get blown into hamburger trying to disarm mines in post-World War II Denmark has a pun title, technically making it a romantic comedy. R. Living Room Theaters.

The Last Word

The Last Word is a mechanical, formulaic salvation fantasy about a crappy woman (Shirley MacLaine) who gets to reinvigorate her life, served with a hefty dollop of whitesplaining via trite subplot. R. Bridgeport, City Center, Clackamas, Living Room Theaters.

The Lego Batman Movie

Fast, funny and pleasingly drunk on the joys of mockery, The Lego Batman Movie is as fun as the 2014 original but stars Will Arnett as a petulant, preening goofball who rocks out on an electric guitar and showers orphans with cool toys from a merch gun. PG. Bridgeport, City Center, Clackamas, Division, Eastport, Lloyd, Pioneer Place, Tigard.

Logan

Turns out having Hugh Jackman and cute child Dafne Keen perform Mortal Kombat fatalities on robot-armed mercenaries is a cool idea for a movie. R. Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, City Center, Clackamas, Division, Eastport, Lloyd, Oak Grove, Pioneer Place, St. Johns Twin, Tigard, Vancouver.

Manchester by the Sea

How do you start over when your transgressions refuse to stay buried? According to director Kenneth Lonergan, you don’t, and that denial is one of too many reasons Manchester by the Sea, while admirably tough-minded, is also a drag. R. Fox Tower.

With unguarded humor and sometimes even something verging on wit, Darker discusses consent, sexual boundaries, trauma and relationship autonomy with a frankness that honestly makes it, despite soap-opera drama and predictability, a pretty good movie. R. Clackamas.

I’ve listened to the chopped and screwed remix of Classic Man from this movie something like 50 times since I saw it. R. Academy, Laurelhurst.

Get Out

Personal Shopper

Yes, this movie is as good as everyone says it is, enough so that it makes you ask why other horror movies aren’t better. R. Bridgeport, City Center, Clackamas, Division, Eastport, Fox Tower, Hollywood, Lloyd, Oak Grove, Tigard, Vancouver.

Hidden Figures

Why does Kevin Costner get the biggest racism-busting line in a movie about underappreciated black women who contributed to NASA’s Apollo 11 trip to the Moon? PG. Bridgeport, Clackamas, Division, Fox Tower, Living Room Theaters, Vancouver.

I Am Not Your Negro

Raoul Peck develops an unfinished James Baldwin manuscript to eloquently tell the story of American racism. NR. Hollywood.

John Wick: Chapter 2

This may be the smartest, most beautifully shot film ever made that’s basically a montage of people getting shot in the head. R. Eastport.

Kedi

Yes, the stars of this documentary about Turkish street cats are cute and furry. It’s a shame they all support Erdoğan’s constitutional takeover. NR. Cinema 21, Hollywood, Kiggins.

Kong: Skull Island

Following the original’s blueprint, Kong: Skull Island sends a boatload of explorers past the perma-storm covering that’s hidden the titular archipelago for millennia. The similarities end there. Shifting to Southeast Asia just after the fall of Saigon, Skull Island replaces Age of Discovery heroics with wartime ambience. PG-13. Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, City Center, Clackamas, Division, Eastport, Lloyd, Milwaukie, Oak Grove, Pioneer Place, St. Johns Pub and Theater, Tigard, Vancouver.

La La Land

*Sad_trombone.mp3*. PG-13. Fox Tower, Living Room Theaters.

Moonlight

Director Olivier Assayas’ second collaboration with Kristen Stewart (after Clouds of Sils Maria) follows a medium who tries to commune with her deceased twin while intermittently perusing Paris boutiques as a celebrity model’s assistant. It fuses at least two movie genres— a haunting thriller by way of the muted tone of a character study. R. Cinema 21.

The Red Turtle

The first non-Japanese animation from Studio Ghibli is a simple fable on paper, but this heart-rending depiction of a man stranded on a desert island and the giant turtle that torments him is a tour de force in visual storytelling. PG. Academy, Kiggins, Tigard.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

It’s looking like this movie is going to be in theaters forever. PG-13. Academy, Avalon, Beaverton Wunderland, Empirical, Fox Tower, Jubitz, Kennedy School, Laurelhurst, Valley, Vancouver.

The Sense of an Ending

This adaptation of Julian Barnes’ acclaimed novel is partially set in a British boarding school, which means that if a character doesn’t get buggered by the headmaster, you’re within your rights to ask for a refund. PG-13. Bridgeport, City Center, Fox Tower.

Sing

If you’ve been yearning for Seth MacFarlane to play a mouse who sings like Sinatra, this is your movie. PG. Academy, Avalon, Beaverton Wunderland, Empirical, Kennedy School, Valley, Vancouver.

A United Kingdom

The politically forbidden 1947 marriage of Botswanan prince Sir Seretse Khama to English typist Ruth Williams is a little-known anecdote of racial progress worthy of illuminating. The love is there; what’s missing is the care. PG-13. Living Room Theaters, Tigard.

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WE TESTED THE NEW TERPENE CONCENTRATES THAT MAKE YOUR WEED TASTIER. BY M AT T STA N G E L

Just a drop will do, I’m told. Anything more than that will be too much. The blue vial measures roughly an inch in height, maybe half that in width, and it contains a concentrated blend of liquid terpenes—the aromatic compounds found across earth’s plant life that are responsible for the diversity of odors that occur in the cannabis kingdom. This particular blend of plant-derived terpenes was formulated to mimic the smell of a strain called Sunset Sherbet, and I’m adding it to some old, stale weed with the hopes it will bring my expired stash back to life. Manufactured by Portland’s True Terpenes, the Sunset Sherbet blend was reverse engineered from a sample of the titular cannabis varietal. Composed of roughly 30 individual, isolated terpenes and mixed at the ratios that occur in nature, the blend can be used to enhance or renew the smell and taste of cannabis flowers and extracts, as well as edibles and topicals. True Terpenes co-founder Ben Cassiday, who got his start in the cannabis industry at an online certification clinic that helps the ill get their medical marijuana cards, became interested in terpenes after interacting with people who use cannabis as medicine. Cassiday and his business partner, Chris Campagna, began to wonder, in Cassiday’s words, “What made strains of cannabis more potent, flavorful or well-suited for complementary treatment of certain health conditions?” This led him to research terpenes, which, he discovered, do much more than give weed its smell: These aroma molecules influence the high from consuming cannabis, working in concert with flavonoids and cannabinoids like THC and CBD to shape a person’s experience with a particular strain. Cassiday likens terpenes and cannabinoids to various parts of an airplane: “Cannabinoids are the jet engines, required for getting off the ground and staying in flight, while the terpenes are the rudders on the wings, used for controlling where the craft will fly and how comfortable the experience will be.” Terpenes like linalool provide a sedative effect, while others like limonene boost a person’s mood. When these terpenes are lost to age or destroyed in the extraction process, also lost are therapeutic benefits that guide your flight. But how well will an old plane fly after getting some repairs, so to speak? I decided to find out. Because I’m not big on dabs, I opted to see

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how these terpene cocktails would affect some stale flower I had. Jarred for months, these buds had lost much of their aroma and flavor, as well as their more pronounced psychoactive nuances, offering themselves as a decent blank slate on which to experiment. I started by grinding a few grams of flower, which I tossed in a plastic container with a drop of Super Lemon Haze— bearing the distinct aroma of the citrusy varietal. After shaking the finely ground weed for a few minutes to more evenly distribute the liquid terpenes, I let it steep for an hour or so. I then repeated the process with a terpene profile of the famed cannabis varietal Blueberry, manufactured by True Terpenes competitor Terpene Botanicals, as well as another Blueberry profile produced by Terpene Flavors. I first sampled the Super Lemon Haze concoction, which smelled fantastic but tasted exactly like what it was: old weed, with some fresh terpenes laced over the dominant, stale flavor. Yet, despite the lack of flavor penetration, True Terpenes’ Super Lemon Haze did in fact lift my mood and influence divergent mental patterns, which were never traits of the weed I started with. The Blueberry blend by Terpene Flavors was miles away from capturing the legendary DJ Short Blueberry, instead resembling the smell of a Slurpee or some experimental, berryflavored gum. It was more akin to candy than cannabis, and wasn’t at all what I had in mind. On the other hand, the Blueberry blend produced by Terpene Botanicals was relatively dutiful, based not on synthetic visions of sweets, but on the strain of weed it’s named after. Containing roughly half the variety of terpenes as the blends produced by True Terpenes, the scent was less nuanced—more of a blunt instrument— but it did improve my experience with my expired flowers. During the next few days, I did more experiments with different blends, finding I preferred the products by True Terpenes over the competition. Moreover, as competitor blends dissipated from the flowers they were applied to, the products by True Terpenes had a lasting effect, over time sinking deeper into the old buds—eventually overwriting much of the stale taste to transform the samples back to something resembling fresher weed. That said, True Terpenes’ strain blends won’t bring back lost flavonoids, so there’s still some taste and psychoactivity to be desired even after an aged flower’s terpene content is restored. But these guys are taking huge steps forward in immortalizing the scents of weed’s greatest hits, while helping more people gain access to terpene profiles with known therapeutic benefits. It’s a whole new world. Willamette Week MARCH 29, 2017 wweek.com

43


BY N a t e Wa g g o n e r

Our Zoo Began as a Bear Pit BY DR. MITCHELL MILLAR

I must confess: As recently as one week ago, my valise was packed and ready by the front door. I was going to take my leave of you without so much as a goodbye. But don’t feel sorry. I was going on a research vacation, the trip of a lifetime, a six-month expedition to the Middle East, a region that admittedly I do not know much about, though if it’s anything like Southeast Portland, I’m sure I would have no trouble getting acclimated in no time. This timing was intentional. I did not want to spend another first of April on this continent. I hoped to avoid that annoying “holiday,” which is the bane of my existence and that of distinguished historians everywhere. Last year on the Day of Fatuousness (or April Fools’ Day), I had been on a walk downtown when a stranger approached and said there was a caterpillar on my sleeve. I thanked him, and spent the rest of the afternoon and evening searching far and wide for the exploring caterpillar. It did not dawn on me until early the next morning that the deceitful fellow had been playing me for a gull. There is also the instance of my colleague and close friend Dr. Clarence C. Chambers, once considered the world’s foremost expert on the rich and diverse history of Vancouver, Wash. Dr. Chambers spent years secretly researching an alternative town charter, which revealed that city founders had intended “Vancouver” to be pronounced differently from how we know. Rather than with a harsh “v” consonant sound, they had proposed that each “v” be pronounced as the Romans would, softer, like a “w”—“Wancouwer.” I reviewed his paper, and came away impressed with the breadth and precision of his research. I said to him, “Chambers, old man, this will put Wancouwer on the map!” Unfortunately, his paper was published on April 1, the Day of Fatuousness, causing the Pacific Northwestern historical research community to doubt the veracity of his claims. The resulting controversy cost him his reputation, and Dr. Chambers began seeking solace in the bottle, which cost him his marriage. Academics in other fields will tell you the same: The professional risk of having one of your papers published on April 1 is simply too great. And that is why I had outlined such a detailed itinerary for my long vacation to the scenic Middle East. I would see all of the sights. The Great Pyramid of Giza. Petra, the ancient stone city. And, of course, the Colossus of Rhodes. My plans changed when the editors at Willamette Week contacted me to say an important historical story needed my accurate touch. Something about a bear pit. I immediately canceled my flights and hotel rooms and restaurant reservations. When a story demands to be told, I will tell it. So without further ado, here is the story of the bear pit: In Washington Park, the present-day location of the Portland Japanese Garden, there was once a bear pit. What is a bear pit, you may ask? Well, it simply is a large pit filled with bears. Portland anti-bear forces would capture the bears—a public safety measure in the early 20th century—and bring them to the pit, where they would live for the amusement of spectators. It was, essentially, a bear prison. The pit was eventually filled, but you can still see the outline of where it was in the koi pond in the Japanese Garden. The Oregon Zoo grew from this bear pit. This city has come a long way—the zoo now has an elephant pit, a goat pit and a giraffe pit, stocked with animals caught in distant places and brought here for our amusement. This is the truth, and I hope you won’t doubt it because of the Day of Fatuousness. Regardless of what the calender says, serious historians like me will not put their name to falsehoods, amusing though they may be.

Cat and Girl 44

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Aross 1 Super Mario ___ 5 30-ton computer introduced in 1946 10 Gets hazy, with “up” 14 Au ___ 15 ___ precedent 16 Film director Wertmuller 17 Obama education secretary Duncan 18 Exterminator’s targets 19 Reunion invitee 20 Harden, like adobe 23 Neutral area between N. and S. Korea

24 Brockovich played by Julia Roberts 25 Battleship initials 28 ___ Lambert (recent viral answer to the pub quiz question “Who played Skyler White?” where the cheating team misread Anna Gunn’s Wikipedia entry) 31 Hog, wild? 33 “No you didn’t!” 35 Guns N’ Roses frontman Rose 36 Hypnotized or anesthetized 38 Actress Taylor of

“High Fidelity” 39 Highest-ranked tournament player 41 Facepalmworthy 44 ___-TASS (Russian press agency) 45 “The Five People You Meet in Heaven” author Mitch 47 Plumb of “The Brady Bunch” 48 Drops in on 51 Mr. Hoggett’s wife, in “Babe” 52 ___ es Salaam, Tanzania 53 Italian writer Umberto

54 “Top ___ mornin’ to you!” 56 “___ the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” 58 Historical medical book, or literally what’s happening in this grid? 63 Johnson of TV’s “Laugh-In” 66 Watch brand that means “exquisite” or “success” in Japanese 67 Norwegian royal name 68 Spinnaker or jib 69 ___ Rock Pete (Diesel Sweeties character) 70 Sushi ingredient 71 Coop denizens 72 “Carnival of the Animals” composer Camille Saint-___ 73 Eponymous developer of a mineral scale Down 1 Tattle 2 __avis (uncommon find) 3 Pig noise 4 Fine equine 5 Sports-channelthemed restaurant 6 Nair rival, once 7 “My package has arrived!” 8 September flower 9 Lieutenant killed by Iago in “Othello” 10 Taqueria dessert, maybe 11 Cruet contents 12 Wildebeest 13 “Stay With Me” Grammy-winner Smith 21 Infuse (with)

22 Sch. that’s home to the Wildcats in Durham 25 American competitor 26 Trap liquid? 27 Sean played by Melissa McCarthy 28 Local 29 Far from drab 30 Texas city across the border from Ciudad Juarez 32 “___ pinch of salt ...” 34 Traffic sign warning 37 BBQ entree 40 ___ Lanka 42 They fall in line 43 “... ___ man with seven wives” 46 Area sheltered from the wind 49 “High ___” (Maxwell Anderson play) 50 Period of inactivity 55 “The Lion King” meanie 57 Typhoon, e.g. 58 Toothpaste types 59 Analogous (to) 60 A little bit of everything 61 Sound-barrier word 62 “Z” actor Montand 63 Pikachu’s friend 64 Charlotte of “The Facts of Life” 65 Sn, in chemistry last week’s answers

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Week of March 30

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ARIES (March 21-April 19)

Be interested in first things, Aries. Cultivate your attraction to beginnings. Align yourself with uprisings and breakthroughs. Find out what’s about to hatch, and lend your support. Give your generous attention to potent innocence and novel sources of light. Marvel at people who are rediscovering the sparks that animated them when they first came into their power. Fantasize about being a curious seeker who is devoted to reinventing yourself over and over again. Gravitate toward influences that draw their vitality directly from primal wellsprings. Be excited about first things.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20)

Are you weary of lugging around decayed guilt and regret? Is it increasingly difficult to keep forbidden feelings concealed? Have your friends been wondering about the whip marks from your self-flagellation sessions? Do you ache for redemption? If you answered yes to any of those questions, listen up. The empathetic and earthy saints of the Confession Catharsis Corps are ready to receive your blubbering disclosures. They are clairvoyant, they’re non-judgmental, and best of all, they’re free. Within seconds after you telepathically communicate with our earthy saints, they will psychically beam you eleven minutes of unconditional love, no strings attached. Do it! You’ll be amazed at how much lighter and smarter you feel. Transmit your sad stories to the Confession Catharsis Corps NOW!

GEMINI (May 21-June 20)

Now is an excellent time to FREE YOUR MEMORIES. What comes to mind when I suggest that? Here are my thoughts on the subject. To FREE YOUR MEMORIES, you could change the way you talk and feel about your past. Re-examine your assumptions about your old stories, and dream up fresh interpretations to explain how and why they happened. Here’s another way to FREE YOUR MEMORIES: If you’re holding on to an insult someone hurled at you once upon a time, let it go. In fact, declare a general amnesty for everyone who ever did you wrong. By the way, the coming weeks will also be a favorable phase to FREE YOURSELF OF MEMORIES that hold you back. Are there any tales you tell yourself about the past that undermine your dreams about the future? Stop telling yourself those tales.

CANCER (June 21-July 22)

How big is your vocabulary? Twenty thousand words? Thirty thousand? Whatever size it is, the coming weeks will be prime time to expand it. Life will be conspiring to enhance your creative use of language . . . to deepen your enjoyment of the verbal flow . . . to help you become more articulate in rendering the mysterious feelings and complex thoughts that rumble around inside you. If you pay attention to the signals coming from your unconscious mind, you will be shown how to speak and write more effectively. You may not turn into a silver-tongued persuader, but you could become a more eloquent spokesperson for your own interests.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22)

We all need more breaks from the routine -- more holidays, more vacations, more days off from work. We should all play and dance and sing more, and guiltlessly practice the arts of leisure and relaxation, and celebrate freedom in regular boisterous rituals. And I’m nominating you to show us the way in the coming weeks, Leo. Be a cheerleader who exemplifies how it’s done. Be a ringleader who springs all of us inmates out of our mental prisons. Be the imaginative escape artist who demonstrates how to relieve tension and lose inhibitions.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22

)

People in your vicinity may be preoccupied with trivial questions. What’s more nutritious, corn chips or potato chips? Could Godzilla kick King Kong’s ass? Is it harder to hop forward on one foot or backward with both feet? I suspect you will also encounter folks who are embroiled in meaningless decisions and petty emotions. So how should you navigate your way through this energydraining muddle? Here’s my advice: Identify the issues

that are most worthy of your attention. Stay focused on them with disciplined devotion. Be selfish in your rapt determination to serve your clearest and noblest and holiest agendas.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22)

I hope that by mid-May you will be qualified to teach a workshop called “Sweet Secrets of Tender Intimacy” or “Dirty Secrets of Raw Intimacy” or maybe even “Sweet and Dirty Secrets of Raw and Tender Intimacy.” In other words, Libra, I suspect that you will be adding substantially to your understanding of the art of togetherness. Along the way, you may also have experiences that would enable you to write an essay entitled “How to Act Like You Have Nothing to Lose When You Have Everything to Gain.”

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21)

If you have a dream of eating soup with a fork, it might mean that in your waking life you’re using the wrong approach to getting nourished. If you have a dream of entering through an exit, it might mean that in your waking life you’re trying to start at the end rather than the beginning. And if you dream of singing nursery rhymes at a karaoke bar with unlikable people from high school, it might mean that in your waking life you should seek more fulfilling ways to express your wild side and your creative energies. (P.S. You’ll be wise to do these things even if you don’t have the dreams I described.)

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21)

If you’re a Quixotic lover, you’re more in love with love itself than with any person. If you’re a Cryptic lover, the best way to stay in love with a particular partner is to keep him or her guessing. If you’re a Harlequin, your steady lover must provide as much variety as three lovers. If you’re a Buddy, your specialties are having friendly sex and having sex with friends. If you’re a Histrionic, you’re addicted to confounding, disorienting love. It’s also possible that you’re none of the above. I hope so, because now is an excellent time to have a beginner’s mind about what kind of love you really need and want to cultivate in the future.

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CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19)

Your new vocabulary word is “adytum.” It refers to the most sacred place within a sacred place -- the inner shrine at the heart of a sublime sanctuary. Is there such a spot in your world? A location that embodies all you hold precious about your journey on planet Earth? It might be in a church or temple or synagogue or mosque, or it could be a magic zone in nature or a corner of your bedroom. Here you feel an intimate connection with the divine, or a sense of awe and reverence for the privilege of being alive. If you don’t have a personal adytum, Capricorn, find or create one. You need the refreshment that comes from dwelling in the midst of the numinous.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18)

You could defy gravity a little, but not a lot. You can’t move a mountain, but you may be able to budge a hill. Luck won’t miraculously enable you to win a contest, but it might help you seize a hard-earned perk or privilege. A bit of voraciousness may be good for your soul, but a big blast of greed would be bad for both your soul and your ego. Being savvy and feisty will energize your collaborators and attract new allies; being a smart-ass show-off would alienate and repel people.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20)

Here are activities that will be especially favorable for you to initiate in the near future: 1. Pay someone to perform a service for you that will ease your suffering. 2. Question one of your fixed opinions if that will lead to you receiving a fun invitation you wouldn’t get otherwise. 3. Dole out sincere praise or practical help to a person who could help you overcome one of your limitations. 4. Get clear about how one of your collaborations would need to change in order to serve both of you better. Then tell your collaborator about the proposed improvement with light-hearted compassion.

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503 235 1035

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OMMP CARDHOLDERS GET 25% DISCOUNT!

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MEDICAL MARIJUANA Card Services Clinic

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