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WILLAMETTE WEEK PORTLAND’S NEWSWEEKLY
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10 LOCAL ACTS PORTLAND’S MUSIC INSIDERS THINK YOU SHOULD HEAR. Page 16
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OUR ELECTION ENDORSEMENTS! wweek.com
VOL 39/26 05.01.2013
PAge 8
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2/13/13 10:28 AM
SATURDAY
MAY 4, 2013 Celebrate horse racing’s biggest day at Portland Meadows with our annual Derby Party! Bet the race & enjoy mint juleps. Other festivities include: • • • •
Goorin Bros. Ladies Hat Contest Cornhole Toss Live Music from the Kung Pao Chickens 750 AM The Game Live Broadcast Please visit portlandmeadows.com for more information.
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Willamette Week MAY 1, 2013 wweek.com
CONTENT
work hard.
ride home.
CALLING FOR CHANGE: We turned five Portland pay phones into time portals. Page 28.
NEWS
4
MUSIC
35
LEAD STORY
16
PERFORMANCE 47
CULTURE
25
MOVIES
53
FOOD & DRINK
31
CLASSIFIEDS
59
STAFF Editor-in-Chief Mark Zusman EDITORIAL Managing Editor for News Brent Walth Arts & Culture Editor Martin Cizmar Staff Writers Andrea Damewood, Nigel Jaquiss, Aaron Mesh Copy Chief Rob Fernas Copy Editors Matt Buckingham, Peggy Capps Stage & Screen Editor Rebecca Jacobson Music Editor Matthew Singer Books Penelope Bass Classical Brett Campbell Dance Aaron Spencer Theater Rebecca Jacobson Visual Arts Richard Speer Editorial Interns Ann-Derrick Gaillot, Ashley Jocz, Matthew Kauffman, Enid Spitz, Kaitie Todd, Brandon Widder
MAIN STORE 706 SE MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. BLVD / 503.233.5973 / M-F 10-7 SAT 10-5 SUN 12-5 OUTLET STORE 534 SE BELMONT, 503.446.2205 / RIVERCITYBICYCLES.COM / OPEN EVERY DAY CONTRIBUTORS Emilee Booher, Ruth Brown, Nathan Carson, Robert Ham, Jay Horton, Reed Jackson, Emily Jensen, AP Kryza, Mitch Lillie, John Locanthi, Michael Lopez, Jessica Pedrosa, Mark Stock, Brian Yaeger, Michael C. Zusman PRODUCTION Production Manager Ben Kubany Art Director Ben Mollica Graphic Designers Kathleen Marie-Barnett, Amy Martin, Brittany Moody, Dylan Serkin Production Interns Kurt Armstrong, Autumn Northcraft ADVERTISING Director of Advertising Scott Wagner Display Account Executives Maria Boyer, Michael Donhowe, Carly Hutchens, Ryan Kingrey, Janet Norman, Kyle Owens, Sharri Miller Regan Classifieds Account Executives Ashlee Horton, Corin Kuppler Advertising Assistant Ashley Grether Marketing & Events Manager Carrie Henderson Give!Guide Director Nick Johnson Production Assistant Brittany McKeever
Our mission: Provide Portlanders with an independent and irreverent understanding of how their worlds work so they can make a difference. Though Willamette Week is free, please take just one copy. Anyone removing papers in bulk from our distribution points will be prosecuted, as they say, to the full extent of the law. Willamette Week is published weekly by City of Roses Newspaper Company 2220 NW Quimby St., Portland, OR 97210. Main line phone: (503) 243-2122 fax: (503) 243-1115 Classifieds phone: (503) 223-1500 fax: (503) 223-0388
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DO YOU HAVE PSORIASIS?
INBOX TOOTH AND NAILED
THE NEED FOR SPEED
Despite your efforts to influence Portland’s fluoride vote by painting a picture of fluoride opponents as a small group of radical, unscientific loonies [“Molar Majority,” WW, April 24, 2013], your shamelessly biased journalism doesn’t seem to be working in your favor. Drive around this town and count the number of pro-fluoride signs. Then count the anti-fluoride signs—they outnumber the pro-fluoride signs 10 to 1. And that’s despite the $143,000 that Healthy Kids, Healthy Portland doled out to campaign supporters—money that was supposedly spent on “buttons and yard signs” [“Visits From the Tooth Fairy,” WW, April 24, 2013]. Take a look at the list of [anti-fluoride campaign] Clean Water Portland’s supporters—groups like the Sierra Club, the NAACP and the EPA Headquarters Union of Scientists. And how about the debates in Portland? Is it possible you haven’t been reporting on them because the pro-fluoride platform isn’t coming out on top? Clean Water Portland and its supporters are a determined and resourceful group of intelligent, well-informed people—many of them doctors and dentists—who are passionate about leading Portland beyond an antiquated forced-medication solution that the rest of the country is happy to settle for. We don’t accept that polluting the Bull Run water supply is the only way to treat a targeted segment of the population. Leveraging your power as a “news source” to lobby the public to vote a certain way damages your credibility. Keep your opinions out of your paper, or stop reporting on the issue altogether. Elena Cronin Northeast Portland
Your little Adderall story [“Take With Homework,” WW, April 24, 2013] was fine (and funny!) as far as it went. As usual with Adderall stories, it did not go very far. Adderall is speed. According to Wikipedia, it is a combination of four amphetamine salts. The real story behind this cutesy “bankrupt substitute teacher pushes pills” news story is about Big Pharma. When it comes to the concerns of some parents about their children being “medicated,” the media does not seem to feel empowered to mention that amphetamines and Ritalin are classified as psychic energizers along with, ahem, cocaine. When Dr. Joseph Glenmullen’s book Prozac Backlash was published in 2001, he made an analogy between SSRIs like Prozac and amphetamines. Amphetamines became popular around 1955, and by 1965 there were anecdotal reports piling up about problems. By 1975 there were congressional hearings about serious dangers, and by 1985 amphetamines were understood to be very dangerous drugs that should never have been prescribed for weight loss or depression. After 30 years, a drug is out of patent and no longer lucrative. Glenmullen called this the 10-2030-year pattern. What probably never occurred to Glenmullen was that amphetamines would have a second hideous day in the sun—aka a time for shareholders to get paid. Jeremy Szold Ginzberg Northeast Portland
I voted for the arts tax, but assumed it would be included in the “regular” tax. Why is it separate? It feels like a punishment: “You voted for it, here it is, in your face.” If I don’t pay it, what happens? —The Artful Dodger
bill individual people—the water bill and the property-tax bill cover the whole house. “Any bill sent to a specific residential property will not know the number of adults that should pay the tax,” says the Revenue Bureau. Pinky, are you pondering what I’m pondering? If they don’t know how many people live at a particular address, it seems awfully unlikely that they know their names. Especially if they’re addressing mail to “Resident.” How are they going to enforce the tax without a list of who owes it? They’re still working on that part. According to city spokeswoman Abby Coppock, the Revenue Bureau has until July 31 to come up with a plan. You should still pay the tax; I’m sure they’ll think of something. But do they really not have a list? “I can’t comment on that,” says Coppock. Go journalism!
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I feel your pain, Dodger. As a good liberal, I’ve never met a tax increase I couldn’t vote for—but then again, as a freelance writer, I’ve never made enough money to actually owe any of those taxes myself. Thus, my arts tax notification came as bit of a shock. I voted for the thing—surely they don’t expect me to pay it as well? Sadly, yes. They’re collecting this tax not just from my bourgeois neighbor Chris, who totally deserves it, but also from broke scumbags like you and me. If you don’t pay by May 15, your bill goes up to $50. Blow it off past Oct. 15, and you’ll owe $85. It’s a separate deal because the city doesn’t
QUESTIONS? Send them to dr.know@wweek.com
photo Jose Sandoval
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POLITICS: WW’s endorsements for the May 21 election. COVER STORY: Our Best New Band for 2013 is...
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Photo Events Details: www.ProPhotoSupply.com then click Events Discovering Video in Your Camera WHEN:
Sat, May 11
TIME:
1pm-3pm
COST:
FREE MUST REGISTER ONLINE
Join Mark Toal, Panasonic representative in a seminar on discovering video in your camera. Now that you have that video button on your camera what do you do with it? Combine stills and video for a new way to present your images called Hybrid Photography. From point and shoots to the Panasonic Lumix G series cameras we will cover content, story telling, quality settings, manual controls, microphones, tripods, editing and uploading to Vimeo and Youtube.
Photojournalist Jay Dickman WHEN:
Fri, May 17
TIME:
6:30pm
COST:
FREE MUST REGISTER ONLINE
Join Olympus and Pro Photo Supply as we welcome Photojournalist, Jay Dickman to Portland. Jay has been shooting pictures professionally for more than 35 years. Jay was the winner of the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography for his coverage of the war in El Salvador, as well as the World Press Golden Eye and The Sigma Delta Chi Gold Medal for Distinguished Service in Journalism, in addition to many regional and national photography awards. Jay and his wife Becky (formerly a photographer) started their own workshop series as well as having taught many national and international photo workshops, including Maine Photographic Workshops and Santa Fe Workshops. Come be inspired and for an evening!
Basic: Essential Functions of your Canon EOS Camera WHEN:
Fri, May 24
TIME:
10am-1pm
COST:
$10 MUST REGISTER ONLINE
Enter the world of the digital SLR and learn about your camera, and how to make great pictures with it. We’ll take you out of “automatic,” but we won’t overload you with too much detail. You’ll see many examples of great photography, and learn techniques to use exposure, composition, flash, and a variety of lenses to get the same types of results.
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Willamette Week MAY 1, 2013 wweek.com
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The Internal Revenue Service says a company owned by Patricia McCaig, Gov. John Kitzhaber’s top adviser on the Columbia River Crossing, has MCCAIG a tax liability of more than $16,000. McCaig was the subject of a recent WW cover story about the $3.4 billion freeway project (“The Woman Behind the Bridge,” WW, Feb. 27, 2013). Last month, the IRS filed a tax lien against McCaig Communications & Opinion Research, citing a tax liability (which can include unpaid taxes, penalties and interest) from 2005. McCaig tells WW she paid all of her taxes that year, was not aware the IRS thinks her company owes anything, and did not know about the lien. McCaig also faces a pending Oregon Government Ethics Commission investigation: As WW reported, McCaig has advocated with state legislators for the CRC without registering as a lobbyist, as state law requires. Community-supported radio station KBOO (90.7 FM) revels in controversy on the airwaves, but now it’s got plenty at its Southeast Portland headquarters. Friction over a management push for lower compensation and less job security led workers in March to inform management that a majority of the 14-member staff will seek to join the Communication Workers of America union. KBOO executive director Lynn Fitch says an election is set for May. Fitch says KBOO has been losing money and members for years, and collective management no longer works. “Things have changed,” she says. Portland Mayor Charlie Hales released his much-anticipated proposed budget April 30, with big cuts to police and fire. Read WW’s analysis of other winners and losers at wweek.com. Read more Murmurs and daily scuttlebutt.
MIKE KRZESZAK/CC
NEW!
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VIVIANJOHNSON.COM
Gifts for Mom 16.0
Members of Oregon’s congressional delegation are leaning on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency over a $125,500 penalty levied against companies on the hook for cleaning up contaminated sediment in the Portland Harbor Superfund site. The EPA found the Lower Willamette Group—a coalition of 12 harbor businesses, plus the city of Portland and the Port of Portland—had provided reports of “unacceptable quality” about contaminated Willamette River fish. Sens. Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden and Rep. Earl Blumenauer, all Democrats, have complained to EPA officials (including administrator nominee Gina McCarthy last week). Spokespeople for all three say their bosses have not asked the EPA to revoke or reduce the fine—but have shown their displeasure. Merkley spokeswoman Courtney Warner Crowell says her boss believes the fine will “cause further disputes that do not advance the goal of cleaning up the river.” Adds Blumenauer spokesman Arran Robertson, “Earl’s not lobbying to have the fine removed. Somebody’s stirring the pot.”
CARTY AWARD WINNERS BEST OVERALL FOOD:
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PEOPLE’S CHOICE:
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Cheese & Crack
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A HUGE thank you to all the amazing food carts who participated! We couldn’t do it without you. 808 Grinds Artigiano Aybla Grill Bora Bora Tacos Brazi Bites Bunk Sandwiches Cheese & Crack Chez Dodo Creperie du Lys Euro Trash Fifty Licks Frank-N-Stein Fuego Food Carts Gamila
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Thank you to all of our sponsors.
Willamette Week MAY 1, 2013 wweek.com
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NEWS
ENDORSEMENTS
CHEW
ON THIS SURE, WE’RE ABOUT TO VOTE ON FLUORIDE, BUT ALSO ON ISSUES ABOUT KIDS AND OPEN SPACES. HERE ARE WW’S ENDORSEMENTS FOR THE MAY 21 BALLOT. BY WW STA FF
243-2122
CA N DIDATE PHOTOS BY KU RT A R MSTR ON G
Many election battles vow an eye for an eye. But this spring’s fight is something even fiercer: a tooth for a tooth. This off-year election—held in a season when voters might be understandably more interested in road-tripping than ballot-marking—has instead been as nasty as any in recent memory. That’s thanks to one issue: fluoride. It’s not the first time the city has been yanked to the ballot box by the question of an enamel-strengthening chemical in the Bull Run water supply. Portland rejected fluoride in 1956, 1962 and 1980. But this most recent try has touched a nerve in our citizenry, a civic root canal minus the Novocain. The pro- and anti-fluoridation campaigns are drilling down to tender spots: racial inequity in unassailably liberal Portland, a growing cynicism about scientific or any other authority, and the balance between the good of the commonwealth and the petty tyranny of a nanny state. Maybe the furor over fluoride is just one more quirk in a city full of them—a symptom of the iconoclasm that makes Portland both sincere and infuriating. But we’d like to think it speaks to something better in the city, a willingness to engage in fierce debate where other places mindlessly check a box. So we invite you to consider not just fluoride but other issues that call for your attention in the May 21 vote: how the city helps its children, how regional government maintains its open spaces, and who should lead our public education system. Please read our suggestions, do your civic duty, and don’t forget to floss.
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Willamette Week MAY 1, 2013 wweek.com
ENDORSEMENTS
NEWS
Measures
CITY OF PORTLAND
MEASURE 26-151
MANDATES FLUORIDATION OF PORTLAND’S WATER
YES
Who knew that a seemingly humdrum public health issue could provoke so much drama, passion and electoral skullduggery? Portland is the largest city in the U.S. with an unfluoridated water supply. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says 74 percent of Americans now have fluoridated water, fluoridation reduces cavities by about 25 percent over a person’s lifetime, and $1 invested in fluoridation saves $38 in future dental costs. It seems so straightforward. The fact is, the fluoridation of drinking water has been a bugaboo among political extremists for decades. Half a century ago, fluoridation was a communist conspiracy—or so right-wingers claimed. Today, Portland lefties see it as unnecessary and even dangerous. And in Portland, suspicions about plans to add fluoride to the water supply had reason to give politicians pause: Portlanders said “no” to fluoride in 1956 and 1962. In 1978, voters approved fluoridation only to overturn it two years later. The debate on both sides has been problematic. The pro side—led by Healthy Kids, Healthy Portland—has tried to rig the vote, elevated self-righteousness to new heights and played the race card. The anti-fluoride crowd, represented by Clean Water Portland, has erected a tie-dyed political yurt big enough to include the wacky left and the Tea Party while misrepresenting the science. But supporters have given the anti-fluoride side reason to heat up the conspiracy-tinged tone of their rhetoric. As a 21st-century issue in Portland, fluoride materialized as if from nowhere last year. And the City Council’s unanimous vote in 2012 to add the controversial substance to our water was Machiavellian at best. A pro-fluoride group made false statements about whether it was quietly pushing the issue within City Hall. (They said “no” while busily doing just that.) The City Council vote looked very much like a cynical grasp at a legacy for outgoing Mayor Sam Adams and Commissioner Randy Leonard, who had previously expressed zero interest in the topic. The City Council then maneuvered the issue onto the May 2013 ballot as quickly as possible, so as to wrong-foot opponents who had succeeded in forcing a vote on it in 2014. Proponents’ claims that they have widespread support from “communities of color”—when, as reported by WW, the pro-fluoride campaign has paid out $143,000 to eight minority groups that endorsed the measure—raises troubling questions. But bad behavior and circumstances are not enough to override the basic facts. Peer-reviewed studies, which have themselves been studied ad nauseam, have shown that fluoride is beneficial to children’s teeth. Data also show that the incidence of untreated tooth decay in Oregon ranks in the top 10 percent of all states while the state’s rate of fluoridation is third-lowest. Fluoridation is not a panacea. People still get cavities despite fluoridated water. And there are medically vulnerable citizens
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CONT. on page 10 Willamette Week MAY 1, 2013 wweek.com
9
139th KENTUCKY DERBY PARTY!
NEWS
SATURDAY, MAY 4th Featuring Maker’s Mark Mint Juleps and the Maker’s Mark girls! Complimentary Champagne toast!
Come Early 9am-11am for all you eat breakfast $4 And Pinnacle Bloody Mary Bar. Party starts at noon.
529 SW 4TH AVE PORTLAND OREGON WWW.RIALTOPOOLROOM.COM 503.228.7605
2013 THINK & DRINK
ENDORSEMENTS
who may have legitimate concerns about how fluoride would affect them. But most of the critics’ objections do not stand up to scrutiny. Among the hundreds of fluoride studies, there is little evidence that fluoridation is harmful. Here’s how the CDC put it: “The weight of peerreviewed scientific evidence does not support an association between water fluoridation and any adverse health effect or systemic disorders.” The most common side effect—the staining of teeth, called fluorosis—is primarily cosmetic and takes more fluoride than Portland will add. The fluoride injected into water is not, as critics claim, toxic waste but a byproduct of mining other minerals. Fluoridation critics cannot produce any nefarious explanation for why government scientists, public health officials and dentists all support fluoridation. The biggest financial support on the “yes” side is coming from the Northwest Health Foundation, which has nothing to gain financially from fluoridation. Other key supporters include the Oregon and Washington dental associations, which are acting against their own economic interests. Dentists make money from cavities. If their professional associations were looking out for their members’ wallets, they’d endorse a “no” vote. Unlike the pharmaceutical industry, which has sometimes pushed drugs that are ineffective or unsafe to bolster profits, nobody’s going to get rich from fluoridation. It’s tempting to characterize this campaign as mainstream science versus the lunatic fringe, but that would be unfair. The fact is, the health benefits of fluoridation would accrue primarily to those who have bad teeth now—disproportionately low-income and minority children.
CITY OF PORTLAND
How to Love America
MEASURE 26-150
RENEWS CHILDREN’S LEVY
Measures pitched as “helping children” are perennially popular and—like children themselves—adorable until examined closely. The so-called Portland Children’s Levy is like a baby’s diaper: It stinks, but it’s necessary. And somebody should change it already. First, the smelly part: The city of Portland is out of its element when it tries to provide social services. That’s the job of Multnomah County. This mission creep bothered us in 2002, when City Commissioner Dan Saltzman first proposed a tax of 40 cents on every $1,000 of assessed property value for child-abuse prevention, foster care, early education and hunger prevention. The measure before us now would extend the levy for five more years, raising about $10 million
MAY 15
Reinvent America Gregory Rodriguez, Zócalo Public Square and LA Times Mission Theater / 1624 NW Glisan St., Portland / 6:30–8:00 p.m. / doors at 5:00 p.m. Minors with parent or guardian
10
Willamette Week MAY 1, 2013 wweek.com
Think&Drink_2013_WW-ad Reinvent Am.indd 1
YES
4/25/13 4:02 PM
annually. But the Children’s Levy operates with admirably low administrative costs and provides good oversight of programs that receive its grants. We think the taxpayers of Portland should be chipping in to offer a safety net to kids in foster care, who come from abusive homes and who aren’t getting three square meals a day. But so should the taxpayers of Multnomah County to a greater extent. It makes zero sense that a levy intended to help the neediest kids doesn’t extend into some of the poorest areas in the eastern portion of the county. Multnomah County needs to step up and take over the mission behind this levy. Instead, the county has pushed a library taxing district— which cut into money for the Children’s Levy. So vote yes, and consider adding a note to city and county officials, telling them to straighten out once and for all who pays for what.
METRO
MEASURE 26-152
NATURAL AREAS, WATER QUALITY LEVY
YES
After buying up more than 12,000 acres with money from ballot measures in 1995 and 2006, the Metro regional government is the largest owner of parklands in the tri-county region. Now, Metro is asking voters for a new property-tax levy that would give it $10 million a year over five years to upgrade and maintain those lands. The levy would cost the owner of a $200,000 house about $20 a year. Metro—led by a seven-member council— oversees a mishmash of responsibilities, including the Oregon Zoo, the Oregon Convention Center, land-use planning, and garbage disposal and recycling. But open space fits right into Metro’s original charter, which calls for the agency to “preserve and enhance the quality of life and the environment for ourselves and future generations.” About half the new levy’s money would go to facilities improvements, education and grants. Metro wants to use the new levy for such things as a new boat ramp for Sauvie Island, new restrooms at Oxbow Park, and a new channel in the Sandy River for fish. About half would be spent on habitat restoration, including along the 90 miles of stream and riverfront Metro has acquired. Part of what makes Portland an attractive place to live is the surrounding natural beauty. Voters have given Metro money in the past to protect natural areas from becoming strip malls or subdivisions. This measure helps Metro fulfill its mission as steward of those lands.
CONT. on page 12
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JEFFERSON DANCERS NEWS “Back from China!”
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May 1, 2, 3 at 7:30 pm and May 4 at 2:00 & 7:30 pm
ENDORSEMENTS
Candidates
PORTLAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS
PORTLAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS
ZONE 6
TOM KOEHLER
ZONE 4
MARTIN GONZALEZ
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Willamette Week MAY 1, 2013 wweek.com
NONPARTISAN
Portland Public Schools is the largest district in Oregon, serving just over 47,500 students in 81 buildings. The district’s $487 million general fund budget for next year is larger than the city of Portland’s or TriMet’s. A seven-member elected board hires the superintendent, approves district policies and sets the budget. In May, three seats are up for grabs; incumbent Pam Knowles, who represents Northeast Portland, faces no opposition. The district continues to grapple with a persistent achievement gap between white students and a growing minority population, and subpar graduation rates in PPS, where nearly half the students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The administration and the Portland Association of Teachers began negotiating the teachers’ contract mid-April. Nobody should be surprised if those talks end six months from now in an impasse. Portland kids need stronger leadership from their School Board. Martin Gonzalez started slowly in his role as a PPS director, after being appointed to the board in this North Portland district in 2008. But he’s grown into the role. A director of multicultural programs for TriMet, Gonzalez has nudged the district into big changes in bilingual education, including dumping ineffective leaders and expanding immersion programs. Gonzalez, the only Latino on the board, is clearly a strong voice for the district’s growing Latino student body (up from 11 percent of students a decade ago to 16 percent today). We give his opponent, Steve Buel, credit. Buel previously served on the board from 1979 to 1983, when he helped write PPS’s desegregation policy. Buel has since been trying to make a comeback—this is his second try in recent years, both against Gonzalez. A co-founder of the new group Oregon Save Our Schools, Buel is a critic of the district’s leadership, which he says focuses too much on testing and does too little for low-income students. On those points, we think he’s right. But Buel, during our endorsement interview, was short on reasons he would make a better director than Gonzalez, and on specifics about what he would seek to do on the School Board. It’s a close call for us: We gave more weight to the need for attention to the district’s diversity, and give the nod to Gonzalez.
NONPARTISAN
Easy choice here, folks, in this central Southeast district. If you think the biggest challenge facing Portland Public Schools is how to get Wi-Fi out of district buildings, vote for David Morrison, a bookseller. Morrison filed a 2011 federal lawsuit, alleging Wi-Fi is a health hazard to students. (As WW has reported, PPS has spent more than $170,000 defending itself against Morrison’s claim.) His campaign is based on his Wi-Fi obsession. But if you’d like a School Board member focused on installing excellent principals in every building and strengthening ties with business, Tom Koehler is your candidate. Koehler works as an adviser to Pacific Ethanol, which makes a gasoline additive out of corn. He previously worked as a political organizer and aide to former City Commissioners Gretchen Kafoury and Earl Blumenauer. We’ll take Koehler, who has a lot of energy and a desire to shake up a board a tad too fond of consensus.
PORTLAND COMMUNITY COLLEGE
ZONE 2
KALI THORNE LADD
NONPARTISAN
For the state’s biggest institution of learning, Portland Community College maintains a pretty low profile. That’s what happens when you don’t have scandals or a football team (or both, Ducks fans) but instead try to do the hard work of keeping the region’s workers educated, trained and prepared to thrive. PCC’s enrollment of 93,000—spread across three campuses and seven centers—is four times that of the state’s urban college, Portland State University. And PCC’s region is large: Despite the Portland-centric name, PCC covers portions of five counties (Columbia, Clackamas, Yamhill and Washington in addition to Multnomah).
ENDORSEMENTS The demand for PCC’s classes continue to grow, even as its enrollment has burst through the limits in what the state (which provides 35 percent of PCC’s funding) will pay for. Longtime President Preston Pulliams is set to retire, and the college will need strong guidance in serving its increasingly diverse population. The incumbent in Zone 2, Kali Thorne Ladd, is seeking election in her own right after being appointed to the PCC Board in 2012, after the death of longtime director Harold Williams Sr., who represented Zone 2 (which now covers North and Northeast Portland, and portions of Columbia County) for more than two decades. Ladd has a deep and impressive record on school issues: She’s been a teacher and Peace Corps volunteer, worked as education services director for then-Mayor Sam Adams, and served as a site manager for Schools Uniting Neighborhoods at King Elementary in Portland. Now she’s launching an early learning center in North Portland. We found her thoughtful, articulate and insightful. Her opponent, Michael Durrow, is a sincere repeat candidate whose background and experience as a real-estate agent and network engineer can’t match Ladd’s record and considerable promise.
PORTLAND COMMUNITY COLLEGE
NEWS
PORTLAND COMMUNITY COLLEGE
ZONE 5
KEN MADDEN
NONPARTISAN
If there’s one place community colleges should outpace four-year institutions, it’s in hands-on job training. As owner of Madden Industrial Craftsmen and Madden Fabrication, Ken Madden says PCC needs to stay nimble and update course offerings as necessary job skills also change. Madden—running for the first time to serve a zone that covers Beaverton and Southwest Portland—is co-chairman of Gov. John Kitzhaber’s Oregon Workforce Investment Board and chairman of the Beaverton Chamber of Commerce. And he helped establish a scholarship fund at the school and serves on the PCC Foundation board. He may be a bit of a rubber stamp—“I think the school’s perfect at this point,” he tells WW—in seeking to replace outgoing board member David Squire. (His opponent, David Solomon, failed to file a Voters’ Pamphlet statement.) Madden’s obvious commitment to PCC—coupled with his real-world business experience— makes him the clear choice.
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MULTNOMAH EDUCATION SERVICE DISTRICT ZONE 4
JIM HARPER
NONPARTISAN
Earnest goes to college with Jim Harper, a whitebearded PCC director seeking his third term on the board. He’s a polite Portlander to a nearly crippling degree, but Harper has real successes he can point to from his tenure: The swift creation of a PCC welding program on Swan Island is exactly the kind of nimble technical education the regional economy is clamoring for. A veteran of Tektronix and Siltronic, Harper is closely attuned to how poorly Oregon’s workforce is being prepared for real jobs. His pledges to fix the problem are vague, but he’s looking in the right direction—urging the state’s K-12 school system to direct students toward the career training PCC provides. His opponent, business executive Bernardo Tuma, looks good on paper—Harvard credentials, experience with local government—but he didn’t show up for our endorsement interview.
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POSITION 1
CHRIS COCHRAN
NONPARTISAN
It’s the most obscure government agency that spends $71 million a year. The Multnomah Education Service District provides such programs as Outdoor School, alternative education, child health-insurance access, and supervision of the county’s home-schooled kids. ESDs are paid for through state education funds, contracts and grants, and property taxes. Lawmakers continue to scrutinize the districts, approving a measure this year allowing school districts to withdraw from their local ESDs if they find them unnecessary. In the race for this east-county position, voters have two terrible choices: Chris Cochran, a 23-year-old Gresham native and photographer, CONT. on page 14
www.dunthorpegardentour.com Willamette Week MAY 1, 2013 wweek.com
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NEWS
ENDORSEMENTS
who has never been to an MESD meeting and couldn’t manage to file a Voters’ Pamphlet statement on time. Then there’s scandal-stained incumbent Bernie Giusto. His troubled history is familiar to longtime readers of this newspaper: As an Oregon State Police trooper, Giusto failed to tell authorities about his knowledge of ex-Gov. Neil Goldschmidt’s sexual relationship with an underage girl. Later, as Multnomah County sheriff, he earned the title of WW’s 2007 Rogue of the Year for mismanagement and an ethics investigation that still haunts the sheriff’s office. Cochran’s inability to name a single MESD function is almost laughable. But it’s not as shameful as the fact that Giusto keeps getting elected to anything.
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POSITION 2
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Nels Johnson, a lobbyist and analyst for a government affairs firm, says he knows many legislators are gunning for education service districts as wasteful and unnecessary. But Johnson says he’s convinced MESD remains needed to help serve the diverse and often low-income areas of the county. Johnson says MESD lacks relationships with the school districts it serves. And he wants what amounts to a giant audit to find where duplication exists and best practices are missing. His opponent, Patrick Lasswell, a software test engineer and former U.S. Navy sonar technician, also wants to preserve MESD, but he lacks Johnson’s focus and experience.
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NONPARTISAN
Thatcher is a self-described wonk who works as an administrative director at Democracy Resources and as chairwoman of the Multnomah County Young Democrats. She wants MESD to follow students of adult-education programs after they graduate to see if such alternative schools measure up to more traditional schools in terms of job preparation. She also backs a program supported by the outgoing incumbent, Harry Ainsworth: the Reconnecting Youth program, which aims to help students aged 19 to 25 earn high-school diplomas. Her opponent, retired economist Bob Clark, failed to show up for WW’s endorsement interview.
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best New band
10 LOCAL ACTS PORTLAND’S MUSIC INSIDERS THINK YOU SHOULD HEAR.
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Willamette Week MAY 1, 2013 wweek.com
Close your eyes and think of a typical Portland band. You’re imagining a group of sensitive lumberjacks playing sad-sack folk tunes on old-timey instruments, aren’t you? Ask those truly in the know—club owners, label heads, journalists, musicians, promoters, publicists and plain old record junkies—to do the same, and they’ll tell you it’s an impossible exercise. That’s because there is no such thing as a “typical Portland band.” Our annual Best New Band poll proves it every year. Since 2004, we’ve surveyed hundreds of local music aficionados, asking for their favorite breakout artists of the previous 12 months. Each year, the results confirm that our city’s internationally celebrated music scene cannot be narrowed into a single sound or style. Just look at the issue in front of you. This year’s top 10, culled from more than 150 voters, features backward-gazing blue-eyed soulsters on one end and wickedly sarcastic metalheads on the other. In between, there are garagerock bands that write ace pop songs and pop bands rocking enough to shake the siding off the average garage. There are psychedelic bands with radically different interpretations of the term “psychedelic.” There’s a band driven by crystal keyboards and silky grooves, another by funk-punk rhythms and ecstatic spirituality. There’s even a futuristic electro-R&B diva. And there’s nary a banjo or washboard among them. As usual, we remind you that everything about Best New Band—including the definitions of the words “best,” “new” and “band”—is subjective. We’ll also save you the keystrokes this year and admit that, yes, we’re a bunch of hipsters foisting our hipster tastes upon you. If you don’t agree with this list, well, that’s good. Hopefully, it’ll inspire you to get out to some shows and come up with your own. Then the next time someone asks you what a “typical” Portland band sounds like, you’ll know it’s a trick question. —Matthew Singer, Willamette Week Music Editor
JASON QUIGLEY
100.5 POINTS
1. SHY GIRLS 2011. A make-out session that started in 1989 with the radio tuned to a contemporary R&B station and has continued, uninterrupted, ever since—and with the dial untouched. FORMED:
SOUNDS LIKE:
Dan Vidmar’s bedroom is where the magic happens. On the second level of the Southeast Portland loft he shares with two other guys, through the tapestry that acts as his doorway, the 25-year-old singer-producer is showing off his workstation, which is just a desk, a synthesizer and a frustratingly slow computer. When the songs he recorded here two years ago first made the rounds online, local bloggers and journalists didn’t even know who they were coming from, let alone where. Vidmar, who uploaded a pair of EPs under two different names in late 2011 then basically forgot about them, left few clues as to their origins. He omitted songwriting credits from his Bandcamp and SoundCloud pages, and took press photos with his face hidden behind a mask that made him look like a walking Easter Island statue. He insists the intent wasn’t to create a mysterious aura. He just didn’t think anyone would care. Now that people clearly do, Vidmar—strong-jawed and steely-eyed, with a thatch of curly hair piled atop his head—has no problem revealing the details of his split artistic personalities: Federer, his slap bass-loving, piña colada-guzzling alter ego; and Shy Girls, his chilled-out, swollen-hearted retro-R&B project. “In my head, there was a separation,” Vidmar says of the two concurrent projects. “Federer is the part of my brain that, like, RVs down to Key West and has a beard and goes to lots of Jimmy Buffett concerts, then comes home to a four-track recorder and is, like, ‘Let’s get down to business.’ Shy Girls is the preteen female side.”
That preteen female is Portland’s Best New Band. It is also, by modern parameters, maybe the most uncool band in the city. Soprano-sax solos, earnest pillow-talk vocals and a production style best described as “dentistoffice funk” aren’t exactly de rigueur. But that’s the appeal. Shy Girls—the side of Vidmar’s brain that’s grown beyond his bedroom into a full-fledged, seven-piece live act—is a band both of its moment and completely out of time. Plenty of artists Vidmar’s age are now reacquainting themselves with the mainstream pop of their youth, making music that taps into a foggy nostalgia for ’90s FM radio. Except, there’s nothing foggy about Shy Girls’ crystal-clear interpretation of the past. Instead of reproducing the feel of twisting a staticky radio dial, its music invokes memories of walking through a mall or riding in an elevator circa 1991. And while it shares traits with the dreamy, lightheaded R&B of Frank Ocean and the Weeknd, the group engages its influences with a lot more honesty. “Blue-eyed soul” is the hipper nomenclature, but if you were to use the term “easy listening” to describe it, the band wouldn’t take offense. “A lot of music that’s coming out now alludes to that, but is totally fucking afraid of it,” Vidmar says, moving downstairs to his couch. “Like Kenny G. People just scoff at Kenny G, and people are afraid to go there. But there’s so much there that can translate to people’s ears today.” “Taking that stuff out of context is really fascinating,” adds keyboardist Ingmar Carlson, Vidmar’s childhood friend and roommate, from the other end of the couch. (Full disclosure: WW music calendar editor Mitch Lillie also lives with them.) “What was once easy listening— there’s an implication there, that listening to this is easy. And once, perhaps it was. Nowadays, you listen to it and realize, no, it’s not.” In the world of Shy Girls, soft is the new hard, smooth jazz is punk as fuck, and Kenny G might as well be Johnny Rotten.
And lest you think the band’s embrace of pop’s most featherweight textures is an ironic put-on, consider that its creator grew up in State College, Penn., a city where irony doesn’t exist. “It’s a completely unique situation, in that there’s no urban culture there at all, but there’s all these people, this academic environment, and a huge party scene,” Vidmar says of his hometown. “It’s like frat city.” The son of business-minded parents, Vidmar was raised in a house with maybe a half-dozen CDs lying around. Once he was old enough to start going to clubs, the only bands in town to learn from played classic-rock covers. By the time he began formulating his own musical ideas, he was basically working from scratch. “I had a completely blank slate.” SHY GIRLS CONT. on page 18
“PEOPLE JUST SCOFF AT KENNY G, AND PEOPLE ARE AFRAID TO GO THERE. BUT THERE’S SO MUCH THERE THAT CAN TRANSLATE TO PEOPLE’S EARS TODAY.” —DAN VIDMAR
Willamette Week MAY 1, 2013 wweek.com
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BEST
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CONT.
That doesn’t mean the sound of Shy Girls developed out of thin air, though. There are precedents—like the time in elementary school when the principal allowed Vidmar to take over the PA system. “During naptime, we orchestrated this whole event where we played the Aladdin soundtrack for the last hour of school,” he recalls. It’s not just a cute childhood memory: The fluttery lightness of Disney movie scores, and the generational nostalgia attached to it, certainly influenced the band’s aesthetic. (Vidmar even nicked a sample of a snare drum from “A Whole New World” for the breathy “Under Attack.”) Attending college at Penn State (“It was my destiny,” Vidmar says), he and Carlson—who came from a more musical background, taking piano classes as a kid and listening to a steady stream of Mozart and Bach and his mother’s Beatles records—formed a Paul Simon cover act, allowing them to cut their teeth in State College’s bar scene while also getting familiar with the polyrhythms that gently roil underneath Shy Girls’ delicate skin. But the project didn’t fully congeal until Vidmar relocated to Portland in 2009. At the time, he thought the move would help him develop the Animal Collective-style freak-folk experiments he’d filled his computer with. “I felt like moving to Portland I’d have an opportunity to do that,” he says, “whereas at State College, I couldn’t even play that kind of music on the street corner.” Arriving in town shortly after graduation, Vidmar discovered, contrary to popular belief, the city’s tourism bureau does not certify indie-rock careers at the airport. “I found it incredibly difficult, actually, to break into the music scene here,” he says. “I remember being super-frustrated. I couldn’t really get any gigs. I couldn’t get people to play with me. I came out here thinking, ‘I’ll go out there and meet a bunch of people and stuff will just start happening.’ Of course, it didn’t happen like that.” With few other options, Vidmar went back to messing around on his laptop. For reasons that escape him, the soft pop and soul he’d absorbed imperceptibly in his youth—Michael McDonald, Luther Vandross and, yes, Kenny G—burbled to the surface. Federer, with its yacht-rocking, party-in-sandals vibe, came first. He envisioned Shy Girls as that project’s cleaner, chilledout flipside. He didn’t have grand aspirations for either. “The only intention I had with it, aside from making something that I wanted to listen to or wanted my friends to hear, was to do something that was uniquely funky,” he says. “I felt like people, especially in Portland, were kind of afraid of funk.” Ironically, it was when Vidmar stopped trying to get attention that people started paying it to him. Chris Cantino, artistic director for PDX Pop Now!, stumbled across the band online while looking for acts to book for last year’s festival. He was hooked immediately. “There was an air of mystery about them, and the sound had so much potential to explore,” Cantino says. “I got the sense we were on the ground floor of something big if the band could somehow just be exposed.” With an actual gig suddenly on his calendar, Vidmar put together a band, recruiting Carlson and drummer Dan Sutherland, along with two backup singers, a second keyboardist and Tune-Yards saxophonist Noah Bernstein. Offers for more shows rolled in, and over the past year, the group has built a following around its swoony, unguardedly romantic performances. (Its secret weapon is Bernstein, who often seems to beam onto the stage, play a sultry solo, then vanish back into the ether.) Vidmar says he’s still unsure of just how popular Shy Girls actually is, but acknowledges there is a buzz, and they need to be careful about stretching it too thin. “I don’t want to become one of those bands that plays in Portland every other week for five years,” he says. As of right now, Shy Girls’ total recorded output is four songs, though there’s a full album’s worth of material “up there,” Vidmar says, motioning to his room. Now that the proverbial (and literal) mask is off, Vidmar knows all future material will have to stand on its own, without the mystery that initially attracted listeners. A project like Shy Girls, no matter how sincere and wellcrafted the sound, is always going to be dogged by accusations of misplaced nostalgia. But that’s not an issue Vidmar spends a lot of time worrying about. “The whole idea of nostalgia to me—yeah, there’s some aspect, as we were saying, but all that music also draws from earlier generations, which also draws from earlier generations, and all that,” he says. “At the same time, it’s not really a concern of mine, if people think it’s a calculated, ironic thing. I’m just trying to make solid songs.” MATTHEW SINGER. 18
Willamette Week MAY 1, 2013 wweek.com
BEST
NEW
BAND
MEGAN HOLMES
CONT.
52 POINTS
2. THE WOOLEN MEN 2008. A three-headed monster in your creaky old basement that’s still deciding whether to sing for you or eat your children. FORMED:
SOUNDS LIKE:
The Woolen Men didn’t plan on sounding like the Woolen Men. When Lincoln High School classmates Raf Spielman and Lawton Browning met up after college to play music together, their rehearsals resembled a songwriting club more than band practice. The two had disparate styles: Lawton’s songs offered playful nods to classic rock and New Wave influences; Spielman’s were more kinetic and abstract, a slightly nihilistic take on early Northwest garage rock and psychedelia. But mutual respect and common musical tastes, including Wire and Guided by Voices, were enough to keep the pair together. When they pulled Spielman’s Golden Hours bandmate Alex Geddes into the mix, he brought his own songs to the table. Geddes’ tunes split the difference between Browning ’s bouncy hooks and Spielman’s driving punk, and his more direct lyrics imbued the project with a previously absent sweetness. The songwriting club got bigger, but the rules didn’t change. Instead of forcing themselves to find a common aesthetic or settle on a single frontman, the Woolen Men did what came most naturally to them: They shuffled instruments and singers and played every show they could get. “We played a lot of terrible shows,” Browning says with a laugh. “I had this idea that the more that we played shows, the better it would get. I don’t know if that was actually true.” Turns out, the Woolen Men did get better through the sheer volume of their live gigs, but there were still obstacles to overcome—for example, no one in the band knew how to play drums. What proved most fruitful, though, were the band’s weekly practices, which have continued almost entirely undisturbed every Sunday for the past four years. Slowly, a consistent sound has evolved. “We didn’t get together and say, ‘We love this record, let’s sound like this record,’” Spielman says. “It was just all of us coming together from different angles. It took a long time, but it has a shape now.” Now settled into primary instruments— Spielman got drums, of which Browning seems a tad jealous—the Woolen Men are purveyors of a
sound, full of minor chords and brute force, that is rare even in the city that first helped create it. The band is energetic, but not theatrical. They keep the banter to a minimum. For fans like Spookies frontman and Shaky Hands bassist Mayhaw Hoons, who has voted for the Woolen Men in the Best New Band poll for the past three years, that no-bullshit approach is immensely appealing. “To me, they are a band that lies outside the big fashion show of the music scene,” Hoons says. “It’s not [about] who they know or being seen at the cool shows or gear. It’s just about making music.” Still, groups with no clear frontman and a penchant for lo-fi recordings aren’t for everyone. Opening a bill with the fuzzed-out psych-rock act Wampire and local pop-punk gods the Thermals last month, the Woolen Men, with their blue-collar aesthetic, left much of the all-ages crowd looking perplexed. “I’m glad I don’t have to write about this,” one teenager told me after the band’s set. “People don’t know what to think about us,” Browning admits. This is true in Portland, where the band’s reputation has grown slowly but meticulously, and perhaps even more on tour, where its gloomy but melodic post-punk often lacks the context inherent in playing in the Northwest. “On tour, there will be a couple of people who are really excited about what is happening,” Browning says. “And a bunch of people who are totally mystified.” Those in the excited camp—among them the influential Woodsist label, which released the Woolen Men’s excellent self-titled debut fulllength in March—are relentless in their support. It’s easy to see why, not only because of the band’s strong songwriting, but because this is a fiercely independent group that takes full control of every aspect of its process. From writing to analogue recording to crafting album art, the Woolen Men seem genuinely inspired by creativity in all forms. One gets the impression this would be the same band even if no one ever bothered to listen. People are listening now, though. After four years together, being recognized as one of Portland’s best “new” bands seems odd. The Woolen Men—whose members have an average age of 29—feel like veterans. “We are a tent pole in a way I never imagined we’d be,” Browning says. “Now we play a show at Reed College, and there are kids with big eyes talking to us after the show. It’s like, ‘Holy fuck— I’m 10 years older than you.’” CASEY JARMAN. BEST NEW BAND CONT. on page 20 Willamette Week MAY 1, 2013 wweek.com
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3. SUN ANGLE 2011. The Falklands War, fought with knives and clubs—that is to say, with pulverizing Latin rhythms and sharp, stabbing guitars. FORMED:
SOUNDS LIKE:
“A second of silence is like a millennium to me,” says Charlie Salas-Humara. In his band Sun Angle, for which SalasHumara sings and plays guitar, he’s got little to worry about: A second of silence is not just a rarity, it’s damn near an impossibility. The band’s live shows are a full-frontal assault, as much rock slide as rock music. Drummer Papi Fimbres plays nearly untrackable polyrhythms that mock all notion of offbeat and downbeat. Like latterday Coltrane, he often seems to want to play all rhythm—all sound—at once. Except Coltrane had to hire three drummers to get the same effect. Here, it’s just Papi, blazing cumbia rhythms at the breakneck tempos of punk. Meanwhile, Salas-Humara—who counts punk, krautrock and washed-out psychedelia like that of Pärson Sound as influences—lacquers layers of delay-pedaled, psych-prog guitar over the top of Fimbres’ wild tom patterns and damped cymbal work, or slashes through the fray with syncopated riffs sometimes reminiscent of the art-damaged dance punk of Les Savy Fav. It’s an experiment in chaos and control, the control being Marius Libman’s fast, circular basslines. Without him, the whole damn
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production might just blow away. “When I was in high school and just getting into bass,” Libman says, “I was really into Miles Davis’ fusion-era stuff. The bass is like the anchor. That’s where I’m coming from with this band.” “Marius is the drums,” Salas-Humara adds. Fimbres, on the other hand, is Keith Moon, which is a little bit different from being the drummer. The band’s live shows often take on the character of a dare to the audience: Can you keep up? The songs’ disparate elements merge and spin away from each other, and sometimes there’s too much going on to process. “It’s exhausting, these endings,” Libman says. “Papi’s going nuts. He’s sweating so bad.” “The end of the song,” Salas-Humara says, “is [when] Papi can’t play anymore.” Aside from the goofily abstract stage banter between Salas-Humara and Fimbres, the effect is a bit like the visceral overload of a Lightning Bolt show. But this year, they managed to do something that has eluded that band: They captured their energy on record in a way that actually makes sense. Menomena’s Danny Seim spent a month producing Sun Angle’s debut full-length, Diamond Junk, which was recorded using Pro Tools and a laptop, half in a home studio and half in a mountain cabin in Zigzag, Ore. “Our friends will tell us about recording in a studio,” says Salas-Humara, “and
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JASON QUIGLEY
BEST
50.83 POINTS
“OUR FRIENDS WILL TELL US ABOUT RECORDING IN A STUDIO. WE SPENT $400 ON THE CABIN AND $200 ON BOOZE, AND THAT WAS IT.” —CHARLIE SALAS-HUMARA we’ll be like, ‘Yeah, that’d be awesome to spend $10,000.’ I can’t even imagine that. We spent $400 on the cabin and $200 on booze, and that was it.” From its very rough initial recordings, Seim worked Diamond Junk into a singular cohesion. It’s one the best damn rock albums I expect to hear this year, one that harks back to the harsh intensities of 1978era New York City no wave and post-punk.
pcs.org
Lauren Weedman; Photo by Patrick Weishampel.
BY LAUREN WEEDMAN
DIRECTED BY ROSE RIORDAN
APRIL 23 –JUNE 16
Made possible by a grant from the Innovative Minds Program at Perkins Coie
Ellyn Bye Doug & Teresa Smith
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Willamette Week MAY 1, 2013 wweek.com
The band will be touring for the first time after the album drops, a brief five-date tour “up north” and in California with And And And. But they don’t know if anybody will get what they’re doing. “We don’t really have a niche,” says Salas-Humara of the band’s psych-punk assault. “We try to be the best of both worlds. But it just comes out weird.” MATTHEW KORFHAGE.
4. WOODEN INDIAN BURIAL GROUND 2012. 3:15 through 4:15 of “Iron Man” by Black Sabbath by the Cardigans by Built to Spill. FORMED:
SOUNDS LIKE:
There are heavier, darker, jammier bands than Wooden Indian Burial Ground—but not heavier, darker, jammier bands that fit into a compact hatchback. As the three-man outfit sips $1 tall boys inside B Side on East Burnside Street on a recent Saturday afternoon, the group’s tour vehicle sits outside. It’s a pragmatic ride for a band that tours a lot and doesn’t like day jobs: an ecologically responsible 2005 Ford Focus, outfitted with a Thule roof rack. Inside, there’s enough room for singer-guitarist Justin Fowler, drummer Dan Galucki and bassist Paul Seely to sit comfortably on cross-country tours to Galucki’s native Maine, so long as the band limits itself to tiny but very loud amps and a stripped-down drum kit packed like a nesting doll. The cheerful blue Focus couldn’t be more at odds with the dark imagery from the band’s self-titled record, a low-fi mix of thumping drums, creepy Zombies organ sounds and shredding psychedelic guitar solos. To me, it sounds like Memphis garage legends ’68 Comeback covering Billy Breathes. This has occurred to others. “We’re just like the new era of Phish or something,” Fowler says. “I think we’ve
had people yell ‘Grateful Dead!’ at us three times in the last six weeks.” That’s not entirely intended. “I grew up on Black Sabbath and Billy Childish. Those are my two main influences from my teens,” Fowler says. “I want to be a creepy pop band. When we get out of Portland people dance their asses off and mosh and stuff, which is really nice. So I want to keep that thumping, poppy sensibility of a three-chord song but also be creepy and heavy, too.” The Wooden Indians mostly do what they set out to—especially on the creepiness front. The band successfully channels dark vibes into tracks like “Crows” and “A Long Way From Cerrillos,” especially when they’re facing each other onstage, jamming out, as at a recent Doug Fir set. They sound like guys who live in a tony, unheated shack or drive a night cab—which they, in fact, do. Fowler drives a cab (“I pick up some pretty big douchebags. I get a lot of blacked-out businessmen that I think I’m a coke dealer”), while Galucki lives in a 7-by7-foot shack in the backyard of a Northeast Portland house (“there’s no insulation, so if it’s 20 degree outside, it’s 20 degrees in the shack”). And then there are the band’s show posters, which can be a little disturbing. A recent flier featuring images cribbed from a ’70s Spanish porn flick depicted a woman spreading her buttocks, a naked man straddling a chair and another gentleman mas-
BEST
NEW
BAND
COURTESY WOODEN INDIAN BURIAL GROUND
CONT.
48 POINTS turbating his half-erect penis. The photos were arranged around a hammer on a paintsplattered table. In the margins, Fowler wrote the names of the bands playing the show. That one even creeped out his mom. “I didn’t really change my Facebook settings and just posted it on there, so it went to my mom and my cousins,” Fowler says. “I got a call from my mom, like, two days later, like, ‘What are you posting here?’ She was just so taken aback. The old porno photos were one thing, but really, the hammer sealed it together. To be honest, I was pretty drunk when I posted it. She had a point.” MARTIN CIZMAR.
Who’s got next? 2013 Best New Band finalists Nos. 11 through 20. 11. Like a Villain . . . . . . . . . 12. The Pynnacles . . . . . . . 13. 1939 Ensemble . . . . . . . 14/15/16 (tie) Death Songs . . 14/15/16 (tie) Fanno Creek . . 14/15/16 (tie) Vinnie Dewayne 17/18 (tie) Magic Fades . . . . 17/18 (tie) Luck One . . . . . . 19. The Satin Chaps . . . . . . 20. Edna Vasquez . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . .
30 pts 28 pts 25 pts 24 pts 24 pts 24 pts . 21 pts . 21 pts 20 pts . 17 pts
BEST NEW BAND CONT. on page 22
Recording Studio • Rupert Neve Designs 5088 console • 2” Analog (16 & 24 track) • Pro Tools HD2 Accel • EMT 140 Plate Reverb • Lots of Outboard Gear and Mics • Big Live Room • Oak Floor • Great Location in SE Portland Past Clients: Black Prairie, Death Cab For Cutie, Eddie Vedder, Elliott Smith, Forbidden Friends, Jenny Lewis, Kim Deal, M. Ward, Matt Bellamy (Muse), My Sad Captains, Portland Cello Project, Quasi, R.E.M., Richmond Fontaine, She & Him, Sleater-Kinney, Sonic Youth, Spoon, Stephen Malkmus, System & Station, Telekinesis, The Corin Tucker Band, The Decemberists, The Go-Betweens, The Gossip, The Shins, The Thermals, Wild Flag, Yacht.
503-239-5389 kendra@jackpotrecording.com
jackpotrecording.com Great Rates for Freelance Engineers MasterCard & Visa Willamette Week MAY 1, 2013 wweek.com
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BAND
CONT. MINDENBAND.COM
42 POINTS
SHANNON WOLF
NEW
N ATA S H A FA G A N
BEST
39 POINTS
34 POINTS
5. THE WE SHARED MILK
6. MINDEN
7/8. GENDERS
2010. A hazy tromp through poppy, psychedelic fields of mixed emotions.
2011. Hot Chip in a lounge setting, with a hint of Ween-like absurdity.
2012. Sipping a beer through sandy teeth after a partly cloudy afternoon at the beach.
Making a good first impression is not a high priority for the We Shared Milk. The photograph at the top of the group’s Facebook page is not a well-manicured press shot. Instead, it features a candid image of frontman Boone Howard on the street, spewing a stream of cherry-red liquid out of his mouth and onto the pavement. “The backstage food at Treefort Fest in Boise had borscht and carrot smoothies,” Howard explains. “We thought it would be funny to puke bright colors for a promo.” It’s telling of a band that refers to its music as “moron rock.” Not to say the quartet—three parts Alaskan, one part native Oregonian—dumbs down its woozy brand of psych pop. It just prefers to keep things simple. On Lame Sunset, the band’s second album in less than seven months, the group took a more direct approach with its songwriting than last year’s History of Voyager and Legend Tripping. “I focused on not thinking about it,” Howard says. “I tried to be relatable and simple in the lyrics—something different than I usually do, which is stuff that sounds nice together but doesn’t necessarily convey what I’m talking about. It’s a little more blunt.” The album’s 10 songs don’t punch the listener in the gut but casually flow, interweaving remnants of the group’s previous work with a hazy shade of melancholia. Howard’s woolly, distorted guitar glints and glides above drummer Eric Ambrosius and bassist Travis Leipzig’s syncopated rhythms, while multi-instrumentalist Henry Gibson lays down a mix of keyboards that anchors the band’s dazed crawl. For a band that self-releases its albums, the We Shared Milk is big on collaboration: History of Voyager featured production from 10 different Portland artists, and it recently recorded a collaborative single and went on tour with its friends in And And And, the Best New Band of 2010. “I think we vibe with those guys really well,” mutters Howard. “I guess we’re all just a bunch of party boys.” As the streets of Boise are already well aware. BRANDON WIDDER.
Music videos speak the truth. Take Portland glam-pop sextet Minden’s “Gold Standard” video. It incorporates more spandex and synchronized movements than a swim meet. The slight artificiality, tightly knit structures and lustful looks cast across the faces of the band members are as much an illustration of the band’s sparkling sound as they are ingredients of the video itself. Minden moved to Portland from Kansas City, Mo., last June, with little in its custody beyond a near-complete and outstanding LP in Exotic Cakes. Landing in a house on Northeast Killingsworth Street dubbed Minden Manor, frontman Casey Burge and company settled in fast. Weekly barbecues and home rehearsals led to shows at clubs like Holocene, Doug Fir and Mississippi Studios, and at Rontoms’ Sunday Sessions. By October, Minden was turning ears at studio and music-scene launch pad the Banana Stand. It wasn’t long before a four-song EP and a shooting session with local music media site Into the Woods were in the works. Now the only thing Burge misses from his hometown is the barbecue sauce. “There are a lot of really creative people in Portland,” he says. “It feels like home.” Keyboard-centric on the verge of smooth-jazz territory, Minden’s sound is a polished glass stiletto, clean and towering. Burge’s near-whispered vocals wind in and around crystalline keys and round melodies. And while Minden occasionally strays down more experimental paths, it always boomerangs back to its sugarcoated pop core. Whatever Burge is doing at Minden Manor is working. “I hate to use the word ‘slave driver,’ but I’m pretty controlling,” he says, “almost to a fault sometimes.” As a conductor, though, Burge has Minden in fine form—deserving of spandex. MARK STOCK.
Midway through a conversation among the members of Genders, guitarist Stephen Leisy leans over the table to ask drummer Katherine Paul if she’s gotten her tattoo yet. She says no, but she’s planning to soon. The four bandmates recently decided to get matching ink upon returning home from a brief West Coast tour. Leisy, singer-guitarist Maggie Morris and bassist Matthew Hall all pull back various parts of their shirts to reveal their new body art: a wolf similar to the one on the cover of the group’s newly released 7-inch. It’s a symbol of camaraderie among musicians who, in the past, have had trouble keeping bands together. Unlike Youth—Morris, Leisy and Hall’s previous outfit, which broke up just after placing fifth in last year’s Best New Band poll—Genders shows promising signs of longevity. Along with carrying equal creative weight in the songwriting, the members continually toss around jokes, speak to each other in weird voices, and talk often about sex. Musically, this year has been off to a promising start. During its first-ever tour in March, the band opened for legendary indie-rockers Built to Spill at the Treefort Music Festival in Boise. The night of the performance, Morris twice wept out of excitement and subsequently gave herself whiplash during a rowdy, late-night set by Portland’s Wooden Indian Burial Ground. “I never wanted that day to end,” she says. Steadily attracting buzz for its live shows and gaining momentum as a fully formed band, the quartet is currently recording its first full-length album. Between loosely flowing electric-guitar riffs and Morris’ sweetly candid vocals, Genders flirts with a washy surf-rock sound. On newer songs, such as “Oakland,” however, the music takes a grittier and more versatile form via darker melodies, random bursts of energy and the band members’ unshakable chemistry. “All of us have been in other bands that just haven’t worked out,” Hall says. “[Genders is] the first band that has really worked.” EMILEE BOOHER.
FORMED:
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34 POINTS
7/8. NATASHA KMETO
BEST
NEW
BAND
JAMES REXROAD
MEGAN HOLMES
PAT T I M I L L E R
CONT.
31 POINTS
31 POINTS
9/10. MAGIC MOUTH
9/10. GAYTHEIST
future.
2011. The righteously roof-raising house band in the B-52s’ Love Shack.
One of Natasha Kmeto’s fondest childhood memories is of the day her father brought home the family’s first subwoofer. “I literally just sat next to it and played everything with the lowest bass,” the 30-year-old singer-producer says, peering out at Northeast Broadway from her seat at Swift Lounge. It was a formative moment: As a teenager, Kmeto’s fixation with pure sound blossomed into a love of electronic music, which now underscores her futuristic brand of R&B. Unlike a lot of her laptop-leering peers, though, Kmeto doesn’t want listeners just to feel her music—she wants them to feel it, too. “Not to say I don’t geek out on tones still,” she says, “but I feel like I’m coming more from, ‘Does this feel like what I’m trying to convey?’” In other words, Kmeto is a beat maker who thinks like a songwriter. On the two EPs she’s released through Portland-based label Dropping Gems, The Ache and Dirty Mind Melt, the Sacramento, Calif., native humanizes the low-rumbling bass, glitchy rhythms and moody, digitized textures of modern electronic music by cutting it with the emotional undercurrents of hip-hop and soul. It’s an aesthetic that’s allowed her to cross over in a city still a bit leery of music made on machines. Her live performances have certainly helped, too. Singing from behind a computer, mixer and drum machine, Kmeto defies the image of the disengaged producer hunched over a laptop. Though she admits preferring to work by herself, it’s not just about control: It’s a feminist statement. “I want to present the music for what it is, which is all me,” she says. “A lot of people have come up to me and asked, ‘Who makes your beats?’ They wouldn’t ask a man that.” Kmeto’s upcoming full-length debut, Crisis, is arriving on the heels of a stressful year, the details of which she declines to discuss. She’ll say only that she was “plugged into a way of life I didn’t agree with.” She hints that unplugging from that lifestyle was painful but cathartic, and that she’s poured it all into the album—both in her words and her sounds. “Through the process of getting more honest with myself, my music has become more honest,” she says. “Not to say it’s been dishonest before, but I was hiding more, because I was hiding from myself.” MATTHEW SINGER.
The past year has been good to Magic Mouth. During those 12 months, the soul, funk, gospel, disco, rock, etc. quartet was invited on a long tour with local heroes the Gossip, had its name dropped in interviews multiple times by Sleater-Kinney’s Corin Tucker as her favorite local band and snapped up big shows in Seattle and San Francisco. As clichéd as it may sound, the members of Magic Mouth are taking all the accolades and opportunities with incredible humility—even the news that they’ve been selected as one of Portland’s Best New Bands. “When we play a show, we kind of just recognize our friends’ presence,” says singer-guitarist Peter Condra, surrounded by his bandmates and the clatter of midafternoon pinball players at My Father’s Place. “It still has the sensation of being a friend-only thing. Then people come out of left field with opportunities like this and it’s, like, ‘Oh, people outside of ourselves are noticing and we’re getting attention.’” For all of the band’s modesty, the plain fact is that Magic Mouth is hard to ignore, especially when Condra, singer Stephfon Bartee, bassist Brendan Scott and drummer Ana Briseño are onstage, locked into a tightly wound groove. Emboldened by their natural chemistry and the thrill of playing live, all four sweat and shake and shout as one. Listeners incapable of getting gleefully caught up in the group’s maelstrom of “Funky Drummer”-esque breakdowns and sky-scraping weepers were born with ice water in their veins. Now it seems that everyone wants to bottle that energy in some form or other. A live video of the band playing at Mississippi Studios is being released soon. Banana Stand Media wants to bring the four down to its basement for a session. For Magic Mouth, though, the focus is on recording another quartet of tracks as a follow-up to its self-titled 2012 EP. “The four songs represent the four corners of our sound,” Condra says. “One is a raw, stripped-down rockabilly song. One is a percussion-heavy Afro-funk jam. One is a well-rounded disco-pop tune. And one is an R&B ballad.” In other words, it’s a surefire recipe to propel Magic Mouth even further into the pop stratosphere. ROBERT HAM.
2011. Clowns who got kicked out of the circus for being too radical, then banded together and started destroying eardrums.
FORMED:
Started performing solo in 2010. A superstar R&B diva back from the
SOUNDS LIKE:
FORMED:
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In 2010, Gaytheist singer-guitarist Jason Rivera thought he might quit music forever. “I had a moment where I couldn’t do music anymore,” he says. “So I tried to write the world’s worst sciencefiction novel.” Of the four works he produced during his yearlong hiatus, one included the “new and improved Bible,” in which “an astronaut befriends a six-armed grizzly and then finds out he’s Jesus.” When he eventually found his way back to playing music again, forming Gaytheist with bassist Tim Hoff and Nick Parks in 2011, Rivera brought that absurd aesthetic with him. Metal at its core but bleeding into post-hardcore and punk, the band’s sonic onslaught is spiked with lyrics that mix political statements with biting sarcasm. Last year’s Stealth Beats, the group’s third album, was its most refined yet. Pummeled immediately with opener “Stampede of Savings,” taken on a wild tour of an attorney’s nightmare in “Post-Apocalyptic Lawsuit” and indicted by the explosive and catchy closer “Condemn the Condemners,” listeners are advised to wear both earplugs and a jock strap. The follow-up, Hold Me…but Not So Tight, comes out May 21 on Seattle’s Good to Die Records. As heavy as the band’s instrumental attack is, with his uniform of suspenders, bow tie and neatly trimmed mustache—not to mention a vocal style inspired by Jarred Warren of Karp and Big Business—Rivera hardly looks or sounds like your average metal dude. And in a credobsessed genre, that can lead to some misperceptions. To set the record, um, straight, I asked Rivera how he’d like to be seen. “I didn’t come out of the closet—I power-slid out on my knees with my dick in one hand and a guitar in the other,” he says. “I want to be the gay uncle of the music industry.” MITCH LILLIE.
Willamette Week’s Best New Band showcase, featuring the Woolen Men, Sun Angle, the We Shared Milk, and DJ Dan Vidmar of Shy Girls, is Saturday, May 4, at Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi Ave. 9 pm. Free. 21+. Willamette Week MAY 1, 2013 wweek.com
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A MIDSUMMER’S NIGHT WITH MICHAEL NESMITH · MICKY DOLENZ · PETER TORK
On Sale
On Sale
Fri
10:00AM
SPecial acouStic Seated ShoW
Fri
10:00AM
LIGHTS
sunday august 18 arlene schnitzer concert hall
Performing their classic hits, deep cuts & fan favorites!
Friday june 14 aladdin theater 3017 Se milWaukie ave · Portland, or 8:00Pm ShoW · all ageS ticketS online at ticketfly.com charge By Phone 877.4.fly.tix
tWo ShoWS With comedian
MOSHE KASHER
1037 SW BroadWay Portland, or 7:30Pm ShoW · all ageS ticketS availaBle from Portland center for the Performing artS Box office online at PcPa.com
A MULTIMEDIA EVENING OF MAGIC MUSIC, RARE FILMS & CHERISHED MEMORIES!
saturday september 21 lola’s room at the crystal ballroom
On Sale
Fri
1332 W BurnSide St · Portland, or early 7:30Pm ShoW · late 11:00Pm ShoW · all ageS ticketS at caScade ticketS charge By Phone 855-caS-tixx x2 ticketS alSo at the cryStal Ballroom Box office
squarepegconcerts.com
10:00AM
the next BeSt thing to Johnny caSh
all female triBute to led ZePPelin
This
Fri
david and devine Friday may 3 mississippi studios
ticketS at SafeWay/ticketSWeSt locationS charge By Phone 503-224-tixx
& cascade an enSemBle of the Portland gay men’S choruS
thursday may 16 aladdin theater
tuesday may 21 mississippi studios
ticketS at SafeWay/ticketSWeSt locationS charge By Phone 503-224-tixx
Friday june 14 dante’s
ticketS at SafeWay/ticketSWeSt locationS charge By Phone 503-224-tixx
ticketS online at ticketfly.com charge By Phone 877.4.fly.tix
JOSH
ABBOTT BAND
Friday july 12 mississippi studios
ticketS at SafeWay/ticketSWeSt locationS charge By Phone 503-224-tixx
TriMet Pensions: A Question of Fairness It’s fashionable these days to call frontline workers and retired frontline workers “greedy.” That’s what TriMet management wants you to think about us. Yet, over the years, we took less in wages partly so we could supplement our social security benefits. That is how we saved for retirement. Many of us have small TriMet pensions. Sometimes they are completely gobbled up by medical costs. When the numbers are viewed side-by-side, it is clear TriMet management places a higher value on themselves than they do on the front line employees—those who have the most demanding jobs in the organization.
Pension Class Comparison TriMet Union
TriMet Non-Manager Non-Union
TriMet Managers
TriMet Former General Manager
Average Monthly Pension Benefit
$1,581
$1,956
$3,786
$16,000
Years Worked to Qualify
10
3-5
3-5
7
Minimum Age for Eligibility
58
55
Unknown
Unknown
Paid Life Insurance
$25,000
$150,000
$500,000+
$800,000 (current Gen. Mgr.)
not So Golden Years: retiree
Profiles
John: “I drove a bus for 26 years. I often worked 16-hour days due to driver shortages. I seldom got breaks and had to eat on the run. The stress of tight schedules, city traffic and no breaks caused chronic health problems. I’ve had a triple by-pass and live with diabetes. My TriMet pension is $1,454 per month. So far this year, I’ve paid almost $1,400 toward my health care.” Betty: “I am a fifteen-year TriMet employee. Faulty operator seats crushed three of my vertebrae, and I had to have surgery. The constant use of my right leg on the bus pedals ruined my knee, so I’ve had to have it replaced. My pension from TriMet is $748 per month.”
Note, TriMet pensions are NOT part of the state’s Public Employee Retirement System Plan (PERS). Unknown = Information requested but not received.
What we are talking about is economic justice. Corporate America is excessive when it comes to executive compensation. Should our public agencies follow suit? What happens when top management receives compensation far in excess of that received by most of their employees? Does that gap in overall compensation create a sense of superiority or inflated self-worth? Does it taint their relationship with the agency’s workers, customers and the community? We think it does. We believe TriMet has strayed from its mission. We are working with the community to put it back on course – providing the safe, affordable, reliable and sustainable public transportation our community deserves. Sincerely, Your Transit Workers Look for uS on facebook 24
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LET YOUR VOICE COUNT!
≥$2,000 (413)
≤$1,000 (392)
Monthly Payment Distribution for 1,283 Total Union Retirees Learn More aT
TRANSITVOICE.ORG
$1,000$2,000 (478)
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STREET
CANADIAN TUXEDOS DOUBLING DOWN ON DENIM. P H OTOS BY MOR GA N GREEN -HOP KIN S A N D AUTUMN N ORTHCR A FT wweek.com/street
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CULTURE: Curing depression with llamas. FOOD: What Quartet didn’t learn from Lucier’s belly flop. THEATER: The ’60s sci-fi that looks a lot like Portland today. MOVIES: Iron Man 3 comes to the U.S. after storming Indonesia.
Spring Fling Adoption Special May 9 - 1 2
SCOOP
Adopt for the cost of a license!
2
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Dogs $ 5
MultCoPe ts.or g
adoptions•licensing•rescue•investigations
Saturday May 4, 2013 6:00 pm The Historic Yale Union Laundry Building 800 SE 10th
p:ear is celebrating 11 years of engaging, mentoring and transforming the lives of homeless young people. Join us for silent and live auctions, performance, wine and gourmet dinner.
Food and Drink ArgyleWinery, Devil’s Food Catering, House Spirits Distillery, Le Cordon Bleu, New Deal Distillery, Nossa Familia Coffee, Olympic Provisions, Owen Roe Winery, Pear Bureau NW, Portland Creamery, Smith Tea, Tabor Bread, Widmer Bros Brewing, and more Talent Black Prairie, The Circus Project, Kerry Cohen, Johnna Wells
creatively mentoring homeless youth
Tickets: pearmentor.org 503.228.6677
p:ear builds positive relationships with homeless and transitional youth through education, art and recreation to affirm their worth and create more meaningful and healthier lives. You are the key to our success.
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Willamette Week MAY 1, 2013 wweek.com
GOSSIP SHOULD HAVE NO FRIENDS. AUTUMN ROSE NORTHCRAFT
Multnomah County Animal Services
CAPPING LAST THURSDAY: Last week, Scoop reported that the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers is cracking down on Portland farmers markets, forcing them to pay licensing fees if they have live music. Turns out kale sellers aren’t the only new target, as Last Thursday is also in ASCAP’s cross hairs. According to Jeff Hilber of Friends of Last MUSIC: Banned on Thursday, organizers of the Alberta Street. monthly Alberta Arts street fair received a $3,682 bill from ASCAP. Hilber says volunteers were threatened with lawsuits if the fees were not paid. In an email, Hilber claims the fees collected from nonprofit events such as Last Thursday are only distributed among ASCAP’s top 200 sellers. “Not one dollar collected benefits the local musicians that play at open-air venues,” he writes. “Will ASCAP go after the 7-year-old violin buskers next?” ASCAP had no immediate comment. PARTY POD: The Green Castle food-cart pod at Northeast 20th Avenue and Everett Street may soon have booze to go with its tobacco smoke. Bryan Killoren, owner of Plow food cart, has applied for a beer and wine license with the intention of opening a four- or five-table beer garden at his cart, next to Nargila Garden hookah cart. “If the legalities work out,” Killoren says, “Ian [Griffonwyd, owner of the hookah cart] is going to have a second 21-and-up area.” The cart pod also has plans for live music, mostly acoustic, it hopes won’t unduly disturb the neighborhood. “It’s going to be an awesome summer,” Killoren says. NOT AS CLOSED AS YOU THINK: The Bitter End Pub, the popular Timbers fan hangout at 1981 W Burnside St., surprised patrons by closing in the offseason. But apparently the bar is undergoing a renovation and will be reborn this year, according to a liquor-license application. Dwayne Beliakoff, founder of food cart-turned-glass-cube-in-the-park-burger joint Violetta, is performing the facelift and is also part owner. (Note: The defunct Violetta’s website also promises a new downtown iteration.) >> In unrelated news: Rampant Web rumors of the demise of Northeast 82nd Avenue’s critically lauded Simply Vietnamese have also been greatly exaggerated. Simply Vietnamese remains open, though the restaurant is sporting new evening hours, from 5 pm to midnight. 50 SHADES OF GUS: Since scenes of Fifty Shades of VAN SANT Grey take place in downtown’s Heathman Hotel, perhaps it’s fitting that local auteur Gus Van Sant is lobbying to direct the film version of the “mommy porn” novel. According to Hollywood blog the Wrap, Van Sant has already shot a sex scene with Alex Pettyfer (a stripper in Magic Mike) as part of his bid for the project. Van Sant just missed the chance to direct a Twilight movie in 2011, so helming Fifty Shades—which began as fan-fiction of that vampire series—would be a nice consolation prize.
MORGAN GREEN-HOPKINS
Cats $ 1
29 33 48 53
HEADOUT A A R O N K AT H M A N
WILLAMETTE WEEK
WHAT TO DO THIS WEEK IN ARTS & CULTURE
WEDNESDAY MAY 1 PROJECT VIEWFINDER [FILM] For the past several months, the NW Film Center has taught filmmaking skills to a group of young people transitioning out of homelessness. Tonight, the 11 newly minted auteurs present their short films, which spotlight their personal stories. NW Film Center’s Whitsell Auditorium, 1219 SW Park Ave., 2211156. 6 pm. Free.
THURSDAY MAY 2 DANIEL H. WILSON [BOOKS] Wilson has a Ph.D. in robotics, and his 2011 novel Robopocalypse has been sold to DreamWorks (though Steven Spielberg, once slated to direct, has postponed plans). He’s a smart fellow, and tonight he talks about how to sell stories to Hollywood. Literary Arts, 925 SW Washington St., 227-2583. 7 pm. Free. DOWNTON ABBEY PUB QUIZ [TRIVIA] How good are your recollections of Badger Counting Day? Honestly, Sybil, there’s only been three seasons of Downton Abbey, you should remember. Test your literacy of the popular British TV show at the Mission Theater. Spoiler alert: everyone dies. Mission Theater, 1624 NW Glisan St., 223-4527. 6 pm doors, 7 pm trivia. $5 in advance, $8 day of. 21+.
MUD RUSH WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW TO WATCH THIS WEEKEND’S 100-MILE RALLY RACE. Logging trucks and mushroom hunters, beware: This weekend, souped-up Subarus will be spinning up gravel and flying over potholes in the Columbia River Gorge. The Oregon Trail Rally, a series of races that take place on asphalt and gravel roads throughout Oregon, draws more than 70 teams for a three-day race across 100 miles of terrain, starting on the track at Portland International Raceway, traversing logging roads around Hood River and ending on Main Street in Dufur. All cars are street legal, and all roads are real roads that average drivers travel. But while we might take the corners at 25 mph, rally drivers will hit them at 60. Here’s what Dave Henderson, a privateer driver who has raced in the Oregon Trail Rally for the past four years, says spectators need to know. Now you see it... The rally isn’t just for drivers—spectators are welcome, though it’s not worth staking out a spot in the sticks. “Rally is not the easiest thing to go watch,” Henderson says. “You hear a car coming, and then all of a sudden the car comes and then they
FRIDAY MAY 3
hit the brakes, go around the corner and then they’re gone.” At the Oregon Trail Rally, spectators are better off watching the in-town stages from spectator stands at PIR, as well as in Hood River and Dufur. Need for speed... The rally is split into three classes: “open,” which allows modifications under the hood (“those are the half-million-dollar cars,” says Henderson); “super production,” all-wheel drive with limited modifications (like Henderson’s 2004 Subaru STI); and “two-wheel drive.” Once the race has started, a codriver reads a series of notes to the driver, warning about tricky corners. Cars start a minute apart. The winner is determined by who has the lowest overall time after 17 stages. Perfect makes perfect... Unless they can pay to close roads, drivers don’t practice. “In rally, there’s no practice,” Henderson says. “The top guys do. They’ll go out on country roads and close it proper. But with privateers, your first taste of gravel at speed is the very first stage of the day.” KAITIE TODD. GO: The Oregon Trail Rally begins at Portland International Raceway, 1940 N Victory Blvd., on Friday, May 3. 6 pm. $10. The rally continues Saturday, May 4, at Hood River County Fairgrounds, 3020 Wyeast Road, Odell. 9 am. $10. The rally ends on Main Street in Dufur on Sunday, May 5. 10 am. $10.
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING [THEATER] The Social Shakespeare project brings the Bard to your bedside. Over the weekend, performers will use Twitter and Facebook to tell the unfurling story of two pairs of lovers. This could be as good as the fake Downton Abbey Facebook newsfeed that went viral... or not. Visit socialshakespeare.org for details. All day Friday-Sunday. Free.
SATURDAY MAY 4 PORTLAND AFOOT MYSTERY ADVENTURE GAME [GAMES] A game for the publictransportation savvy, Portland Afoot sends participants all over the city to solve the mystery of who killed the fictional Faire Lesquare. Teams will use TriMet and social media to track clues, intercept parcels and solve the mystery. Portland Afoot is offering a free one-year TriMet pass to a randomly drawn participant who completes a list of quests and other prizes to teams who finish the game. 10 am-4 pm. Preregistration required at portlandafoot.org/game. BEST NEW BAND SHOWCASE [MUSIC] Blue-collar post-punk, psychedelic freakouts and “moron rock”: Experience the sound of Portland music in 2013 in person, with performances from Best New Band finalists the Woolen Men, Sun Angle and the We Shared Milk. Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi Ave., 288-3895. 9 pm. Free. 21+. Willamette Week MAY 1, 2013 wweek.com
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HISTORY YINA KIM
CULTURE
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Portlanders are slow to part with public relics. Rather than phase out the iron hitching rings that line our curbs from the days when people actually rode horses in Portland, the city repairs and replaces them so creative types can tie up plastic toys. Rather than install new water fountains that can be turned on and off, we allow the Benson Bubblers to endlessly burble treated water into our sewage system. And rather than remove our old pay phones, as cities like Boulder and the entire state of Alaska have done, we allow blue-and-yellow dinosaurs to sit mostly unnoticed. “There’s a phone booth there?” asks Gino, a self-proclaimed old-timer at Belmont Inn, sipping a pale ale through his graying mustache on a recent weekday afternoon. “I didn’t even know— thought they took those out a long time ago.” Last September, “they” almost did. Though unprofitable pay phones have been steadily removed by the companies that own them, the City Council voted on a proposal to terminate Portland’s contract with two companies running its public phones. In the end, the city renewed both contracts, cashing in on a $4,000 cut of the quarters and foiling groups like the Irvington Community Association, which had rallied to have a booth beside the 15th Avenue Hophouse removed because it’s allegedly used by drug dealers. No one pays much attention to the phones— neither City Hall nor either contracting company could even provide a list of current pay-phone locations—but a recent project by the New Tickets start at $35 Museum in New York grabbed our attention. NYC 1993: Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star employs 5,000 pay phones across New York to relay what life in the city was like in 1993. Callers there dial a 1-800 number from each location
and hear a monologue from someone like chef Mario Batali, porn star Robin Byrd, legendary club kid James St. James, actor Chazz Palminteri or Yankees pitcher Jim Abbott. Portland is not so large nor nearly so dense with celebrity and history as New York, and Willamette Week has fewer resources than the New Museum. But we were inspired to transform five Portland pay phones into little portals to the past. You could, we know, dial these numbers from anywhere to hear locals tell tales of turn-of-thecentury murders, clandestine communist meetups, and ’90s crackheads. But, trust us, it’s more fun from the pay phones themselves—even if it does cost a couple quarters. Belmont: The phone is on the southeast corner of Southeast 34th Avenue and Belmont Street. You’ll hear about the old days along Belmont, once a line of dingy bars and light industry. Dial 503-445-3656. Pioneer Courthouse Square: Next to the bike racks on the corner of Southwest Broadway and Morrison Street, near the entrance to Abercrombie & Fitch, are three phone booths. Dial in to hear about the corner’s haunting history, which includes the time when Pioneer Courthouse Square was “Villard’s Ruins” and a mysterious blood trail led into the half-built Portland Hotel. Dial 503-445-3648. Portland State University: Learn about Michael J. Smith, the man for whom Portland State University’s student union is named, a trivia genius with cystic fibrosis and an affinity for horse meat. The booth stands beside the Smith Memorial Student Union, on the west side of Southwest Broadway, where it meets Harrison Street, below an overpass that reads, “Let knowledge serve the city.” Dial 503-445-2751. Paranoid Park: If O’Bryant Square doesn’t ring a bell, its other name might. Through the pay phone mounted next to Smart Park’s entrance on Southwest Stark Street, between 9th and Park avenues, a throng of “transient folks” smelling of bong smoke will explain the square’s nickname. We don’t recommend visiting it alone at night. Dial 503-445-1534. Tom Burns’ soapbox: In the 1920s, Tom Burns, the “Mayor of Burnside,” ran socialist meetings and delivered soapbox rants on this corner. Hear about this Occupy precursor denouncing city fathers. Call from two phone booths at the southeast corner of Southwest 4th Avenue and Alder Street. Dial 503-445-2756.
LLAMAS
CULTURE
DESPITE CELEBRITY STATUS, A LOCAL THERAPY LLAMA CONTINUES HIS CHARITABLE WORK. BY JO H N LO C A N T H I
243-2122
Animal therapy is big and getting bigger. Veterans returning from the Bush Wars are raising dogs to cope with post-traumatic stress disorder, and recent studies show that animals reduce anxiety levels in mental institutions. The most common animal for this therapy is the ever-reliable dog. But in Portland, we are blessed with llamas, including Rojo and Smokey, two certified therapy llamas, owned by Lori Gregory and Shannon Hendrickson of Mtn Peaks Therapy Llamas and Alpacas. In recent months, Rojo has become a minor celebrity, earning mention on CNN, Huffington Post, KOIN and a host of other outlets. Local designer and Project Runway winner Seth Aaron Henderson even designed costumes for Rojo. Instead of smugly pointing out that we knew Rojo before he was cool—WW named him “best llama” way back in 2010—we revisited his practice in preparation for National Anxiety and Depression Week, which runs May 5-11. While primarily tasked with watching Rojo work with his regular clients, as an underemployed recent college grad living with my mother in the suburbs, I hoped Rojo might be able to help me with my freelancer’s ennui. On this day, Rojo is working at the Serendipity Center, a school for children and adolescents struggling with mental illness and behavioral problems. I’m greeted at the door by the school’s executive director, Belinda Marier, who leads me down the hall to the game room. Hanging next to the door is a white sheet of paper with two words scrawled across it: “LLAMA ROOM.” A proud, auburn-furred llama stands in the middle of a crowd of excited children, faculty and his two handlers. This is the famed Rojo. As I enter, the llama stands
about shoulder-height to me, but he perks up as I step closer. The flowery antennae atop his head—part of his spring costume— make us almost even, though he holds a slight advantage in furriness. “It’s just about time for another haircut,” Gregory says. “He gets those once a year.” “Sometimes when we’re grooming him, we find little knots and braids tied by the children,” she adds. Excited children filter in and out of the llama room, some in groups, others solo. Some faculty members sneak in to give Rojo a hug as well. Normally he would be visited by individual classes, but today is a special event: the spring dance. Despite the visits being less organized, Rojo faces it with a stoic vacancy. “You sure love petting him there,” Hendrickson says to me. Looking down, I realize I’ve been subconsciously running my fingers through the thick hair along Rojo’s lower back while watching the children hug and pet him. The fur is thick yet soft and surprisingly dander-free. It is like petting my cat, without fear of hisses, scratches or bites. “Most llamas don’t like it when you pet them back there or on their head,” Gregory tells me as my petting continues unabated. “But Rojo doesn’t mind.” “The strongest part of a llama’s body is its neck,” says one excited blond adolescent. The door swings open and an adolescent with a blanket over his head walks in with his teacher. After much coaxing, he begins to pet Rojo on the side. Then he gives the llama a hug. Then he shakes hands with everyone in the room. After he leaves, the remaining faculty and trainers look at each other in wide-eyed astonishment. “That was fantastic,” Marier says. The school director slides a carrot between her teeth and gives Rojo a big “kiss” on the lips. Hendrickson points out that I am petting Rojo again. Rojo, along with Gregory and Hendrickson’s other therapy llamas and alpacas, has been involved with the Serendipity Center for five years. Marier and Gregory finish each other’s sentences as they talk about
KURT ARMSTRONG
SOFTER THAN PROZAC
ME LLAMA ROJO: John Locanthi experiences pure llama bliss on a casual Friday at the WW office.
the years of llama visitations. Many of the children at the center have developed a relationship with Rojo, from the pedantic llama expert to the shy kid below the blanket to the little girl who bursts into the room and gives him a kiss. The kids lead him out of the llama room and onto the dance floor. Amid the dark lighting, Rojo is unfazed as a swarm of children dance around and pet him. Throughout the duration of Rojo’s visit, he didn’t make any quick movements. He didn’t spit. He didn’t even make a noise— perhaps why the Peruvians call llamas “our silent brothers.” He stood. He ate out
of our hands when offered. He followed when led by a leash. He stood a bit taller to compete with me for dominance. But, as you look into his beautiful, cowlike eyes, there’s something to be said for just having a big, calm, fuzzy animal around when you need one. After the dance, Rojo steps into the back of Gregory’s silver Town & Country and buries his face in a mound of hay, spreading it over the front two seats. It’s time to take his therapeutic practice elsewhere. PET: For more information about Rojo the Therapy Llama, go to rojothellama.com.
Hey you two, get a ring Willamette Week MAY 1, 2013 wweek.com
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TR Y ON A PA IR TO EN TE R!
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FOOD & DRINK
Ay, Fiesta! Cinco de Mayo!
= WW Pick. Highly recommended. By KAITIE TODD. PRICES: $: Most entrees under $10. $$: $10-$20. $$$: $20-$30. $$$$: Above $30. Editor: MARTIN CIZMAR. Email: dish@wweek.com. See page 3 for submission instructions.
SATURDAY, MAY 4 Pasta From Scratch
Learn how to make fresh pasta at this three-hour, hands-on class. Participants will not only learn the different pasta shapes, but also what texture pasta should have and how to make it at home. Portland Culinary Workshop, 807 N Russell St., 512-0447. 9 am-noon. $45.
Japanese Sweet Tea Tasting
Traditional Japanese tea sweets are paired with matcha green tea at the Jasmine Pearl’s Tea Sweet event. Gene Renaud, owner of Yume Confections, will answer questions about tea sweets, and the Jasmine Pearl will provide samples of sweets and matcha tea. The Jasmine Pearl Tea Merchants, 724 NE 22nd Ave., 236-3539. 10 am. $25. All ages.
SUNDAY, MAY 5 FredFest
Coming back for its eighth year, this birthday celebration is for legendary local beer writer Fred Eckhardt. The party at Hair of the Dog Brewing includes 18 craft beers from Oregon breweries, birthday cake and food pairings. Hair of the Dog, 61 SE Yamhill St., 232-6585. 2 pm. $75. 21+.
MONDAY, MAY 6 Portland Bubbles Week
Love bubbles? Argyle Winery kicks off Portland Bubbles Week, celebrating sparkling wines throughout Portland with a series of bubbleinspired workshops, food pairings and parties. Attendees can sample Salt & Straw’s new Argyle Brut sorbet and check out the pop-up bubbles garden at Cartopia. Various times and locations through May 13. See pdxbubbles.com for a schedule.
TUESDAY, MAY 7 Flavors of My World
A meal and book-signing in honor of Maneet Chauhan’s new book, Flavors of My World. Meet the chef, known for her appearances on Food Network’s Chopped and Iron Chef, and try a specialty cocktail, appetizer, entree and dessert
at Quartet (see review, page 33). Reservations required. Quartet, 1910 SW River Drive, 222-7300. 6 pm. $95.
Prizes & Fun! Fans, select the special! www.facebook.com/ LorenasMexicanRestaurant
Taste of the Nation
Check out drink and dish samples from more than 40 restaurants, 30 beverage vendors and top chefs, winemakers, brewers and distillers from around Portland. The event supports Share Our Strength, an organization that seeks to end childhood hunger. Crystal Ballroom, 1332 W Burnside St., 225-0047. 6:30 pm. $85. 21+.
4 CHEAP BURRITOS Taqueria Lindo Michoacan
4035 SE Division St., 313-6864. The flour shell at this food cart, which recently moved a few blocks east to the corner of Southeast 41st Avenue and Division Street, is the key to its awesome burritos ($5). The flour tortillas come off the griddle with a little char thick enough to maintain structural integrity but thin enough to offer a glimpse of the greasy, reddishorange goodness inside.
Pepino’s
914 NW 23rd Ave. and 3832 SE Hawthorne Blvd., pepinos.org. The Thai burrito ($4.65, add chicken for $1.99 or steak for $2.35) is hot, sweet and fruity with pineapple salsa. Even a weird pink “tomato” tortilla does nothing to dissuade us.
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La Sirenita
2817 NE Alberta St. 335-8283. It’s big. It’s greasy. It falls apart with one bite, splattering globs of meat, onions, beans, cheese and ranchero sauce on the tray below. In other words, La Sirenita’s Special Burrito ($6) is everything a burrito should be.
Tienda Santa Cruz
8630 N Lombard St., 286-7302. This St. Johns bakery, butcher shop and Mexican grocery with a restaurant in back has perfected the science of deliciousness delivery with forearm-size burritos ($4-$5) filled with grilled and spiced meats.
Lavish Buffets Traditional Indian Cuisine Delight in All-You-Can-Eat or A la Carte Exotic Dishes of Lamb, Chicken, Goat
Gluten-Free, Vegetarian, Vegan options
DRANK
EL CUATRO (THE ALE APOTHECARY) The Ale Apothecary’s Paul Arney revels in making concoctions that are tough to wrap your head around. The former Deschutes brewer, who now works alone in a small barn outside Bend, outdid himself with the mysterious El Cuatro. The base for this 11.9 percent ABV “mixed fermentation ale” includes two malts and no hops. After a year in brandy barrels with Brettanomyces and other wild yeast, that base was blended with another Ale Apothecary beer, Sahalie, which includes Cascade hops. The final product is intended to sit for another year before drinking, but I couldn’t resist popping a $25 wine-sized bottle purchased recently at Beer Mongers. The carbonation is already right, as the cork pops loudly and a gentle pour yields a supple froth. It’s a bready and wild brew that smells like the sidewalk outside a French bakery and tastes like a fizzy cocktail made with pear brandy and Grand Marnier. I don’t get it, but I like it. Recommended. MARTIN CIZMAR.
Namaste Parkrose since 2009
8303 NE Sandy Blvd 503-257-5059 Vancouver since 2001
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FOOD & DRINK VIVIANJOHNSON.COM
REVIEW
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Robert Ham maps the fringes of Portland music. Biweekly on wweek.com ORE. BERTO: Rigoberto’s torta al pastor.
RIGOBERTO’S Rigoberto comes from a family that is large and well known, if not especially prestigious. Sitting snugly against a tire shop across from Grocery Outlet on Highway 99E in Milwaukie, Rigoberto’s Mexican Restaurant is as inconspicuous as any divey 24-hour burrito joint with a Order this: Al pastor torta large red and yellow sign can be. ($4.50) drowned in tomatillo with some peppers from the heat tray. But if you know the genre of resI’ll pass: Fish tacos ($2.20), which taurant signified by the “-berto” are basically one deep-fried fish suffix—in the Southwest they’re stick buried in cabbage. as ubiquitous as coffee shops are in the Northwest—you grow fond of them, and miss them if you don’t see one for a while. Which is why I was so happy to bump into this far-flung cousin just before Cinco de Mayo. The Berto Belt includes hundreds of restaurants stretching from San Diego, across Arizona, to Albuquerque, N.M. The original Roberto’s—probably the last named after an actual person—opened in 1964 in San Diego. The largest Berto chain, Arizona-bred Filiberto’s, has more than 60 locations. I’m also acquainted with Aliberto, Isoberto, Rolberto, Roliberto, Humberto, Julioberto and Aliberdo. Berto restaurants share more than syllables, though they’re independent. The Oregon Rigoberto’s chain, which includes shops in Corvallis and Bend (“yeah, we’re the same as the other Rigoberto’s but not all those weird ones,” said the Milwaukie cashier), may or may not be related to five Rigoberto’s shops in San Diego (Phone calls to the shop went unanswered.) Quality varies, but the best Bertos define a subgenre of cheap, greasy Mexican fare. Rigoberto’s very solid take employs deepfried rolled tacos (three plain with cheese for $2.70 or cheese and guacamole for $3), massive burritos filled with crispy carne asada ($5.20), and plates of “machaca,” beef seasoned with ground chilies and mixed with scrambled eggs, then served on a plate with rice and beans ($7.10). All Bertos have a free salsa bar (don’t miss Rigoberto’s sweet and salty tomatillo) and liberally apply the same thin, creamy guacamole sauce to almost everything. They’re either open just past last call or, like Rigoberto’s, never close. So maybe it’s not totally unlike Muchas Gracias—though that other local chain is missing bright orange pork al pastor ($5.20 in a burrito, $2.50 in a massive street taco with soft corn tortillas). Pastor, Mexico’s answer to the gyro, is Rigoberto’s best offering, especially below thin strands of shredded lettuce and cheddar cheese on the wide, flat and sweet griddle-toasted sandwich buns that make the tortas ($4.30-$4.50) so wonderful. And Muchas Gracias doesn’t quite have the atmosphere of Rigoberto’s, where the constant din of an alarm managed to drown out banda music on a recent visit, and the cashier spoke perfect English to us then dropped into the monotone Spanish accent favored by Mexican street vendors as she called out the order to the kitchen crew. And then there was a methy-looking white guy in a gray goatee and grubby brown overalls, trying to sell a laptop to strangers in line. “I found this,” he said. “It’s Windows 7.” I did not need a laptop of dubious origin; I did, however, need that torta from an amigo I haven’t seen in far too long. MARTIN CIZMAR. EAT: Rigoberto’s, 15855 SE McLoughlin Blvd., Milwaukie. 659-8124. Open 24 hours. $.
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FOOD & DRINK AMAREN COLOSI
WAY OFF-KEY QUARTET TRIES TO BRING TRUE FINE DINING TO PORTLAND. BY M IC H A E L C . Z U SM AN 24 3 - 21 2 2
In this unicorns-and-rainbows town, all the food carts are fabulous, and free-spirited chefs never fail to deliver mealtime magic on the cheap. Sycophants cheer the indie scene with the shrill fervor of a Swiftie getting a backstage pass to one of Taylor’s shows. But behind the chorus of selfcongratulation, Portland has a dirty little secret: Unlike other sizeable cities, Portland lacks a fine-dining culture. The young creative class that has flocked here in recent years gives high-end dining the cold shoulder as older and well-heeled locals open their wallets in New York, Paris or anywhere Michelin stars twinkle. Which brings us to Quartet—riverfront heir to Lucier, the most colossal face plant in the history of Portland fine dining. Even before Quartet opened, the foodie crowd ranted as though a Wal-Mart had been targeted for Southeast 20th Avenue and Division Street. One writer—breakINSIDE THE MOAT: Quartet’s dramatic dining room has just as much flourish as its predecessor, ing accepted protocol if not news—trashed the place in a Lucier, which famously featured a hamster-sized lazy river flowing through it. review filed from a free media preview dinner. Anonymous blog commentators piled on, one deeming Quartet unwor- hamburger ($16 on the bar menu)? The misshapen wagyu the pretender I got—a satisfactory mix of lettuces, jicama beef patty was partly medium-rare as ordered, partly raw. and pine nuts in a light sweet-tart dressing—is now called a thy of patronage based solely on its online menu. Quartet deserves praise for wanting to fill the fine- And the accompaniments surpassed creative, skipping “Q Salad” ($10), displacing a prior version of the “Q Salad.” dining void and help Portland realize its full gastronomic directly to bizarre: fried green tomato, roasted chilies, Another salad snafu: The spinach in the wilted-spinach potential. The view of the Willamette River just steps arugula, Gorgonzola and “Dijon caramelized onion aioli.” salad ($13) wasn’t wilted, probably because the bacon dressing designed to do the wilting wasn’t hot. Yes, I’m confused beyond floor-to-ceiling windows is peerless. The décor Might as well call it the Cheech & Chong burger. is stunning, from soft, luxurious chairs to thick carpeting Worse: a Dungeness crab cake that arrived with the too—by this and a menu the kitchen seems unable to master. to striking chandeliers hanging from the high ceiling. I iodine reek of cheap brown gulf shrimp, which, I surmise, Even the wine-by-the-glass list is odd, failing to disclose the can’t think of a more dramatic venue to were chopped and blended with the vintage of any of the numerous options. take first-time visitors, especially in the crab. An entree portion runs $38; as The trick to a satisfying meal at Quartet is to pretend summer, when the river and waterfront Order this: Frank’s fried lobster, hold one component of “The Quartet” entree you are at El Gaucho, where many of the staff formerly reveal themselves as the buzzy, beating the sauce ($55). ($65), one of these sorry cakes comes worked. Order the standards: Caesar salad ($16, two-perBest deal: Happy-hour nibbles ($7, heart of the city. with a small filet, a decent-sized fried son minimum), prepared tableside; steak, including a filet 3-6 pm and 9 pm-close MondayQuartet is also unequaled for a Saturday, all day Sunday). lobster tail and whipped potatoes. The mignon ($45) or porterhouse ($59), each of which comes romantic night out, with everyone all I’ll pass: Dungeness crab cakes ($38). lobster tail (as a solo entree, $55) gets a with a choice of potato; and tableside bananas Foster ($12, dressed up and a jazz quartet noodling promising tempura treatment, but the two-person minimum). Not ambitious, but enjoyable. gently in the background. Let’s face it: If crunch and delicate sweetness of the Against a backdrop of resistance to formality and the company is great and the evening special, all else tends shellfish were defeated by a splotch of thick, spicy “sauce expense, Quartet has taken on the Herculean task of perto fade into the background. étoufée.” Clumsy balancing of flavors also marred a decent suading Portlanders to embrace a high-end restaurant. The But, of course, this is Portland, where you can have a pan-roasted chicken breast ($31). The accompanying goat lessons were there to be learned from Lucier’s failure, but splendid meal for $25, while Quartet will run you $100. To cheese grits were fine, but the abundant “maple vinegar they appear to have gone unheeded. Sandwich shops and have any chance of winning over recalcitrant locals, the sauce” tasted like something you pour over pancakes. food carts, have no fear: The development of a fine-dining food at Quartet has to be even more compelling than the On one visit, I was served a “chopped salad” that bore no culture is still stuck in the Stumptown mud. atmosphere. resemblance to a chopped salad—notwithstanding my servIt has a long way to go. er’s offer to “have the kitchen chop it up for you.” Coinciden- EAT: Quartet, 1910 SW River Drive, 222-7300, quartetpdx.com. 3-11 pm Monday-Thursday, 3 pm-midnight Friday-Saturday, Let’s start with this: How on earth do you screw up a tally or not, the chopped salad is no longer on the menu, and 3-10 pm Sunday. $$$$.
! y b a
B y e
H
Karaoke 9pm nightly Hydro Pong Saturday night
I get HAPPY 4-6pm Tues-Fri $3 menu
Tuesdstaryy: Fun Indu Night!
Dragon Lounge
Chinese-American Restaurant
2610 SE 82nd at Division 503-774-1135 Ho Ti
Read our story: canton-grill.com
Would you like a chance to show off your baby in 80,000 issues of Willamette Week? In the May 22nd & May 29th issues, we’ll showcase 12 babies as a part of WW’s Wee Ones! Please submit a photo* of your wee one (0-12 months) including name, birth date, and 3 shops you frequent for all your baby needs to Ckuppler@wweek.com. *All submissions must have proper copyright ownership Willamette Week MAY 1, 2013 wweek.com
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MUSIC
MAY 1–7 PROFILE
= WW Pick. Highly recommended.
COURTESY OF CHARLIE SALAS-HUMARA
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.
WEDNESDAY, MAY 1 K’s Choice, A Fragile Tomorrow
[FOLK-GRUNGE] It would be unfair to call K’s Choice a one-hit wonder. “Not an Addict,” the lone hit from the 1996 album Paradise in Me, still finds its way into alt-rock radio playlists, and most would be hard-pressed to name another K’s Choice single. But Paradise in Me is filled with gems, like the New Wave-inspired “Iron Flower” and the folksy, melancholy slow jam “Wait.” Through the late ’90s, K’s Choice drifted from Garbage and Hole territory into less-inspired realms, exemplified by a tour supporting Alanis Morissette and an appearance on Buffy. Eventually, the group realized it was wearing its own originality thin and went on hiatus. The band’s reunion album, Echo Mountain, released in 2010, maintains an emotional tenor somewhere between Christian folk rock and Harry Chapin. Don’t forget what this tour is: a reunion where the crowd respectfully smiles at the millennial singles while praying “Not an Addict” is the encore. MITCH LILLIE. Doug Fir Lounge, 830 E Burnside St., 231-9663. 9 pm. $15. 21+.
THURSDAY, MAY 2 Bonobo, El Ten Eleven
JEAU BREEDLOVE
[DOWNTEMPO] U.K. producer Simon Green, aka Bonobo, came onto the scene in 1999 with the flowing downtempo single “Terrapin,” mingling enough bass, sitar and samples to soothe any comedown. Bonobo’s organic sound has lost its lo-fi edge since then, but higher production values have meant collaborations with vocalists like Erykah Badu, Bajka and Andreya Triana. The North Borders, released this March, is more chopped and rhythmic than previous releases,
but a sense of wonder and magic remains. “Heaven for the Sinner” is the album’s finest hour, with Badu’s voice lilting over a soft break beat and twinkling bells. It might not be heaven, but it’s certainly some kind of otherworldly paradise. MITCH LILLIE. Crystal Ballroom, 1332 W Burnside St., 2250047. 9 pm. $20 advance, $23 day of show. All ages.
Whitehorse, Santi Elijah Holley
[JOHNNY AND JUNE FOLK] Married musicians often have an unrivaled dynamic balance, one that plays on sexual tension and frustration. Such is the case with Ontario’s Whitehorse. Less than 3 years old, the folk-rock venture of Luke Doucet and Melissa McClelland dips into genres like you sample flavors at Salt & Straw. On the most recent release, The Fate of the World Depends on This Kiss, the duo jumps between gentle fingerpicking and beguiling two-part harmonies to distorted spaghetti Western music that would fit nicely into a modern Sergio Leone spinoff. Other numbers showcase Doucet’s Cash’d-out grit and rockabilly appeal, while McClelland continually spouts her sassy, unbridled vocals atop the blues-infused riffs that have made Doucet a contender for the title of the Canadian Jack White. BRANDON WIDDER. Doug Fir Lounge, 830 E Burnside St., 231-9663. 9 pm. $10. 21+.
Metz, White Lung, WL
[ALL CAPS, NO BULLSHIT] Metz doesn’t sound like a trio. The songs on the Toronto band’s debut fulllength, released last year on Sub Pop, are thick, gristly and feel like the product of one of those groups that piles guitar players onstage apropos of nothing. Sure, much of the credit
TOP FIVE
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BY M ATTH E W SI N GER
FIVE SUPER-OBSCURE BEST NEW BAND VOTE-GETTERS Gazooka Bazooka Apparently, someone or something by that name played the Foggy Notion in March. That’s all we know, but c’mon: You’re just happy to live in a city where something called “Gazooka Bazooka” exists. Wormbag It’s befuddling that a band signed to the venerable Snot Boogie label, with song titles like “Never Play an Acoustic Set” and “Sucka Nuts,” wouldn’t receive more votes, but then, some of our “music insiders” are just more inside than others. Jeau Breedlove He’s actually developed a bit of a rep in Portland’s queer-rap scene, which means, in terms of obscurity, he is basically neck and neck with Beau Breedlove. Gunga Galunga If you were hoping this was some kind of Caddyshack tribute act, sorry, it’s an instrumental jazz ensemble. For any bands looking for a good gimmick, though, Caddyshack tribute act is still available! Bone Voyagists A Google search turns up no results, so we probably got trolled here, but no matter: If “Bone Voyagists” isn’t a real band by this time next year, I’ll be severely disappointed.
AIR-GUITAR LESSONS: Charlie Salas-Humara (left) with his uncle Walter, circa 1991.
FAMILY FUNCTION MEET THE SALAS-HUMARAS. BY MATTHEW SIN GER
msinger@wweek.com
Walter Salas-Humara and Charlie Salas-Humara have nothing in common. Well, except for the last name, of course. And Charlie’s dad, who happens to be Walter’s brother. In musical terms, though, they don’t seem to exist on the same planet, let alone within the same family. Charlie is a hyperprolific Portland sound scientist, making his name in the mid-aughts with electro-pop favorites Panther and currently warping minds with noise collagists Regular Music, psych-punk globetrotters (and Best New Band finalists) Sun Angle, and his solo synth project, Grapefruit. Walter, meanwhile, is the lead singer and songwriter of alt-country pioneers the Silos. Other than achieving cult status within their respective universes, the only thing these musicians appear to share is DNA. For one night this week, however, they’ll share a stage as well. It’s hard to imagine what they’d have to talk about backstage, so we decided to find out, by having Charlie ask his uncle a few questions about his songwriting, his influence on the Americana scene and, naturally, his dog art. Charlie Salas-Humara: What were the first shows you saw? How did it affect you and did it steer you toward your sound? Walter Salas-Humara: The first show I saw as a kid was the Allman Brothers in 1970 after they released their Idlewild South album. They combined so many exciting elements: great blues singing, amazing guitar interplay, cool songs and jazzy drumming. They had short and to-the-point songs like “Midnight Rider,” and when they wanted to extend, like in “Memory of Elizabeth Reed,” they did so with well-thought-out melodic sections. They were jams for sure, but they always had a composed harmonic buildup. I still think these guys were, and perhaps still are, the best example of a combination of the great American music styles: blues, rock and jazz. They definitely set a bar that is worth striving for.
How has your sound changed from when you started the Silos in 1985? How would you describe it now? Initially, my music was just what I could come up with on guitar given my limited ability and what I was able to learn as I plodded along. In the next phase, I became interested in storytelling and the literal meaning of the words, and working with traditional melodic structures. During this time I focused on natural instruments and organic sounds. Then, in a third stage, I was writing a lot of background music for films, and those albums reflect the new technology and a more open approach to both music, melody and lyrics. In phase four, I worked in a stripped-down guitar, bass and drums trio format. Then I began writing in collaboration with many other writers and that opened me up to a lot of styles and strategies. Now, I work in all these areas pretty fluidly. The most recent Silos album, Florizona, is certainly the most confident. The Silos album Cuba arguably seems to be your classic record. Why do you think that particular record had an impact on people? That album was probably the best example of a sound that was emerging at the time, what is now known as the alt-country or Americana genre. It was stridently natural and organic in a radio world that was focused on artifice and pomp, so it really stuck out. It has a sound that is free and effortless, though in reality we worked our asses off to get there. When did WaltersDogs start? I started painting early, studied art in college and moved to New York to pursue an art career. Back then I made large, abstract color fields—very mid20th century, in the minimal and abstract styles of the late ’50s, ’60s and early ’70s. When I returned to painting about 10 years ago, I still wanted to make modern paintings. In other words, I wanted them to be two-dimensional, rather than creating illusionistic space. I chose dogs as a subject because the paintings would primarily be given as gifts, and I wanted a subject that everyone could relate to. Yes, there will be a lot of art at the merch table. SEE IT: Walter Salas-Humara and Grapefruit play Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi Ave., with Jerry Joseph and the Jackmormons, on Wednesday, May 1. 9 pm. $12. 21+. Willamette Week MAY 1, 2013 wweek.com
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THURSDAY-FRIDAY
should be shared by the two gents that recorded Metz’s work, but toss a few crumbs to the band for knowing that one more guitar part, a little extra fuzz and vocals overdriven to the hilt are what makes for hair-raising levels of sandblasted punk glory. ROBERT HAM. Holocene, 1001 SE Morrison St., 239-7639. 8:30 pm. $10 advance, $12 day of show. 21+.
The Lonely Forest, Now Now, Pony Village
[DREAMY REVERB ROCK] Listening to Threads, the most recent album from Now Now, you can spot the Eisley influence from a mile away. Everything from the dreamy rock ’n’ roll to the fantastical situations and scenes depicted in the lyrics recall the tone and feel of Eisley’s early work, and when you listen to lead singer Cacie Dalager channel Sherrie DuPree’s vocals, the effect is chilling. But this trio is not an Eisley rip-off, as its material tends to be moodier and more abstract, so much so that Dalager even says she has a hard time explaining what the band’s songs are about. In spite of this, Threads is a hell of a record, and Now Now kicks some serious ass. BRIAN PALMER. Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi Ave., 288-3895. 9 pm. $10 advance, $12 day of show. 21+.
Mord Fustang, Fareoh, Manic Focus, James Renegade, #Partygirl
[SUPER MARIO RAVE] Billing himself as the “up-down-left-rightleft-right-A-B-select-start” of music producers, it almost goes without saying that the Estonian-born Mord Fustang incorporates the video arcade into his sound. The Nintendo generation will surely embrace Fustang’s dance and dubstep creations, which sound a lot like a sped-up trip through Super Mario Bros. 3. Whether you love the digital-collage artist or simply want to understand his mysterious ways, seeing Fustang at smallish Refuge ought to satisfy both accounts. Dude just played Coachella, by the way. MARK STOCK. Refuge, 116 SE Yamhill St. 7 pm. $19.50-$35. 16+.
FRIDAY, MAY 3 Tony Furtado, Kenny White, Dean!
[SINGER-SONGWRITER] Not-justlocal hero Tony Furtado’s most recent release, Live at Mississippi Studios, though obviously recorded live, has a clarity of sound most artists would kill to achieve in the studio. Luminous tones from Furtado’s banjo and guitar, Paul Brainard’s steel guitar and trumpet and Luke Price’s fiddle make the album soar, buoying Furtado’s never better singing, and showcasing his songwriting and instrumental prowess anew. Kenny White, formerly a longtime commercial jingle writer, gifted session pianist, collaborator and producer for the likes of Shawn Colvin and J. Geils frontman Peter Wolf, started making his own records in 2002, revealing his strength as a solo songwriter in an adult-contemporary vein. If this were the ’70s, he’d be making hit records—and that’s not a dis. JEFF ROSENBERG. Alberta Rose Theatre, 3000 NE Alberta St., 719-6055. 8 pm. $15. 21+.
Stereo Total
[ELECTRO-POP] Imagine Peaches’ raunchy irony but made cuter and more lo-fi. This is the sound Françoise Cactus and Brezel Göring have mastered over two decades in Berlin’s playful underground as Stereo Total. Amazingly, they have stayed their strange course over all these years. Their latest effort, 2012’s Cactus Versus Brezel, covers their usual ground from New Wave to jangly garage with lyrics in French, German and heavily accented English. “Die Frau in der Musik” has a driving beat, a synth line to rival any classic French cold
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PROFILE ALEX MILAN TRACY
MUSIC
SORIAH SUNDAY, MAY 5 Inside the golden throat of Portland.
[TUVAN THROAT SINGING] One of the world’s best Tuvan throat singers lives in Portland. His name is Enrique Ugalde— though before explaining who he is, maybe it’s best to explain exactly what it is he’s famous for. “A low and strong guttural buzz with whistlelike melodies over the top, sometimes sounding like a flowing stream and sometimes like a leaf blower,” is how Ugalde describes the oddly hypnotic noises he’s able to make come out of his mouth, all at the same time. “It’s the sound we hear that nature makes.” Ugalde, who studied vocal performance at Cal State University Long Beach, placed third in the International Throat-Singing Symposium in Kyzyl, Tuva, in 2008, the highest ranking for a nonnative. Now he’s bringing his talents to the international stage: He’s about to embark on a European tour performing Tuvan folk songs, which will eventually lead him back to Tuva, where he will appear at a conference on throat-singing and perform with some masters of the form. So how did Ugalde, a taxi driver who grew up in San Francisco, get involved with such an esoteric folk-music tradition? “My friends and I were, especially in the ’90s, very…neo-tribal,” he says. “We were turned on by anything ethnically obscure.” When a friend passed along a mixtape containing the Tuvan group Huun Huur-Tu, Ugalde was instantly fascinated. He took the cassette home and immersed himself in the Khöömei technique, whose organic whir recalls the didgeridoo. Moving to Portland two decades ago, Ugalde—who also goes by Uger Khan, or “Milky Way King” in Tuvan—has turned his fascination into something of a second career. He’s introduced the art of throat singing to a wide variety of stages, from the reality television show America’s Got Talent in 2010 (“They absolutely hated me,” Ugalde laughs) to, more recently, a pool hall in Corpus Christi, Texas. Ugalde aims to tailor each show to the specific audience. “I try to be as present—incorporating the room, the people, what’s going on—during a performance, and I try to express that as truly as possible,” he says. Under the stage name Soriah, Ugalde’s efforts are more modern, combining shamanic ritual performance with what he describes as “big regalia and more contemporary instrumentation.” “With Tuvan throat singing, the big lesson I’ve learned is that it’s basically a reflection of your environment in sound,” he says. “I live in more of a technological world, so I kind of gather what’s around me, and I reflect my environment, the moment, back to itself.” The upcoming competition in Tuva, however—part of a larger event that explores the origins and physical aspects of throat singing—is an opportunity for Ugalde to perform in a traditional folk arena. “In Tuva, they’re just really excited that somebody from the outside has brought so much love to what they do, to their culture, [let alone] somebody from America,” he says. “They’re all trying to be Westerners, and it’s kind of freaky to them that somebody would—I guess, in a sense—revert back to an ancient way.” AMANDA SCHURR.
SEE IT: Soriah plays Star Theater, 13 NW 6th Ave., with Church of Hive, on Sunday, May 5. 9 pm. $10 suggested donation. 21+. Follow Enrique Ugalde’s tour diary at wweek.com.
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FRIDAY-SATURDAY
wave and, of course, an uncouth reference to a certain Führer, while “Nympho-maniaque” goes full-on 8-bit obnoxious. The highlight of the album is “We Don’t Wanna Dance,” in which Cactus itemizes all the hilarious reasons why not: They hate discotheques, they hate to move, they hate to sing along, they aren’t in love, they aren’t in the right mood, they’re late and bored, they prefer to stay in bed, and their bed is big and square. Though sometimes intentionally annoying, Stereo Total’s music is certainly danceable, so if your bed is looking comfy, stay in it. MITCH LILLIE. Doug Fir Lounge, 830 E Burnside St., 2319663. 9 pm. $13 advance, $15 day of show. 21+.
PROFILE COLE CROSSEN
MUSIC
Robin Jackson, Kathryn Claire
[FOLK CHAMELEON] Portland siren Kathryn Claire is something of a musical chameleon, with two very different and highly effective styles of songwriting brought to the fore. Most think of Claire as the rollicking fiddle player and assertive voice behind numerous traditional Celtic projects, including a longtime collaboration with Hank Araki. But there’s also Americana in Claire’s veins, which the performer brings to life with sometimes ethereal, sometimes brooding solo work that has graced stages large and small. Regardless of which hat Claire’s wearing, she’s embedded herself in two very essential folk scenes. Whether she’s singing a traditional jig or lamenting lost love, hers is a voice that has become part of the scene’s very fabric. AP KRYZA. Mississippi Pizza, 3552 N Mississippi Ave., 288-3231. 9 pm. Call for venue for ticket information. 21+.
Bleached
[THE BESTEST COAST] Bethany Cosentino who? Sure, the Best Coast frontwoman may have revived the surfy sounds of depressively sunny California pop-punk earlier, but with Bleached’s Ride Your Heart, Jennifer and Jessica Clavin have just about mastered the formula. Hazy girl-group melodies, strummy guitars and wounded-heart lyrics are far from the garage-y tantrums the sisters threw in their previous group, Mika Miko, but by stripping away the adolescent scuzz of that band’s output, they’ve tapped into something even more infectious: the soundtrack to a punk-rock beach party, which actually happens in the 7-Eleven parking lot across the street. MATTHEW SINGER. Star Theater, 13 NW 6th Ave., 248-4700. 9 pm. $10. 21+.
The Cave Singers, Bleeding Rainbow
[NORTHWESTERN MYSTICS] Morgan Henderson seems to be the quintessential multi-instrumentalist of the Pacific Northwest as of late. Formerly of the Blood Brothers and currently of Past Lives and Fleet Foxes, he has recently taken on bass duties for Seattle’s Cave Singers, expanding the trio beyond its side-project roots on most recent effort Naomi. The newest full-length from the outfit, known for its pastoral, psychedelic folk and rustic instrumental rabble, features the band’s most cordial mix of bright guitars and cheerful melodies of its four albums thus far. Still, vocalist Peter Quirk can’t seem to shake his heavy-handed lyrics, and the stark cynicism bleeds through the shimmery guitar work and slight low-end drive. BRANDON WIDDER. Wonder Ballroom, 128 NE Russell St., 2848686. 9 pm. $16 advance, $18 day of show. 21+.
SATURDAY, MAY 4 Portland Cello Project, School of Rock [BACH TO BECK] Is nothing sacred? It’s deplorable enough that Portland Cello Project has dared to drag the pristine cello down from the august realms of the classical concert stage to the gutter of
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SOOPAH EYPE FRIDAY, MAY 3 [HIP-HOP HERESY] Early on Soopah Eype’s most recent mixtape, El Planeta de los Simios (that’s “Planet of the Apes” for those without access to Google Translate), the Portland rapper drops the line, “I blaspheme every single hip-hop belief.” Not the most unusual expression, especially for an up-andcoming rhymer wanting to stand out from the rest of his peers. Yet there’s something about the unusual combination of conviction and humility this 23-year-old Los Angeles transplant feeds into his delivery that, even after multiple spins, I just couldn’t shake. Speaking to him by telephone recently only cemented the notion that, in a hip-hop universe overrun with puffed-up egos and shiny façades, Soopah Eype (Judah Mobley when he’s not onstage) actually walks it like he talks it. “I’m embarrassed to tell people I’m a rapper sometimes,” Mobley says, taking a break from preparations to film a new video. “There’s this belief that you’re supposed to rap about certain things, and if you don’t, you’re underground. But I don’t say the things that are expected, and I’m not bowing down to this hierarchy that people expect.” El Planeta also bucks trends in its production choices, cooked up by producers Steve French and Doogies the Lion. The tracks feel soft and broken in, with samples of folk guitar lines and minor R&B classics from the late ’60s maintaining a low boil behind the soft sway of the beats. Mobley unfurls over it all, unleashing generous wordplay boasting of his lyrical dexterity while dropping in references to his love of reggae— his chosen handle, pronounced “Super Ape,” is a nod to dub legend Lee “Scratch” Perry’s album of the same name—and a bumpy upbringing that has fueled his creative fire. The rapper was brought to Oregon as a young teen, his mom hoping to keep him away from negative influences in South Central L.A. The two originally moved to Seaside, where trouble ended up finding Mobley, thanks to his own doing and, he says, the uneven racial demographics of the area. “In L.A., I had many doppelgängers, so I could have gotten away with more,” he says. “In Seaside, I was naive to the fact that I was being watched. I did some bad stuff—fighting and tagging—but it was also easy for me to be the scapegoat.” Mobley doesn’t carry any bitterness about the experience, nor that his mom made him a ward of the state while he was doing time with the Oregon Youth Authority. “I learned a lot of things,” he says. “I had to educate myself and learn to get what I want through my work and learn how to express myself in a way that people would take me seriously.” The hip-hop heads of Portland have been relatively slow to pick up on what Soopah Eype has to say, but as young as he is, the hype will probably get even louder as he gains strength as a lyricist and performer. While he waits for the rest of the scene and the world to come around, Mobley will keep moving forward, no matter where that might be. “I just make hip-hop,” he says. “If I lived in Kentucky or wherever, I would still be rapping.” ROBERT HAM. Don’t tell Judah Mobley what to rap about.
SEE IT: Soopah Eype plays East End, 203 SE Grand Ave., with Dre C, C Villain, Dr. Goon, and Slick Devious, on Friday, May 3. 9:30 pm. $5.
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SATURDAY-SUNDAY
MUSIC
Jonathan Byrd Chris Kokesh
C O U R T E S Y O F AT L A N T I C R E C O R D S
Matt Meighan
Tues May 7 7 pm The Secret Society ticketfly.com
QUEEN OF THE MALL-GOTHS: Charli XCX plays Wonder Ballroom on Saturday, May 4. beer-stained bars, rock clubs and other déclassé venues, where casually attired attendees actually talk, dance and imbibe while the music is playing. Even worse, over the past six years, the half-dozen cellists have further defiled the instrument’s purity with squalid rock ’n’ roll, hip-hop and similar perversions, via covers of Radiohead, Britney Spears, Led Zeppelin and Kanye West, among others. Now they’re corrupting the minds of innocent youth by enlisting 10 School of Rock students—yes, on rock instruments!—to desecrate the music of the sainted J.S. Bach, jazz legend Dave Brubeck and some fellow named Beck. In Brahms’ name, where will the madness end? BRETT CAMPBELL. Aladdin Theater, 3017 SE Milwaukie Ave., 234-9694. 8 pm. $20 advance, $22 day of show. Under 21 permitted with legal guardian.
Red Handed 2013 Red Dress Party: DJ Nina Flowers, DJ Jakob Jay, Taco Tuesday, Bruce LaBruiser
[BEDAZZLED BEATS] The raunchy, red-stricted annual fundraiser— this year benefiting Quest Center for Integrative Health and Morrison Child and Family Services—returns for an evening of house music and hiked hemlines. Along with live entertainment for VIP ticket holders (Burlesquire, hip-hop act Bomb Ass Pussy, Nonsense Dance Company, LoveBomb Go-Go Marching Band), the general admission decks will be manned by LGBT dance-night mainstays Jakob Jay, Bruce LaBruiser, Taco Tuesday and Stormy Roxx. This year’s headliner, DJ Nina Flowers, who rose to gay-icon status on the RuPaul reality show circuit ( Drag Race, Drag U), should keep the themed “cell block” under the Hawthorne Bridge spinning—if all that included booze and food doesn’t do the trick. Yes, a red dress is mandatory. No kilts, culottes or other half-assed attire allowed. And yes, you’ll see plenty of ass..and everything else.. AMANDA SCHURR. AudioCinema, 226 SE Madison St., 467-4554. 8 pm VIP, 9 pm general admission. $50 general admission, $150 VIP. 21+.
VietNam, Gap Dream, Small Arms
[REVIVAL ROCK] Indie-scene watchers probably vaguely remember Brooklyn’s VietNam from the early aughts, back when quintessential “hipster” blog Buddyhead could’ve been called a challenger to Pitchfork’s Internet tastemaker throne. The band, led by singersongwriter Michael Garner, had its moment in the sun plying a brand of ‘60s-gazing drug rock in the, um, “vein” of Brian Jonestown Massacre and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. After a 2007 self-titled record, the band vanished into the ether, only to reappear this year with An A.merican D.ream, a bleary-eyed collection of, well, rambly drug rock, marked by loose, shambling arrangements and Garner’s homeless-Dylan ranting. Good to know the more times change, the more some things
stay the same. MATTHEW SINGER. Dante’s, 350 W Burnside St., 2266630. 9 pm. $10. 21+.
Marina and the Diamonds, Charli XCX
[NU-POP] There’s a good chance U.K. ingenue Charli XCX gave away her best song. The 20-year-old singer, born Charlotte Aitchison, wrote and appeared on Icona Pop’s “I Love It,” the shouty kiss-off that’s soundtracked Girls episodes and Jersey Shore spinoffs and Dancing With the Stars routines and been downloaded approximately one gabillion times. That tune’s massiveness looms over True Romance, Aitchison’s much-anticipated, justreleased debut. Nothing on the album quite approaches the instamosh-pit status of “I Love It,” but it’s still a winning piece of dyedblack cotton candy, mashing up mall pop of the past and present with darker hues of contemporary “cloud rap” and streaks of EDM. Even without her biggest hit, there’s a good chance Charli will steal this show from the overblown pastiche of headliner Marina and the Diamonds. MATTHEW SINGER. Wonder Ballroom, 128 NE Russell St., 284-8686. 8 pm. Sold out.
SUNDAY, MAY 5 The Shivas
[CONTEMPORARY SURF] There’s the classic, clean-cut surf music of Dick Dale and the Beach Boys—and then there’s the shaggy, contemporary surf of bands like local fourpiece the Shivas, who spike the genre’s pop with psych and garage for a waterlogged, sand-clogged and sun-dazed feel. If “Surfin’ Safari” sounds like strolling on the Santa Monica pier while eating cotton candy, Whiteout!, the LP the Shivas released on K Records last month, is like loitering on the Venice boardwalk, smoking a joint. JONATHAN FROCHTZWAJG. Alberta Street Public House, 1036 NE Alberta St., 284-7665 Monday, 669 8610 Tuesday. Contact venue for information. Free. 21+.
Pentatonix
[FUCKING A CAPELLA] While media coverage of Pentatonix’s recent rise has thus far veered toward fawning (proof positive of a burgeoning a capella craze) or dismissive (kitsch novelty act spurred on by reality-TV meme), doesn’t the ubiquity of competitive pitchfests and thriving tours from the victors just seem a logical conclusion of the glee-clubbing tweenerbait scene that devoured Top 40 and whelped Justin Timberlake? A medley of hits by JT’s old crew lies among the most viewed clips on Pentatonix’s YouTube channel, though substantially less popular than the career-defining covers of Swedish House Mafia and Lady Gaga. “Telephone” landed the Texas quintet on the third season of NBC’s Sing Off and still feels
CONT. on page 43 Willamette Week MAY 1, 2013 wweek.com
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Anne-Marie Sanderson is a British singersongwriter, now based in Portland. Her music is known as “face-melting” and “mind-blowing.” Employing many alternate tunings, and a selftaught finger picking style, Anne-Marie’s guitar playing is refreshingly unconventional.
JUNE 19�22, 2013 CALGARY, AB
REBECCA PRONSKY SUNDAY 5/6 @ 6 PM
Rebecca Pronsky is a born and raised Brooklynite. Critics say she plays twangy folk that is just as urban as it is rural, without fear of sophistication. She has also been described as a poetic lyricist who sounds more retro than redneck, with an onstage performance that is passionate and wry.
MU SIC & ARTS FESTIVAL
COMMUNITY DAY/SONGWRITERS CIRCLE MONDAY, 5/6 @ 7 PM
Violet Trouper plays the reverb-soaked cinematic songs of Colorado native, Kristin Sidorak. Violet Trouper’s sound cracks the singer-songwriter archetype into fractured noise-folk and high plains drifter twang. Michael Manning has been writing music for many years he writes from the heart, the soul, and from the silly side of being human. As a self-taught unorthodox player with a loyal following, he keeps his public performances selective and few. Jack McMahon is a performing songwriter as well host and organizer of the Music Millennium Songwriters’ Showcase. McMahon has been a working musician for all of his adult life and over the years has fronted some of Portland’s more notable bands (Tracks, The Chameleons, Jack McMahon & Friends).
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JOEL PLASKETT EMERGENCY
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OVER 250 BANDS PLUS FILM, ART & COMEDY ACROSS 30+ VENUES!
GET YOUR FESTIVAL PASSES NOW AT SLEDISLAND.COM
42
Willamette Week MAY 1, 2013 wweek.com
6 Unit.indd 1
2013-04-26 10:57 AM
Don’t miss John Densmore’s book signing for Unhinged on Tues., May 21 at 7 PM! Pick up the book now for guaranteed admission!
MUSIC
TODD COLE
SUNDAY-TUESDAY
CRAIG CAROTHERS LIVE IN CONCERT – FRIDAY MAY 10 – 7:30 PM
WALTERS CULTURAL ARTS CENTER 527 E. Main Street – Downtown Hillsboro, OR 97123 – 503-615-3485
“Smart, memorable material put across with abundant personality.”
- BIRMINGHAM NEWS
ONLY $10 IN ADVANCE - $15 DAY OF SHOW Call for tickets or visit brownpapertickets.com
CONCERTS – CLASSES – GALLERY
TOP OF THE WORLD, MA!: Bleached plays the Star Theater on Friday, May 3. especially of the moment, for better or worse. If the succession of star turns splintering an act yet to record a full-length album has anything at all to do with egos jostling for center stage, the sheer hubris beggars reason—more than a whiff of Greek tragedy about the cello beatbox solo album—and, as means of pandering to audiences impatient with the subtler charms of choral euphony, the gimmickry signals woefully diminishing returns. Whatever their vocal limitations, there was no I in ’N Sync. JAY HORTON. Crystal Ballroom, 1332 W Burnside St., 225-0047. 8 pm. $25 advance, $30 day of show. All ages.
Old Death Whisper, the Tumblers
[COUNTRY-TINGED PARLOR ROCK] Old Death Whisper is a Western band with no clear frontman, passing around the vocal mic like a bottle of Jack Daniels around a summer campfire. But that’s not to say its music lacks a common thread. The Idahoan sextet casually blends elements of roots and punk rock, harnessing dulcet slide guitar and down-home banjo picking alongside howling free-for-all choruses and rolling-train rhythms that shove the band’s gunslinger tales well beyond Hank Williams into the realm of dirty, fuzz-wrenched country punk. The communal fanfare, full of “piss and vinegar,” as the band puts it, undoubtedly pays homage to the icons of old while offering a forthright delivery of latter-day tunes from the band’s meager two-EP discography. And who doesn’t love a free show? BRANDON WIDDER. White Eagle Saloon, 836 N Russell St., 2826810. 7 pm. Free. 21+.
MONDAY, MAY 6 Masaki Batoh’s Brain Pulse Music
[MUSIC OF THE MIND] The title of this project by Japanese musician Masaki Batoh is to be taken completely literally. The erstwhile member of Ghost has developed a machine—which can be purchased for the low, low price of $700—that picks up brain waves and converts them into sound via radio signal. The resulting music features low, burbling drones tumbling over birdsonglike squeals. Batoh’s objective is to develop his Brain Pulse Machine for clinical use to treat depression and Asperger’s, but until it can be tested as such, all you’ll be hearing is its beautiful and unusual noise. ROBERT HAM. Star Theater, 13 NW 6th Ave. 9 pm. $12. 21+.
TUESDAY, MAY 7 Cloud Cult, JBM
[A FIERCE, GREEN ARCADE FIRE] According to its website, all Cloud Cult products are recycled and post-consumer, which seems a bit harsh. However familiar the source material seeding Cult leader Craig Minowa’s baroque indie
pop, there’s a singular sensibility stringing together the Midwestern octet’s Neon Bible-belters with cottage-industrial detritus. In most every way, the thoughtful attention to environmental principles reflects a similarly painstaking and idiosyncratic approach to music—the inventive, expansive songcraft of just-released ninth album Love took two years’ gestation before recording began in Minowa’s geothermally powered farm-studio. At every turn, however, the eager surrender to shithead platitudes of empty positivity lets down the cause. JAY HORTON. Aladdin Theater, 3017 SE Milwaukie Ave., 234-9694. 8 pm. $15. Under 21 permitted with legal guardian.
UV Race, Eat Skull, Life Stinks
[BASEMENT SPACE ROCK] Part of an esteemed family of artists signed to standout New York label Woodsist—which includes the Woolen Men, White Fence and Woods—Eat Skull has delivered an experimental barnburner in III, its aptly titled third LP. Mostly, the record comes off as a controlled shouting match between spacey guitar riffs and Rob Enbom’s tunnel-set vocals. Eat Skull is to post-punk as free verse is to poetry—open-ended, spontaneous and flowing with an unstoppable stream of consciousness. Nobody said it was going to be clean, but it ought to be a tangent-filled foray into the relatively unknown. Aussie garage-rockers UV Race headlines. MARK STOCK. Doug Fir Lounge, 830 E Burnside St., 231-9663. 9 pm. $10 advance, $12 day of show. 21+.
Os Mutantes, Capsula, the Grandparents, DJ Karen Antunez
[PSYCH ROCK LIKE A BOSSA NOVA] The slightly mad scientists of Brazil’s Os Mutantes have straddled cultures, politics and genres since helping define 1960s tropicalia, counting everyone from Beck to David Byrne and Kurt Cobain among their fans. After emerging from a 20-year hiatus, the band tweaked its lineup—only original Mutante Sergio Dias remains— and put out latest release Fool Metal Jack, which is a largely English-language affair, a departure from 2009 reunion record Haih or Amortecedor and prior Portuguese-heavy efforts. What hasn’t changed: the mix of North and South American, psychedelic, samba and general screwball textures and tales of revolutionary angst tempered with pre-YOLOera celebration. Don’t let the lovely, quieter moments “fool” you here— the Kubrick-checking title track is a classic call to disarm complete with fuzzed-out prog-rock guitars and the coughing “no more war” refrain of its wounded young narrator. The group puts on a hell of a live show to get likeminded mutants out of their seats. AMANDA SCHURR. Star Theater, 13 NW 6th Ave. 9 pm. $20. 21+.
ci.hillsboro.or.us/Arts/WCAC
55 SE 11th
PARKING LOT! 2 BLOCKS EAST OF DOUG FIR
Guitars • Drums Amps • Effects Open 11-6:30
GIFT CARDS AVAILABLE 5 0 3 -2 95 - 6 8 0 8 o l d t ow n m u s i cp o r t l a n d .co m
3341 SE Belmont 503-595-0575 BASEMENT BAR @THE BLUE MONK
For the full calendar, visit www.thebluemonk.com Thurs 5/2 9:00 Hip Hop series: Calvin Valentine and TxE Chatham the SUN Chill Crew and more Fri 5/3 9:00 Representative present The Very Official Talk Show: Feat. Alameda, comic Tim Hammer, and more!
Sat 5/4
9:00 All The Apparatus
Sun 5/5 8:00 Jazz Series:
Mike Van Liew’s Polyglot Project
Tues 5/7 6:30 Pagan Jug Band Thurs 5/9 9:00 Hip Hop Series: IAME Jesus Chris Willis Mostafa
Willamette Week MAY 1, 2013 wweek.com
43
MUSIC CALENDAR
may 1–7
= WW Pick. Highly recommended. Editor: Mitch Lillie. TO HAVE YOUR EVENT LISTED, send show information at least two weeks in advance on the web at wweek.com/ submitevents or (if you book a specific venue) enter your events at dbmonkey.com/wweek. 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. For more listings, check out wweek.com.
Slabtown
The Verbtones, Wavesauce, Aloha Screwdriver
The Blue diamond
203 SE Grand Ave. Soopah Eype
1033 NW 16th Ave. Sad Horse, Rockoon, Bugs 2016 NE Sandy Blvd. Ben Jones
1800 E Burnside St. The Get Ahead, Cascadia Soul Alliance
The elixir Lab at al Forno Ferruzza
Ford Food and drink
KYLE JOHNSON
2738 NE Alberta St. Rose City Bluegrass
Gemini Lounge
The TaRdIS Room
Hawthorne Theatre Lounge
1218 N Killingsworth St. Eric Vanderwall
Thirsty Lion
71 SW 2nd Ave. EJK Band
Tiga
1465 NE Prescott St. DJ Cat Lady
Tiger Bar
317 NW Broadway Karaoke from Hell
Tonic Lounge
3100 NE Sandy Blvd. Czar
Tony Starlight’s
3728 NE Sandy Blvd. Sing For Your Supperclub - All-Star Horns
Vie de Boheme 1530 SE 7th Ave. Loose Change
White eagle Saloon
836 N Russell St. Neighbors, Trixie and the Nasties, Matt Levy
yale union (yu)
800 SE 10th Avenue Hieroglyphic Being
al’s den at the Crystal Hotel 303 SW 12th Ave. Bombadil
ash Street Saloon
225 SW Ash St. Very Little Daylight, The Goodwills, Cement Season, Keoni
Backspace
115 NW 5th Ave. The Brassierlionaires, The Vandies, Swim Atlantic
Club 21
2035 NE Glisan St. The No Tommorow Boys, Sex Crime, Piss Test
dante’s
Jade Lounge
The elixir Lab at al Forno Ferruzza
Jimmy Mak’s
The Know
221 NW 10th Ave. The Mel Brown Quartet
Kenton Club
2025 N Kilpatrick St. The Tumblers
Landmark Saloon
4847 SE Division St. Jake Ray, Bob Shoemaker
LaurelThirst
2958 NE Glisan St. Simon Tucker Blues Band, Ducky Pig
Lents Commons
350 W Burnside St. Blackberry Smoke, Root Jack
9201 SE Foster Road Open Mic
doug Fir Lounge
3552 N Mississippi Ave. Redcast
830 E Burnside St. K’s Choice, A Fragile Tomorrow
eastBurn
1800 E Burnside St. Na Rosai Irish Music
Goodfoot Lounge
2845 SE Stark St. Shafty (Phish tribute)
Hawthorne Theatre Lounge
1503 SE Cesar E. Chavez Blvd. Ron Rogers & the Wailing Wind
Hawthorne Theatre
3862 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Hollywise, G.L. Morrison, Fast Fox, Gold For The Hypocrite, Sidestreet Reny, Walkfast, New Key Of The Ancient Light
Ivories Jazz Lounge and Restaurant 1435 NW Flanders St. Zach Brock, George Colligan
Jack London Bar 529 SW 4th Ave. Tap Dance Class
44
Polyglot Project
2346 SE Ankeny St. Carl Solomon, Alexa Wiley, Bill Valenti, Robin Greene
Mississippi Pizza
Mississippi Studios
3939 N Mississippi Ave. Jerry Joseph and the Jackmormons, Walter Salas-Humara, Grapefruit
Mt. Tabor Theater
4811 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Reggae Night
Revival drum Shop 1465 NE Prescott St. Rich Halley, Abusive Consumer
Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery 206 SW Morrison St. Adam East
Roseland Theater
8 NW 6th Ave. Mindless Self Indulgence, The Red Paintings
Suki’s Bar & Grill 2401 SW 4th Ave. Positive Vibrations
The Blue diamond
2016 NE Sandy Blvd. The Fenix Project Blues Jam
The Blue Monk
3341 SE Belmont St.
Willamette Week MAY 1, 2013 wweek.com
2738 NE Alberta St. Open Mic
2026 NE Alberta St. Excuses, Mustaphmond, Quiet Countries
Honky Tonk Prison, Toucan Sam and the Fruit Loops, the Modern Golem, JP Kronser
Biddy McGraw’s
6000 NE Glisan St. John Ross
Camellia Lounge
Thirsty Lion
510 NW 11th Ave. Genna & Jesse
Thorne Lounge
430 N Killingsworth St. Steve Kerin
Tiga
1332 W Burnside St. Bonobo, El Ten Eleven
Tony Starlight’s
350 W Burnside St. Tony Ozier’s Dookie Jam
71 SW 2nd Ave. Jordan Harris 4260 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Musician’s Open Mic 1465 NE Prescott St. DJ Doug Ferious 3728 NE Sandy Blvd. Bo Ayars
Valentine’s
232 SW Ankeny St. Paperhaus, Emotional, Love Cop, Jollapin Jasper
White eagle Saloon 836 N Russell St. Marca Luna, the Community
THuRS. May 2 al’s den at the Crystal Hotel 303 SW 12th Ave. Bombadil
aladdin Theater
3017 SE Milwaukie Ave. Hapa
alberta Rose Theatre 3000 NE Alberta St. Ellis Paul
andrea’s Cha Cha Club 832 SE Grand Ave. Pilon D’Azucar Salsa Band
artichoke Community Music 3130A SE Hawthorne Blvd. Songwriter Roundup
ash Street Saloon 225 SW Ash St.
Chapel Pub
Crystal Ballroom
dante’s
doug Fir Lounge
830 E Burnside St. Whitehorse, Santi Elijah Holley
Tom Grant, Shirley Nanette
Jade Lounge
2346 SE Ankeny St. Joe Little
Jimmy Mak’s
221 NW 10th Ave. The Mel Brown B3 Group
Kelly’s Olympian
426 SW Washington St. Tiger House, Legs, Bleach Blonde Dudes
LaurelThirst
2958 NE Glisan St. Giraffe Dodgers, Lewi Longmire and the Left Coast Roasters
Mississippi Pizza
3552 N Mississippi Ave. Cutbank, Wicky Pickers
Mississippi Studios
duff’s Garage
3939 N Mississippi Ave. The Lonely Forest, Now Now, Pony Village
east end
3435 N Lombard St. Tevis Hodge Jr.
1635 SE 7th Ave. Lionel Young 203 SE Grand Ave. Exotic Club, cockeye, Little Volcano
east end
203 SE Grand Ave. Exotic Club, Cockeye, Little Volcano
eastBurn
1800 E Burnside St. Eat Off Your Banjo Bluegrass
Goodfoot Lounge
2845 SE Stark St. Scott Pemberton Trio
Hawthorne Theatre
3862 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Sisyphean Conscience, Aenimus, As Death Comes Calling, The Odius, The Diggers
Holocene
1001 SE Morrison St. Metz, White Lung, WL
Ivories Jazz Lounge and Restaurant 1435 NW Flanders St.
Mock Crest Tavern
Mount Hood Community College
26000 SE Stark St., Gresham Mariano De Orbregoso
Muddy Rudder Public House 8105 SE 7th Ave. Sleepy Eyed Johns
Music Millennium
3158 E Burnside St. Anne-Marie Sanderson
Refuge
116 SE Yamhill St. Mord Fustang, Fareoh, Manic Focus, James Renegade, #Partygirl
Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery 206 SW Morrison St. Jacob Merlin, Malia
Sellwood Public House 8132 SE 13th Ave. Open Mic
Shaker and Vine
2929 SE Powell Blvd. The Julians
2505 SE 11th Ave. Lone Valkyrie, Eagles of Freedom
The Press Club
2621 SE Clinton St. Choro da Alegria
Wed. May 1
eastBurn
The Blue Monk
3341 SE Belmont St. Calvin Valentine, TxE
dRuG-STORe HaNGIN’: The Cave Singers play Wonder Ballroom on Friday, May 3.
east end
FRI. May 3 al’s den at the Crystal Hotel 303 SW 12th Ave. Bombadil
alberta Rose Theatre 3000 NE Alberta St. Tony Furtado, Kenny White, Dean!
andina
1314 NW Glisan St. Picante Latin Jazz
artichoke Community Music 3130A SE Hawthorne Blvd. Friday Coffeehouse
ash Street Saloon
225 SW Ash St. The Bloodtypes, The Anxieties, Primitive Idols
Backspace
115 NW 5th Ave. Night Nurse, Spectral Tombs, Vicious Pleasures, I Have No Friends, Juicy Karkass
Biddy McGraw’s
6000 NE Glisan St. Maninalhouse, Lynn Connover
Branx
320 SE 2nd Ave. Keeping Secrets, From The Eyes Of Cain, Bury Your Horses, She Preaches Mayhem, Whispers Of Wonder
Buffalo Gap Saloon
6835 SW Macadam Ave. Dryland Farmers Band
Camellia Lounge 510 NW 11th Ave. Laura Stilwell Trio
Clyde’s Prime Rib
5474 NE Sandy Blvd. Planet Krypton
dante’s
350 W Burnside St. Powder, The Pynnacles, The Satin Chaps, DJ Drew Groove
doug Fir Lounge 830 E Burnside St. Stereo Total
duff’s Garage
1635 SE 7th Ave.
6526 SE Foster Road Welfare
1503 SE Cesar E. Chavez Blvd. John Clark (of Gray Matters), Stewart Villain, Verbz, Ron Rogers & the Wailing Wind
Hawthorne Theatre
3862 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Kvelertak, Cancer Bats, Black Tusk
Holocene
1001 SE Morrison St. FRESH.: Blockhead, Quantic
Ivories Jazz Lounge and Restaurant 1435 NW Flanders St. Joe Montgomery Trio, Courtney Fortune
Jade Lounge
2346 SE Ankeny St. Cascade Rye, Waylon Rich, Samsel and the Skirt
Jimmy Mak’s
221 NW 10th Ave. Shemekia Copeland
Katie O’Briens
2809 NE Sandy Blvd. Papa Dynamite & the Jive, Davy Jay Sparrow
Kells Brewpub
210 NW 21st Ave. Sami Rouisi
Kelly’s Olympian
426 SW Washington St. Subterranean Howl, the Mohawk Lodge, Armorada, the Fight
Kenton Club
2025 N Kilpatrick St. The Love Sicks
Landmark Saloon
4847 SE Division St. Petunia & The Vipers
LaurelThirst
2958 NE Glisan St. Baby Gramps, Tree Frogs
Lola’s Room at the Crystal Ballroom
1332 W Burnside St. The KPSU Friendraiser
Milepost 5
850 NE 81st Ave. Jeni Wren
Mississippi Pizza
3552 N Mississippi Ave. Robin Jackson, Kathryn Claire
Mississippi Studios
3939 N Mississippi Ave. Cash’d Out, David & Devine
Mock Crest Tavern 3435 N Lombard St. Suburban Slim
Muddy Rudder Public House 8105 SE 7th Ave. Joe McMurrian
Nel Centro
1408 SW 6th Ave. Mike Pardew
Noho’s Hawaiian Cafe 4627 NE Fremont St. Hawaiian Music
Original Halibut’s II
2527 NE Alberta St. Franco and the Stingers
Radio Room
1101 NE Alberta St. Touché
Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery 206 SW Morrison St. Commonly Courteous
Secret Society Lounge
116 NE Russell St. Orphan Train, Blue Skies for Black Hearts, Dominic Castillo
Shaker and Vine
2929 SE Powell Blvd. Hurqalya
Slim’s Cocktail Bar
8635 N Lombard St. Glimpse Trio, The Shy Seasons
Star Theater
13 NW 6th Ave. Bleached
The analog
720 SE Hawthorne $intax, Rustmine, Set In Stone
The Blue diamond
2016 NE Sandy Blvd. Ron Stephen’s Freak Flag Fly
The Know
2026 NE Alberta St. Nudes, Mongoloid, Life Form
The Old Church
1422 SW 11th Ave. Der Liederkreis
The TaRdIS Room
1218 N Killingsworth St. Arthur Moore
Thirsty Lion
71 SW 2nd Ave. Sir Psycho Sexy
Thorne Lounge
4260 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Kyle Stephens
Tiga
1465 NE Prescott St. DJ Bikini Briefs
Tonic Lounge
3100 NE Sandy Blvd. Die Robot, the Applicants, We Are Brothers
Tony Starlight’s
3728 NE Sandy Blvd. The Bylines
Trail’s end Saloon
1320 Main St., Oregon City Drop Dead Red
Valentine’s
232 SW Ankeny St. M’Lady Records, Manifest Destiny Social Club
Vie de Boheme
1530 SE 7th Ave. Carrie Bella/Pete Peterson Band (Getz/ Gilberto tribute)
White eagle Saloon 836 N Russell St. Garcia Birthday Band
Wonder Ballroom
128 NE Russell St. The Cave Singers, Bleeding Rainbow
SaT. May 4 al’s den at the Crystal Hotel 303 SW 12th Ave. Bombadil
aladdin Theater
3017 SE Milwaukie Ave. Portland Cello Project, School of Rock
artichoke Community Music
3130A SE Hawthorne Blvd. Heart and Hammer, Chris Kokesh
ash Street Saloon
225 SW Ash St. Only Zuul, Apocryphon, Old Skin, Shroud Of The Heretic
audioCinema
226 SE Madison St. Red Dress Party: Red Handed - DJ Nina Flowers, DJ Jakob Jay, Taco Tuesday, Bruce LaBruiser
Backspace
115 NW 5th Ave. Aidan Moore: The Experiment, Wes Guy, Cooper Glass, Pyre
Biddy McGraw’s
6000 NE Glisan St.
may 1–7 rosnaps.Com
4260 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Amorus
Tiga
1465 NE Prescott St. DJ No Requests
Tony Starlight’s
3728 NE Sandy Blvd. Tony Sings Sinatra
Trail’s End Saloon
1320 Main St., Oregon City Duffy Bishop
Vie de Boheme 1530 SE 7th Ave. Cameron Quick
White Eagle Saloon
836 N Russell St. Chris Marshall and the August Light, Massy Ferguson, Brad Mackeson
White Owl Social Club
HEY THERE, SPORT: For what is ostensibly a sports bar, Lil’ Cooperstown (1831 SW River Drive, 719-5394, lilcooperstown. com) sure has a large and eccentric cocktail list. Along with bottled Michelob Ultra ($3.50) and Amstel Light ($3.50), Cooperstown has a cold oatmeal-cookie cocktail ($6.99, thankfully without raisins), a hot s’mores cocktail ($6.99) and a drink that’s basically an alcoholic bowl of Froot Loops in a glass. Along with the typical sports-bar crowd, this local chain’s newish waterfront location seems to be a favorite of dragon boaters. Sports memorabilia and flat-screen TVs provide the appropriate atmosphere, although the 100-ounce beer towers affixed to the bar sadly sat idle during our visit. Cooperstown offers an extensive happy-hour menu, with prices ranging from $1.99 to $4.99. The nachos ($4.99) were boring, but sauteed button mushrooms ($2.99)—whole and cooked in garlic and white wine—lived up to the standards set by those cocktails. KAITIE TODD. Mexican Gunfight, the Barkers
Branx
320 SE 2nd Ave. Cauldron, Spellcaster, Nether Regions, Gladius
Buffalo Gap Saloon
6835 SW Macadam Ave. Rockin’ Piano Party
Camellia Lounge
510 NW 11th Ave. Dan Gaynor Quartet
Clyde’s Prime Rib
5474 NE Sandy Blvd. Cool Breeze
Dante’s
350 W Burnside St. VietNam, Gap Dream, Small Arms
Doug Fir Lounge
830 E Burnside St. That 1 Guy, Captain Ahab’s Motorcycle Club
East End
203 SE Grand Ave. Paulo Zappoli, Boo Frog, Miracle Falls
EastBurn
1800 E Burnside St. The Get Ahead, Cascadia Soul Alliance, The Keplers
Fifteenth avenue Hophouse
1517 NE Brazee St. Hot Club Time Machine
Foggy notion
3416 N Lombard St. Fruit of the Legion of Loom, Bullets or Balloons, Ix
Ford Food and Drink 2505 SE 11th Ave. Kathryn Claire
Goodfoot Lounge
2845 SE Stark St. Goodfoot All-Stars 6 Annual Tribute to James Brown
Hawthorne Hophouse 4111 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Genna & Jesse
Hawthorne Theatre Lounge
1503 SE Cesar E. Chavez Blvd. Divided Heaven, I Am Nate Allen, Matt Danger
Ivories Jazz Lounge and Restaurant 1435 NW Flanders St. Bill Beach
Jade Lounge
2346 SE Ankeny St. Andrew Would, Paul Young, John Cerretani
Jimmy Mak’s
221 NW 10th Ave. Soul Vaccination
Katie O’Briens
2809 NE Sandy Blvd. Minty Rosa, 40 Ways From Sunday, the Mormon Trannys, avenue victor hugo
nel Centro
1408 SW 6th Ave. Mike Pardew, Dave Captein, Randy Rollofson
noho’s Hawaiian Cafe 4627 NE Fremont St. Hawaiian Music
Original Halibut’s II 2527 NE Alberta St. Jim Mesi
Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery
LaurelThirst
2958 NE Glisan St. dKota, La La Land, Leo J. and the Melee, James Low Western Front
LaurelThirst
2958 NE Glisan St. dKOTA, La La Land, Leo J. and the Melee
Mississippi Pizza
3552 N Mississippi Ave. Fair Weather Watchers, Lazy Champions
Mississippi Studios
3939 N Mississippi Ave. Willamette Week Presents Best New Band 2013
Muddy Rudder Public House 8105 SE 7th Ave. Brooks Robertson
al’s Den at the Crystal Hotel 303 SW 12th Ave. Richmond Fontaine
alberta Street Public House 1036 NE Alberta St. The Shivas
andina
1314 NW Glisan St. Picante Latin Jazz
arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall
1037 SW Broadway Premonitions - Oregon Symphony, Storm Large
ash Street Saloon
225 SW Ash St. Die Like Gentlemen, Gladiators Eat Fire, NINJA, Beringia, Vultures In The Sky
Bunk Bar
1028 SE Water Ave. Heavy Handles, Family Crest, Holiday Friends, Jared Mees
Crystal Ballroom
1332 W Burnside St. Pentatonix
Duff’s Garage
Ford Food and Drink
Secret Society Lounge
Hawthorne Theatre Lounge
8 NW 6th Ave. Zomboy & Bro Safari, Token 116 NE Russell St. The My Oh Mys, Dan Jones, Everything’s Jake
Kelly’s Olympian
4847 SE Division St. Get Rythm, Sent Gents
Sun. May 5
Roseland Theater
Slabtown
Landmark Saloon
128 NE Russell St. Marina and The Diamonds, Charli XCX
1635 SE 7th Ave. Candye Kane
Shaker and Vine
426 SW Washington St. Lance Mountain, Donovan Breakwater
Wonder Ballroom
206 SW Morrison St. Jive Coulis
Kells Brewpub
210 NW 21st Ave. Sami Rouisi
1305 SE 8th Ave. Quatro De Mayo Party: Los Estupidos, A-Train
2929 SE Powell Blvd. Beacon Street Titans 1033 NW 16th Ave. Pheasant, One F, Silvero, Comaserfs
Star Bar
639 SE Morrison St. Go French Yourself: DJ Cecilia
Star Theater
13 NW 6th Ave. Jukebox Heroes, Andrew Paul Woodworth, Steve Adams
The analog
720 SE Hawthorne Grey For Days
The Blue Diamond
2016 NE Sandy Blvd. Norman Sylvester
The Blue Monk
3341 SE Belmont St. Mbrascatu
The Know
2026 NE Alberta St. Federation X, Survival Knife, Hungry Ghost
Thirsty Lion
71 SW 2nd Ave. Will Bradley Band
2505 SE 11th Ave. Tim Roth
1503 SE Cesar E. Chavez Blvd. Totally Awesome (A Toda Madre) Cinco De Mayo! Sleep (Of Chicharones), Destro (Of Oldominion), Half Man Half & DJ Ozroc, DJ Fatboy, March The 4th
Hawthorne Theatre
3862 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Ian Karmel, Jen Allen, Curtis Cook, Marcia Belsky
Jade Lounge
2346 SE Ankeny St. Bob Shoemaker, the Darlin’ Blackbirds
Landmark Saloon
4847 SE Division St. Ian Miller
LaurelThirst
2958 NE Glisan St. Kris Deelane and the Sharp Little Things, Freak Mountain Family
Mississippi Pizza
3552 N Mississippi Ave. Compassion Gorilla, Tree Top Tribe, Sparkle Nation
Mississippi Studios
3939 N Mississippi Ave. Hurry Up, Kim Baxter, Summer Cannibals
Muddy Rudder Public House 8105 SE 7th Ave.
nEPO 42
Pub at the End of the universe
newmark Theatre
Star Bar
Irish 5403 NE 42nd Ave. Open Mic 1111 SW Broadway Arnaldo Cohen
Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery 206 SW Morrison St. Lance Canales and the Flood
4107 SE 28th Ave. Open Mic, Damien Rice 639 SE Morrison St. Metal Monday: Grant Panzergod
Star Theater
13 NW 6th Ave. Masaki Batoh’s Brain Pulse Music
Rontoms
The Blue Diamond
Slabtown
The Elixir Lab at al Forno Ferruzza
600 E Burnside St. Don’t, La Luz, Bath Party 1033 NW 16th Ave. Grand Style Orchestra
Star Theater
13 NW 6th Ave. Soriah, Church of Hive
The analog
720 SE Hawthorne Vanessa Singer Songwriter Showcase
The Blue Diamond
2016 NE Sandy Blvd. Kevin Selfe and the Tornadoes
The Elixir Lab at al Forno Ferruzza
2738 NE Alberta St. Closely Watched Trains
The Know
2026 NE Alberta St. Ben Durazzo, Bad Habitat, Mad1ne, Citizen, JB Nimble, Buck Turtle, Montgomery Word
Trail’s End Saloon
1320 Main St., Oregon City Rae Gordon
2016 NE Sandy Blvd. Sumo “The Band”
2738 NE Alberta St. Blue Flags and Black Grass
1420 SE Powell Blvd. SIN Night
Valentine’s
232 SW Ankeny St. Jason Urick, Braveyoung, Oakrot
White Eagle Saloon
836 N Russell St. The Roseland Hunters, Brassroots Brass Band
TuES. May 7 al’s Den at the Crystal Hotel 303 SW 12th Ave. Richmond Fontaine
aladdin Theater
White Eagle Saloon
1305 SE 8th Ave. Cinco De Mayo Party
MOn. May 6
Backspace
Camellia Lounge
510 NW 11th Ave. Steve Christofferson, Tom Wakeling, David Evans, Todd Strait
Doug Fir Lounge 830 E Burnside St.
The Blue Diamond
3862 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Into the Flood, Lord Of War, Wrath Of Vesuvius, Guillotine, Kong At The Gates, I Reckon
The Blue Monk
Holocene
2738 NE Alberta St. Kafana Klub
1001 SE Morrison St. Stacian, Samantha Glass, Grapefruit, Ortrotasce, Daneover
Ivories Jazz Lounge and Restaurant 1435 NW Flanders St. Kerry Politzer
Twilight Café and Bar
115 NW 5th Ave. Mary Lambert, Bike Thief
White Owl Social Club
2016 NE Sandy Blvd. Margo Tufo, Doug Rowell
Jimmy Mak’s
Valentine’s
836 N Russell St. Old Death Whisper, the Tumblers
Hawthorne Theatre
2845 SE Stark St. Radula
Jade Lounge
3017 SE Milwaukie Ave. Cloud Cult, JBM
232 SW Ankeny St. Lunch
Goodfoot Lounge
Os Mutantes, Capsula, the Grandparents, DJ Karen Antunez
Tiga
1465 NE Prescott St. Alex John Hall
MUSIC CALENDAR
UV Race, Eat Skull, Life Stinks
2346 SE Ankeny St. Colin Johnson 221 NW 10th Ave. The Mel Brown Septet, Vancouver School of Arts and Sciences Jazz Band
3341 SE Belmont St. Pagan Jug Band
The Elixir Lab at al Forno Ferruzza
The Know
2026 NE Alberta St. Wooden Indian Burial Ground, Animal Eyes
The Old Church
1422 SW 11th Ave. Johnny & Jason
Thorne Lounge
4260 SE Hawthorne Blvd. WHIM
Tiga
1465 NE Prescott St. Ra’Sean
Tonic Lounge
Landmark Saloon
3100 NE Sandy Blvd. DJ Desecrator Fireside Lounge
LaurelThirst
Twilight Café and Bar
4847 SE Division St. Honky Tonk Union 2958 NE Glisan St. Jackstraw
Mission Theater
1624 NW Glisan St. The Music Tapes (9 and 6 pm)
Mississippi Studios
3939 N Mississippi Ave. Caitlin Rose, Daniel Romano
Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery 206 SW Morrison St. Corner
Secret Society Lounge 116 NE Russell St. The Barn Birds, Matt Meighan
Shaker and Vine
2929 SE Powell Blvd. Avery Hill
Star Theater
13 NW 6th Ave.
1420 SE Powell Blvd. Open Mic Night Featuring House Band: The Roaming
Twilight Café and Bar
1420 SE Powell Blvd. Open Mic Night Featuring House Band: The Roaming
Valentine’s
232 SW Ankeny St. Haste, Jerry Rogers, SUN FUN
White Eagle Saloon 836 N Russell St. Bottlecap Boys
White Eagle Saloon
836 N Russell St. Felecia and the Dinosaur, The Wildish, Robin Bacior
White Owl Social Club
1305 SE 8th Ave. Totaled Tuesdays: DJ Mike V., Manee Friday
al’s Den at the Crystal Hotel
Courtesy of Drag City
BAR SPOTLIGHT
Thorne Lounge
303 SW 12th Ave. Richmond Fontaine
alberta Rose Theatre 3000 NE Alberta St. The All Star Sound Guy Band
ash Street Saloon 225 SW Ash St. Open Mic
Camellia Lounge 510 NW 11th Ave. Joe Millward
Dante’s
350 W Burnside St. Karaoke From Hell
Duff’s Garage
1635 SE 7th Ave. Lily Wilde Orchestra
Goodfoot Lounge
2845 SE Stark St. Sonic Forum Open Mic Night
Jimmy Mak’s
221 NW 10th Ave. The Dan Balmer Band
Kells Brewpub
210 NW 21st Ave. Traditional Irish Jam Session
Landmark Saloon
4847 SE Division St. Hack Stitch, Buckshot, Saturday Night Drive
LaurelThirst
2958 NE Glisan St. Kung Pao Chickens, Portland Country Underground
Muddy Rudder Public House 8105 SE 7th Ave. Lloyd Jones
Music Millennium
3158 E Burnside St. Violet Trouper, Michael Manning, Jack McMahon, Rebecca Pronsky
BRaIn WaVE: Masaki Batoh plays the Star Theater on Monday, May 6. Willamette Week MAY 1, 2013 wweek.com
45
ON SALE NOW
MUSIC CALENDAR
may 1–7 The Whiskey Bar
I IGGY & THE STOOGES Ready To Die
31 NW 1st Ave. Play Fridays: Myon & Shane 54, DJ Eddie
$11.95-cd Iggy Pop back with his Stooges, and still sounding brash, raw, loud; the way punk was meant to be. Vinyl due May 14.
Tiga
1465 NE Prescott St. DJ Bikini Briefs
White Owl Social Club
Wed. May 1
The Lovecraft
421 SE Grand Ave. Vortex: DJ Kenny, John and Skip
andrea’s Cha Cha Club
!!! Thr!!!er
832 SE Grand Ave. Salsa: DJ Alberton
$11.95-cd/$17.95-lp Chk Chk Chk have crafted tighter song structures for their new album Thr!!!er, produced by Spoon’s drummer Jim Eno.
Tiga
Berbati’s Restaurant
1465 NE Prescott St. DJ Cat Lady
19 SW 2nd Ave. World Music Dance Party with DJ Jason Catalyst
Trader Vic’s
1203 NW Glisan St. DJ Drew Groove
Berbati’s
231 SW Ankeny St. DJ Seleckta YT
Valentine’s
232 SW Ankeny St. Sex Life DJs
Bossanova Ballroom 722 E Burnside St. Wednesday Swing
PH PHOENIX Bankrupt!
$10.95-cd/$12.95-cd dlx/$13.95-lp Phoenix returns with more new wave, 80s synth-pop for all. Deluxe disc includes 71 extra snippets. Sale prices good thru 5.12.13
NEW
Rob Zombie • Steve Martin & Edie Brickell •Junip • Thee Oh Sees RELEASES Tom Jones • Marc Ribot • Melvins • Mark Kozelek & Jimmy Lavalle OUT NOW:
USED NEW &s & VINYL VD CDs, D
FRi. May 3
CC Slaughters
219 NW Davis St. Trick with DJ Robb
Beech Street Parlor 412 NE Beech St. Musique Plastique
Star Bar
639 SE Morrison St. DJ samFM
Berbati’s
231 SW Ankeny St. Cloud City Collective
The Firkin Tavern 1937 SE 11th Ave. Eye Candy VJs
Boxxes
The Lovecraft
421 SE Grand Ave. Without Sympathy: Acid Rick
The Whiskey Bar
31 NW 1st Ave. R.L. Grime, Nathaniel Knows, BennyRox
DOWNTOWN • 1313 W. Burnside • 503.274.0961 EASTSIDE • 1931 NE Sandy Blvd. • 503.239.7610 BEAVERTON • 3290 SW Cedar Hills Blvd. • 503.350.0907 OPEN EVERYDAY AT 9 A.M. | WWW.EVERYDAYMUSIC.COM
CC Slaughters
219 NW Davis St. Fetish Friday with DJ Jakob Jay
Foggy Notion
3416 N Lombard St. Apocalysp!: DJ Weinerslav, DJ Pork Belly
Tiga
FOR ANY & ALL USED CDs, DVDs & VINYL
1035 SW Stark St. Decadent ‘80s: DJ Non, DJ Jason Wann
1465 NE Prescott St. DJ Doug Ferious
Goodfoot Lounge 2845 SE Stark St. DJ Magneto
ThuRS. May 2 Beech Street Parlor
Jones
412 NE Beech St. I’m Dynamite
Berbati’s
107 NW Couch St. Night at the Roxbury: DJ Zimmie
231 SW Ankeny St. DJs Def Ro and Suga Shane
CC Slaughters
219 NW Davis St. Hip Hop Heaven with DJ Detroit Diezel
Star Bar
639 SE Morrison St. DJ Barrett
The Know
315 SE 3rd Ave. Shutup&dance: DJ Gregarious, DJ Disorder
Star Bar
639 SE Morrison St. Uncontrollable Urge: DJ Paultimore
The Lovecraft
421 SE Grand Ave. Brickbat Mansion: Curatrix, DJ Wednesday
SaT. May 4 Beech Street Parlor 412 NE Beech St. Whalewatchers
Berbati’s Restaurant 19 SW 2nd Ave. Mezzi Mez
Berbati’s
231 SW Ankeny St. DJ Linkus EDM
Kelly’s Olympian
426 SW Washington St. Purse Candy, Exotic Club, Coastlands
Star Bar
639 SE Morrison St. DJ Riff Randell, DJ Baby Lemonade
MON. May 6 Berbati’s
231 SW Ankeny St. DJ Henry Dark
CC Slaughters
231 SW Ankeny St. DJ Mellow Cee
219 NW Davis St. Maniac Monday with DJ Robb
CC Slaughters
Kelly’s Olympian
219 NW Davis St. Revolution with DJ Robb
holocene
1001 SE Morrison St. Booty Bassment: Maxx Bass, Nathan Detroit, Ryan and Dimitri
Jones
107 NW Couch St. DJ Only Child
Lola’s Room at the Crystal Ballroom
426 SW Washington St. Eye Candy VJs
The Know
2026 NE Alberta St. Going Mental Mondays: DJ Just Dave
Tiga
1465 NE Prescott St. Alex John Hall
TueS. May 7
1332 W Burnside St. All Decades Video Dance Attack
ash Street Saloon
Rotture
Beech Street Parlor
315 SE 3rd Ave. Andaz: DJ Anjali, DJ The Incredible Kid
Spare Room
4830 NE 42nd Ave. Garden of Gay-Dreams: DJ Action Slacks, DJ Wild Man James Maeda
The Lovecraft
421 SE Grand Ave. DJ Miss Prid
The Whiskey Bar
225 SW Ash St. Phreak: Electronic Mutations 412 NE Beech St. Tyler Little
Berbati’s
231 SW Ankeny St. DJ Aurora
CC Slaughters
219 NW Davis St. Girltopia with DJ Alicious
eagle Portland
835 N Lombard St DMTV with DJ Danimal
31 NW 1st Ave. Habit Forming Sessions: Jamie Meushaw, End, Nightcity
Star Bar
Tiga
1465 NE Prescott St. Ra’Sean
1465 NE Prescott St. DJ No Requests
639 SE Morrison St. DJ Smooth Hopperator
Tiga
Valentine’s
232 SW Ankeny St. DJ Spliff Huxtable
C h r i sto p h Voy
2026 NE Alberta St. Dirtbag: Bruce LaBruiser
Rotture
1305 SE 8th Ave. DJ Beyonda
SuN. May 5 Berbati’s
GeRMaN exPReSSiONiSM: Stereo Total plays doug Fir Lounge on Friday, May 3. 46
Willamette Week MAY 1, 2013 wweek.com
MAY 1–7 REVIEW
Cinderella
= 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.
PERAZA PHOTOGRAPHY
Editor: REBECCA JACOBSON. Theater: REBECCA JACOBSON (rjacobson@ wweek.com). Classical: BRETT CAMPBELL (bcampbell@wweek.com). Dance: AARON SPENCER (dance@wweek.com). TO BE CONSIDERED FOR LISTINGS, submit information at least two weeks in advance to: rjacobson@wweek.com.
Cinderella trades in glass slippers for some tap shoes in this Northwest Children’s Theater musical adaptation of the classic tale. Best for ages 5 and up. NW Neighborhood Cultural Center, 1819 NW Everett St., 222-4480. Noon and 4 pm Saturdays-Sundays through May 26. 7 pm Fridays, May 10, 17 and 24. $13-$22.
OWEN CAREY
PERFORMANCE
Clybourne Park
SKOOTCH
THEATER Ablaze
From the opening panicked notes of the a cappella musical thriller Ablaze, it’s clear the audience is in for a dark and gripping ride. The musical centers on eight students trapped in the basement of a high school as it burns down, and the aftermath once they’re found. A sparse and confined set conveys the claustrophobia and despair the characters feel as they tackle the show’s weighty subjects: young love, friendship, suicide, abortion, rape. This is the first time Ablaze has been professionally staged: Local playwright Matthew Zrebski first developed the play for Lincoln High students in 2004, and in 2011 transformed it into a musical at Wilson High. He again directs, and his young cast of 23 is sincere and impressive. One of the highlights is the fire, portrayed by 11 cast members dressed in black, with faces painted red and orange. Their unrelenting presence reminds one character of being bullied and another of a ticking clock and the demands of perfectionism. Throughout, the fire lurks, biding its time until it can engulf both characters and audience. KAITIE TODD. Brunish Theatre, 1111 SW Broadway, 800-273-1530. 7:30 pm Thursday-Saturday, 2 pm Sunday, May 2-5. $30.50, students $20.
The Aliens
Since her first play stunned audiences four years ago, Annie Baker, 31, has gone from obscurity to acclaim. In that time, critics have scraped away at her plays, trying to unearth what makes them so rich, so unsettling and, most of all, so real. Never mind that there’s much in her plays that’s more surrealistic than anything else. Take, for example, a moment in Third Rail’s deeply humane and quietly unnerving production of The Aliens. KJ (Isaac Lamb), a bearlike 30-year-old, tells a story. At age 5, he was obsessed with the word “ladder” and repeated it incessantly, until his mother let him shout the word as often and as deafeningly as he needed. Lamb delivers a monologue—if it can be called that—composed of that single word. I began counting the number of repetitions and then lost track, finding myself hypnotized and horrified and heartbroken. The Aliens, as with much of Baker’s work, is constrained but not contrived. It’s set in the scruffy backyard of a cafe, where KJ and Jasper (Chris Murray) gather. After Jasper, a Bukowski-reading chain-smoker, kicks over a chair, teenage employee Evan (Bryce Earhart) tries to shoo them away. It would be easy to say this irreverent yet warm duo teaches Evan about life and identity, but what unfurls is far more intricate, and far more tragic, than that. Under Tim True’s confident direction, the actors create intensely empathetic charac-
ters. Lamb nails the gentle comedy as well as his character’s twitchy discomfort. The tightly wound Murray will twist your insides into knots, and 16-year-old Earhart more than holds his own, his character carefully testing his words to best impress his older friends. Aside from occasional surges of language, the dialogue is elliptical and sparse. While some playwrights force characters to plow ahead with dialogue, Baker makes her characters wait. These empty spaces are remarkable—and also uncomfortable or tense or weird. Are they real? By play’s end, that question no longer matters. REBECCA JACOBSON. The CoHo Theater, 2257 NW Raleigh St., 235-1101. 7:30 pm Thursdays-Saturdays, 2 pm Sundays through May 4. $25.
Always...Patsy Cline
It’s every music fan’s dream: to go to the concert of your favorite singer, introduce yourself and have the artist join you at your table before the show. This is exactly the story in Always... Patsy Cline, as the famous country singer meets one of her biggest fans, Louise. After introducing themselves, the two spend the evening together and form a bond that continues until Cline’s death years later. Based on a true story, the musical is carried just as much by Sara Catherine Wheatley’s flawless, crooning vocals as Patsy Cline as it is by Sharon Maroney’s entertaining and comedic narration as Louise, with the events broken up by classic Cline songs such as “I Fall to Pieces” and “Walkin’ After Midnight.” A projector illuminates new settings on the surrounding walls, transforming Louise’s living room into a bar or radio station. Though backed by a strong cast and set, Always...Patsy Cline often narrates events rather than enacting them (for example, telling the audience that the characters talked all night rather than having them talk to each other), and it may not resonate with those born before Cline’s musical prime. As ballad after ballad begins to blur together, non-Cline buffs may grow numb—though they’re sure to be jolted by an impromptu country line dance performed by a middle-aged gent in the front row, as happened at a recent Sunday matinee. KAITIE TODD. Broadway Rose New Stage Theatre, 12850 SW Grant Ave., Tigard, 6205262. 7:30 pm Thursdays-Saturdays, 2 pm Sundays and select Saturdays through May 26. $30-$40.
Ari-Maria
Triangle Productions stages an original musical that tackles the tempestuous affair between opera diva Maria Callas and shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis. Sanctuary at Sandy Plaza, 1785 NE Sandy Blvd., 239-5919. 7:30 pm Thursdays-Saturdays, 2 pm Sundays (no show May 5) through May 26. $15-$35.
Bruce Norris’ Clybourne Park—the first work to win the triple crown of the Pulitzer, Tony and Britain’s Olivier—is one of the most produced plays among regional companies. I haven’t seen the play elsewhere, but I’m sure Portland Center Stage’s bracing production could contend with the best of them: Norris’ script is acerbic, smart and frequently uproarious, and the cast, under director Chris Coleman, is superb. All told, makes for a full-throttle experience that claws at our conceptions about race, prejudice and social propriety. The play’s title comes from Lorraine Hansberry’s 1959 work A Raisin in the Sun, in which a black family prepares to move into a fictional, predominantly white Chicago neighborhood called Clybourne Park. Norris’ play also begins in 1959, but it centers instead on the white couple that have just sold their house. But ditzy Bev (the sparkling Sharonlee McLean) and brooding Russ (a tense and reactive Sal Viscuso) don’t know the new family is black, so community representative Karl (Gavin Hoffman, balancing dweebiness with impertinence) attempts to halt the sale. The second act skips forward 50 years. In those intervening years, white flight has transformed the neighborhood’s demographics, and now a white couple hopes to move into the gentrifying area. This parallel structure is more than clever conceit. It’s a riveting dramatic framework that highlights the stubborn intractability of race issues in America, as well as our desperate fumbles to discuss them in a meaningful—or even intelligible—way. In the first act, we see the barefaced racism of Karl contrasted with the well-meaning condescension of Bev. A half century later, the characters are no more articulate, no less hamstrung by euphemisms and equivocations. “Half my friends are black!” yelps one character. It’s as corrosive as it is cathartic. REBECCA JACOBSON. Gerding Theater, 128 NW 11th Ave., 445-3700. 7:30 pm TuesdaysSundays, 2 pm Sundays and select Saturdays, noon Thursdays through May 5. $39-$65.
Dance for a Dollar
Set in a dance hall in Queens, this original dance-theater performance created by Mariana Carreño King and Daniel Jáquez incorporates traditions ranging from cumbia to Mexican folkloric music. Miracle Theatre, 525 SE Stark St., 236-7253. 7:30 pm Thursdays, 8 pm Fridays-Saturdays and 2 pm Sundays through May 25. $17-$30.
Fixed
Well Arts presents a collection of 10-minute plays written by Portlanders living with physical or mental illness. Portland Actors Conservatory, 1436 SW Montgomery St., 459-4500. 7:30 pm Fridays and 2 pm Saturdays through May 11. $5-$10.
Gathering Blue
In its third collaboration with beloved author Lois Lowry, Oregon Children’s Theatre presents a new play set in a futuristic world where children are kept like animals and barbarism rules. Recommended for ages 9 and up. Winningstad Theatre, Portland Center for the Performing Arts, 1111 SW Broadway, 228-9571. 2 pm and 5 pm Saturdays and 2 pm Sundays through May 19. No 5 pm shows Saturdays, May 11 and 18. $15-$28.
The Importance of Being Earnest
Mask & Mirror Community Theatre sets Oscar Wilde’s classic farce in postCivil War Georgia. Calvin Presbyterian Church, 10445 SW Canterbury Lane, Tigard, 691-1779. 7:30 pm FridaysSaturdays, 2 pm Sundays through May 19. $5-$12.
CONT. on page 49
THE OTHER WOMAN: Linda Alper (from left), Michael Mendelson and Abby Wilde.
TEN CHIMNEYS (ARTISTS REPERTORY THEATRE) Ten Chimneys premiered in 2011. But with its old-fashioned form and frothy narrative, it might as well have been produced in the 1930s. That’s not entirely a bad thing. Jeffrey Hatcher’s comedy centers on Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne, lauded as the greatest husbandand-wife team in the history of American theater. From the mid-’20s on, they starred opposite each other in dozens of plays, including many by that cheekiest of playwrights, Noel Coward. Ten Chimneys is set at— and derives its name from—the couple’s rural Wisconsin retreat, where they kept a glamorous guest book. It picks up in 1938, with the couple hosting rehearsals for a production of Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull. That means (deep breath) we have actors (the finely tuned Artists Rep cast) playing actors (Lunt, Fontanne and others) playing actors (Chekhov’s melancholy characters). Add in the fact that The Seagull is also set at a country estate, and the meta-theatricality is head-spinning. For non-buffs, it all might be a bit opaque, or even off-putting in its sometimes strained parallels with The Seagull. But for those willing to surrender to the play’s self-aware nostalgia, it’s an enjoyable and affectionate throwback to the likes of Coward and George S. Kaufman. As the Portland directorial debut of Artists Rep’s incoming artistic director, Dámaso Rodriguez, it’s a safe but well-oiled—and occasionally very funny—piece of theater. Ten Chimneys unfolds as a series of informal rehearsals cut with gossipy dialogue and winking discussion of acting techniques. Joining Lunt (Michael Mendelson) and Fontanne (Linda Alper) are the portly Sydney Greenstreet (Todd Van Voris, amiably weathering fat jokes) and an 18-year-old Uta Hagen (Abby Wilde). Lunt and Fontanne were known for their rigorous discipline, and Hatcher examines the blurring of onstage theatrics with offstage drama. When Fontanne bursts in on her husband and the pretty ingenue rehearsing a kiss scene, Lunt insists, “It’s only a play!” “Blasphemy!” Fontanne shrieks. Hagen’s presence stokes some tension—she’s positioned as a slight threat to the middle-aged Fontanne, even as a subplot raises questions about Lunt’s sexuality—but the play is much more a love letter than a slap. To that end, the show is best not when its characters are sulking or bellyaching, but when they’re showcasing their craft or slinging oneliners (“the woman is a Vesuvius of mucus,” Lunt quips). At one point, Lunt and Fontanne rehearse a scene repeatedly, each iteration gaining velocity and heat. They pace, they glare at each other, they stare at the audience, they circle each other like wrestlers in a ring. It’s a treat to watch Alper, an Oregon Shakespeare veteran and a grande dame of the local theater scene, playing such a legendary character. She expertly channels both pride and vulnerability. The others—those not rehearsing for The Seagull—stand by for scenery-chewing moments. As Lunt’s queenly mother Hattie, JoAnn Johnson chomps into her role with relish, delivering lines from Chekhov as sensationally as cracks about burnt muffins. When she and Mendelson quibble, their noggins shake like those of bobblehead dolls. As Lunt’s half sister, Sarah Lucht provides a delightfully acid-tongued antidote to all the fluff—in a moment of contained rage, she spouts how The Seagull is a stupid play about stupid people acting stupidly. Ten Chimneys, on the other hand, is a mostly smart play about showy people acting in occasionally foolish ways, as Chekhov and Coward whisper to them from the wings. REBECCA JACOBSON. A throwback to theater’s golden age.
SEE IT: Ten Chimneys is at Artists Repertory Theatre, 1515 SW Morrison St., 241-1278. 7:30 pm Wednesdays-Sundays, 2 pm Sundays through May 26. $25-$50. Willamette Week MAY 1, 2013 wweek.com
47
PERFORMANCE
FEATURE B R I A N W E AV E R
DEGENDER BENDER 44 YEARS AFTER PUBLICATION, URSULA K. LE GUIN’S THE LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS STILL FEELS RADICAL—AND NOW IT HAS BECOME A PLAY. BY R E B E CC A JACO B S O N
rjacobson@wweek.com
In 1969, gender was a fixed concept. The world didn’t know Boy George, David Bowie or Annie Lennox. There were no how-to websites for pursuing ambiguous gender expression. Jeffrey Eugenides hadn’t written Middlesex. The New Yorker didn’t publish articles about transgender children. No one talked about intersexuality or androgyny. Which is what made Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness so prescient. The Portland author set her novel on a genderless planet called Gethen, where people have neither gender identity nor sexual urges—except during a short period of the month when they become either male or female, depending on their partner. “It wasn’t written as a utopia,” says Le Guin, 83, sitting in her living room in Northwest Portland. “It was written as a thought experiment. What is left if you take away gender? What’s interesting is that they still seem to be so fully human.” Yet what began as a thought experiment has become, in the 44 years since the book’s release, something edging closer to reality. “You walk downtown and you see Gethenians all the time,” Le Guin says, referring to her novel’s androgynous characters. “I don’t know whether that’s a man or a woman. It’s a human being. I always like to see that. Those are my people.” And now her people are coming to life onstage, with an adaptation of Left Hand of Darkness co-produced by Hand2Mouth Theatre and Portland Playhouse, with a
ALIEN ATTRACTION: Ensemble members Liz Hayden (left) and Julie Hammond rehearse a scene from The Left Hand of Darkness in which their androgynous characters temporarily develop sexual identities.
used “he” for genderless characters rather than creating a new pronoun, for example. Despite such complaints, though, the book has remained relevant. “We didn’t even have the phrase ‘gender construction’ in 1969,” Le Guin says. “What’s changed is that people are able to see gender as a spectrum instead of complete opposites.” This transformation of gender conceptions also pushed Jonathan Walters, the artistic director of Hand2Mouth and the director of this adaptation, toward the story. “I think the next step forward that we’re about to take is understanding gender and people between genders,” he
“WE DIDN’T EVEN HAVE THE PHRASE ‘GENDER CONSTRUCTION’ IN 1969. WHAT’S CHANGED IS THAT PEOPLE ARE ABLE TO SEE GENDER AS A SPECTRUM.” —URSULA K. LE GUIN script by John Schmor. Le Guin’s work has been adapted for stage and screen before, but this is the first time for The Left Hand of Darkness. What surprises Le Guin is the novel’s staying power. When it was released, she worried it would be dismissed as too radical. But its publication coincided with the growth of the feminist movement and the sexual revolution, and the book won over both readers and critics. Pushback came not from male readers but from feminists, who tagged her too conservative—Le Guin
48
Willamette Week MAY 1, 2013 wweek.com
says. “I feel like that’s about to come into our consciousness, in the way that being openly gay has.” Gender, though, isn’t the only twist in The Left Hand of Darkness. The novel’s only Earthman is black, which Le Guin reveals casually midway through the book. It’s something she’s called her “evil activist plot.” “I do that all the time in my books,” Le Guin says. “You can’t do that when you’re writing about contemporary America. That would be phony. That would be concealing
very important information from the reader. But you can do it in fantasy and science fiction, because the white reader will assume 99 percent of the time that they’re reading about white people. And then you just put in a little...” She makes a clicking sound. “Actually, you’re not. Didn’t know that, did you?” It’s alarming for white readers, Le Guin says, when they realize they’ve been identifying with a black protagonist. It’s all part of Le Guin’s thought experiment. Unlike sci-fi movies that rely on extravagant special effects and space fiction that doesn’t take science seriously, her science fiction demands intellectual engagement. (Still, she acknowledges a special affection for Men in Black. “I just watched Men in Black II,” she says, laughing. “It’s so funny. I just love the worms.”) Her writing—just like live theater—can be intimidating. Does that make a stage adaptation of The Left Hand of Darkness a perfect storm of dread-inducing art? “It’s funny that we talk of people being scared, both of science fiction and of theater,” Le Guin says. “We have to tell people, don’t be scared. Sit down. We’re not out there to scare you.” SEE IT: The Left Hand of Darkness is at Portland Playhouse, 602 NE Prescott St., 488-5822. 7:30 pm Thursdays-Saturdays, 2 pm Saturdays-Sundays through June 2. $23-$32.
MAY 1–7
PERFORMANCE
TH
La Cage aux Folles
Lakewood Theatre Company presents a musical about the romance between a Saint-Tropez nightclub owner and a brassy drag queen, which has lost some of its edge since it was first produced in 1983. Lakewood Center for the Arts, 368 S State St., Lake Oswego, 635-3901. 7:30 pm Thursdays-Saturdays; 7 pm Sundays, May 5, 12 and 19; 2 pm Sundays, May 12 and 26 and June 2 and 9. Through June 9. $35.
The Left Hand of Darkness
Hands down Portland’s most exciting artistic convergence in recent memory: The ambitious and energetic Portland Playhouse teams up with ever-imaginative Hand2Mouth to adapt Ursula K. Le Guin’s landmark sci-fi novel, which mines gender and sexual politics. See story on page 48. Portland Playhouse, 602 NE Prescott St., 488-5822. 7:30 pm Thursdays-Saturdays, 2 pm Saturdays-Sundays through June 2. $23-$32.
WEDNESDAY
MAY 8 7:30 PM
ARLENE SCHNITZER
CONCERT HALL
Emily Molnar, Artistic Director
Lonely I’m Not
Much Ado About Nothing
Can’t bring yourself to leave your couch for some theater? Isinglass Theater brings the Bard to your bedside with its Social Shakespeare project, as performers use Twitter and Facebook to tell the unfurling story of two pairs of lovers. Visit socialshakespeare.org for details. All day Friday-Sunday, May 3-5. Free.
The People’s Republic of Portland
Portland loves hilarious motormouth Lauren Weedman, a former cast member on The Daily Show, and now she returns to the Rose City with a solo show developed for us and about us. Directed by Rose Riordan, it’s guaranteed to be more insightful—and way funnier— than every episode of Portlandia, ever. Gerding Theater, 128 NW 11th Ave., 445-3700. 7:30 pm TuesdaysSundays, 2 pm Sundays and select Saturdays, noon Thursdays through June 16. $34-$54.
Portland Playback Theater
Audience members tell stories, which Playback’s actors and musicians improvise on the spot. Action/ Adventure Theatre, 1050 SE Clinton St. 6 pm family show and 8 pm regular show, Saturday, March 4. $5-$20.
COMEDY Amy Schumer
Stand-up from a onetime Last Comic Standing contestant, whose jokes pair raunchiness with self-consciousness. Aladdin Theater, 3017 SE Milwaukie Ave., 234-9694. 7:30 pm and 10 pm Friday, May 3. $35.
Back to the Table
A new improv show that spins off audience suggestions about family stories and tales of entrapment. Brody Theater, 16 NW Broadway, 224-2227. 8 pm Saturdays through May 4. $8-$10.
th
-Dance Europe
Ballet BC’s Racheal Prince . Photo by Michael Slobodian.
The Portland Civic Theatre Guild closes its season with a musical revue of nostalgic and romantic tunes composed by Jacques Brel, a Belgian-born Francophile. The Old Church, 1422 SW 11th Ave., 222-2031. 10 am Tuesday, May 7. $8.
Paul Weitz—who adapted About a Boyand directed American Pie— penned this romantic comedy about a high-powered financier who suffers a nervous breakdown and embarks on a careful romance with a blind woman. Clackamas Rep presents a staged reading of the play. Clackamas Community College, Osterman Theatre, 19600 S Molalla Ave., 657-6958 ext. 5351. 3 pm Sunday, May 5. $10.
ANNIVERSARY “Exhilarating to15watch.”
D AV I D K I N D E R
Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris
15 ANNIVERSARY
From Vancouver, British Columbia
ABLAZE
Bert Kreischer
In 1997, Rolling Stonenamed Kreischer the top partier at Florida State University in an article that inspired the movie Van Wilder. Twelve years later, he had a Comedy Centralspecial. Not bad. Helium Comedy Club, 1510 SE 9th Ave., 888643-8669. 8 pm Thursday, 7:30 pm and 10 pm Friday-Saturday, May 2-4. $15-$30.
Diabolical Experiments
Improv jam show featuring Brody performers and other local improvisers. Brody Theater, 16 NW Broadway, 224-2227. 7 pm every Sunday. $5.
Dom-Prov
to become a beast all its own, thanks to surrealist elements like a boozy lounge singer who shows up to warble inexplicably. For “fans” of the original film, the performance will prove a massive hit, but for the 95 percent of people unfamiliar with the Manos mythos, there’s still enough rowdy energy and absurdism to keep them intrigued. AP KRYZA. Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center, 5340 N Interstate Ave., 306-5217. 8 pm Thursday-Sunday, May 2-5. $20.
Friday Night Fights
Representatives
Manos: The Hands of Fate
whitebird.org
INFO: 503-245-1600 ext. 201
WWad_BalletBC_v3.indd 1
4/24/13 5:00:47 PM
Brody Theater’s popular eliminationstyle improv competition. Brody Theater, 16 NW Broadway, 224-2227. 8 pm every Friday. $9-$12.
Open Court
To call 1966’s Manos: The Hands of Fate its decade’s Plan 9 From Outer Space is a disservice to Ed Wood. Not a single frame of the picture could even be called mediocre—every scene is execrable. So of course it’s gained a huge cult following. Now, as is the case with many cult flicks, it’s a live stage show, and it marks the debut of Capital I Productions (though director/star Brian Koch produced another version back in 2006). Onstage, the story of a deranged polygamist cult in the desert becomes a goofy stew of intentionally bad acting, cardboard sets and spooky live music (by members of Blitzen Trapper, Parson Red Heads and Viva Voce) that captures the delightfully stupid source material and injects a lovingly irreverent spirit. Though the production takes pleasure in presenting everything bad about the movie—from the repeated lines to lapses in logic and terrible special effects—it manages
TICKETS:
Micetro
If your idea of fun is playing improv games with a leather-clad dominatrix as an audience hurls marshmallows at you, this Unscriptables show is for you Funhouse Lounge, 2432 SE 11th Ave., 309-3723. 10 pm every Saturday. $10.
Competitive improv, with two teams battling for stage time. Curious Comedy, 5225 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., 477-9477. 10 pm every first and third Friday. $5.
4S WWeek BW Ad: CL17/Tiempo Libre Runs: 4/10, 4/24 & 5/1
Team-based long-form improv open to audience members and performers of all stripes. Curious Comedy, 5225 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., 477-9477. 8 pm every first and third Thursday. $5.
New improv group Representatives makes its debut with a variety show featuring stand-up comedy from Tim Hammer and Phil Schallberger, music from chamber-folk band Alameda and improv from Skootch. The Blue Monk, 3341 SE Belmont St., 595-0575. 8:30 pm Friday, May 3. $5. 21+.
She Works Hard for the Funny
All female stand-up from Kristine Levine, Mandie Allietta, Whitney Streed, Stephanie Purtle, Amy Miller and Andie Main, with proceeds to benefit Planned Parenthood. Jack London Bar, 529 SW 4th Ave., 228-7605. 7:30 pm Friday, May 3. Donation.
Skootch
The improv ensemble presents Multiverse, which relies on audience input to create a cast of characters in a unique world—and then to launch some fateful changes. Brody Theater, 16 NW Broadway, 224-2227. 7:30 pm Thursday, May 2. $6.
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ONE NIGHT ONLY!
Tiempo Libre
Thursday, May 9 | 7:30 pm
A night of high-voltage Latin jazz! At home in concert halls, jazz clubs and dance venues, Tiempo Libre’s Miami-based members are true heirs to the music of their native Cuba. A hit in the U.S. and abroad, they’re celebrated for their seductive rhythms and sophisticated performances. Tickets start at $21 while they last! Groups of 10 or more save: 503-416-6380
Call: 503-228-1353 Click: OrSymphony.org Come in: 923 SW Washington | 10 am – 6 pm Mon – Fri
ARLENE
SCHNITZER
CONCERT
HALL
Willamette Week MAY 1, 2013 wweek.com
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PERFORMANCE
MAY 1–7 BLAINE TRUITT COVERT
U.S.S. Improvise
The Unscriptables craft Star Trekinspired improv, complete with music, props and costumes. Funhouse Lounge, 2432 SE 11th Ave., 841-6734. 8 pm Saturdays through June 1. “Pay what you want.”.
Weekly Recurring Humor Night
Whitney Streed hosts a weekly comedy showcase, featuring local comics and out-of-towners. Tonic Lounge, 3100 NE Sandy Blvd., 2380543. 9:30 pm every Wednesday. “Pay what you want,” $3-$5 suggested.
CLASSICAL Arnaldo Cohen
The acclaimed Brazilian pianist marks his accession to the directorship of Portland Piano International, the city’s renowned presenter of keyboard virtuosos from around the world, with his own solo recital featuring scherzos by Chopin, Brahms’ popular variations on a tune that turned out to be not by Handel after all, and more. Newmark Theatre, 1111 SW Broadway, 228-1388. 4 pm Sunday, May 5. $14-$54.
ISing Choir
The adventurous and generous choir, which always sings for a good cause (this time, the animal rescue outfit Indigo Rescue), sings songs about animals. This includes Benjamin Britten’s beautiful Rejoice in the Lamb; leading contemporary choral composer Eric Whitacre’s Ogden Nash setting Animal Crackers; folk songs from Mexico, Georgia and China; and some fun diversions including a Gregorian chant-style setting of “Old MacDonald Had a Farm.” Bethel Congregational United Church of Christ, 5150 SW Watson St., Beaverton. 7:30 pm Friday-Saturday and 3 pm Sunday, May 3-5. Free.
In Mulieribus, Phil and Gayle Neumann
It’s too early for summer travel, but the superb women’s choral ensemble leads a musical journey through space and time. Accompanied by Portland veteran ancient-music experts who run the Oregon Renaissance Band and Ensemble De Organographia (and make most of their replica instruments), some of the city’s finest altos and sopranos sing music from two of the most famous musical manuscripts, The Red Book of Montserrat and the Codex Calixtinus, which contain a wealth of tunes sung by Renaissance and medieval pilgrims and other travelers. St. Stephen’s Church, 1112 SE 41st Ave., 283-2913. 7 pm Sunday, May 5. $15-$25.
Oregon Chamber Players
The ensemble let its audience vote on the repertoire, and it chose well: selections from Telemann’s delightful Table Music collection and a classic from another great German Baroque composer (widely regarded in their time as his inferior), J.S. Bach. Plus there will be a flute duet by Doppler, a divertimento by Jacob and a lovely reverie by Debussy. All Saints’ Episcopal Church, 4033 SE Woodstock Blvd., 1-888-OCP-8788. 7:30 pm Saturday, May 4. $12-$15.
Oregon Symphony, Storm Large
They may not be playing this excellent program at Carnegie Hall next month as originally planned, but the orchestra will have performed it in Seattle, and it’s a good thing, because as many people as possible need to hear the OSO, which, judging by its last few concerts, is playing near the very highest level of American orchestras. The concert features a reprise of one of the orchestra’s rare ventures into music by living composers, the excellent young, award-winning Cambodian composer Narong Prangcharoen’s short Phenomenon, which dazzled
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BODYVOX OSO audiences a few years back. And a too seldom performed 20thcentury masterpiece, Kurt Weill’s Seven Deadly Sins, sung by Portland rock goddess Storm Large and a fab foursome of male singers, including opera greats Anton Belov and Richard Zeller. Plus there will be another last-century classic, Ravel’s vivacious The Waltz, and a 19th-century classic, Schubert’s magnificent, though never-completed, Symphony No. 8. Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, 1037 SW Broadway, 228-1353. 7:30 pm Saturday, 2 pm Sunday, May 4-5. $27-$115.
Portland Columbia Symphony Orchestra
Conductor emeritus Huw Edwards, who led the CSO for a dozen years (and Portland Youth Philharmonic before that) before stepping down last year, returns to conduct one of the most moving of late Romantic masterpieces, Richard Strauss’ powerful Four Last Songs, with soprano soloist Carol Walterman. The orchestra also plays English composer Edward Elgar’s Symphony No. 2. Sunday’s performance is at the Good Shepherd Community Church (28986 SE Haley Road, Boring). First United Methodist Church, 1838 SW Jefferson St., 234-4077. 7:30 pm Friday, May 3 and 3 pm Sunday, May 5. $10-$30.
Portland State University Opera
Ken Selden conducts the PSU Orchestra and veteran Artists Repertory Theatre director Jon Kretzu leads the student cast and rising, young star tenor Zachary Borichevsky (already singing internationally) in Puccini’s rarely performed operetta La Rondine. In this performance, the action is moved from 19th-century Paris and the Riviera to (shades of Opera Theater Oregon!) 1940s-’50s Douglas Sirk-era Hollywood. Lincoln Hall, Portland State University, 1620 SW Park Ave., 725-3307. 7:30 pm Friday-Saturday, May 3-4. $15-$26.
True Life Trio
Fans of Bay Area-based Eastern European women’s vocal ensemble Kitka can assuage some of their frustration at the group’s long absence from Portland stages by hearing a spinoff trio sing Polish and other East European folk songs, as well as tunes from Appalachia, Acadiana and beyond. This latest installment
of the Polish Music at Polish Hall series is created and curated by choreographer Agnieszka Laska. Polish Hall, 3900 N Interstate Ave., 7151866. 7 pm Saturday, May 4. $10.
DANCE BodyVox
Two alternating programs mark the 15th anniversary show for BodyVox. Fresh off the company’s international tour, co-artistic directors Jamey Hampton and Ashley Roland have put together a combined 20 pieces to showcase the the company’s ingenuity and pursuit of beauty. Among the pieces is a new creation, a jazzy closer called Cafe Blanco; it’s a Lindy Hop-inspired piece which appears in both programs. BodyVox Dance Center, 1201 NW 17th Ave., 229-0627. 7:30 pm Thursdays-Saturdays and 2 pm Saturdays, May 11 and 18; through May 18. $36-$59.
Burlesque S’il Vous Plait
Zora Phoenix hosts a classic burlesque show with a contemporary variety twist, featuring Stilletta Maraschino, Lascivious Lenore, Claire Voltaire and Angelique DeVil. Crush, 1400 SE Morrison St, 2358150. 9 pm Friday, May 3. $10. 21+.
The Jefferson Dancers
The nationally recognized dancers of Jefferson High School return from a trip to China for their spring performance. Jefferson Dancers perform in all styles, from modern to tap and ballet to African. Newmark Theatre, 1111 SW Broadway, 248-4335. 7:30 pm WednesdaySaturday, May 1-4 and 2 pm Saturday, May 4. $15.25-$22.25.
Orchestre L’Pow! Presents “La Femme Celeste”
A tribute to heavenly women, Portland’s burlesque pit band plays on scantily clad goddesses from Isis to Aphrodite. Headliner Jo “Boobs” Weldon of New York joins Boom Boom L’Roux of Seattle and L’Pow! company dancers Madison Moone and Itty Bitty Bang Bang Bossanova Ballroom, 722 E Burnside St., 2067630. 8 pm Saturday, May 4. $10$40. 21+.
For more Performance listings, visit
VISUAL ARTS
MAY 1–7
= WW Pick. Highly recommended. By RICHARD SPEER. 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: rspeer@wweek.com.
Give!Guide 2013!
JUST WITHIN REACH BY TED KATZ
NEWS CAP Art Auction
One of the biggest events on Portland’s social calendar, the Cascade AIDS Project’s 24th annual art auction, raised $640,000 for its programs April 27. While that’s $40,000 less than the total raised during last year’s auction, it’s still an impressive sum, with proceeds benefiting HIV and AIDS education, prevention, health-care services, housing and support. During the auction, a glass sculpture by Dale Chihuly won the evening’s highest bid, at $9,700. Among other works spotlighted in the auction were an exultant, wood-burned painting by Tom Cramer, a still life of hyperrealistic cherries by Sherrie Wolf, and moody black-and-white photographs by filmmaker Gus Van Sant and the late William Jamison. Taylor Dayne swooped into town to provide the evening’s entertainment. Let’s just say CAP will have a hard time topping her performance in years to come. Congratulations to CAP, the featured artists and the lucky collectors who took home some stellar pieces for an important cause.
NOW SHOWING Ann Ploeger: My Melinda
Who can forget photographer Ann Ploeger’s gory 2009 series of blood-spattered faces, aptly titled Blood? She’s up to the old horror antics again in her current show at Pushdot, My Melinda. This sublimely creepy show features a single model portraying the eponymous foxy redhead, a character in faux-horror movies drawn from Ploeger’s imagination. In photo after photo, the intrepid Melinda finds herself in danger’s path: inside a claustrophobic shower enclosure, glimpsed by a voyeur through a window at night. What harm will befall her? Can sheer pluck and great lipstick save her from impending doom? Through May 31. Pushdot, 1021 SE Caruthers St., 224-5925.
Hector Mediavilla: S.A.P.E.
Whether they’re called dandies, fops or, in the Congo, “sapeurs,” it’s undeniable that people who dress with conspicuous panache provide eye candy for everyone in their sartorial and social orbits. Spanish documentary photographer Hector Mediavilla traveled to the Republic of Congo to document exemplars of the country’s “sapeur” style. These dressers-to-the-nines model themselves after Congolese citizens who visited Paris in the 1920s and returned home with a distinct Parisian flair. Mediavilla’s
photo essay highlighting these men’s contemporary heirs gets to the heart of costume’s sometimes uneasy relationship with identity. Through June 2. Newspace Center for Photography, 1632 SE 10th Ave., 963-1935.
Oregontology
This group show began on Earth Day and is an appropriately earthy celebration of Oregon’s old-growth forests, mushrooms, mountains, ecospheres, and all other things that go “crunch!” in the night. Thirty artists participate in the lovefest, which bears the wittily punned and downright cute title of Oregontology. If you love Oregon, you might not love this show, but chances are your state pride will get you at least to second base. Through May 12. People’s Gallery, Pioneer Place Mall, 700 SW 5th Ave., third floor, suite 4005.
Ted Katz: Questions
After his mother passed away, painter Ted Katz traveled to Eastern Europe and Russia to absorb the heritage that had been hers. In those diverse landscapes, both terrestrial and psychological, he found the inspiration for the paintings in Questions. Katz paints landscapes semi-abstractly, so that according to the viewer’s eye and mood, swaths of color register either as sweeping brushstrokes, plains, hills or misty skies. In works such as What Light You Have, he tilts the horizon line, imbuing the composition with the slightly offkilter ambiguity of questions— such as “Who was my mother, and who am I?”—that cannot fully be answered. Through June 1. Butters Gallery, 520 NW Davis St., second floor, 248-9378.
Uncontrollable Urge
You’ve heard of the yeti, right? You know, the Abominable Snowman? But Yeti is also the name of a multiformat journal edited by Mike McGonigal, who conceived the project as “a general-interest magazine for those with marginal interests.” Thirty artists from around the world, including seven based in Portland, will exhibit artwork featured in Yeti’s pages through the years, much of it with a lowbrow or self-taught aesthetic. The show coincides with the publication of Yeti issue No. 13. To miss it would be…abominable. Through June 14. Portland Museum of Modern Art, 5202 N Albina Ave., 953-0515.
For more Visual Arts listings, visit
Willamette Week’s 2013 Give!Guide
Applications OPEN on June 1st @ wweek.com/giveguide Willamette Week MAY 1, 2013 wweek.com
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Writers...
START YOUR ENGINES!!!
BOOKS
MAY 1–7
= WW Pick. Highly recommended. By PENELOPE BASS. 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.
WEDNESDAY, MAY 1 Sjón
A community of Alaskan writers wants to add steam to your creative ambitions.................. Join us! Keynote Author for 2013
Kathleen Dean Moore joins seven prominent Alaskawriters for four days of discussion,work and good times.
Fourth annual
NORTH WORDS WRITERS SYMPOSIUM May 29 - June 1, 2013 in fabulous Skagway, Alaska Gateway to the Klondike
Sigurjón Birgir Sigurðsson, known thankfully by his pen name, Sjón, is a celebrated Icelandic poet and novelist as well as a frequent collaborator with singer Björk. He’ll make a stop in Portland to promote his new novel, The Whispering Muse. Known for weaving together myth and modern life, his reading should be an enjoyable, if surreal, experience. Powell’s on Hawthorne, 3723 SE Hawthorne Blvd., 228-4651. 7:30 pm. Free.
THURSDAY, MAY 2 Daniela Elza
Vancouver, British Columbia, poet Daniela Elza has lived and worked on three continents and had her writing published in more than 60 publications. After recently receiving her doctorate in philosophy of education, Elza is now promoting her new book of poetry, Milk Tooth Bane Bone. She likes to keep busy. In Portland for one night, Elza will read from her work along with local poet John Sibley Williams, reading from his forthcoming book, Controlled Hallucinations. In Other Words, 14 NE Killingsworth St., 232-6003. 7 pm. Free.
Daniel Kine
Meet your community at: www.nwwriterss.com
The classic American road novel speaks to our deep yearning for freedom and adventure, drugs and promiscuous sex and bonding with other lost fuck-ups. Author Daniel Kine takes a turn at the genre with his sophomore novel, Up Nights, an exploration of the “unequivocal impermanence of life.” That’s deep, yo. Jack London Bar, 529 SW 4th Ave., 503-228-7605. 7-9 pm. Free. 21+.
MONDAY, MAY 6 OMSI Science Pub
Procrastination is a seductive mistress, luring you into wasting several hours of each work day spiraling down the cat video wormhole. Fortunately, Scott Crabtree, a former tech strategist at Intel, is here to help with his OMSI Science Pub presentation “The Science of Being Happy and Productive at Work.” Turns out if you were happier at work, you’d be healthier and more productive. Try to work on that. Bagdad Theater &Pub, 3702 SE Hawthorne Blvd., 236-9234. 7 pm. $5. 21+.
Oregon Encyclopedia History Night
Few satirical devices can cut straight through the crap like the political cartoon. Homer Davenport became a progressive icon of the Oregon media through his political cartoons published in the San Francisco Examiner, New York Journal and New York Evening Mail. Historian Gus Frederick explores Davenport’s impact on the cultural landscape for the Oregon Encyclopedia history night. Mission Theater, 1624 NW Glisan St., 223-4527. 7 pm. Free.
Jane Espenson and Brad Bell
Continuing their acclaimed (and fucking hilarious) online sitcom Husbands in comic book form, Jane Espenson and Brad Bell explore what happens when famous gay newlyweds Brady and Cheeks dare to be gay in public (gasp). Writers Espenson and Bell will be joined by illustrators Ron Chan, Ben Dewey and Natalie Nourigat for a super gay evening (as in fun!). Powell’s City of Books, 1005 W Burnside St., 228-4651. 7:30 pm. Free.
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Anis Mojgani
As the two-time National Poetry Slam Champion and winner of the International World Cup Poetry Slam, Anis Mojgani knows a little something about throwing words together. Having assembled a best-of collection of his work, Mojgani will be in Portland to read from Songs From Under the River. Careful, things might get spontaneous. Powell’s on Hawthorne, 3723 SE Hawthorne Blvd., 228-4651. 7:30 pm. Free.
TUESDAY, MAY 7 Willamette Writers
Despite what the movies teach us, not all authors’ creative processes are a haze of alcohol and hallucinogenic drugs. Willamette Writers will host Seattle authors Jennie Shortridge and Erica Bauermeister to speak about varying paths in the writers’ process from story structure to plot and dialogue. Save the cocktails and mescaline for later. The Old Church, 1422 SW 11th Ave., 222-2031. 7 pm.
For more Books listings, visit
REVIEW
BECKY OHLSEN WALKING PORTLAND Becky Ohlsen’s Walking Portland (Wilderness Press, 200 pages, $18.95) keeps up a blistering pace through Portland’s gridded streets while stopping Wheezing, drinking, learning. at every worthy watering hole and potential Instagram selfie backdrop along the way. Ohlsen, a former Willamette Week copy chief and longtime contributor, opens a window onto the city’s history and cultural evolution, starting back with Meriwether and William’s famous expedition. The heart of Ohlsen’s project is MapQuest-style directions and blue-and-white aerial maps. The directions from points Ankeny to Burnside are key to the guide, but the insightful lines surrounding them make the book more than reference material. The book—part of the Wilderness Press’ urban walking series, which also includes Boston and San Francisco—features 30 short outings spanning both sides of the Willamette River, from Forest Park to Montavilla. The two-to-five-mile treks are primarily urban, winding through narrow, bamboo-lined corridors near Goose Hollow to bustling portions of “neo-hippie” Hawthorne. Fortunately, several of Portland’s flagship parks make the cut, either as complete excursions or noteworthy detours into the hilly neighborhoods of tony Northwest. Although Ohlsen’s historical narratives add character to many locations, they never cause the walks to drag. Passages are detailrich but not overbearing, often providing enough information for the casual urban trekker while enticing history buffs to research further on their own. “Balch Creek is named for Danford Balch, an early Oregon settler with quite a story,” Ohlsen writes about the underground creek at the start of the Lower Macleay Trailhead leading into Forest Park. That story: Balch shot his daughter’s lover after a scuffle and became the first man hanged in Oregon. She also addresses Esther Lovejoy, the Pittocks and the hipstered-out inner-eastside park where “pasty-skinned Portlanders exposing disconcerting amounts of their Pabst-fueled bodies” play Hacky Sack. The guidebook features sporadic rundowns of selected restaurants and bars, critiquing assorted dishes, drinks and service based on her 15 years in Portland. She talks about the “grumpy” service at Escape From New York, the Casa Del Matador “cougar bar” on Northwest 23rd Avenue, and the “awesome Mason-jar drinks” at the Bye and Bye, among others. Despite the rather shallow history and personal reviews, veteran Portlanders will most appreciate the history. For instance, did you know the White Eagle was once nicknamed “the Bucket of Blood” for its notorious brawls? Ohlsen’s guide tests your knowledge of local trivia as well as your physical endurance—I found I had neither after a breathless jaunt from Southwest Park Place to the International Rose Test Garden. BRANDON WIDDER. GO: Becky Ohlsen reads at Powell’s on Hawthorne, 3723 SE Hawthorne Blvd., on Thursday, May 2. 7:30 pm. Free.
MAY 1–7 REVIEW
= WW Pick. Highly recommended.
2012 MARVEL
MOVIES
Editor: REBECCA JACOBSON. 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: rjacobson@wweek.com. Fax: 243-1115.
10 Questions for the Dalai Lama
[THREE NIGHTS ONLY] Hey, the Dalai Lama’s in town! Can’t see the man in the flesh? In this documentary, filmmaker Rick Ray asks the Dalai Lama about poverty, tradition and violence. Clinton Street Theater. 7:30 pm FridaySunday, May 3-5.
42
D+ Jackie Robinson is an American legend: The first black player to break Major League Baseball’s color barrier, he shouldered the hopes of a generation, weathering a flurry of abuse to open the gates for future players to partake in America’s pastime. Brian Helgeland’s Robinson biopic, 42, will also secure a spot in history: history class. This is the kind of shoddy biopic that teachers will keep in the bullpen for sick days, so some hung-over substitute can put it on for a “lesson.” Yet this is neither a good sports movie nor a worthwhile historical film. If one were to piece together Robinson’s story based solely on 42, it would read as follows: Jackie Robinson (Chadwick Boseman) was a nice, college-educated man who loved his wife. One day, Brooklyn Dodgers general manager Branch Rickey (Harrison Ford) called him up to the bigs. Most white players didn’t like him, spending so much time snarling racial slurs they didn’t realize he was both nice and good at baseball. Then everyone realized he was good at baseball. Then they were friends. Despite Boseman’s best efforts, Robinson’s character is criminally underdeveloped, and Ford is reduced to the kind of white-person-solves-racism role that scored Sandra Bullock an Oscar. Even the baseball sequences are lazily constructed. Hell, Remember the Titans is a more complex, moving portrait of racial tensions in sports. 42 is a hackneyed, cookie-cutter film that manages to tell us absolutely nothing about a turning point in American history. But on the bright side, at least it’ll provide endless naps for future history students when their teachers are sick. PG-13. AP KRYZA. Eastport, Cornelius, Lloyd Center, Oak Grove, City Center, Evergreen Parkway, Fox Tower, Hilltop, Lloyd Mall, Sherwood, Tigard, Wilsonville.
Admission
C In one of the funnier moments in Admission, several Princeton admissions officers make notes on a giant chart. On one side are fawning remarks they’ve received from parents whose offspring have just been accepted to the Ivy League. “You’re an angel on earth,” reads one. On the other side are insults from parents of rejected applicants. Admissions officer Portia (Tina Fey) approaches the board with a comment she’s just received. “I hope you get rectal cancer,” she scrawls. Paul Weitz’s lukewarm dramedy, though, prompts neither rapture nor wrath. It takes a subject, the neurotic frenzy of college admissions, that could be played seriously or for laughs, and lands in an erratic middle. Fey is an uptight admissions officer who receives a phone call from a former classmate named John (Paul Rudd), who runs an alternative school where students learn to build sustainable irrigation systems, assist cows in labor and generally fight the man. There she meets Jeremiah (Nat Wolff, in the film’s most sincere performance), a genius autodidact with ghastly grades. When John tells Portia that Jeremiah might be the son she gave up for adoption during college, her life goes into a tailspin. Fey plays Portia as a neat-freak Liz Lemon, a screwball with an office she keeps scrupulously clean and a bonsai she obsessively trims. Rudd, while not as endearing as Fey, does his usual deadpan act, but the screenplay is too tepid to generate any real laughs. The most charming performance comes from Lily Tomlin as Portia’s freewheeling feminist mother, and when she’s onscreen Admission
begins to stoke an anti-conformist fire. Yet even as the film pokes elitist Ivies in the eye, it asks viewers to root for an underdog who seeks acceptance to one such institution. Sorry, Admission: After review of your application, we have voted to place your name on our waitlist. PG-13. REBECCA JACOBSON. Academy.
The Angels’ Share
B- Although the Scottish slang spoken in The Angels’ Share is slightly more comprehensible than that in Trainspotting, this heartwarming yarn of a thug turned good might still make viewers yearn for subtitles. Fortunately, though, the goofy heist plot is simple enough you should be fine with only a 30 percent grasp of the dialogue: Four young Glaswegians sentenced to community service after minor offenses hatch a scheme to pilfer some very pricey Scotch whisky. Headed up by new father Robbie (real-life ex-con Paul Brannigan, a wiry and endearing presence with a short fuse), the clumsy quartet dons some tartan and tromps to the misty Scottish Highlands, along the way hitchhiking with nuns, developing their whisky noses and unleashing plenty of potty humor. The film is genial enough, with its lighthearted jokes and sugary soundtrack tempered by director Ken Loach’s periodic injections of leftist social commentary. REBECCA JACOBSON. Living Room Theaters.
B-Movie Bingo: Omega Cop
[ONE NIGHT ONLY, REVIVAL, GAMES] Spot the white suits and male ponytails in this post-apocalyptic crime flick. R. Hollywood Theatre. 7:30 pm Tuesday, May 7.
The Big Wedding
A rom-com about a wedding weekend, with an ensemble cast too good for this project (including Robert De Niro, Susan Sarandon and Diane Keaton). Not screened for Portland critics. R.
Biutiful
D+ [THREE NIGHTS ONLY] In the
decade since making his sizzling debut with Amores Perros, director Alejandro González Iñárritu has been trapped with screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga in a feedback loop of increasingly farflung and outlandish coincidences. Biutiful is Iñárritu’s first film after his split with Arriaga, and the best that can be said for it is that at least all the coincidences are packed into one character. The guy’s name is Uxbal, and he is played by a goateed Javier Bardem. Living in a squalid corner of Barcelona, Uxbal is a caring single father of two children, who were abandoned by their desperate and appalling bipolar mother. He is dying of advanced-stage prostate cancer; his doctor gives him two months. He runs a black-market goods and labor ring with gay Chinese gangsters. Oh, and he can talk to the souls of the dead. Bardem’s Oscarnominated anguish—it’s an intense but strangely monotonous performance— recalls a blend of Sean Penn and Benicio Del Toro’s wailings and gnashings in Iñárritu’s 21 Grams, even down to bits in which the hero goes outside and gazes mournfully upon flocks of birds silhouetted against the evening sky. 21 Grams, however, did not feature a sequence set inside a strip club where the dancers’ ass cheeks are decorated with nipples. You can’t say the filmmaker isn’t innovating new kinds of degradation. By the end of Biutiful, Uxbal and his youngest child have both developed bladder-control problems: The movie winds up with father and son both pissing themselves in the night. It’s another meaningful connection, you see. But I can’t imagine anyone seeing this film by choice. R. AARON MESH. Fifth Avenue Cinema. 7 and 9:30 pm Friday-Saturday, 3 pm Sunday, May 3-5.
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EXISTENTIAL FUNK: Robert Downey Jr. is the anti-Batman with a wounded soul.
MAN IN THE CAN MARVEL KILLS IT WITH THE TERRIFICALLY ENTERTAINING IRON MAN 3. BY A P KRYZA
243-2122
The modern superhero trilogy has a very specific arc. There’s the origin story, in which an everyman stumbles into great power. In round two, the world turns on said hero as he faces greater threats. And in round three, our hero delves into an existential crisis, forced to grapple with his duality. The Iron Man trilogy is no exception. But it’s an outstanding example of how familiar territory can be explored so compellingly. In 2008, Marvel took a big gamble with the story of Tony Stark. The selfproclaimed genius, billionaire, playboy philanthropist wasn’t just an untested cinematic commodity who was essentially on the superhero B-list. He was also poised to be a protagonist with whom no viewer could identify: egomaniacal, self-serving, alcoholic and warmongering. Marvel was asking a lot of audiences to embrace the man and his redemption. But in casting then-struggling Robert Downey Jr. as the man in the can, the studio managed the impossible. Downey’s Stark is the very definition of charismatic. Unlike another billionaire with daddy issues in an armored suit protecting the world, Stark uses his wealth to womanize and globetrot. He flaunts his riches and his heroic alter ego with a series of nervous tics and rapid-fire quips. He’s the anti-Batman. As a result, the first Iron Man film emerged as a top-tier superhero yarn that emphasized something too often forgotten by its brethren: Comicbook movies are supposed to be fun. After a slight misfire with his second outing and a tremendous role in The Avengers, Downey is back to headlining. Given the setup, the flick could have been a total downer. This is, after all, the phase of the story where things get dark, with Stark stripped of his suit by a murderous terrorist with shades of bin Laden known as the Mandarin (Ben Kingsley), who commands an army of genetically modified soldiers who specialize in mass murder via bombing. Plagued with crippling anxiety in the aftermath of The Avengers and struggling to maintain his relationship with Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow),
Stark is a hot mess. None of these elements lends itself well to a crackling summer popcorn flick. Yet Iron Man 3 is perhaps the most giddily enjoyable superhero flick of the Marvel lot, a hysterically funny, fast-paced character study that revels in its explosions as much as it does its whipsmart dialogue. From the opening flashback to the prolonged final melee, nearly every moment bursts with energy, smarts, rascally charm and surprises. In reuniting Downey with Kiss Kiss Bang Bang director Shane Black, Marvel has managed yet another home run in a series of blockbuster gambits. In Black—the man who invented the banter-driven buddy-cop genre with Lethal Weapon—Marvel has finally found a writer who can convey Stark’s gift for fast talk and self-deprecating barbs. He’s populated his film with loquacious henchmen, slapstick sight gags and enough putdowns to fuel 1,000 celebrity
NEARLY EVERY MOMENT BURSTS WITH ENERGY, SMARTS, RASCALLY CHARM AND SURPRISES. roasts. And in keeping Stark out of his armor for much of the film, Black has crafted a superhero film that harks back to the golden years of summer action: As Stark and Rhodey (a returning Don Cheadle) infiltrate the Mandarin’s compound armed with their wits and fists, the two actors are allowed to let their mouths run rampant. That’s to say nothing of Guy Pearce, as villainous inventor Aldrich Killian, who turns in a performance of such slimy charm that he nearly matches Downey beat for beat, or Kingsley, who spouts rhetoric and malice with scenery-chewing relish. Iron Man 3 isn’t just a fine superhero film. It isn’t just a fine action flick, either. It’s a film that embraces a mold before completely breaking it with left-field twists and turns that keep the viewer engaged and chuckling with alarming frequency. Never before has a film about a hero’s existential dilemma and descent into darkness been this much fun. And never has a movie about a dude in a robot suit blowing up shit had this much heart. A- SEE IT: Iron Man 3 is rated PG-13. It opens Friday at Cedar Hills, Eastport, Clackamas, CineMagic, Lloyd Center, Bridgeport, Division, Evergreen Parkway, Lloyd Mall, Pioneer Place, Movies on TV, Roseway, St. Johns Twin, Hilltop, Sherwood, Tigard, Wilsonville.
Willamette Week MAY 1, 2013 wweek.com
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MAY 1–7
Blow-Up
[ONE NIGHT ONLY, REVIVAL] Michelangelo Antonioni’s existential thriller about Swinging London is an indelible ’60s artifact. NW Film Center’s Whitsell Auditorium. 7 pm Tuesday, May 7.
Bollywood at the Hollywood: Sholay
[ONE NIGHT ONLY, REVIVAL] DJ Anjali screens this 1975 tale of two hired guns, which has been called the first curry Western. Hollywood Theatre. 7:30 pm Thursday, May 2.
Burn
[TWO NIGHTS ONLY] A documentary following a group of Detroit firefighters. Hollywood Theatre. 7 pm MondayTuesday, May 6-7.
The Company You Keep
C+ Never mind that in real life, Weather Underground activists did not murder anyone in their anti-war radicalism of the early 1970s. In Robert Redford’s The Company You Keep, they did. As the film tells it, during a Weather Underground bank robbery, a security guard was killed, and the young revolutionaries escaped. The fugitives, still on the FBI’s short list of most wanted decades later, have melted into the suburbs under assumed identities. Sharon Solarz (a shining Susan Sarandon) plans to turn herself in when the FBI gets the jump on her. This is the spark that ignites the thriller’s slow fuse, which smolders thanks to the acting but is ultimately smothered by sap. Shia LaBeouf plays Ben Shepard, an arrogant sophomore reporter whose main goal in life is to break a major story, ethically or not. He gets his chance when he finds that a local lawyer is actually Nick Sloan (Redford), one of the wanted fugitives. Thrills are in short supply as Ben tracks Nick across the country, piecing together clues from a public library. Other than LaBeouf and a few bit parts, the cast could be the red-carpet parade at the 1986 Oscars. Redford, Sarandon and Nolte are joined by Julie Christie, Sam Elliott and Richard Jenkins (a dour professor of Marxism who barks objections to Nick’s violent tactics). Youth be damned: Dispassionate Redford aside, the top-notch cast delivers. But Hollywood’s moralizing foot stomps out any of the story’s flames, glossing over any discussion of morality, journalism or activism to ensure our young reporter can reflect on some gee-whiz life lessons. If we’re to judge based solely on the company kept in this film, The Company You Keep wins. As the film reminds us, “Terrorists justify terrorism,” but impressive performances do not justify a snoozy plot. R. MITCH LILLIE. Eastport, Fox Tower, Tigard.
The Croods
B So here’s the thing: The Croods fails to conjure a complex or logically consistent world. It fails to populate that world with credible characters, or to usher those characters through a series of dramatically satisfying trials. But so what? This is primitive, pre-Pixarian family entertainment at its most rambunctious. Psychedelic, exuberant and dumb, The Croods, written and directed by Chris Sanders and Kirk DeMicco, harks back to a simpler time when so-called “family films,” including animated features from major studios like Warner Bros. and DreamWorks, were permitted— nay, expected—to be willfully incoherent, so long as they served up thrills, spills, zingers, romance and a healthy dose of innocuous schmaltz. Now, for better or for worse, filmgoers weaned on Pixar and Studio Ghibli have come to expect—nay, demand—sophistication and subtlety, not to mention visual pyrotechnics, from second-tier animated films (Ice Age, Madagascar) that are, at their core, frivolous entertainment created to engage the imaginations of young children. Of course, not every animated feature can be WALL-E; some of them have to be The Croods. In a nutshell: Nic Cage, voicing a knuckle-dragging caveman, cracks wise, pulls faces and delivers zany, half-cooked monologues on death and love and family amid stunning, oversat-
54
urated landscapes that evoke both Dr. Seuss and early Tex Avery-era Looney Tunes. Allow me to reiterate: Nic Cage, cavemen, zaniness. That’s all you need to know, that’s pretty much all you’ll get, and that ain’t necessarily a bad thing. PG. MARSHALL WALKER LEE. Eastport, Cornelius, Indoor Twin, Oak Grove, City Center, Evergreen Parkway, Hilltop, Lloyd Mall, Sherwood, Tigard, Wilsonville.
Disconnect
A movie from Murderball director Henry Alex Rubin about how the Internet destroys lives. Not screened for Portland critics. R. Fox Tower.
Django Unchained
B- Give Quentin Tarantino this much: He’s got balls. Imagine entering a meeting with a major studio and pitching a relentlessly violent, big-budget revenge fantasy about an escaped slave in the pre-Civil War South who slaughters his way through Confederate plantation owners in search of his wife. If nothing else, Django Unchained has audacity going for it. But it raises a question that, ultimately, makes it tough to enjoy: When dredging up the ugliest period of American history for the sake of entertainment, is being cool enough? Because Django Unchained is exceptionally cool. A mashed-up spaghetti Western and blaxploitation flick, it is the kind of kinetic pastiche job that’s made Tarantino a genre unto himself. It’s got tight, crackling dialogue, and three actors who revel in delivering it. It’s got a handful of images— such as a close-up of a slave owner’s blood misting across cotton bolls—that are among the best in the director’s oeuvre. It’s got original music by both Ennio Morricone and Rick Ross, and a slow-motion shootout set to a posthumous collaboration between Tupac and James Brown. Why, then, did I leave the theater feeling not exhilarated but empty? Django Unchained trivializes an atrocity, and that makes it hard to digest as fun, frivolous popcorn. Tarantino has taken it upon himself to offer an extreme form of catharsis for immense suffering, but the movie’s blood lust contains little trace of actual empathy. Its staggering runtime—two hours and 45 minutes— is earned only by its three lead actors. As the sociopath-cum-abolitionist Dr. King Schultz, Christoph Waltz makes Tarantino’s words sing. Jamie Foxx finds a captivating stoicism as Django. And Leonardo DiCaprio, playing a psychotic cloaked in Southern gentility, bites down with rotted teeth into a role of slimy, slithering, utterly unsubtle evil. With Django Unchained, Tarantino has made another monument of cinematic cool. But has he made a responsible film? And does it matter? That, it turns out, is the biggest question of all. R. MATTHEW SINGER. Laurelhurst.
The End of Love
D [ONE NIGHT ONLY] Mark (Mark
Webber, who also directs) plods through life as a struggling actor and single father in the wake of his girlfriend’s untimely death. He’s hardly mature enough to comb his own hair and doesn’t have money to pay rent, so Mark and 2-year-old Isaac subsist on cereal, take trips to the cemetery and trudge to the occasional failed audition, where son distracts father during line readings with Amanda Seyfried. Mark eliminates any hope for future relationships by awkwardly professing his love for Lydia (Shannyn Sossamon), a fellow single parent, on their first, inebriated kiss. Truthfully, there never was any hope. Shot like a documentary, with quick cuts from mac-’n’-cheese dinners to trips in a Prius, The End of Love is devoid of a soundtrack or any engaging plot line. Instead, we get 90 minutes of Webber looking distraught. Isaac’s endearing kid-isms are the only uplift, but even they are stifled by Mark’s attempts to find last-minute child care on Craigslist. With his attempt at capturing the struggles of his profession, Webber instead manages a home video of parenthood’s most painful, awkward and boring parts. PG. ENID SPITZ. Hollywood Theatre. 7:15 pm Tuesday, May 7.
Willamette Week MAY 1, 2013 wweek.com
Everything Went Down
PROFILE CO U R T E SY O F SA N DY P E T E R S E N
MOVIES
C+ [ONE NIGHT ONLY] According to
an opening title card, Everything Went Down is a “musical about music.” But it’s hardly a musical in the traditional sense. Rather than characters bursting into song to reveal their feelings, the film—obviously indebted to Once— relies instead on a mellow and at times haunting soundtrack to express its emotional narrative. This feature debut by writer-director (and Portland State University professor) Dustin Morrows tells the story of Will (Noah Drew), a young professor who sleeps in a tent in his backyard and meticulously cleans his wedding ring every morning as he struggles to move on from his wife’s death. He soon befriends Chelsea, a local musician who is struggling in a different way, living the life of a small-town artist, working parttime at a bar and dreaming of New York. Chelsea’s music (performed by real-life musician Kate Tucker, making her acting debut) serves as the narrative of their slowly developing relationship, as the two discuss music, go on hikes and drive around…a lot. An ode to the natural beauty of the Northwest just as much as a tale of a developing relationship, the film piles on shots of the bay and waterfalls around Bellingham, Wash. Though the series of similarly plotted, song-driven montages can sag, the film successfully captures the awkwardness and excitement of befriending someone new, and how it can bring hope to struggle. KAITIE TODD. NW Film Center’s Whitsell Auditorium. 7 pm Thursday, May 2.
Evil Dead
C Should there be any doubt, we’re not speaking about The Evil Dead from 1981. The new movie—on which series godhead Sam Raimi served as producer—is undeniably effective. But the response it provokes has less to do with traditional notions of fear than with autonomic revulsion from the cavalcade of brutality. Though the central construct is unaltered—twentysomethings travel deep into the woods to spend an evening in a despoiled cabin—the motivating impulse differs. Rather than indulge in a far-flung debauch, these kids want only to help a junkie kick her habit. There’s a delicious sliver of horror to be explored by conflating demonic possession and the throes of heroin addiction. End of the day, Evil Dead smacks of a film made to satisfy a bet, albeit one forced upon the creators by a fan base seemingly unwilling to acknowledge that the diabolical allure wielded by the original incarnation has everything to do with the serendipitous grouping of rarefied talent, and nothing whatsoever to do with the Naturom Demonto or the mythology that would grow up and around the film. Faced with the patently impossible task of assuaging a marketplace sure to revolt against too similar an approach or too great a break, it’s more than a little impressive that Raimi and Uruguayan director Fede Alvarez have manufactured a cinematic creature that’s both the clear descendant of their dearly departed creation and unaware of its lineage. It’s impressive, engineering this leviathan, but unbeing The Evil Dead isn’t being alive. Or good. R. JAY HORTON. Eastport, Lloyd Center, Pioneer Place, Tigard.
First Night
[THREE NIGHTS ONLY] A British bedroom farce about a millionaire and amateur opera singer. Clinton Street Theater. 9 pm Friday-Sunday, May 3-5.
Forbidden Planet
[ONE WEEK ONLY, REVIVAL] Shakespeare goes into outer space in this 1956 film based on The Tempest. G. Laurelhurst.
From Up on Poppy Hill
B- The newest addition to Studio Ghibli’s emporium of wondrous Japanese animations is a tale of schoolgirl romance, containing all the delight but hardly the depth of Hayao Miyazaki’s Howl’s Moving Castle or Spirited Away. Umi is a Cinderella of sorts, running her family’s coastal
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HEARING CTHULHU’S CALL: Sandy Petersen.
LOVECRAFT ON THE TABLETOP Game designer Sandy Petersen isn’t afraid of anything. Well, almost anything. “The revelation that things are not as they seem—that’s scary to me,” says Petersen, the guest of honor at this weekend’s H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival. “Like in [2002 Japanese horror film] Dark Water, when the mother’s holding her daughter in the elevator, and then she sees her real daughter coming out of the room. That’s terrifying.” For a man credited with designing a good many terrifying games, this is a big admission. Petersen created the 1981 Lovecraftinspired Call of Cthulhu tabletop role-playing game, now in its sixth iteration. Players, called investigators, face a situation doomed by extraterrestrial or demonic forces, but that’s where similarities with other RPGs, like Dungeons & Dragons, end. “The game’s not about killing the monsters,” says the 57-year-old, who lives in suburban Dallas. “They’re stronger than you anyway. You’re doing intellectual research.” After his Cthulhu RPG, Petersen went digital. Those scenes in 1993’s wildly popular video game Doom, where a rocket launcher stands unguarded in the middle of a massive room that comes alive with demons as soon as the weapon is touched? That was Petersen’s design, along with 19 of the game’s 27 levels. He contributed as well to games like Quake, Darklands and Civilization. Last year, Petersen attempted to create an iPhone game called Cthulhu World Combat, but the Kickstarter campaign fell short of its goal. Still, gamers celebrate Petersen as skilled at the intellectual side of both history and horror. The same could be said of Lovecraft himself. Though he mostly wrote for pulp horror magazines like Weird Tales in the ’20s and ’30s, his writing has a depth completely foreign to most modern horror. As in Petersen’s game, Lovecraft’s protagonists are scientists without special powers who suddenly see their worlds overrun with the “Great Old Ones,” godlike ancient monsters. Many of his stories are framed as letters or essays, replete with obtuse descriptions. In the story “The Call of Cthulhu,” Cthulhu is described as “a monster of vaguely anthropoid outline, but with an octopus-like head.” No writer has more horrifically beaten around the bush. Dozens of Lovecraft-inspired board, card and video games have been made over the years, including Call of Cthulhu games for both PC and the iPhone. But Petersen’s Call of Cthulhu role-playing game out-nerds even the nerdiest Lovecraft fans. When asked to sit down and play the game, Lovecraft Bar owner Jon Horrid declined. “We’re a different kind of nerd than the role players,” he said. Petersen says he doesn’t mind. “People who like Lovecraft may or may not pick up the game, and that’s fine,” he says. “But role players that aren’t Lovecraft fans like it because it’s a premier horror game.” But given how wistfully Petersen speaks about Lovecraft, it’s clear his alliances lie with the Lovecraft camp rather than the RPGers. “Lovecraft doesn’t let you go back to the normal world,” Petersen says. “You’re trapped, and everything you know is wrong.” MITCH LILLIE. How to scare the father of Doom.
SEE IT: The H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival runs May 3-5 at the Hollywood Theatre. Weekend passes $60, day passes $15-$25. For schedule, see hplfilmfestival.com.
MAY 1–7
G.I. Joe: Retaliation
D As “How You Like Me Now?”
blares presumptuously over G.I. Joe: Retaliation’s end credits, dejected viewers will be excused for muttering, “I actually liked you a lot better before.” While this sequel/reboot boasts the same slapdash storytelling and risible dialogue as its predecessor, John M. Chu (Step Up 3D) can’t infuse the material with the same cartoonish energy Stephen Sommers lent 2009’s The Rise of Cobra. Displaying an aversion to outrageousness, this action flick instead traffics in garden-variety ridiculousness. Consequently, minor pleasures are the best it can muster, such as Jonathan Pryce’s mischievous turn as the Cobra terrorist who’s assumed the president’s identity. When he orders an airstrike that reduces the G.I. Joe ranks to Roadblock (Dwayne Johnson) and three others (who share a dozen lines between them), the supposedly international strike force holes up in an abandoned gym and calls on a retiree (Bruce Willis) and his NRA buddies for backup. Given such dreary alternatives, Snake Eyes (Ray Park) understandably defects for a vastly superior subplot featuring ninjas, RZA and cliffhanging melees. Ultimately, this over-the-top tangent only serves to illustrate just what a joyless slog the actual climax is. A surplus of explosions is no substitute for a few narrative fireworks. PG-13. CURTIS WOLOSCHUK. Eastport, Forest, Indoor Twin, Oak Grove, Evergreen Parkway, Lloyd Mall, Sherwood, Wilsonville.
Getting to Know You(Tube)
[ONE NIGHT ONLY] A guided tour through the depths of YouTube. ZOMG! BABY ANIMALS!. Hollywood Theatre. 7:30 pm Monday, May 6.
Girl Rising
[TWO NIGHTS ONLY] A new documentary tells the stories of nine girls around the world fighting for the chance to go to school. PG-13. Clinton Street Theater. 7 pm Thursday, May 2 and 7:30 pm Wednesday, May 8.
The Host
Given the supernatural train wreck the Twilight series was, Stephenie Meyer’s next novel-to-film adaptation inspires little confidence. In this fantasyromance mash-up, an invisible enemy takes over people’s bodies and erases their memories, and it’s up to a young woman to save mankind. Not screened for critics. PG-13. Evergreen Parkway.
Hunky Dory
C+ Setting Shakespeare’s The Tempest
in space isn’t a novel idea: The 1956 film Forbidden Planet, in which earthlings take a starship to an alien planet, was based on the Bard’s dreamlike play. But there’s something charming about making David Bowie, and in particular his song “Life on Mars?”, the guiding light of a production starring working-class Welsh teenagers. That’s what happens in the nostalgia-soaked Hunky Dory, which channels some of The Tempest’s whimsy but none of its focus. It’s 1976 during the U.K.’s hottest summer on record, and high-school drama teacher Vivienne Mae (Minnie Driver) decides to stage a rock-opera Tempest that, she says, would make both Shakespeare and Bowie proud. While Vivienne’s students might be fans of rock ’n’ roll, they’re also fans of drugs and sex, which have a way of interfering with rehearsal. But freespirited Vivienne has a hard-driving streak—she shows up at the community swimming pool with a megaphone
to round up absent cast members— and she soldiers through dropouts and disasters to mount the production, complete with shadow puppet aliens, thick eyeliner and gobs of glitter. While the renditions of Beach Boys and ELO songs are spunky and appealing, director Marc Evans can’t manage all his narrative threads. Rather than probing either Shakespeare’s themes or teenage melodrama, Evans lets it all dissolve, rather blandly, into the ether. REBECCA JACOBSON. Hollywood Theatre.
Identity Thief
C- If an awareness of dimming economic realities were to occupy any Hollywood genre, you’d figure the gross-out comedy would be a natural fit. Shouldn’t lowest-common-denominator humor cater to the 99 percent? For the briefest of moments, as an ebullient Melissa McCarthy blithely swindles Jason Bateman’s buttoneddown Denver accounts manager by pretending to be a bank employee offering a credit protection service, there’s a hint of the anarchic zeal that could have lent Identity Thief a distinct personality. Before anyone starts pondering telemarketing fraud as a potential career, though, we’re informed that Bateman’s heroic financial services functionary can barely support his beatific family despite his tireless labor, while McCarthy lavishes her illgotten largess on a four-figure bar tab. McCarthy’s effervescent crassness and Bateman’s mastery of the long-suffering slow burn are as richly combustible as you’d expect, but while the sudden eruptions of frankly brutal slapstick work a treat, it’s a long slog to get there. R. JAY HORTON. Eastport.
Jack the Giant Slayer
B Jack and the Beanstalk is one of
the few English folktales Americans know by heart. A peasant boy sells his abusive guardian’s livestock for some beans, the beans get wet, a beanstalk grows, and off he goes to rescue a princess from a bread-crazed giant in the sky. Combining that G-rated Beanstalk yarn with all the decapitations and anus-stabbing of the true Arthurian legend, Jack the Giant Slayer is a grimy retelling of the children’s tale…in 3-D. The titular Jack, played by Nicholas Hoult, is an awkward farm boy who has grown up obsessed with this children’s tale, as has Princess Isabelle (Eleanor Tomlinson). Alas, the princess is unhappily betrothed to an ambitious nobleman (Stanley Tucci, in the thankless role of a cartoonish bad guy who does evil things to advance the plot). Given the history of this tale, it’s surprising it took until 2013 for a major studio to tackle the rapidly growing beanstalk with CGI. It’s a spectacle unto itself as the sinewy tendrils rip through the ground, out of the cabin and into the sky. The story isn’t particularly important, and the film can’t decide whether it wants to be serious or tongue-in-cheek. No, Jack the Giant Slayer is focused on moving from one epic fantasy scene to another, whether it’s Ewan McGregor shouting, “Tally ho!” as he zip-lines across the beanstalk or a two-headed giant (Bill Nighy) bursting through a tiled floor. And to that end, it’s a great deal of fun. PG-13. JOHN LOCANTHI. Academy, Avalon, Laurelhurst Theater, Milwaukie, Mt. Hood, Valley.
Jurassic Park 3D
That velociraptor is reaching out to get you…and your wallet. PG-13. Eastport, Bridgeport Village, Hilltop, Lloyd Mall, Pioneer Place.
Leonie
D While many American women were
living as housewives, wanting for nothing and stuck in routine, Leonie Gilmour was leading an unconventional life as an editor, teacher, lover and mother—in Japan. Hisako Matsui’s 2010 biopic takes us through the life of the titular character, best known for being the mother of artist and architect Isamu Noguchi. Beginning in New York in 1901, we’re introduced to Leonie (Emily Mortimer) as she accepts a job as editor for a Japanese poet, Yone Noguchi. Leonie soon becomes pregnant by Yone and later moves to Japan, where she becomes
pregnant with another man’s child, who she raises on her own. Mortimer turns in a strong and resolute performance, and the film features lush shots of leafy trees and snow-capped mountains, but it suffers from a plodding plot and a near-complete lack of relationship development. In one scene, Leonie says she loves a friend’s children as her own, even though we’ve seen no interaction between her and the kids. In another, she pronounces a woman her best friend—never mind that they’ve hardly conversed. These sentiments are unearned and slightly baffling, which detracts from the film’s relatability. KAITIE TODD. Living Room Theaters.
WA R R E N O R C H A R D
boarding house after her sailor father dies and her mother leaves to study in America. Her prince is daredevil activist Shun, who’s set on saving their school’s unkempt “Quartier Latin” student center. Set in a post-WWII Japan ignited by social ferment, the film’s young characters battle authority and discover love to a soundtrack that sounds like Asian Gershwin. This family affair—Miyazaki worked on the screenplay and his son Goro directed— is dreamlike, endearing and fiercely visual. But scenes of Umi gazing over a misty harbor fall short of the mystical wonder expected from the studio behind Howl’s living, teleporting mansion. PG. ENID SPITZ. Fox Tower.
MOVIES
Life of Pi
C Ignore the tiger for a moment. Ang Lee’s Life of Pi is a very simple story with a grandiose backdrop. For much of the film, we’re alone on a lifeboat, in the middle of the Pacific, with a boy and a Bengal. Rendered in sumptuous 3-D, the swoony special effects and churning waves create a palpable sense of motion. But the story lacks such pull. Based on Yann Martel’s Booker Prize-winning novel, the film surrenders the book’s more subtle messages for ham-handed schlock and slack-jawed awe. And unlike better feel-good films, which slowly lock their fangs around your heart, Life of Pi seems downright manipulative. PG. REBECCA JACOBSON. Academy, Laurelhurst, Milwaukie, Valley.
The Lords of Salem
B Subtlety and beauty aren’t exactly two words associated with the works of musician-director Rob Zombie, whose films are often soaked in so much ugliness and brutal violence that they’re hard to stomach, even in their most insanely surreal moments. The Lords of Salem, though, is a different direction for the auteur, and a more assured one. Taking a cue from Ti West (House of the Devil) and Roman Polanski, Zombie opts for a slow-burner in telling the tale of Heidi (wife and muse Sheri Moon), a DJ in the titular Massachusetts town. Heidi receives a trance-inducing record in the mail that sets off an increasingly surrealist nightmare in which the ancestors of a witch massacre manifest themselves in the present day. Zombie’s film largely ditches his trademark shaky-cam chaos in favor of gorgeous, symmetrically composed shots to create a genuine sense of unease, but lest you forget that you’re watching a film by the dude who perpetrated House of 1,000 Corpses, Lords of Salem steadily climbs into a psychedelic nightmare. For once, though, the payoff is an earned nosedive into insanity after an hour of steady buildup. R. AP KRYZA. Lloyd Mall.
The Lyrical Space of Claire Denis
[ONGOING SERIES, REVIVAL] The NW Film Center kicks off several weeks of tribute to French filmmaker Claire Denis, known for her languid and evocative style and for her exploration of colonial and post-colonial Africa. Up first is Denis’ debut feature, 1988’s semiautobiographical Chocolat (7 pm Friday and 2 pm Sunday, May 3 and 5), about a French woman looking back on her childhood in Cameroon. Denis worked as assistant director on Jim Jarmusch’s Down by Law (9:15 pm Friday, May 3), a twisted comedy set in New Orleans, and on Wim Wenders’ Paris, Texas (8:30 pm Saturday, May 4), a portrait of the American West. Also screening is I Can’t Sleep (6:15 pm Saturday, May 4), which braids together two narratives: the true story of a black transvestite who became a serial killer in Paris in the ’80s, and a snapshot of his Martiniquais family. Finally, catch Trouble Every Day (4:30 pm Sunday, May 5), a horror film about cannibalistic murderers, and Nenette and Boni (7 pm Sunday, May 5), about a teenage brother and sister brought together by the girl’s pregnancy. NW Film Center’s Whitsell Auditorium. Through May 16.
Mud
B As with many stories about coming
of age under harsh circumstances, a mighty river runs through the center of Jeff Nichols’ Mud, a Southern-fried
HUNKY DORY fable about two adolescent Arkansas boys whose childhoods are wrested from them. Yet unlike last year’s excellent Beasts of the Southern Wild, this is a fable more grounded in reality. Rampaging prehistoric monsters are replaced by unfaithful women and gangsters. But, much like Beasts, Mud is at heart the story of mighty forces encroaching on children’s innocence. The film centers on buddies Ellis (Tye Sheridan) and Neckbone (Jacob Lofland), who encounter Mud (Matthew McConaughey), a disheveled fugitive hiding out on an isolated island and waiting for his love to join him so they can flee. Drawn to his charisma, Ellis plays Pip to Mud’s Magwitch, delivering food and supplies in hopes of proving that true love conquers all. Meanwhile, vigilantes and crooked cops home in on the island. It’s a remarkably simple set-up, but what seems like a cut-and-dry tale of a mythical bum is instead a rich story of adolescent confusion. Each choice the boys make to help Mud comes steeped in consequence. Add to that the divorce of Ellis’ parents and Neckbone’s feelings of abandonment, and the emotional heft is staggering. It’s also a lot for young actors to handle, but Sheridan and Lofland shoulder it beautifully. McConaughey meshes Mud’s conflicted morals and his mysticism, creating a character at once larger than life and completely rudderless. Central to the entire narrative, though, is the river. As in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn— another tale of a child and fugitive— it functions almost as a character, rising and falling with the narrative, hiding secrets in its murky depths and moving everything forward with its current. Mud is far from perfect, but it’s almost impossible not to get swept away by it. PG-13. AP KRYZA. City Center, Fox Tower.
No
A During the 1988 election in Chile
that led to the ouster of Augusto Pinochet, TV advertising played as major a role in the political process as traditional campaigning: For 27 days, each side had 15 minutes each night to state its case. No puts this into sharp historical perspective via Rene, a quietly intense ad exec (Gael García Bernal) who brought a soda-commercial flair to the anti-Pinochet TV spots. Director Pablo Larrain amplifies the tense yet hopeful mood by shooting the movie on era-appropriate video cameras, meshing new footage with original ads and news footage of protests and police actions. R. ROBERT HAM. Living Room Theaters.
Oblivion
C- In terms of blockbuster source material, “based on an unpublished graphic novel” may not send pulses racing, but it at least offers the allure of the unknown. After all, how many directors other than Christopher Nolan have recently convinced a studio to pony up nine figures on a sci-fi epic that wasn’t already a proven commodity? Joseph Kosinski—whose TRON: Legacy failed to make much of a commercial or critical impression—somehow convinced Universal execs to loosen their purse strings and make his unpublished comic a renderedin-IMAX reality. And while his sopho-
more feature capably demonstrates his knack for envisioning and realizing alternate realms, it also confirms that he remains incapable of cobbling together a compelling story. Oblivion kicks off in much the same fashion as Legacy: with onerous exposition. Jack Harper (Tom Cruise) informs us it’s 2077, some 60 years after Earth was decimated during an alien invasion. Jack now resides with his “assigned” wife, Victoria (Andrea Riseborough), in a gleaming penthouse towering over an expansive wasteland. His initial objective is simply to do his job: harvest Earth’s remaining water for an off-planet colony. However, a throwaway line about “mandatory memory wipes” is destined to boomerang back and complicate matters. Alas, we practically have to wait until the 22nd century for the other shoe to drop and Julia (Olga Kurylenko) to crash from the heavens, claiming to be Jack’s real wife. In the interim, we’re left to marvel at the immaculate post-apocalyptic vistas and to lament Cruise’s continued devolution into an action-movie automaton. Forsaking its languid pace in its second hour, Oblivion piles on dodgy plot developments and largely unsurprising “revelations.” The film is too somber to cater in escapist thrills and too vacuous to offer emotional or intellectual engagement. While an impressive showcase of post-apocalyptic aesthetics, it proves utterly lifeless. PG-13. CURTIS WOLOSCHUK. Eastport, Mill Plain, Cornelius, Lloyd Center, Moreland, Oak Grove, City Center, Evergreen Parkway, Hilltop, Pioneer Place, Sherwood, Tigard, Wilsonville, St. Johns Twin.
Olympus Has Fallen
C+ Olympus Has Fallen harks back to the late-’80s, early-’90s subgenre known as the “Die Hard on an X” flick, that special brand of knockoff adrenaline rush that includes such escapism as Speed, Passenger 57 and Sudden Death, which all saw one man in the wrong place at the wrong time facing a whole army of terrorists. With Olympus, it’s a literal army that storms the White House, taking the president (Aaron Eckhart) and his cabinet hostage. Luckily, his disgraced former head of security (Gerard Butler) survives the initial onslaught and proceeds to stab, shoot, blow up and maim his way to saving the boss. Director Antoine Fuqua could be called insensitive for depicting iconic American landmarks being torn to shreds by advanced weaponry as a staggering number of civilians are felled on camera. But Olympus Has Fallen doesn’t seem to exist in a post9/11 world. It’s firmly grounded in the early ’90s, when all we wanted to do was watch sinewy men spit one-liners at menaces from foreign lands before going on killing sprees. In that sense, it delivers the goods, but it never rises above the level of a big-budget B-movie. It’s Passenger 57 in the White House. Luckily, Passenger 57 is pretty entertaining for a horrible film. R. AP KRYZA. Avalon, Eastport, Evergreen Parkway.
Oy Vey! My Son Is Gay!
[ONE NIGHT ONLY] A family of Long
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Island Jews comes to terms with their son’s homosexuality. Today’s screening is a benefit for Basic Rights Oregon. PG. Clinton Street Theater. 3 pm Sunday, May 5.
Oz the Great and Powerful
B Watching the spectacle that is
James Franco feels like watching a great con man. Here’s a proven movie star who made an art film re-enacting the Al Pacino leather-daddy sex thriller Cruising. As a tribute to the president, he wrote a rambling poem and performed it in bed. Let’s not even discuss the 2011 Oscars. But damned if the handsome bastard isn’t a charmer. So it only makes sense to cast Franco as moviedom’s original master con man in Oz the Great and Powerful. In The Wizard of Oz, the “man behind the curtain” was nothing but a carnival magician using smoke and mirrors to maintain the illusion of power. Here, the curtain’s pulled back further to reveal the wizard’s origins as a hack transported from Kansas to Oz, where he must take on an evil witch to save the Munchkins and talking monkeys. It’s a risky endeavor that sounds suspiciously similar to Tim Burton’s horrid Alice in Wonderland reboot. But in the hands of director Sam Raimi, L. Frank Baum’s world comes fantastically to life. From the black-and-white circus scenes in Kansas to the kaleidoscopic world of Oz, each realm takes on a different aesthetic. One moment, Franco is in a wetland swarmed by cartoonish butterflies. Next, he’s in China Town, made completely of porcelain. But lest this sound too kiddie for the man who directed The Evil Dead, there’s also the matter of the witches (Rachel Weisz, Mila Kunis and Michelle Williams), who muster a few scares worthy of any Deadite. Oz is overlong and often cheesy, but those flaws are also part of the charm of a film that doesn’t try to surpass its predecessor so much as supplement it. It’s a carnival magician of a film overflowing with imagination, and to those who come ready to believe, its magic is undeniable. PG. AP KRYZA. 99 West Drive-In, Eastport, City Center, Evergreen Parkway, Lloyd Mall, Tigard.
Pain & Gain
B- When considering Dwayne Johnson’s cinematic oeuvre, it’s helpful to keep one thing in mind: The Rock’s movies may not be especially good, but he still makes for an infinitely more likable lead than most of his peers in the action-comedy subgenre. It’s doubtful that even the most ardent critics of Tooth Fairy (a long list that presumably includes nearly everyone who saw Tooth Fairy) would deny the part-time WWE star’s inherent charisma, with his easygoing demeanor and thousand-watt smile providing a vital counterbalance to his imposing physique. So perhaps it’s not so surprising that Johnson’s new movie isn’t all that bad, despite being directed by Michael Bay. Opposite Mark Wahlberg—who plays Daniel Lugo, a former personal trainer and bodybuilder from Miami currently on death row for crimes he committed in 1995— Johnson plays Lugo’s accomplice Paul Doyle. Doyle is a mostly gentle giant who gets in over his head, but he remains the closest thing the film has to a moral compass. Lugo (whose narrated manifesto includes lines like “The way to prove yourself is to better yourself—that’s the American dream”) decides to be a “doer” after attending a self-improvement seminar. That in mind, he launches a plot to part a wealthy client (Tony Shalhoub) from his considerable fortune. The ensuing hijinks feature all the slow-mo, violence, bottle blondes and casual homophobia we’ve come, resentfully, to expect from Bay. What’s unexpected, however, is that Pain & Gain occasionally transcends the mindless, bringing to mind the much more nuanced Bernie in its examination of outwardly likable villains. How many of Bay’s films can be said to rest upon an ideological foundation of any kind? Pain & Gain tells a story so perfectly suited to its director’s music-video aesthetic that it almost seems immaterial whether Bay knows (or cares) that he’s part of the surface-level pursuits his film both glamorizes and laments. MICHAEL NORDINE. Eastport,
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Mill Plain, Cornelius, Lloyd Center, Oak Grove, City Center, Evergreen Parkway, Hilltop, Pioneer Place, Sherwood, Tigard, Wilsonville.
Picture in Picture: Japanese Experimental Films of the Late 1970s & 1980s
[TWO NIGHTS ONLY] Cinema Project presents two different programs featuring work by Takashi Ito and Toshio Matsumoto, both of whom use still photographs in their experimental films. Yale Union, 800 SE 10th Ave. 7:30 pm Tuesday-Wednesday, May 7-8.
The Place Beyond the Pines
C+ Among the things that made director Derek Cianfrance’s breakout feature, Blue Valentine, so powerful was its extremely limited scope. With The Place Beyond the Pines, Cianfrance expands this scope, enveloping two families across more than a decade of distress, triumph and tragedy. Yet somewhere along the way, the director loses the heart that marked his previous triumph. The Place Beyond the Pines packs bravura performances across a sprawling narrative. But it’s also about 60 minutes longer than it needs to be, and runs out of gas after its remarkable first act. It’s a film that’s completely overstuffed, and oftentimes overcooked. In the film’s most captivating section, we’re introduced to Luke (Ryan Gosling), a carnival stuntman who discovers he’s sired a son. As he turns to robbing banks, he crosses paths with a rookie cop (Bradley Cooper), who himself comes across massive corruption. Were that not enough, the film then fast-forwards 15 years to peer into the clichéd lives of the pair’s sons. Each segment has a rushed quality, and too little time devoted to developing motivations. Had Cianfrance given his characters more room to breathe, the film might transcend the genre trappings it falls into so easily. In widening his lens, the director loses focus on the big picture. R. AP KRYZA.
PNCA VideoFest
[ONE NIGHT ONLY] A juried program of videos, running the gamut from traditional to experimental. Clinton Street Theater. 7 pm Tuesday, May 7.
Polyester Pulp: The Taking of Pelham One Two Three
[ONE NIGHT ONLY, REVIVAL] The final installment in the Hollywood Theatre’s tribute to ’70s crime films is this thriller about a subway hijacking, which stars Walter Matthau as a transit cop. R. Hollywood Theatre. 7:30 pm Wednesday, May 1.
Project Viewfinder
[ONE NIGHT ONLY] For the past several months, the NW Film Center has taught filmmaking to a group of young people, all transitioning out of homelessness. Tonight, the 11 newly minted auteurs present their short films, which spotlight their personal stories. NW Film Center’s Whitsell Auditorium. 6 pm Wednesday, May 1.
Quartet
B You’ve seen this film before: A pack of love-drunk song-and-dancers needs a ton of money to save their home, so they band together to put on a big music show. Can they pull it off? Will the big star agree to take part? Heck, it’s the plot of at least two Muppets movies. But in Quartet, Dustin Hoffman’s twilight directorial debut, the stars are neither Muppets nor moppets, but septuagenarians. The film, which takes place in a ridiculously well-appointed retirement home for former classical musicians, acts as both valedictory and wake for an entire passing generation of British actors and musicians—notably Maggie Smith, Michael Gambon, Billy Connolly and Tom Courtenay, alongside a host of former opera stars. The ensemble includes the requisite caring doctor (Sheridan Smith), comedic aging Lothario (Connolly) and tragically dippy Alzheimer’s patient (Pauline Collins, liar-liar Sarah on Upstairs, Downstairs), who all help an old, proud couple learn to live and love again. But it’s surprisingly fun. Maggie Smith plays Maggie Smith, of course—which
Willamette Week MAY 1, 2013 wweek.com
is to say she walks around scaring the living shit out of everybody—but by the end it’s a lovely and vulnerable performance. Connolly, meanwhile, performs joyful frottage on every scene. While Quartet toys with treacherous sentimentality, it saves itself by virtue of a cheery patience in exposition rivaled only by midafternoon ads for motorized wheelchairs. Following up on France’s All Together, starring Jane Fonda, Quartet is the second high-profile film in about a year to feature an ensemble of lovelorn retirees. Of the two, Quartet is much less ambitious and much more successful. While Hoffman seems very aware he’s gently closing the book on an entire generation of entertainers, he nonetheless allows them to do what they’ve always done best: be entertaining. PG13. MATTHEW KORFHAGE. Laurelhurst.
Renoir
B- “Color should control the struc-
ture of a work, not line.” So opines Pierre-August Renoir in Gilles Bourdos’ oversaturated but ultimately underwhelming examination of two generations of Renoirs: the aforementioned painter, enfeebled by arthritis in his seventh decade, and his son, Jean, who would go on to become arguably the greatest filmmaker of the first half of the 20th century. Like the elder Renoir, the film Renoir rejoices in the sensual pleasures of Provençal life (it’s easy to have joie de vivre when your vivre consists of seaside villas, lavish parties, naps and picnics) and celebrates the beauty of the female form, specifically the form of actress Christa Theret, who spends roughly 60 minutes in the buff. Like a nice dry Côtes du Rhône, Renoir is mildly intoxicating, but as Bourdos thickly applies his azure blues and lemon yellows, it all but collapses under the weight of its own prettiness. R. MARSHALL WALKER LEE. Fox Tower.
Room 237
A- We tend to project ourselves onto
art. Movie nerds aren’t immune, and Rodney Ascher’s Room 237 stands as a monument to overthinking an artist’s work. For whatever reason, the theorists in this documentary were deeply affected by Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining. Some view it as a masterpiece full of historic metaphors. Others see it as an intentionally flawed work by a master of detail seeking to use even his “mistakes” to toy with minds. No one involved, though, sees it as simply a mammoth horror film by a true master. This isn’t cinema. It’s obsession. At no point do we see the five interviewees whose theories deconstruct what The Shining means. Instead, the film comprises voice-over interviews atop footage from The Shining and other Kubrick films. There’s a trancelike effect to listening to these theories, which range from basic interpretations about the film’s use of ancient Greek imagery to wild conspiracy theories about the film functioning as a confessional for Kubrick to atone for faking the Apollo 11 moon landing. That may seem like listening to a bunch of particularly well-informed drunks pontificating at a bar, but the film amps up the intensity of the arguments by allowing the speakers to lay out, uninterrupted, every facet of their theories in exhaustive detail. Of course, much of it comes off as either total bullshit, a regurgitation of the obvious, or both. But in allowing its subjects to talk, Room 237 emerges as a triumphantly objective examination not only of The Shining but of the human need to identify with art, even if it evolves into obsession. AP KRYZA. Living Room Theaters.
Safety Last!
[REVIVAL] If you’ve ever wondered why so many film heroes dangle from skyscrapers and clock towers, it’s because of this 1923 silent film. The comedy stars Harold Lloyd as a country boy who—before dangling above moving traffic—tries to strike it rich in the big city. Cinema 21. Noon Saturday-Sunday, May 4-5.
The Sapphires
Wiig’s cop boyfriend in Bridesmaids— country-western and soul music are both rooted in loss. The difference, Dave says, is that while country-western stars whine about it, soul singers fight desperately for redemption. That exuberant sense of resilience takes center stage in first-time filmmaker Wayne Blair’s massively entertaining tale about an Australian Aboriginal girl band that travels to Vietnam to entertain American troops in 1968. Loosely based on a true story (Blair’s mother was a member of the original group), The Sapphires butts up against serious issues, most prominently racial tension and the trauma of war. But between the spirited songs, big-hearted story line and hypersaturated cinematography, this is a film that unapologetically encourages finger-snapping rather than head-scratching—and bless its spangled heart for that. PG-13. REBECCA JACOBSON. Fox Tower.
The franchise rehashes itself, again. Not screened for critics. PG-13.
Side Effects
B- Warning: Steven Soderbergh’s new film may cause anxiety, frustration, terror, temporary memory loss, episodes of euphoria, Hitchcockian feelings of nostalgia, numbing, exhilaration, dread and apathy. Side effects of Side Effects may also include jaw clenching and eye rolling. Consumption of Side Effects is recommended with a grain of salt. Soderbergh is a master of genre jumping, and with Side Effects, he combines the medical horrors of 2011’s middling Contagion with a noirstyle narrative about a young woman (Rooney Mara) who commits a hor-
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REVIEW
LEAN ON ME: Tashiana Washington and Ty Hickson.
GIMME THE LOOT There is something crushingly genuine about Gimme the Loot. In part, it’s the playful simplicity of the plot: Two Bronx teens try to rise to graffiti infamy by tagging a giant plastic apple that pops from the stands every time the Mets hit a home run, a feat that graffiti artists have attempted and failed to achieve for 20 years. But it’s also the feel of the film, the grime and grit of a New York summer, the noise and heat, and the unmistakable ache of being a teenager yearning for recognition and sex, yet in the most innocent way possible. Instead of emphasizing the bleakness of growing up in a poor neighborhood, writer-director Adam Leon sets out to infuse some of the lighthearted mischief of Superbad and Dazed and Confused into a film about inner-city teens. That said, Leon doesn’t gloss over the realities of growing up in one of New York’s toughest boroughs. Best friends Sofia (Tashiana Washington) and Malcolm (Ty Hickson) are robbed by rival artists, chased by angry drug dealers and viciously cussed out as they try to scrape together enough cash to pay off a Shea Stadium security guard to let them sneak in and “bomb the apple.” But Leon achieves levity by allowing room for natural moments of humor. After bad luck strikes, Sofia and Malcolm buoy one another with sibling-style jabs, making light of their doomed quest for fast cash in the ghetto. It’s the kind of humor that tumbles out naturally between friends in the midst of hardship— organic, awkward and sincere. Leon injects euphoria with music, too. Though the titular Notorious B.I.G. song seems to guide Sofia and Malcolm’s pubescent attempts at swagger, the soundtrack leans more toward classic soul and R&B than early hip-hop. Warm, super-fat grooves and old-school harmonies swell in and out of the New York soundscape, often rising up into more dramatic scenes to break the tension. They’re the kind of songs that bring sense to a senseless moment, coloring the mood with tenderness as well as gravitas. Although driven by revenge, there’s a purity to the pair’s mission. Every illegal or unethical act seems vindicated, even exhilarating, as we come to understand why bombing the apple matters. It’s the victory they can’t taste anywhere else in their lives. And the fact that they’re seeking it together. EMILY JENSEN. Love and spray paint in the Bronx.
B+ According to crusty Irish boozer
Dave—played with impeccable comic charm by Chris O’Dowd, Kristen
Scary Movie 5
SEVEN FOR TEN
MOVIES
A-
SEE IT: Gimme the Loot opens Friday at Living Room Theaters.
Silver Linings Playbook
A- With With Silver Linings
Playbook, director David O. Russell emerges with one of filmdom’s funniest stories of crippling manic depression. If Frank Capra had made an R-rated flick for the Prozac generation, it would look like this. The film follows the social reacclimation of Philly schoolteacher Pat (Bradley Cooper), who is institutionalized after beating his wife’s lover half to death. Pat forms an unlikely relationship with widow Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence), who doggedly tries to win his affections despite the fact that he’s set on winning back the unwilling wife. This is a film that invites uncomfortable giggles at mental illness before exploding into frightening reality, as when a meetcute segues into a terrifying domestic incident, with Cooper delivering an Oscar-caliber breakdown set to a Led Zeppelin song. As Pat’s loving dad with a history of violence, Robert De Niro lends a crushing and funny layer to an already marvelously dense story. As a family drama, Silver Linings is top tier. As a romance, it’s blissfully unconventional. And as a foulmouthed ode to classic Hollywood, well, Capra would have fucking approved. R. AP KRYZA. Academy, Laurelhurst, Mt. Hood, Valley.
Specticast Concert Series: Peter Gabriel
[ONE NIGHT ONLY] The Clinton Street Theater kicks off a series, running through December, of concert screenings presented in surround sound. First up is a 2011 Peter Gabriel concert. Clinton Street Theater. 8:45 pm Thursday, May 2.
Spring Breakers
B- The words “spring break” are repeated so often in Spring Breakers that they eventually begin to lose their meaning. That may seem obvious, given the title, but it’s worth pointing out: The phrase takes on a mantralike quality in Harmony Korine’s most outwardly conventional outing to date. Still best known for writing Kids and directing Gummo, the backwater auteur teams up with a Disney-centric cast led by Selena Gomez and Vanessa Hudgens to turn up the decadence and sleaze to 11 in a candy-coated vision of the American Nightmare. Neon lights, blinged-out cribs and James Franco’s white-trash gangsta rapper Alien make this akin to an art-house installment of Girls Gone Wild crossed with Scarface—with all the surface allure and occasional vapidity that licentious description implies. The many Skrillex-scored party sequences, though gorgeously filmed, never quite transcend their own vacuousness or offer any insight into the culture they’re at once glamorizing and lampooning. That said, an utterly sincere rendition of Britney Spears’ “Everytime,” performed by Alien and set to a violent montage, is an early contender for sequence of the year, and nearly enough to forgive the film’s shortcomings. R. MICHAEL NORDINE. Academy, Laurelhurst.
2013 FIDELITE FILMS AND SAMUEL GOLDWYN FILMS
rendous crime while under the influence of a radical new antidepressant. What emerges is a nail biter that eventually sacrifices a gorgeous concept for standard mystery beats. But the setup, a story about the casualties of mental-health treatment, is damn jarring. Mara puts in a performance that’s completely counter to the feel-good depression of Silver Linings Playbook. Suicidal and prone to sleepwalking, she reaches out to an overworked psychiatrist (Jude Law), who puts her on the experimental antidepressant. Alas, just as the film ratchets up the jitters and paranoia, it takes a turn for the conventional in the second half, which focuses on Law doing an awful lot of Googling and stoic staring before the film hits the safety net of ho-hum conspiracy theory and conventional thriller tropes. R. AP KRYZA. Academy, Laurelhurst.
MOVIES
RENOIR
To the Wonder
C+ Terrence Malick’s The Tree of
Life overflowed with voice-over narration. His new film is practically an audiobook. Actually, “audiobook” is misleading: That would suggest To the Wonder’s voiceover helps establish plot, character or scene. No, the whispered flutters are more existential poetry than anything else, opaque and fragmented thoughts about love, spirituality and truth. “Where are we when we’re there?” one character asks. Malick’s metaphysical themes and radiant imagery have earned him cultish disciples, but his films arrive slowly. This is only his sixth feature in almost 40 years, yet it comes a mere two years after the unabashedly grand Tree of Life. But unlike that film, in which the characters’ personal struggles matched the film’s towering philosophical ambitions, the human center of To the Wonder lacks urgency. The film opens with sturdy American Neil (Ben Affleck) and spirited Ukrainian Marina (Olga Kurylenko). “I’ll go wherever you go,” Marina murmurs in voice-over. Where Neil goes—and where Marina follows—is a subdivision in Oklahoma. There, Marina twirls and twirls and twirls. Affleck’s stolid face, meanwhile, is mostly absent. The only thing more absent than his visage is his voice, because Marina and Neil don’t have conversations, or at least not any to which viewers are privy. For a film about love, Malick provides few clues about what draws his characters together and drives them apart. Amid the romantic turbulence, Malick intersperses the story of a priest (Javier Bardem). As Bardem ministers to the unfortunate, these scenes feel like incongruous bursts of advocacy docudrama, with nonactors playing prisoners and hospital patients. Despite To the Wonder’s soundtrack, which includes rapturous Wagner and Bach, I found the film more akin to a lullaby. Gauzy images, elusive narrative, fluid timeline, lots of whispering— it’s all quite pretty but also pretty sleepy. “Where are you leading me?” Bardem says in voice-over. His sentiment is clearly aimed at God, but I would have liked to direct it at Malick. R. REBECCA JACOBSON. Living Room Theaters, Cinema 21.
Trance
B- As best I can tell, Trance is the first film—outside porn, maybe— to have a plot that hinges on a woman’s pubic hair. Though the Goya painting that goes missing in this art-heist thriller is an image of cannibalistic male witches, the work that actually holds the secrets is a life-size female nude. That painting, also by Goya, is widely regarded as one of the first clear depictions of pubic hair, and it becomes a dippy device in Trance’s plot of obsession, hypnosis and abuse. Danny Boyle’s brashly maximalist film begins with narration from auction-house employee Simon (James McAvoy) on how to prevent an art heist. When smooth crook Franck (Vincent Cassel) busts in, we learn Simon is actually in on the crime. Then Simon is bonked on the head,
leading him to forget where he’s stashed the valuable painting and getting him into deep shit with Franck and his thuggish comrades. From there, Simon enlists the assistance of bombshell hypnotherapist Elizabeth (Rosario Dawson) to recover his memories. A great deal of hypnosis ensues, dreamlike or fractured sequences that twist in on themselves and spiral outward with varying degrees of logic. With Trainspotting and Slumdog Millionaire, Boyle balanced hallucinatory submersion and frenetic pacing with meaningful character development, but Trance gives viewers less of a reason to care about the inhabitants of its DayGlo world. With its tilted camera work, off-kilter reflections and thunderous electronica score, Trance can feel like a densely plotted music video. But as slick as the film can feel, it’s also at times a great deal of fun, thanks largely to the plucky cast: McAvoy like one of Raphael’s adorable yet impish angels; Cassel tapping into a vein of Gallic moral ambiguity; and Dawson imbuing Elizabeth with a feline eroticism. But even they can’t stop Trance from whooshing by, leaving viewers with throbbing ears and mildly dizzy heads, yet little sense of impact. R. REBECCA JACOBSON. Living Room Theaters.
WWEEKDOTCOM WWEEKDOTCOM WWEEKDOTCOM WWEEKDOTCOM
MAY 1–7
Warm Bodies
B+ “Don’t be creepy, don’t be
creepy, don’t be creepy,” the lovesick zombie begs himself as he stares, slack-jawed, at the very blond, very alive object of his affection. His name is “R” (he thinks) and he’s your average twentysomething zombie. He’s conflicted about all the killing, but considering his only way to reconnect to the world is to download a human’s memories by devouring their brains, he’ll take it. That is, until he locks eyes with shotgun-wielding Julie and falls head over undead heels in love. Director Jonathan Levine’s goofy wisp of a film, based on Seattle author Isaac Marion’s 2011 novel, is a charming lurch through zombieland that bypasses the usual headshots to aim at the heart—and scores a surprisingly direct hit. It helps that Nicholas Hoult is the world’s cutest corpse: all mussed hair, starburst eyes and deep-shadowed lids…and a little mouth slime. After saving Julie from his “friends,” he courts her with canned fruit cocktail and Coronas. Men do a lot of strange things for a date, but this is the only case of a dude eating a girl’s boyfriend’s brain in order to get to know her better. When Julie (Teresa Palmer) starts to warm up to her undead suitor, he in turn remembers how to be human. Eventually the pair must face skeletal, furyfilled zombies called “bonies” and, even scarier, John Malkovich (as the human resistance leader and Julie’s dad). The CGI effects are laughable, and it takes a while to adjust to the willfully cheeseball tone. But once it clicks, it’s irresistible. In this world, all you need is love. And sometimes a shotgun. PG-13. KELLY CLARKE. Avalon, Valley.
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MAY 3-9 2012 ERBP
BREWVIEWS
09:30 BLANCANIEVES Wed 02:15, 04:35, 07:10, 10:05 THE SAPPHIRES Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-TueWed 11:35, 02:20, 04:40, 07:30, 09:45 FROM UP ON POPPY HILL Fri-SatSun-Mon-Tue-Wed 12:20, 02:40, 04:50, 07:25, 09:25 THE BIG WEDDING FriSat-Sun-Mon-Tue 11:40, 02:35, 04:50, 07:40, 09:50 RENOIR Fri-Sat-Sun-MonTue 11:50, 02:10, 04:35, 07:10, 09:35
NW Film Center’s Whitsell Auditorium
THIS LITTLE SWINE OF MINE: Pigs figure heavily in Upstream Color. In addition to a scene of a woman cuddling with a piglet, writer-director Shane Carruth’s sophomore feature also includes swine being bagged for an unpleasant fate, a weird surgery in which a human and hog are psychically joined, and time-lapse footage of a drowned and decomposing pig. This disorienting, non-narrative film also includes a kidnapping, a romance and some squirmy, mind-altering grubs. Make sense? It probably shouldn’t. With its elliptical narrative, swooning visual aesthetic and hushed dialogue and narration, the film feels like Terrence Malick tackling dystopian sci-fi. It centers, mostly, on a woman named Kris (Amy Seimetz) who is drugged, with those mind-altering grubs, by a character identified only as Thief. While forcing her to copy Walden by hand, Thief cons Kris out of her money and sense of identity. Oh, and there’s also that operation with the pig. When Kris wakes up, she becomes entwined with disgraced stockbroker Jeff (Carruth), who may or may not have had the same experience. Though ultimately secondary to the mesmerizing visuals and ambient score, the plot is surprisingly engaging, which prevents Upstream Color from becoming a formal obscurity too arch for its own good. You’re free to debate what it all means; I’m happy to lose myself in its messy mystery. REBECCA JACOBSON. Showing at: Cinema 21. Best paired with: Ninkasi Believer Double Red Ale. Also showing: Jack the Giant Slayer (Laurelhurst).
CineMagic Theatre
Lloyd Center 10 and IMAX
1510 NE Multnomah St., 800326-3264 OBLIVION: THE IMAX EXPERIENCE Wed 01:30, 04:30, 07:30, 10:30 PAIN & GAIN Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-TueWed 01:15, 04:25, 07:35, 10:35 THE BIG WEDDING Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-Tue-Wed 11:50, 02:15, 04:40, 07:05, 09:30 OBLIVION Fri-SatSun-Mon-Tue-Wed 12:50, 03:50, 06:50, 09:50 42 Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-Tue-Wed 12:40, 03:55, 07:15, 10:20 THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES Wed 12:05, 03:20, 06:45, 10:10 JURASSIC PARK 3D Wed 12:35, 03:40, 07:00, 10:05 THE CROODS Wed 02:25, 04:55, 10:00 THE CROODS 3D Fri-SatSun-Mon-Tue-Wed 11:55, 07:20 OZ THE GREAT AND POWERFUL Wed 03:30, 09:55 OZ THE GREAT AND POWERFUL 3D Wed 12:20, 06:35 EVIL DEAD Fri-SatSun-Mon-Tue-Wed 12:00, 02:35, 05:10, 07:45, 10:15 IRON MAN 3: AN IMAX 3D EXPERIENCE IRON MAN MARATHON IRON MAN 3 Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-Tue 11:30, 02:00, 02:45, 06:00, 08:30, 09:15 IRON MAN 3 3D Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-Tue 12:30, 03:15, 03:45, 04:45, 05:15, 06:30, 07:00, 08:00, 09:45, 10:15 WAIT WAIT... DON’T TELL ME! LIVE MAY DAY: MAYWEATHER VS GUERRERO Sat 06:00
Cinema 21
616 NW 21st Ave.,
58
Willamette Week MAY 1, 2013 wweek.com
503-223-4515 TO THE WONDER Wed 04:30, 07:00, 09:15
Clinton Street Theater
2522 SE Clinton St., 503-238-8899 THE ICEMAN Wed 07:00 GIRL RISING 10 QUESTIONS FOR THE DALAI LAMA FriSat-Sun 07:30 1ST NIGHT Fri-Sat-Sun 09:00 REPO! THE GENETIC OPERA Fri 12:00 THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW Sat 12:00 OY VEY! MY SON IS GAY! Sun 03:00 THE TRANSATLANTIC SESSIONS Mon 07:00 PNCA VIDEO FEST 2013 Tue 07:00
Laurelhurst Theatre & Pub
2735 E Burnside St., 503-232-5511 THE DUELIST Wed 07:15 ON THE ROAD Wed 09:30 LIFE OF PI FriSat-Sun-Mon-Tue-Wed 07:00 HANSEL & GRETEL: WITCH HUNTERS Wed 09:45 QUARTET Fri-SatSun-Mon-Tue-Wed 06:30 DJANGO UNCHAINED Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-Tue-Wed 09:00 ARGO Wed 06:45 SIDE EFFECTS Fri-SatSun-Mon-Tue-Wed 09:15 JACK THE GIANT SLAYER Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-Tue 09:30 FORBIDDEN PLANET FriSat-Sun-Mon-Tue 09:20 SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-Tue 07:15 SPRING BREAKERS FriSat-Sun-Mon-Tue 09:50 SEARCHING FOR SUGAR MAN Fri-Sat-Sun 04:30
2021 SE Hawthorne Blvd., 503-231-7919 OBLIVION Wed 05:30, 08:05 IRON MAN 3 FriSat-Sun-Mon-Tue 05:30, 08:15
Hollywood Theatre
4122 NE Sandy Blvd., 503-281-4215 THE COMPANY YOU KEEP Wed 07:10, 09:30 IT’S A DISASTER Wed 07:20 ANTIVIRAL Wed 09:45 UPSTREAM COLOR Wed 09:15 THE TAKING OF PELHAM ONE TWO THREE Wed 07:30 SHOLAY THE YOUTHFILM PROJECT H.P. LOVECRAFT FILM FESTIVAL Fri-Sat-Sun CALL THEATRE FOR SHOWTIMES Fri-SatSun BURN Mon-Tue 07:00 HUNKY DORY Mon 07:15 GETTING TO KNOW YOUTUBE Mon 07:30 B MOVIE BINGO: OMEGA COP Tue 07:30 THE END OF LOVE Tue 07:15
Regal Fox Tower Stadium 10
846 SW Park Ave., 800-326-3264 ARTHUR NEWMAN Wed 11:50, 02:20, 04:55, 07:35, 09:40 MUD Fri-Sat-SunMon-Tue-Wed 11:30, 02:05, 04:30, 07:05, 09:30 GIRL RISING Fri-Sat-Sun-MonTue-Wed 11:40, 02:35, 05:00, 07:15, 10:00 DISCONNECT Fri-Sat-SunMon-Tue-Wed 11:55, 02:30, 05:05, 07:40, 09:40 42 Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-Tue-Wed 11:35, 02:00, 04:45, 07:20, 09:35 THE COMPANY YOU KEEP Fri-Sat-SunMon-Tue-Wed 11:30, 02:10, 04:45, 07:00, 09:50 THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-Tue-Wed 11:40, 01:45, 04:30, 07:00,
1219 SW Park Ave., 503-221-1156 EVERYTHING WENT DOWN CHOCOLAT Fri 07:15 DOWN BY LAW Fri 09:15 I CAN’T SLEEP Sat 06:15 PARIS, TEXAS Sat 08:30 THE INTRUDER Sun 02:00 35 SHOTS OF RUM Sun 04:45 WHITE MATERIAL Sun 07:00
Regal Pioneer Place Stadium 6
340 SW Morrison St., 800-326-3264 PAIN & GAIN Fri-Sun-MonTue-Wed 01:00, 04:00, 07:00, 10:10 THE BIG WEDDING Wed 01:30, 04:30, 07:20, 10:30 OBLIVION Fri-Sun-MonTue-Wed 12:45, 01:40, 04:10, 04:50, 07:10, 07:50, 09:45, 10:20 EVIL DEAD Fri-Sun-Mon-TueWed 01:15, 03:40, 10:45 JURASSIC PARK 3D FriSun-Mon-Tue-Wed 12:50, 03:50, 06:50, 10:00 IRON MAN 3 3D Fri-Sat-SunMon-Tue 12:30, 01:30, 03:15, 03:45, 04:45, 06:30, 08:00, 09:45, 10:15 IRON MAN 3 Fri-Sat-Sun-MonTue 01:00, 07:00, 07:30, 10:45
Academy Theater
7818 SE Stark St., 503-252-0500 LIFE OF PI Fri-Sat-SunMon-Tue-Wed 01:50, 04:25, 07:00, 09:35 WARM BODIES Wed 04:40, 09:15 ARGO Wed 02:10, 06:45 SIDE EFFECTS Fri-SatSun-Mon-Tue-Wed 01:40, 07:15 THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY Wed 03:55 DJANGO UNCHAINED Wed 09:25 SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-Tue 04:30, 07:00 SPRING BREAKERS Fri-Sat-SunMon-Tue 02:25, 09:30 JACK THE GIANT SLAYER Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-Tue 04:20, 09:10 ADMISSION Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-Tue 02:05, 06:45
Living Room Theaters
341 SW 10th Ave., 971-222-2010 THE ANGELS’ SHARE FriSat-Sun-Mon-Tue-Wed 11:50, 02:30, 04:50, 07:15, 09:45 HAPPY PEOPLE: A YEAR IN THE TAIGA Wed 07:45 LEONIE! Fri-SatSun-Mon-Tue-Wed 11:45, 02:00, 04:25, 06:40, 09:00 NO Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-TueWed 12:00, 02:40, 06:50, 09:30 ON THE ROAD Wed 05:10, 09:25 ROOM 237 Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-Tue-Wed 12:20, 02:50, 05:00, 07:30, 09:40 TRANCE Fri-SatSun-Mon-Tue-Wed 12:05, 02:20, 04:40, 07:00, 09:15 GIMME THE LOOT Fri-SatSun-Mon-Tue 12:10, 02:10, 04:30, 07:45, 09:35 TO THE WONDER Fri-Sat-SunMon-Tue 02:00, 06:40, 09:00
SUBJECT TO CHANGE. CALL THEATERS OR VISIT WWEEK.COM/MOVIETIMES FOR THE MOST UP-TODATE INFORMATION FRIDAY-THURSDAY, MAY 3-9, UNLESS OTHERWISE INDICATED
CLASSIFIEDS DIRECTORY 59
WELLNESS
60 JOBS TO PLACE AN AD CONTACT:
59 61
MUSICIANS’ MARKET MATCHMAKER
ASHLEE HORTON
MAY 1, 2013
59
STUFF
60 MOTOR
60 SERVICES
61
JONESIN’
62
63 REAL ESTATE
503-445-3647 • ahorton@wweek.com
CORIN KUPPLER
FREE WILL ASTROLOGY
AUDIO
COMPUTER REPAIR
N Metro Computerworks
2256 N Albina Ave #181 503-289-1986 metrocomputerworks.com
HOME IMPROVEMENT SW Jill Of All Trades 6905 SW 35th Ave. Portland, Oregon 97219 503-244-0753
REMODELING & REPAIR SE Tricks of the Trades 503.522.6425 www.remodelingpdx.com
TREE SERVICE NE Steve Greenberg Tree Service 1925 NE 61st Ave. Portland, Oregon 97213 503-774-4103
SE
Inner Sound
1416 SE Morrison Street Portland, Oregon 97214 503-238-1955 www.inner-sound.com
PETS
MUSICIANS MARKET FOR FREE ADS in 'Musicians Wanted,' 'Musicians Available' & 'Instruments for Sale' go to portland.backpage.com and submit ads online. Ads taken over the phone in these categories cost $5.
COUNSELING
INSTRUMENTS FOR SALE TRADEUPMUSIC.COM
Counseling HOME
63
503-445-2757 • ckuppler@wweek.com
WELLNESS SERVICE DIRECTORY
60 BULLETIN BOARD
Totally Relaxing Massage
Serving Individuals Families Couples
Featuring Swedish, deep tissue and sports techniques by a male therapist. Conveniently located, affordable, and preferring male clientele at this time. #5968 By appointment Tim 503.575.0356
Low cost. No one turned away for inability to pay.
503.226.3021 x220
2023 NW Hoyt St • Portland
MASSAGE (LICENSED) Enjoy the Benefits of Massage
CELL PHONE REPAIR N Revived Cellular & Technology
Massage openings in the Mt. Tabor area. Call Jerry for info. 503-757-7295. LMT6111.
7816 N. Interstate Ave. Portland, Oregon 97217 503-286-1527 www.revivedcellular.com
REL A X!
INDULGE YOURSELF in an - AWESOME FULL BODY MASSAGE
AUTO
call
Charles
503-740-5120
COLLISION REPAIR NE Atomic Auto
lmt#6250
MEN’S HEALTH MANSCAPING
Bodyhair grooming M4M. Discrete quality service. 503-841-0385 by appointment.
PHYSICAL FITNESS Personal Trainer & Independent Contractor
• Strength Training • Body Shaping • Nutrition Counseling
503-252-6035 www.billpecfitness.com LOOK FOR ME ON FACEBOOK
MOVING
ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE
HAULING N LJ Hauling
Buy one massage or facial get half off 2nd one,
503-839-7222 3642 N. Farragut Portland, Or 97217 moneymone1@gmail.com
good for 1 hr or longer massage or European Facial or Specialized Facial
Monday–Saturday, 9–6:
ELIXIA WELLNESS Counseling Individuals, Couples and Groups Stephen Shostek, CET Relationships, Life Transitions, Personal Growth
Affordable Rates • No-cost Initial Consult www.stephenshostek.com
503.232.5653
MUSIC LESSONS GUITAR LESSONS Personalized instruction for over 15yrs. Adults & children. Beginner through advanced. www.danielnoland.com 503-546-3137
Learn Piano All styles, levels
With 2 time Grammy winner Peter Boe. 503-274-8727.
STUFF
BILL PEC
AT THE GYM, OR IN YOUR HOME
2510 NE Sandy Blvd Portland, Or 97232 503-969-3134 www.atomicauto.biz
Buying, selling, instruments of every shape and size. Open 11am-7pm every day. 4701 SE Division & 1834 NE Alberta.
FURNITURE
BEDTIME
TWINS
MATTRESS
79
$
COMPANY
FULL $ 89
QUEEN
(503)
760-1598
109
$
7353 SE 92nd Ave Mon-Fri 9-5, Sat 10-2
Custom Sizes » Made To Order Financing Available
OMMP Resource Center Providing Safe Access to Medicine Valid MMJ Card Holders Only No Membership Dues or Door Fees
“Simply the Best Meds” www.rosecitywellnesscenter.com
Get massage for AUTO accidents! KEN (LMT#10773) nowradiance.wordpress.com
503-963-8600
MORE ADS ONLINE @ WWEEK.COM
Willamette Week Classifieds MAY 1, 2013 wweek.com
59
TO PLACE AN AD CONTACT:
ASHLEE HORTON
SERVICES
503-445-3647 • ahorton@wweek.com
REMODELING
CORIN KUPPLER
503-445-2757 • ckuppler@wweek.com ATTEND COLLEGE ONLINE
EVENTS
from home. *Medical, *Business, *Criminal Justice, *Hospitality. Job placement assistance. Computer available. Financial Aid if qualified. SCHEV authorized. Call 800-481-9472 www.CenturaOnline.com (AAN CAN)
BUILDING/REMODELING Presents
KRISHNA
A Dance theater Choreographed by:
Shijith N Parvathy
OLCC’S NEWEST ONLINE SERVER PERMIT CLASS
is NOW Just $12 for the Renewal Server Class. (Seasoned Pro’s) and STILL only $15 for the Initial Server Class. (First Timers) Take Your Class @ www.happyhourtraining.com where we are always ‘Bartender Tested & OLCC Approved!’ 541-447-6384.
GENERAL
12000 SW 49th Avenue Portland, OR 97219
Saturday, May 11, 2013, 7:30pm Tickets are: Adults $25 ($30 at the door) Children 3-12yrs: $12.50 ($15 at the door) Students: $20
TREE SERVICES Steve Greenberg Tree Service
Pruning and removals, stump grinding. 24-hour emergency service. Licensed/ Insured. CCB#67024. Free estimates. 503-284-2077
HAULING/MOVING
BULLETIN BOARD WILLAMETTE WEEK’S GATHERING PLACE
Haulers with a Conscience
503-477-4941 www.anniehaul.com All unwanted items removed (residential/commercial) One item to complete clear outs
Free Estimates • Same Day Service • Licensed/Insured • Locally Owned by Women We Care
We Recycle
We Donate
We Reuse
LAWN SERVICES
NON-PROFIT DISCOUNTS AVAILABLE.
ADOPTION
www.kalakendra.org
NOTICE OF TERMINATION OF PARENTAL RIGHTS ACTION TO: Eric Tolbert DOB: 03/01/69, Respondent FROM: Confidential Clerk of Family Court The Department of Services for Children, Youth and Their Families, Petitioner, has brought a civil action (Petition #12-40320) against you to terminate your parental rights of your child(ren): *Minor Male, DOB: 09/02/98
*ADOPTION:*
A Loving Family longs to provide Everything for 1st baby. Beaches, Laughter, Financial Security. Tina *1-800-933-1975* Expenses paid PREGNANT? CONSIDERING ADOPTION? Talk with caring agency specializing in matching Birthmothers with Families Nationwide. LIVING EXPENSES PAID. Call 24/7 Abby’s One True Gift Adoptions. 866-4136293 (AAN CAN)
Bernhard’s
Residential, Commercial and Rentals. Complete yard care, 20 years. 503-515-9803. Licensed and Insured.
www.ExtrasOnly.com 503.227.1098
LEGAL NOTICES
A hearing has been scheduled at the Family Court, 400 Court Street, Dover, Delaware, on 06/19/13 at 1:30pm. If you do not appear at the hearing, the Court may terminate your parental rights without your appearance. IF YOU WISH TO BE REPRESENTED BY AN ATTORNEY IN THIS MATTER BUT CANNOT AFFORD ONE, YOU MAY BE ENTITLED TO HAVE THE COURT APPOINT AN ATTORNEY TO REPRESENT YOU FOR FREE. FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT THE CONFIDENTIAL CLERK AT FAMILY COURT, (302) 672-1001
McMenamins Edgefield Is hiring line cooks, pizza cooks, prep cooks and catering cooks for the Power Station Pub and Black Rabbit Restaurant. Prev high vol rest kitchen exp a MUST. Must have an open & flex sched; days, eves, wknds and holidays. Please apply online 24/7 at www.mcmenamins.com or pick up a paper app at any McMenamins. Mail to 2126 SW Halsey, Troutdale, OR 97060 or fax: 503-667-3612. Call 503-952-0598 for info on other ways to apply. Please no calls or emails. E.O.E.
McMenamins Grand Lodge in Forest Grove
The Performing Arts Center at PCC Sylvania
CLEANING
$$$HELP WANTED$$$ Extra Income! Assembling CD cases from Home! No Experience Necessary! Call our Live Operators Now! 1-800-405-7619 EXT 2450 http:// www.easywork-greatpay.com (AAN CAN)
Help Wanted!
Make extra money in our free ever popular homemailer program, includes valuable guidebook! Start Immediately! Genuine! 1-888-292-1120 www.easywork-fromhome.com (AAN CAN)
Live like a popstar.
Now hiring 10 spontaneous individuals. Travel full time. Must be 18+. Transportation and hotel provided. Call Loraine 877-777-2091 (AAN CAN)
EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES EARN $500 A DAY. Airbrush & Media Makeup Artists For: Ads - TV - Film Fashion Train & Build Portfolio in 1 week Lower Tuition for 2013. AwardMakeupSchool.com (AAN CAN) Help Wanted! make extra money in our free ever popular homemailer program, includes valuable guidebook! Start immediately! Genuine! 1-888-292-1120 www.easywork-fromhome.com (AAN CAN)
Is now hiring LMTs and Nail Techs! Qualified apps must have an open & flex sched including, days, eves, wknds and holidays. Please apply online 24/7 at www.mcmenamins.com or pick up a paper app at any McMenamins location. Mail to 430 N Killingsworth St, Portland, OR 97217 or fax: 503-221-8749. Call 503-952-0598 for info on other ways to apply. Please no phone calls or emails to individ locs! E.O.E.
McMenamins Edgefield is now hiring Servers for the Power Station Pub! This is a pt-ft, seas position. Qualified apps must have an open & flex sched including, days, eves, wknds and holidays. We are looking for servers who have high vol. serve exp and enjoy a busy customer service-oriented enviro. Please apply online 24/7 at www.mcmenamins.com or pick up a paper app at any McMenamins location. Mail to 2126 SW Halsey, Troutdale, OR 97060 or fax: 503-667-3612. Call 503-952-0598 for info on other ways to apply. Please no phone calls or emails to individ locs! E.O.E.
Stars Cabaret in TUALATINHiring (Tualatin-TigardLake Oswego)
Stars Cabaret in TUALATIN is now accepting applications for Servers, Bartenders, Hostess, Valet. Part and Full-time positions available. Experience preferred but not required. Earn top pay + tips in a fast-paced and positive environment. Stars Cabaret is also conducting ENTERTAINERS auditions and schedule additions Mon-Sun 11am-10pm. ENTERTAINERS: Training provided to those new to the business. Located @ 17937 SW McEwan Rd. in Tualatin...across from “24 Hours Fitness” Please apply at location.
BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES Discover the “Success and Moneymaking Secrets” THEY don’t want you to know about. To get your FREE “Success and Money Making Secrets” CD, please call 1 (800) 790-5752. (AAN CAN)
MOTOR GENERAL “Atomic Auto New School Technology, Old School Service” www.atomicauto.biz mention you saw this ad in WW and receive 10% off for your 1st visit!
AUTOS WANTED CASH FOR CARS: Any Car/Truck. Running or Not! Top Dollar Paid. We Come To You! Call For Instant Offer: 1-888-420-3808 www.cash4car.com (AAN CAN)
Paid In Advanced! MAKE up to $1000 A WEEK mailing brochures from home! Helping Home Workers since 2001! Genuine Opportunity! No Experience required. Start Immediately! www.mailing-station.com (AAN CAN)
ACTIVISM
LESSONS CLASSICAL PIANO/ KEYBOARD
Theory Performance. All levels. Portland 503-227-6557.
SUPPORT GROUPS ALANON Sunday Rainbow
5:15 PM meeting. G/L/B/T/Q and friends. Downtown Unitarian Universalist Church on 12th above Taylor. 503-309-2739.
Got Meth Problems? Need Help?
LETTERPRESS PRINTING
Desi Girl Designs • Foil Stamping • Die-Cutting • Letterpress Printing Vintage Letterpress and Offset presses for: • Wedding Invitations • Greeting Cards • Packaging Boxes Conveniently located in the Heart of the Pearl District:
1410 NW Johnson Street • Portland (503)384-8808 60
Willamette Week Classifieds MAY 1, 2013 wweek.com
Oregon CMA 24 hour Hot-line Number: 503-895-1311. We are here to help you! Information, support, safe & confidential!
JOBS CAREER TRAINING AIRLINE CAREERS
Become an Aviation Maintenance Tech. FAA approved training. Financial aid if qualified - Housing available. Job placement assistance. CALL Aviation Institute of Maintenance 877-492-3059 (AAN CAN)
Work with Grassroots Campaigns, Inc. on behalf The Nature Conservancy - protect the earth’s most important natural places - fight for clean air, clean water, and open spaces
Earn $360 - $550/week • Full-time/ Career.
Call Sam at 503 232 5326
TO PLACE AN AD CONTACT:
ASHLEE HORTON
503-445-3647 • ahorton@wweek.com
CORIN KUPPLER
503-445-2757 • ckuppler@wweek.com
JONESIN’ by Matt Jones
Across 1 They’re not as busy in May 5 Planned to rob 10 Jimmy of shoes 14 Square footage, say 15 “I want to play ___” (line from “Saw”) 16 Good thing to check Snopes.com for 17 Superman’s city 19 Like squid spray 20 Awaiting a court date 22 Slow mover 23 Astley who gets rolled 26 It’s north of Afr. 29 They’ll come before U 31 “Dexter” actor C.S. ___ 33 It may have a fivepoint harness 39 Comes up short 40 Subside 41 Sir Topham ___ (“Thomas the Tank Engine” manager) 42 Going way back? 45 Author referenced in “The Following” 46 Brit. reference that added “uplink” in 2013 47 Mining find 48 Nuremberg number 50 Eagle’s nest 55 Big trouble 61 Vulcan mind ___ 64 Old pantyhose brand with a famous Joe Namath ad 65 Berry variety 66 Pocahontas’ husband John ___ 67 Oaxaca water 68 What the four circled answers “crack” 69 Outdo
70 Bestselling 16-bit console, briefly Down 1 Pitches a tent 2 Get grooming 3 Insurer based in Hartford 4 Manhattan restaurateur Vincent 5 Rank on a cereal box 6 Wide-eyed 7 Bad substance for a 22-across 8 Mideastern ruler 9 South Asian 10 It’s rated with alarms 11 Pet name 12 Charter ___ (tree on Connecticut’s state quarter) 13 Acne-fighting brand 18 Fixed a squeak 21 Bohemian 24 Word used with defibrillators 25 He wrote “Endymion” and “Hyperion” 27 Grammarian’s concern 28 Overzealous 29 Nostalgia-evoking 30 Take the helm 32 Suffix after Rock
or Raisin 33 Provide freebies 34 Tinseltown, in old headlines 35 “Did ___ tell you about the time...” 36 California-based semiconductor company founded in 1981 (hidden in FALSIFY) 37 Follower 38 That boat 43 Film ___ 44 Immature, like some meat 49 One of the Munsters 51 Watson and Thompson 52 Take to the throne 53 Problem 54 You are, in the Yucatan 56 River through Catalonia 57 “___ Flux” (futuristic MTV cartoon) 58 Carnegie or Chihuly 59 ___ Berry (Jones Soda flavor) 60 Sch. near the USMexico border 61 It’s un-PC 62 Earth Day prefix 63 Wee boy
last week’s answers
©2012 Jonesin’ Crosswords (editor@jonesincrosswords.com) For answers to this puzzle, call: 1-900-226-2800, 99 cents per minute. Must be 18+. Or to bill to your credit card, call: 1-800-655-6548. Reference puzzle #JONZ621.
“Gonna Crack”–but you’ll figure it out.
Find your Flame on
LiveMatch Free Happy Hour
(3-9pm daily in the Livelounge)
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LiveMatch CHATROOMS and member FORUMS
Portland
971-230-5812 • Vancouver 360-597-2577
Seattle 206-734-3444 • Tacoma 253-203-1643 • Everett 425-405-4388
or WEB PHONE on LiveMatch.com
Free Android APP coming soon.
The old Liveline at 503-222-CHAT will soon be transferring to LiveMatch. Your mailbox and messages are on both. Low cost. UNLIMITED, VIP membership available for extra features, messaging and chat.
STRAIGHT/GAY/BI/???? Willamette Week Classifieds MAY 1, 2013 wweek.com
61
TO PLACE AN AD CONTACT:
ASHLEE HORTON
503-445-3647 • ahorton@wweek.com
CORIN KUPPLER
503-445-2757 • ckuppler@wweek.com © 2013 Rob Brezsny
Week of May 2
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Are you afraid that you lack a crucial skill or aptitude? Do you have a goal that you’re worried might be impossible to achieve because of this inadequacy? If so, now is a good time to make plans to fill in the gap. If you formulate such an intention, you will attract a benevolent push from the cosmos. Why spend another minute fretting about the consequences of your ignorance when you have more power than usual to correct that ignorance? TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Imagine you’re in a large room full of costumes. It’s like a masquerade store at Halloween plus a storage area where a theater troupe keeps the apparel its actors use to stage a wide variety of historical plays. You have free reign here. You can try on different masks and wigs and disguises and getups. You can envision yourself living in different eras as various characters. If you like, you can even go out into the world wearing your alternate identities. Try this exercise, Taurus. It’ll stimulate good ideas about some new self-images you might want to play with in real life.
Flesh Exotic Wear
Featuring Exotic Dancer Shoes, Dancewear, Ravewear & More
330 SW 3rd located downtown 503-227-1527 open 6pm to 3am daily 20% discount on all merchandise with this ad
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GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Ray LaMontagne sings these lyrics in his tune “Empty”: “I looked my demons in the eyes. Laid bare my chest and said, ‘Do your best to destroy me. I’ve been to hell and back so many times, I must admit you kind of bore me.’” I wouldn’t be opposed to you delivering a message like that to your own demons, Gemini -- with one caveat: Leave out the “Do your best to destroy me” part. Simply peer into the glazed gaze of those shabby demons and say, “You bore me and I’m done with you. Bye-bye.” And then walk away from them for good. CANCER (June 21-July 22): I know a devotee of Tibetan Buddhism who got an unexpected message from her teacher. He told her she has made such exemplary progress in her quest for enlightenment that she has earned the ultimate reward. When she dies many years from now, the teacher said, she will enter nirvana! She will have no further karmic obligation to reincarnate into a new body in the future, and will be forever excused from the struggle of living in the material world. Although her teacher meant this to be good news, she was heartbroken. She wants to keep reincarnating. Her joyous passion is to help relieve the suffering of her fellow humans. Can you guess what sign she is? Yes: a Cancerian. Like her, many of you are flirting with an odd and challenging choice between selfishness and selflessness. LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): A lawyer named John Keogh filed an application with the Australian Patent Office. It was for a “circular transportation facilitation device.” His claim was approved. He thus became the owner of the world’s first and only patent for the wheel. So far, he has not tried to collect royalties from anyone who’s using wheels. I nominate him to be your role model, Leo. May he inspire you to stamp your personal mark on a universal archetype or put your unique spin on something everyone knows and loves. VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): This may be the best week in a long time to practice the art of crazy wisdom. And what is crazy wisdom? Here’s how novelist Tom Robbins described it to Shambhala Sun: It’s “a philosophical worldview that recommends swimming against the tide, cheerfully seizing the short end of the stick, embracing insecurity, honoring paradox, courting the unexpected, celebrating the unfamiliar, shunning orthodoxy, volunteering for tasks nobody else wants or dares to do, and breaking taboos in order to destroy their power. It’s the wisdom of those who turn the tables on despair by lampooning it, and who neither seek authority nor submit to it.” And why should you do any of that weird stuff? Robbins: “To enlarge the soul, light up the brain, and liberate the spirit.” LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): “Why should we honor those that die upon the field of battle?” asked Irish poet William Butler Yeats. “A man may show as reckless a courage in entering into the abyss of himself.” A woman may show similar bravery, of course. In my astrological opinion, that’s the noble adventure beckoning to you, Libra: a dive into the depths of your inner
workings. I hope that’s the direction you go; I hope you don’t take your stouthearted struggle out into the world around you. All the best action will be happening in that fertile hub known as your “soul.” SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Historical records suggest that ancient Greek philosopher Democritus went blind late in his life. There are different stories about why. According to one account, he intentionally did it to himself by gazing too long into the sun. That was his perverse way of solving a vexing problem: It freed him from the torment of having to look upon gorgeous women who were no longer interested in or available to him because of his advanced age. I hope you won’t do anything like that, Scorpio. In fact, I suggest you take the opposite approach: Keep your attention focused on things that stir your deep attraction, even if you think you can’t have them for your own. Valuable lessons and unexpected rewards will emerge from such efforts. SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Search your memory, Sagittarius, and recall a time when you pushed yourself to your limits as you labored over a task you cared about very much. At that time, you worked with extreme focus and intensity. You were rarely bored and never resentful about the enormous effort you had to expend. You loved throwing yourself into this test of willpower, which stretched your resourcefulness and compelled you to grow new capacities. What was that epic breakthrough in your past? Once you know, move on to your next exercise: Imagine a new assignment that fits this description, and make plans to bring it into your life in the near future. CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Nairobi is Kenya’s capital and home of over three million urbanites. A few minutes’ drive from the city center, there’s a 45-square-mile national park teeming with wildlife. Against a backdrop of skyscrapers, rhinos and giraffes graze. Lions and cheetahs pounce. Wildebeests roam and hyenas skulk. I suggest you borrow the spirit of that arrangement and invoke it in your own life. In other words, be highly civilized and smartly sophisticated part of the time; be wild and free the rest of the time. And be ready to go back and forth between the two modes with grace and ease. AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): In the wild, a tiger’s diet consists entirely of meat. The big cat loves to feast on deer and wild boar, and eats a variety of other animals, too. The hunt is always solitary, never done in collaborative groups. That’s why the creature’s success rate is so low. A tiger snags the prey it’s seeking only about five percent of the time. It sometimes has to wait two weeks between meals. Nevertheless, a tiger rarely starves. When it gets what it’s after, it can devour 75 pounds of food in one sitting. According to my astrological analysis, Aquarius, you’re like a tiger these days. You haven’t had a lot of lucky strikes lately, but I suspect you will soon hit the jackpot. PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): The French word flaneur is a meme that refers to a person who strolls around the city at a leisurely pace, exploring whatever captivates her imagination. To the casual observer, the flaneur may seem to be a lazy time-waster with nothing important to do. But she is in fact motivated by one of the noblest emotions -- pure curiosity -- and is engaged in a quest to attract novel experiences, arouse fresh insights, and seek new meaning. Sound fun? Well, congratulations, Pisces, because you have been selected as the Flaming Flaneur of the Zodiac for the next two weeks. Get out there and meander!
Homework What’s the single most important question you have to find an answer for in the next five years? Deliver your best guess to me at Freewillastrology.com.
check out Rob Brezsny’s Expanded Weekly Audio Horoscopes & Daily Text Message Horoscopes
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