41 42 willamette week, august 19, 2015 by Willamette Week Newspaper

WILLAMETTE WEEK PORTLANDâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S NEWSWEEKLY

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VOL 41/42 08.19.2015

Willamette Week AUGUST 19, 2015 wweek.com

CARRIE WILSON

FINDINGS

PAGE 31

WHAT WE LEARNED FROM READING THIS WEEK’S PAPER VOL. 41, ISSUE 42.

They finally found a place to host the Cannabis Cup. It’s far, far away from where MusicfestNW is happening this weekend! 6 Modest Mouse is playing Portland for the first time since dropping its first record in eight years at MusicfestNW. It’s also singer Isaac Brock’s first time onstage here since he said Portland was “a collection of human turds.” 16 Foster the People’s bass player is named Cubbie Fink. Fink plays MusicfestNW on Friday night. 19

ON THE COVER:

You know what would be great after a long, hot day at MusicfestNW ? Gelato! The best Italian ice cream in Portland is at a new spot on Division Street. 36 Your best bet for a nonMusicfestNW concert this week? A gothy synth-pop group fronted by an actual gang member. Make the right decision. 39 If you want to pregame for Cubbie Fink’s MusicfestNW show with a few $1 microbrew pints in the Pearl, there is a place. 50

OUR MOST TRAFFICKED STORY ONLINE THIS WEEK:

MusicfestNW, drone photo by Adam Simmons.

Glenn Beck says Portland is the worst city in the country, even with MusicfestNW coming this weekend.

STAFF Editor & Publisher Mark Zusman EDITORIAL News Editor Pro Tem Aaron Mesh Arts & Culture Editor Martin Cizmar Staff Writers Nigel Jaquiss, Beth Slovic Copy Chief Rob Fernas Copy Editors Matt Buckingham, James Yu Stage & Screen Editor Enid Spitz Projects Editor Matthew Korfhage Music Editor Matthew Singer Web Editor Lizzy Acker Books James Helmsworth

Visual Arts Megan Harned Editorial Interns Claire Holley, Hart Hornor, Walker MacMurdo CONTRIBUTORS Dave Cantor, Nathan Carson, Rachel Graham Cody, Pete Cottell, Shannon Gormley, Jordan Green, Jay Horton, AP Kryza, John Locanthi, Mark Stock, Anna Walters PRODUCTION Production Manager Dylan Serkin Art Director Julie Showers Special Sections Art Director Alyssa Walker Graphic Designers Rick Vodicka, Xel Moore Production Interns Chaylee Brown, Courtney Theim

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Willamette Week AUGUST 19, 2015 wweek.com

WHEN OLD PORTLAND DIED

While I agree that “Old Portland” is dead, some aspects of the prior Portland can stay dead (empty urban core, unemployment, no art galleries, poor restaurants, redlining districts) [“Dead and Gone,” WW, Aug. 12, 2015]. It is important to understand that Portland now is merely in a transitional phase that others 20 years from now will look back on as a golden period of their Old Portland. This period of development is happening all over the country, but at a faster rate in areas that are in greater demand such as Portland. —“BlanchJoe” “Portland

THE VIABILITY OF YELP

Any intelligent user of Yelp can sort out the BS, overly sensitive reviews that WW points to [“That Is All,” WW, Aug. 12, 2015]. It is also easy to spot intelligent, reasonable reviewers from a mile away. Yelp can be useful in this context, which is how most people use it. Working the “screw tourists, I am a true Portlander and cooler than all” theme into the article was cute, but pretty lame. There are going to be unreasonable people everywhere you go. —“JT” Sometimes, when I’m feeling a little down, I pour myself a glass of scotch, put some minimal German electronica on the record player, turn down the lights, and read one-star Yelp reviews of restaurants with multiple Michelin stars in the voice of the Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons. Cheers me up every time. —“Nick”

didn’t die, it just evolved like the rest of us.”

“Portlandia debuts on IFC, and now it’s all anyone asks about when you go home for the holidays.” The fact that Portland isn’t the home you go back to for the holidays may have a lot to do with why Old Portland has died. —John Retzlaff

The minute the Californians started invading, Old Portland, with its charm, died. In came the hippies, soon to be hipsters, and suddenly people who showed up in the ’80s think they are Oregon natives. Right. —“Yup”

Dentistry In The Pearl That’s Something To Smile About!

Portland didn’t die, it just evolved like the rest of us. Everything moves on. That’s the way life works. —“Multnomah”

WE JOKE. THEY LECTURE.

Multnomah Village isn’t the “near ’burbs” [Street, WW, Aug. 12, 2015]. It’s a neighborhood in Southwest Portland. Like Sellwood is a neighborhood of Southeast Portland, or St. Johns is a neighborhood in North Portland. —“kazaamy” LETTERS TO THE EDITOR must include the author’s street address and phone number for veriﬁcation. Letters must be 250 or fewer words. Submit to: 2220 NW Quimby St., Portland, OR 97210. Fax: (503) 243-1115. Email: mzusman@wweek.com.

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Willamette Week AUGUST 19, 2015 wweek.com

Are there any 24-hour bus lines in Portland? —Carlos C.

Your question is certainly a model of brevity, Carlos—I briefly considered replying with a simple “no” and calling it a day—but it leaves too much to the imagination. (I could also speculate about the sort of person who speaks in short, staccato bursts and really needs a bus ride at 3 am, but that would be uncharitable.) What you’re really asking is a question this column has been getting in various forms for years: Why is there no bus to take me home after I get kicked out of the bar at closing time? I myself have spent several long, drunken walks thinking it would be nice if TriMet could do one final run on the more popular routes at, say, 2:45 am. After all, it would discourage drunken driving and help hard-working strippers and bartenders get home safely. Of course, I’ve also spent several long, drunken walks thinking it would be nice if passing

cops had to bring me nachos. In both cases, the authorities have found that nice things usually aren’t cost-effective. “Most lines end service before 1 am, so extending service two hours for very little ridership demand is not very efficient,” says TriMet’s Mary Fetsch. “Given the financial constraints we’ve had, it just hasn’t been in the cards.” There was actually a thing called Owl Service for a while, with hourly service all night on a limited number of routes, but it ended in 1986—kind of a waste considering that drunken driving was barely even illegal then. But don’t abandon hope: TriMet’s Service Enhancement Plan has floated the idea of later service on some routes. Whether that happens, of course, will depend on which subset of citizens decide to get involved. It makes you wonder how different society might be if public comment hearings came with an open bar. QUESTIONS? Send them to dr.know@wweek.com

O F F I C I A L P A RTNER OF MUSICFESTNW

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Willamette Week AUGUST 19, 2015 wweek.com

ENVIRONMENT: Metro throws a recycling company in the trash. BUSINESS: Rolling in dough with Dave’s Killer Bread. CITY HALL: Who does Mark Wiener really work for? COVER STORY: Your only guide to MusicfestNW.

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Willamette Week AUGUST 19, 2015 wweek.com

The nation’s biggest legal-weed party is looking to land in Clackamas County. For months, High Times magazine has struggled to find a site in Portland where it could host the Cannabis Cup, a marijuana trade show and festival. That hunt was stymied by the Oregon Liquor Control Commission, which ruled High Times couldn’t hold the cup in any venue with a liquor license. Now documents show High Times is seeking permits to host the event Sept. 20-21 in Milwaukie. It asked city officials Aug. 5 for permission to use parking lots and warehouses on the northern industrial side of town, along the new TriMet Orange Line and Southeast McLoughlin Boulevard—and, ironically, across the street from OLCC headquarters. High Times says it plans an announcement soon, and did not respond to WW’s further questions. Previous Cannabis Cups in Denver have featured vendors offering free samples of pot. Steve Wagner, who oversees medical dispensaries for the Oregon Health Authority, says the agency would consider penalties against any dispensary that tried to give away large amounts of weed at outside events. “This can’t be dispensaries handing out marijuana,” Wagner says. Prominent Portland real-estate investor and gay-rights pioneer Terry Bean goes on trial next month in Lane County on felony charges of having sex with a then-15-year-old boy. Yet the Democratic Party of Multnomah County is embracing Bean. On Aug. 13, the party accepted a $5,000 donation from him. The Multnomah County Dems are also holding a golf tournament to honor “Hero of the Year” Bill Dickey, owner of Morel Ink and a longtime party stalwart. “The MultDems and Basic Rights Oregon have joined forces to honor a man who truly personifies all that is good,” reads the invitation to the event. And the official VIP party? It’s Sept. 10 at Bean’s house—nine days after his sex-crimes trial is scheduled to begin. Multnomah County Dems spokeswoman Sue Hagmeier says the party is comfortable accepting Bean’s hospitality. “He’s a friend of the party,” Hagmeier says. “He’s been accused of something that is a lurid crime, but he’s only been accused, not convicted. If he were convicted, we’d take another look.” A Port of Portland firefighter has been indicted on a charge that he sexually assaulted a colleague on a 2014 training trip to Texas. Jason McCann was indicted on one count of sexual assault Aug. 12 by a Tarrant County, Texas, grand jury, according to reporting by InvestigateWest. The port has also fired McCann for a violation of workplace policies and port ordinances the agency says is unrelated to the alleged sexual assault. InvestigateWest and WW reported last month that the port had paid a $325,000 settlement to the female firefighter who alleged McCann assaulted her.

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christopher onstott

NEWS

Taking a sTand: greenway Recycling owner Terrell garrett says Metro’s plan to reclassify some recycling as garbage violates the agency’s mission. “it goes against everything Metro has preached,” garrett says.

REDUCE, REUSE, REDEFINE METRO NEEDS MORE GARBAGE. SO IT’S AIMING TO TAX SOME OF PORTLAND’S RECYCLING. By nig e l jaq ui ss

njaquiss@wweek.com

On one of the grittiest patches of industrial Northwest Portland, Terrell Garrett handles the kind of recycling you won’t see at Burgerville or in an episode of Portlandia. More than 100 trucks rumble into Garrett’s Greenway Recycling each day, laden with what’s left when buildings get demolished: waste wood, sheetrock, roofing and other junk. Garrett’s 19 employees run that debris through a vibrating series of conveyor belts, blowers and separators, and a “shaker screen” that separates the smallest pieces, leaving a pile of gravel-sized rubble. You won’t find newspapers, aluminum cans or empty bottles here. Those household recyclables go to daintier facilities. Greenway looks more like a dump than a recycling facility. But Metro, the regional government that regulates solid waste disposal, has for four years defined the rubble Greenway sifts from construction debris as recycling, because it’s reused to cover landfills. That classification is a big deal—because it means the debris isn’t taxed. But that’s about to change. Metro announced earlier this month it wants to redefine that material as garbage. The redefinition will cost Garrett and other recyclers about $30 a ton—that’s the tax that Metro charges on garbage. The proposed rule changes Metro will present to the public

Aug. 20 could actually reduce the region’s recycling rate, currently at its highest level ever. Garrett and others say the changes Metro is proposing contradict the agency’s mission. He says Metro is bankrolling the more popular forms of recycling—and filling its coffers—by throwing his company out with the trash. “This is just a money grab for Metro,” Garrett says. “That’s all it’s about—and as far as they are concerned, damn the recycling rate.” Ken Ray, a Metro spokesman, disagrees. He says the reclassification is overdue, in line with Metro’s principles and part of larger changes the agency is proposing to increase recycling. He says the landfill cover Greenway produces from construction waste has been misclassified and should be treated— and taxed—like all the other material that ends up in a landfill. “It’s garbage when it goes through the shaker screen,” Ray says, “and it needs to be taxed as garbage.” Metro wears multiple hardhats in the solid-waste world. The regional government sets waste policy for three Portland-area counties. It competes in the industry as the operator of two large transfer stations—also known as dumps. And it acts as the industry’s cop. All of these functions cost money. Metro raises it by taxing garbage—its single largest source of revenue. But Metro is a victim of its own success. It has so effectively persuaded individuals and companies to recycle that garbage output per capita—Metro’s lifeblood—has plunged. The average person in the region produced 1,102 pounds of garbage in 2013, state figures show. That may sound like a lot, but garbage per capita is actually in steady decline, falling 36 percent since its recent high watermark in 2006. Metro is currently rethinking how the region handles waste, preparing for the expiration of the agency’s longterm landfill contracts, which expire in 2019. On Aug. 6, the agency released a series of proposals it says will bring greater transparency and efficiency to the solid-waste system. The federal Environmental Protection Agency requires that landfill operators cover the “working face” of their landfills at the end of each work day with the equivalent of six inches

of soil. The policy is designed to reduce vermin and blowing garbage. Some landfills use petroleum-contaminated soil. Others use what’s called “auto-shredder fluff,” which is the plastic, upholstery and other non-metal material removed from junk cars when they are scrapped. And some landfills use what are called “shaker-screen fines”—the granular construction debris Greenway produces. Garrett says his plant will generate nearly 9,000 tons of that material this year. He’s able to collect that much reusable debris from the waste stream because he invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in a separating system. If Metro reclassifies the material that system recovers as garbage, he’ll have to pay $30 a ton to dispose of it, an annual cost of $270,000. That’s a lot for a company that Garrett says had about $5 million in total sales last year. Since Oregon began recycling in earnest in the early 1980s, fees on garbage have subsidized recycling. Some industry veterans say it’s time to rethink that relationship now that recycling is ingrained in consumer behavior and per capita garbage is declining. “For many years, the funding of Metro and municipal environmental organizations have been on the backs of the disposal of waste in landfills,” says Dean Large of Waste Connections, which operates landfills in Wasco and Umatilla counties. “They recognized that is an unsustainable model, but don’t have the nerve to change the message to the constituents that recycling isn’t really free.” Ray, the Metro spokesman, acknowledges that increased recycling will continue to limit garbage revenues in the future but says that’s not why Metro is making changes. “We are certainly mindful that people throwing away less will have a long-term impact,” Ray says. “And we are certainly going to be looking at whether our approach is sustainable over the long term.” Garrett says redefining as garbage about 12,000 tons of shaker fines—the total he and others produce locally each year—is anything but sustainable. “This is not about us,” Garrett says. “This is about solving a revenue problem, and they are doing it the wrong way.” Willamette Week AUGUST 19, 2015 wweek.com

BUSINESS AARON MESH

NEWS

DAVE DAHL THE CO-FOUNDER OF DAVE’S KILLER BREAD TALKS ABOUT BOTTOMING OUT AND CASHING IN. BY AA RO N M E SH

The face of Dave’s Killer Bread has many masks. For the past five months, Dave Dahl has been buying African tribal masks on eBay. He’s hung more than 200 of them on the red walls of his Milwaukie home, and he’s restoring others in the garage. He can afford a hobby. Dave’s Killer Bread announced Aug. 12 that Georgia baking giant Flowers Foods is buying Dave’s for $275 million, fulfilling the Dahl family’s four-year effort to sell the company. Dahl went on leave in 2013 from the company he founded, then cemented his exile when he rammed two Washington County sheriff’s patrol cars with his Cadillac Escalade in November 2013. That incident undercut Dahl’s narrative about an exfelon who had turned his life around, revealing instead a man struggling with bipolar disorder and alcoholism (“Breaking Bread,” WW, Jan. 8, 2014). A judge found Dahl guilty except for insanity last year, a verdict that let him avoid jail. Dahl, 52, now spends much of his time in solitude. On a Sunday morning, his patio flat-screen TV played John Travolta’s Phenomenon on mute, as Dahl smoked Camel Filters and drank Vitaminwater. He talked about the cost of becoming famous, his mental breakdown, and his new dream: killer pizza. WW: What do you plan to do with your millions? Dave Dahl: I’m going to be doing things with the money that are going to benefit others. I don’t want to be a rock star. I don’t want to be the Ozzy Osbourne of bread. I want to be remembered for doing good things. Mostly good things. Do your dreams involve baking again? I think so, yeah. There’s still needs, there’s still opportunities. And in that way I would hopefully be working with Dave’s Killer Bread again. What do you want to bake? A healthy pizza that’s going to taste good. But, of course, that’s going be something that I would work with the company on. And I haven’t talked to them about that, so they’re just going to be reading this for the first time. If you had a choice, would you take the money, or be back at Dave’s Killer Bread? Well, it’s not time to be back at Dave’s Killer Bread. It’s grown beyond me. 8

BAKER AND MASK: Dave’s Killer Bread co-founder Dave Dahl says he’s had his fill of fame. “I don’t have to be the guy, I don’t want to be the guy,” he says. “I just want to do what’s right.”

amesh@wweek.com

Willamette Week AUGUST 19, 2015 wweek.com

You sold half the company in 2012. Did the money change you? Yeah. My first money that I had, I was able to put a down payment on this place. It was fine, except I didn’t even really want to move out of my apartment. I mean, that was all I really wanted. Material stuff had an effect on me. And it wasn’t a good effect.

“I DON’T WANT TO BE THE OZZY OSBOURNE OF BREAD. I WANT TO BE REMEMBERED FOR DOING GOOD THINGS. MOSTLY GOOD THINGS.” What caused you to start drinking again? I was doing all these charity events, and there was always wine there, you can buy a shot or a drink, and I wasn’t doing anything anybody else wasn’t doing. It got to a point where, starting at about 2011 or so, where I kind of had to drink. It was like, if I didn’t drink I was sick, and I couldn’t get nothing done. Was the company trying to control your image during this time? No. I never really felt that kind of pressure. Things were changing. It was becoming more about the company, and we were aiming towards being more about the company and less about me. And that was difficult for me at first, because that was my whole life. But it was the right way to go. At a certain point it’s not about you anymore. It took me a little bit of time to realize that—actually a lot of time.

How bad did it get for you? As long as I was drinking, I wasn’t having mental breakdowns, you know what I’m saying? You’re just drinking all the time. I maintained very well on it. And the mental stuff happened because I wasn’t medicating. And when the drinking went away, then the energy came back, but it wasn’t being directed properly. So what happened the day of your breakdown? I was just talking crazy. Just super out there. I walked into the office, and I punched a cardboard cutout of myself, because I had never really liked that thing. I mean, who wants a cardboard cutout of themselves? Can you remember what happened with the Washington County sheriff ’s deputies? Just vaguely. Not that I can say that it matters what I remember. I’ve talked to many shrinks about this now, I’m pretty careful not to state things that might be a false memory, or wishful thinking. What went through your mind afterward? That night when I got to jail, that was the worst possible existence. I just thought that I’d never come out of this mental state. It was something that hurt so bad, that I let down everyone. What has recovery looked like for you? I go to something called Dual Diagnosis Anonymous, downtown. And those people, down there, are telling my story. You can go to AA, NA, it’s all good, but they don’t really get into the mental side of things. And people don’t want to admit that they have a mental problem, anyway. These guys down here at DDA are totally facing the fact that they have to address this. What’s with all the African masks? They’re just beautiful. And when I say beautiful, sometimes it looks evil and mean, and it looks harsh, which I like. I like that each one of them is an individual carving. I don’t think about me when I think about those. That’s a good thing, because that’s the way it was when I was creating. Whenever I’ve been creating and productive and happy, I’m not thinking about me. I’m thinking about what I’m doing.

CITY HALL

BACKSEAT DRIVER EMAILS SHOW MARK WIENER BOUNCED BETWEEN ADVISING UBER AND HALES. BY BE T H S LOV I C

bslovic@wweek.com

For two decades, Mark Wiener has been the man Portland politicians turn to when they’re in a jam. As the city’s top political consultant, he helped Vera Katz, Randy Leonard, Sam Adams and many others get elected, then advised them when they faced trouble in office. “Mark Wiener is the premier political consultant for City Hall candidates,” says Jim Moore, a political science professor at Pacific University in Forest Grove. “Working with Wiener is the way to get elected to City Hall.” But new information continues to surface about Wiener leveraging his connections to lobby some of those same people on behalf of Uber. WW previously reported Wiener was hired last December as a lobbyist for the ride-hailing company trying to change Portland’s taxi rules. By playing two roles—political consultant and lobbyist—Wiener wielded extraordinary clout, since he was urging rule changes to officials whom he helped get elected and was seeking to re-elect. Mayor Charlie Hales and Commissioner Steve Novick—both Wiener clients—reversed their opposition to Uber after Wiener began representing the company. Wiener has said he did nothing wrong, because he wasn’t being paid by Hales and Uber at the same time. But newly released emails show that while Wiener lobbied for Uber, he was communicating with Hales about the mayor’s political interests. The emails show Wiener moving between representing Uber and strategizing with Hales. That dual representation raises questions about whose interests Hales and Novick’s reversal on Uber served. Observers say when political consultants lobby their clients, the public loses. “It looks bad when someone is serving two masters and that leads to a change in policy,” says Ben Gaskins, who teaches political science at Lewis & Clark College. “It’s impossible to know why they changed their minds, but it could give the appearance of being inappropriate.” Professor James Thurber, director of the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies at American University, has written about political consultants who also lobby their own clients. “It’s not illegal, but it’s unethical,” Thurber says. “There’s an inherent conflict of interest, it’s usually not transparent, and it can really distort the candidate’s position if it results in pushing a special interest over the public’s interest.” Hales says there’s no conflict. “Mark Wiener has never lobbied me on this or any issue,” Hales says. “And while I have not hired him to help me on my re-election campaign, he, like many others, gives me advice, of which I’m free to take or not. He has not been compensated

NEWS

by me or my campaign committee since I have been mayor.” Wiener also makes a distinction between advising Hales and getting paid by Hales. “At no time during my engagement with Uber have I been paid by or in a contract with Mayor Hales,” Wiener says. Wiener undertook his representation of Uber at a crucial time for the California-based company—and for Hales. Uber was facing a hostile reception in Portland last December. Portland was the only major city on the West Coast where Uber wasn’t operating. Hales was preparing for a re-election bid, and he needed to shore up flagging support. On Nov. 25, 2014, Hales wrote to Wiener, who was on a cruise, under the subject line “ahoy!” “I want to get onto your dance card in two ways upon your return,” Hales wrote. “Once for the two of us to meet, and the other for that strategy session that I have tentatively set for the evening of December 29th.” Wiener wrote back about 90 minutes later. “Let me know when you want to do the 2 of us—12/29 is fine,” he said. Hales, who lives near Wiener in Eastmoreland, responded with a breakfast invitation for Dec. 10. On Dec. 5, Uber crashed into Portland, launching its service illegally. Eight days later, as WW has previously reported, Wiener hosted a peace gathering in his dining room between Uber managers, Hales and Novick. The two sides agreed that Portland would review its taxi rules if Uber backed out of the city temporarily. On Dec. 17, emails between Wiener, an Uber policy adviser and one of Hales’ top staffers show the trio preparing to make a formal announcement of the deal. Josh Alpert, a Hales aide, wrote to Wiener and Caitlin O’Neill of Uber that day about a draft news release. “Mark and I talked a few minutes ago about media, etc., so I think we’ll all be on the same page once we figure out timing,” Alpert wrote. Wiener chimed in 18 minutes later. “This looks good to me,” he wrote. “I’ll leave it to you two to solidify the tick tock of the media strategy; what Josh outlined to me on the phone seemed right.” Two days later, Wiener signed a contract with Uber. He has declined to say how much he’s being paid for what he calls “strategic advice.” Alpert continued to email Wiener about Uber, sending him a list Jan. 5 of Portlanders who’d been appointed to serve on the mayor’s task force on taxi rules, and a draft agenda Jan. 9 for the task force’s first meeting. Then, Wiener turned to Hales’ re-election bid. On Feb. 25, Wiener responded to an email message from Hales’ pollster in Oakland, copying the mayor, his then-chief of staff Gail Shibley and Alpert. “Adding Team Hales,” he wrote. “We should think about how to distinguish the difference to voters between issues that are ‘important’ and mission critical.” In April, Hales, Novick and City Commissioner Dan Saltzman, also a Wiener client, voted to legalize Uber and its competitor Lyft, over the objections of local cab companies. Broadway Cab president Raye Miles says Wiener’s close relationship to both Hales and Uber helped give the company what it wanted. “The whole landscape changed over the course of a weekend last December,” Miles says. “It just went 180 degrees. [Wiener’s] ability to sway at least some city commissioners is obvious.” Willamette Week AUGUST 19, 2015 wweek.com

Willamette Week AUGUST 19, 2015 wweek.com

AUGUST 21-23 AT WATERFRONT PARK

MUSICFESTNW First came the kayaktivists. Then there was Flugtag. Now, MusicfestNW slaps one last exclamation point at the end of the Willamette River’s wild summer, inviting the entire city down to the waterfront for three days of indie rock, hip-hop, synth-pop and Isaac Brock near a live microphone. It might sound crazy. But in Portland, it’s heritage. Music and the river that runs through us have been intertwined since the days of the Model T and mustache wax, when Mary Theresa Kutsche of Woodburn wrote “By the Banks of Old Willamette,” one of Portland’s first civic anthems. Granted, in 1909, she wasn’t envisioning thousands of people crowding those banks to swoon over Twin Shadow’s arena-scale power ballads (page 20), or rap along to Danny Brown’s odes to molly and weed (page 18). But it goes to show that, no matter how much the landscape shifts, that slow expanse of water will always orient us geographically, and music will continue to define us culturally…and, yeah, there’s still a good market for mustache wax here, too. This weekend, Tom McCall Waterfront Park will trans-

SINGLE-DAY TICKETS AND THREE-DAY PASSES ARE STILL AVAILABLE. TO GET YOURS, GO TO MUSICFESTNW.COM!

form into a miniature Stumptown, complete with food carts, booze and hair cuts, the sound of Modest Mouse (page 16) and the other bands who live next door to you (page 22) wafting through the air. Many music festivals have sprung up since MFNW started 16 years ago, but none reflect the nature of the city quite like this one. That’s why, in addition to telling you about all the awesome stuff you’ll encounter this year, we’ve also looked backward, ranking the best songs ever written about Portland (page 12). That’s where our true history is written. Like any history, it’s thorny and not entirely linear. Some think the city is changing too much, while others remembered when it never changed at all. Some can’t decide whether to stay or go, others just throw their hands up and walk away. Others simply embrace it, flaws and all. If you want to know where you are, look toward the river. And if you want to understand where you are, listen to the music. That’s what the whole city will be doing this weekend. See you by the banks of old Willamette. —Matthew Singer, Willamette Week music editor

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MF NW

“When they clean the streets I’ll be the only shit that’s left behind.”

THE 21 BEST SONGS EVER ABOUT PORTLAND BY M ATT H E W S I N G E R

msinger@wweek.com

ELLIOTT SMITH, “Rose Parade” (1997)

When Elliott Smith wrote about Portland, it was often with an eye toward those corners of the city most would be content never knowing existed: the drug dens along Southeast Powell Boulevard, the cracked streets of Alameda, the sad fairgrounds out past Southwest Condor Avenue. In “Rose Parade,” Smith gets dragged down to one of the town’s most popular civic traditions, and it sounds like he’d much rather be at the drug houses, or anywhere else. Everyone is shouting and jockeying for view. He gets pelted by candy disguised as money, and trips over a dog. The marching band is ridiculous, and the trumpet player sucks so bad he must be drunk. In interviews, Smith described the song as being about the facade of self-congratulation, and the line “everyone’s interest is stronger than mine” is often read as a sick, anti-Portland burn. Indeed, it’s something like a Dear John letter to the city: After the success of Either/Or, he’d move to New York, then Los Angeles, where he killed himself in 2003. But we shouldn’t take his disillusionment personally. In the final lyric—“When they clean the streets I’ll be the only shit that’s left behind”—Smith betrays what “Rose Parade” is actually about: the feeling that, maybe, there’s no place you actually belong.

SLEATER-KINNEY, “Light Rail Coyote” (2002)

Oh, sure, they say there are “no cities to love” now, but back in 2002, the ladies of Sleater-Kinney seemed awfully infatuated with at least one. Using the true tale of a coyote that once tried bumming a ride on the MAX as an entry point, “Light Rail Coyote” mythologizes Portland as a millennial frontierland, where nature and urbanity are practically indistinguishable from one another. Written by a band that immigrated down I-5 from Olympia, the mountain-sized riff that accompa-

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nies Corin Tucker’s breathless verses is charged by the ecstatic possibility that awaits on the other side of the Columbia—in the diners and bookstores, the strip joints and punk clubs and, of course, that great “dirty river.” Coming in the middle of One Beat, an album thoroughly coated in the ash of 9/11, the song positions Portland as a beacon of hope for anyone still wanting to live wild and free in America. Don’t ever let anyone tell you the weather is all there is to care about.

THE WIPERS, “Doom Town” (1983)

COOL NUTZ, “Portland Life” (1997)

By 1997, it seemed like every major region of the West Coast had elected its rap ambassador. L.A. had Dre. The Bay Area had Too Short. Even Seattle had Sir Mix-a-Lot. With Harsh Game for the People, Terrance “Cool Nutz” Scott elected himself Portland hip-hop’s mayor for life, and as an inauguration gift bequeathed upon his constituents an anthem to finally call their own. To its credit, though, “Portland Life” doesn’t carry itself like an anthem. From the whistled synth line to the casual delivery, Nutz and his homies G-Ism don’t seem overly concerned about whether outsiders buy the assertion that “these Portland streets ain’t nothing nice”— which, of course, makes them all the more convincing.

Nowadays, the chief source of angst in Portland is the sense that the city is changing too quickly. In 1983, though, a young Greg Sage might have delighted in the sight of a few new apartment complexes or upscale brunch spots on his block. All right, probably not. Still, if the Wipers’ intensely stormy punk was reacting to anything, it was the “These existential inertia of life in Old Portland. That theme is Portland central to “Doom Town,” Sage’s harstreets ain’t rowing sketch of a dead-eyed metropolis where “nothin’ ever changes” and nothing nice.” “you can never win living innocent.” Of course, that is precisely the kind of environment that breeds independence, and while Portland is not as doomy as it once was, the do-it-yourself ethic Sage embodied remains part the city’s DNA. Because, really, what other choice do you have?

COOL NUTZ

LORETTA LYNN AND JACK WHITE, “Portland, Oregon” (2004)

Sorry to burst the bubble, y’all, but no bar here serves sloe gin fizz by the pitcher, and Loretta Lynn almost certainly didn’t bang Jack White within city limits. While the pair played coy about the song’s origins after it became a hit, in her 2002 autobiography, Lynn confessed to coming up with the lyrics, describing a tryst sparked in a dimly lit tavern, in a fit of annoyance with her late husband, after he stuck her in a local Holiday Inn and went golfing—which means the most famous tune to ever name-check fair Puddletown could’ve just as easily been titled “Kenosha, Wisconsin” or “Paramus, New Jersey” or, God forbid, “Medford, Oregon.” But what does it really matter? With White’s scorching slide guitar sizzling under the country diva’s ageless vocals, the Grammy-winning collaboration cast Portland as a place of deliciously illicit romance, where the bars keep our secrets hidden in their dark corners. If that ain’t lovely mythmaking, then what the hell is?

“A mountain hooded in snow.”

THE REPLACEMENTS, “Portland” (1988)

With the Replacements, awesome and awful were always a package deal. Want to see the songs that saved your life played live? Better prepare to sit through a lot of sloppy Stones covers, too. When the Replacements rolled into Portland in December 1987, though, at the very end of the Pleased to Meet Me tour, “awful” is all they had left in them. Arriving at the old Pine Street Theatre, functioning on one hour of sleep, the band proceeded to get roaring drunk, fuck up the backstage area, then stumble through a show so bad it entered into fan lore, with the attendant misremembrances. (One fan swore to me that bassist Tommy Stinson leapt through a plate-glass window and ran screaming down Sandy Boulevard; no one else recalls this.) A year later, frontman Paul Westerberg would apologize in the form of one of the ‘Mats’ best late-period songs, a countryish ballad with a refrain that looks back at that disastrous gig and laughs: “It’s too late to turn back/ Here we go, Portland!” Alas, it got scrapped from 1989’s Don’t Tell a Soul and didn’t surface for another decade, long enough for everyone to forget what it was apologizing for. But Westerberg never did: In April, at what’ll likely be the Replacements’ last time in town, he pulled “Portland” out of mothballs, and issued one final “we’re sorry.”

VIVA VOCE, “Rose City” (2009)

As you may have already noticed, by the time most artists get around to writing their “Portland song,” the bloom has come off the rose, so to speak. But “Rose City,” the title track from the transplanted Southern psychrockers’ penultimate album, is such an unabashed expression of civic pride it’s a wonder the Timbers Army hasn’t adapted it into a chant. Not that Viva Voce ignores the bad. The band just concedes that it’s inextricable from the good, and decides to throw its arms around the whole glorious mess. “I wanna go back where the rain won’t stop/ And where the trees run wild like killer cops,” Anita Elliott sings with dreamy wistfulness, before crunchy alt-rock chords hammer down in the chorus. Singer-guitarist Kevin Robinson has said the song is “meant to be more of a nude painting” than a valentine, but what’s not to love about seeing your town stripped to its warts?

THE HELIO SEQUENCE, “Everyone Knows Everyone” (2004)

Leave it to some native Beavertonians to capture the strange ambivalence toward Portland anyone who’s lived here long enough seems to experience at some point. Wrapped in both earthy harmonica and electronic whooping, singer Brandon Summers breathily vacillates between wanting to break out of this small town in a big city’s clothing, where “everyone knows what everyone’s doing,” and resigning himself to staying put and enjoying the sun when it comes. “There’s no escaping,” he sighs. “There’s nothing to escape.”

ESPERANZA SPALDING

MICHAEL HURLEY, “Portland Water” (1991)

Believe it or not, some of us actually moved here for the weather, and oddball folk hero Michael Hurley makes the cold sound awfully enticing on this languid back-porch ditty: “Up in the canyon lookin’ down on the river and it makes me shiver/ Oh the call up to Portland on the public telephone/ Says it sure is rainin’ here in the state of Oregon.” Damn right, it is.

THE DECEMBERISTS, “On the Bus Mall” (2005)

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In which Colin Meloy stops singing about dirigibles long enough to pen a sweet, cascading tribute to Portland’s homeless youth who huddle together “on the colonnades of Waterfront Park” to survive the chill of the night.

KIND OF LIKE SPITTING, “Aubergine” (2005)

Man, and you thought Isaac Brock had issues with Portland. Ben Barnett’s scathing declaration of tough, er, love, goes beyond the “human turds,” directly calling out the city’s music culture (“so many songs sung in shrill thinning tones”), the “thriving upper class [that] just can’t be bothered” and, well, this paper (“the weeklies are just trash”). That it’s set against a shuffling folk arrangement overlaid with twee flute takes a bit of the sting out, but only a little.

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“The weeklies are just trash.” ILLMACULATE, “Lost Our Soul” (2012)

Illmaculate is Portland’s best battle rapper, but when he’s not shitting on someone’s mama, he’s acting as the scene’s conscience; see the Blue Monk incident of March 2014, when he sacrificed his own show to bring attention to the city’s literal policing of hip-hop culture. On “Lost Our Soul,” the St. Johns-repping MC tackles another hot-button issue—gentrification— watching as the forces of capitalism “turn our buildings to dust.” The tone is of ache more than anger, but there’s also resilience in Chase Moore’s towering beat, and enough soul in Ness Lee’s chorus to convince you that not all is yet lost.

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DERROLL ADAMS, “Portland Town” (1957)

A compatriot of “Ramblin’” Jack Elliott and student of Pete Seeger, the late Derroll Adams was indeed “born in Portland Town,” in 1925, and entered the folk canon three decades later with this simple, chilling banjo tune that’s both a protest song and murder ballad. In under three minutes, Adams’ narrator gets married,

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has children and sees them off to war, where each is killed, easy as “one, two, three.” In the final verse, he vows to never have kids again. But “Portland Town” bore its own fruit, being covered by Joan Baez, the Kingston Trio and Marianne Faithful, among many others, and while Adams’ name is only known in the households of hardcore roots aficionados, those admirers include Paul Simon and Donovan.

ESPERANZA SPALDING, “City of Roses” (2012)

Like Viva Voce’s “Rose City,” Spalding’s jazz-pop ode to her hometown is that rare swollen-hearted Portland love song, except the view is even, um, rosier. Over weightless keys and horns from the Pacific Crest Jazz Orchestra, the singerbassist references a tourist brochure’s worth of regional splendor, from the “rolling river” and “a mountain hooded in snow” to the Hacky-Sacking hippies at the Saturday Market. It paints such an idyllic picture it could be sung by a Disney heroine, but it helped expand Spalding’s national profile and won her mentor, Thara Memory—an old-school hard-ass closer to Whiplash than Frozen—a Grammy for the arrangement.

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M. WARD, “Paul’s Song” (2005)

No one would mistake M. Ward’s froggy murmur for Tony Bennett, but he did write our “I Left My Heart in San Francisco.” On this rain- and pedal steel-slicked ballad, the “Him” to Zooey Deschanel’s “She” can hardly bring himself to interact with the waitresses and hotel concierges he meets on tour, so gaping the hole in his chest cavity. Then again, they all ask him questions like, “Are you down with the latest trends?” so maybe it’s just a convenient excuse.

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LUCK-ONE, “Sounds Of My City II” (2013)

Updating “Portland Life” for the Portlandia era, the city’s most charismatic truth-teller (who’s since reverted to his given name, Hanif, and decamped to New York) puts a spotlight on the places “the cameras never visited” and, as he is wont to do, tells some hard truths— namely, that this quirky bastion of liberalism treats its minority population “like we’re criminals, scandalous individuals.” When the cops shut down his show with Illmaculate at the Blue Monk last year, the police report cited “multiple derogatory lyrics toward the police” and misquoted the chorus, only proving his point.

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CONT. on page 14 Willamette Week AUGUST 19, 2015 wweek.com

MF NW

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DEAD KENNEDYS, “Night of the Living Rednecks” (1979)

draining hook shots from half court, while Jerome Kersey, Terry Porter and the rest of the early-’90s squad chant the supercalifragilistic chorus. It’s aged like a pair of Zubaz, but mention “Bust a Bucket” to any longtime Blazers fan and watch their eyes well up with nostalgia.

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TOM WAITS, “Pasties and a G-String (at the Two O’Clock Club)” (1976)

OK, so it’s not so much a “song” as a stage rant set to faux-jazzbo noodling, but it stands as a half-hilarious, half-frightening testimonial to Portland’s backwater days, when keeping it weird could get you doused with water and called “faggot” on a public street. Onstage at OG punk club the Earth, singer Jello Biafra kills time by recounting his last trip to town, when he got chased into a phone booth on Burnside by a mob of club-wielding jocks and mocked by onlookers. “And I thought, ‘So, this is Oregon,’” he sneers with trademarked sarcasm. “‘Tolerant Oregon!’”

WHITE GLOVE, “Division Street” (2014)

At once a sincere lament for the gentrified Southeast and a tongue-in-cheek homage to the institutions being replaced (fancy restaurants instead of meth labs? Baby strollers instead of weed dealers? Noooooooo!), “Division Street” encapsulates the current Portland moment with only a few chords, a dinky keyboard riff and a catchy-ass melody. Whenever the “Save the Oregon Theater” campaign starts, this will undoubtedly serve as its anthem.

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DAN REED, “Bust a Bucket” (1990)

Every city needs its novelty jock jam, and “Bust a Bucket” is Portland’s “Super Bowl Shuffle.” Whacked in the head with a basketball while sitting courtside at a Blazers game, local cheeserock idol Dan Reed proceeds to earnestly sing-rap a concussed daydream about getting pulled onto the court by Rick Adelman, chatting up Ahmad Rashad and

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Go home, Tom, you’re drunk. Ogling “Portland through a shot glass,” and with probably only one eye still open, Waits, sounding even more belligerent than usual, practically has a stroke at the sight of Stumptown’s famous live nude girls, scatting nonsense and growling about getting “harder than Chinese algebrassieres,” as va-va-voom drums evoke images of undulating flesh. As the Two O’Clock never existed, debates persist about what actual club got him all hot and blubbering— the popular guess is Mary’s—but the song is really a self-fulfilling prophecy: Go into any strip joint in Portland now, and you’re more likely to hear Tom Waits than Juicy J.

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JASON FROM L.A. (AKA FRED ARMISEN), “The Dream of the ’90s” (2011)

Cringe in disgust and throw this paper in the trash if you want, but when Portlandia first premiered, the real Portland tittered with recognition at the funhouse-mirror version of itself, an exagg erated but still truthful slacker utopia “where young people go to retire.” Of course, the irony is that the rest of the world bought the pitch, and now everyone’s had to give up clowning and get real jobs to keep the dream alive. But that’s just as well. Nirvana didn’t last forever, and neither could ours.

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MF I L L U S T R AT I O N B Y K E N N E T H H U E Y

Isaac Brock has what you might call a “conflicted relationship” with Portland. In an interview with Polish television in June, Modest Mouse’s head rodent described his adopted hometown as “a collection of human turds” that’s rapidly hardening him into a Republican, and that he’d totally leave if he could only think of someplace better. Some took it as an insult, others as hard truth. In fact, the ambivalent self-loathing in those remarks revealed more about Brock than Portland—namely, that the dude is more of a dyed-in-the-flannel Portlander than he’d probably care to admit. On Aug. 23, Modest Mouse headlines MusicfestNW, playing for the hometown turds for the first time since the March release of Strangers to Ourselves, the band’s first album in eight years. Where else can you find Brock in town? Here are some landmarks. MATTHEW SINGER. La Luna ( formerly at Southeast 9th Avenue and Pine Street) Like, oh, every important indie-rock band of the ’90s, Modest Mouse played its first Portland show in the building that now houses popular izakaya Biwa. The band soon graduated to the Crystal Ballroom, and has remained at that level ever since. But Brock did play an intimate solo gig at shoeboxsized Valentines in 2012, along with Corin Tucker and Britt Daniel, as a benefit for musician Joel Burrows before his death. Bunk Bar (1028 SE Water Ave.) If you want to manufacture a run-in with Brock, he’s most often spotted smoking cigarettes outside the club whenever some partic16

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ularly cool show is going on. Other bars he’s been rumored to frequent: the Triple Nickel on Belmont and Bonfire Lounge on Southeast Stark, where he took a Rolling Stone writer in 2004 and drunkenly begged the owner for a job, then got kicked out. Falcon Art Community (5415 N Albina Ave.) In 2010, in a peak “oh, Portland” moment, then-Mayor Sam Adams hung a giant oil painting of Isaac Brock in City Hall. The portrait, depicting Brock as some kind of Bavarian boar whisperer, was created by artist Alexander Rokoff at the behest of real-estate developer Brian Wannamaker. With Charlie Hales now mayor, you’d be lucky to find an

autographed press photo of Nu Shooz in the building, so the Brock painting now exists as part of the permanent collection in the basement of Wannamaker’s art-studio complex. Hang outside long enough, and chances are you’ll be able to follow a tenant inside and see it in person, in all its lederhosen-laden glory.

in 2012, converting it into the studio where the band recorded Strangers to Ourselves. According to Rolling Stone, the building also became “a 24-hour clubhouse for the Portland rock scene.” “There was a lot of drinking and weed-smoking and shit,” Brock said. “Half of us stay up until 7 am.”

MAX Red Line (Portland International Airport to Pioneer Courthouse Square) For reasons that have recently become obvious, Modest Mouse has no songs that explicitly reference Portland, but the video for the Strangers to Ourselves ballad “Coyotes” pays homage to the same Canis latrans that inspired Sleater-Kinney’s “Light Rail Coyote” (see page 12). Unlike the real critter, which got wrangled off before the train even left Cascade Station, the furry star boards an empty MAX train in the early morning and rides it all the way downtown. The most exciting moment is when the little guy spots a bird outside the window, but it’s still the best video the band has ever done because goddamn is it a cute coyote.

Crystal Hotel (303 SW 12th Ave.) Of the hotel’s 51 rock-themed rooms, the Modest Mouse suite has the least-inviting name—“Paper Thin Walls,” taken from a song on 2000’s The Moon & Antarctica. But it does have a trippy, “peeling” headboard above the bed and a private bathroom (most are shared) whose walls are adorned with the lyrics, “It’s been agreed the whole world stinks,” which, considering Brock thinks of Portland as a giant toilet of humanity, is appropriate.

Ice Cream Party (Goose Hollow) Described in a BuzzFeed profile as “Modest Mouse’s Batcave,” Brock bought the former check-printing factory near Providence Park

Modest Mouse plays at 8:30 pm on Sunday, Aug. 23.

COURTESY OF BEIRUT

BEYOND THE WATERFRONT:

MFNW AT NIGHT WEDNESDAY, AUG. 19 RED BULL SOUND SELECT PRESENTS AESOP ROCK WITH ROB SONIC & DJ ABILITIES AND ILLMACULATE Star Theater, 13 NW 6th Ave. 9 pm. $3 with RSVP at redbullsoundselect.com. 21+.

THURSDAY, AUG. 20 DR. MARTENS KICKOFF PARTY WITH THE HELIO SEQUENCE AND DIVERS Dr. Martens Parking Lot, 2 NW 10th Ave. 5 pm. Entry with VIP wristband or free ticket available at Dr. Martens during regular business hours.

DOUG FIR PRESENTS NICK WATERHOUSE WITH DJ COOKY PARKER

Doug Fir Lounge, 830 E Burnside St. 9 pm. $13 advance, $15 day of show. 21+.

RED BULL SOUND SELECT PRESENTS SHLOHMO WITH MANATEE COMMUNE AND THE FLAVR BLUE Star Theater, 13 NW 6th Ave. 9 pm. $3 with RSVP at redbullsoundselect.com. 21+.

BEIRUT HOW A KID FROM EASTERN OREGON HELPED SAVE ZACH CONDON FROM HIMSELF—AND FINALLY GOT HIM TO FINISH A NEW ALBUM. When your band’s press release explains that your latest record is the byproduct of a physical and mental breakdown and your subsequent recovery, you are signing up to talk about that breakdown for the next year of your life. And if you are, as Beirut frontman Zach Condon has described himself to be over the years, “decently shy” or “very self-conscious,” that might just be a subject you tire of endlessly retreading. This is, I assume, how I wound up calling Beirut bassist Paul Collins. It was a welcome surprise. Before he moved to Santa Fe, N.M., for college and met Condon and Beirut drummer Nick Petree, and before the band relocated to New York City, Collins was a punk-rock kid in the militantly country town of Pendleton, Ore. “I came from a rodeo family,” he says from his apartment in New York. “My mom was a Round-Up princess, my grandfather was the director of the Round-Up and the owner of Cimmiyotti’s [a popular Pendleton restaurant]. So, in other words, that whole legacy of Pendleton was ingrained in me in a weird way. But I was never asked to be a cowboy.” Instead, Collins became an integral player in Pendleton’s burgeoning—if somewhat surprising—local music scene in the early aughts, playing shows at the only real venue in town, Floyd’s Truck Ranch, and organizing shows of his own. It was Portland’s looming presence that inspired Collins and friends like Peter Walters and James Dean Kindle to make music happen 200 miles east. “When I got into Quasi and Elliott Smith, it was just over,” Collins says. “We just loved that

stuff so much and we wanted to be a part of it so bad. Playing shows at the truck stop was our backwoods sort of way of doing that. The kids my age, we just put a really high premium on doing shit.” For Collins, “doing shit” would eventually mean leaving home for college in Santa Fe, where he started a Stereolab-ish band called Ping Pong with drummer Nick Petree. Around the same time, a high-school dropout named Zach Condon returned to New Mexico from a European vacation and began recording jaw-dropping songs in his bedroom. Collins happened to see Condon at one of his first solo shows as Beirut, and was impressed enough to offer his assistance. Six months later, Collins and Petree were core members of Beirut, and they relocated to New York City to make playing in the band their full-time job. That was nearly a decade ago. And still, Collins says, it wasn’t until recording Beirut’s upcoming album, No No No, that he felt like more than a bit player. “In the past, I’ve always been a fan,” he says. “It felt like Zach was letting me play bass on his records, but I never felt like a real musician. I felt like I was just sneaking by. But this is a record that Nick and I feel especially proud of.” By Condon’s own admission, it was those two bandmates who dragged him out of a four-year recording drought. Collins and Petree “stepped up and said we’re going to the studio every day no matter what, and we’re just going to have some fun with it and not make it a serious thing,” Condon told the Line of Best Fit in June. “Borne out of that, it became a much freer thing.” “I’m really flattered Zach said that,” Collins says, “but it’s like, yeah, that’s exactly

what happened. I think he hit a point where he was just overthinking things. It got bad. So one day Nick and I just cleaned up the practice space. It looked like shit and it felt terrible. So we vacuumed, arranged things, put a bad painting on the wall that we found on the street. First we were like, ‘Forget Zach,’ and we just started jamming in there. And then Zach came in, and we all jammed together. We had never really done that. That might sound crazy, because we’ve been together for like nine years, but we finally just sat down and played.” The resulting record completes the stylistic transition that Beirut began with its 2011 full-length, The Rip Tide, from a group that defined itself by a series of exotic influences to a band with its own internalized musical language. At once funky and pristine, No No No is largely a trio-with-horns album. If Condon is singing about intense suffering he experienced in the album’s lead-up, you wouldn’t know it from his seductive vocals and the band’s in-the-pocket playing. From hooky opener “Gibraltar” to airy waltz “August Holland,” it sounds—for the first time—like a band that is having a blast in the studio. Those mental breakdowns sound miles away. Few people understand the stress Condon is under better than Collins. “Zach was 19 when this all started, you know?” he says. “I can’t imagine being in charge of my friends’ well-being, even now. He’s our breadwinner—he’s like our dad in a weird way. It’s all on him, and that’s a tremendous amount of pressure.” But the flip side of that coin is that your friends will drag you through your worst days. Sometimes that just means cleaning up the studio and jamming, a coping mechanism that Collins learned from Portland. “That Pacific Northwest DIY shit is still in me,” he says. CASEY JARMAN. Beirut plays at 8:30 pm on Saturday, Aug. 22.

FRIDAY, AUG. 21 MFNW, SOUL’D OUT & DOUBLE TEE PRESENT MIGUEL WITH DOROTHY Roseland Theater, 8 NW 6th Ave. 9 pm. Sold out. All ages.

RED BULL SOUND SELECT PRESENTS FUCKED UP WITH AND AND AND, AND WIMPS Star Theater, 13 NW 6th Ave. 9 pm. $3 with RSVP at redbullsoundselect.com. 21+.

MISSISSIPPI STUDIOS PRESENTS THANKS AND JUST LIONS

Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi Ave. 10 pm. $10. 21+.

DOUG FIR PRESENTS TWIN SHADOW WITH LANY

Doug Fir Lounge, 830 E Burnside St. 9 pm. Sold out. 21+.

BUNK BAR PRESENTS BEARCUBBIN AND 1939 ENSEMBLE

Bunk Bar, 1028 SE Water Ave. 9:30 pm. $8. 21+.

SATURDAY, AUG. 22 MAGIC SWORD WITH WILLIS EARL BEAL AND TRANSISTOR SEND

Star Theater, 13 NW 6th Ave. 10 pm. $10. 21+.

DOUG FIR LOUNGE PRESENTS BROTHERS & SISTER (RECREATING THE ALLMAN BROTHERS’ AT FILLMORE EAST) Doug Fir Lounge, 830 E Burnside St. 9 pm. $10 advance, $12 day of show. 21+.

MISSISSIPPI STUDIOS PRESENTS HOMESHAKE WITH SHEER AGONY

Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi Ave. 10 pm. $10. 21+.

SUNDAY, AUG. 23 DAZE OF THE DEAD AND HIVE PRESENT PRAYERS WITH FORCE PUBLIQUE Star Theater, 13 NW 6th Ave. 9 pm. $13. 21+.

See full listings and features on these shows, beginning on page 39.

Willamette Week AUGUST 19, 2015 wweek.com

MF COURTESY OF DANNY BROWN

DANNY BROWN

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE MOTOR CITY’S NEWEST MADMAN. Danny Brown might be the biggest weirdo in hiphop. The 34-year-old Detroit rapper has amassed a rabid following of rap fiends, teenagers, critics and stoned Adult Swim viewers with his nasally voice and hilariously dirty mind. As he prepares for a prime MusicfestNW slot and upcoming tour with Tyler the Creator, Vince Staples and A$AP Rocky, here are some important things every attendee should know about That Old Danny Brown.

He’s been around for a while.

Although most of his current audience came in about the time of 2011 album XXX, Brown is actually a veteran of the hip-hop underground. His background probably sounds familiar: a brief stint in a failed group (Rese’vor Dogs); a drugdealing past; jail time. He released a mixtape with G-Unit rapper and bucket-hat aficionado Tony Yayo in 2010, but his breakthrough didn’t come until he signed with Brooklyn label Fool’s Gold and released XXX as a free download, an ingenious move in the age of streaming.

He fucks with indie rock.

There’s a reason Brown is often lumped in as one of the few rappers working the festival circuit. Not only does his music vibe with the EDM crowd, but his association with rock music also runs deep. This is a guy who listened to a lot of Joy Division during the making of XXX, referred to 2013 follow-up Old as the Kid A to XXX’s OK Computer, and even drops the line “Radiohead shit/ Fiends with The Bends” on “Lonely.” He’s collaborated with Purity Ring, Charli XCX and Rustie. In 2012, Brown put in time tracking vocals with Australian cut-and-paste wizards the Avalanches, but considering they still haven’t released an album since 2000’s groundbreaking Since I Left You, who knows if his contributions will ever see the light of day. 18

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He has two types of songs.

There are really two Danny Browns: the one who pops molly and makes frantic, trap-inspired party music filled with hilarious one-liners and punch lines; and the introspective, thoughtful guy who just wants to make underground shit and isn’t afraid to get in touch with his feelings. Old was so critically acclaimed in part because of how well he balanced his polar opposites. Arranged like a vinyl album, side A is mostly laid-back, with fewer dick jokes and more experimental beats, while the wilder B side plays well at both the club and the rave. Even though Brown’s music is forwardthinking and influenced equally by new trends in dance music and cloud-rap production, he’s also somewhat of a formalist. XXX and Old are immaculately constructed records, put together with care and narrative structure in mind.

He likes to indulge in illicit substances.

This is another way of saying that Danny Brown raps about drugs. It’s not just there in the song titles (“Blunt After Blunt,” “Adderall Admiral,” “Kush Coma”) and lyrics (“Codeine in my cereal” is the first line of frantic highlight “Red 2 Go”) but also in his interviews, where he’s candid about dabbling in uppers, downers and psychedelics. Dude knows his basketball weedhead history, too. When asked by Complex magazine earlier this year what NBA personality he would want to smoke with, he said either Shawn Kemp or Isaiah “J.R.” Rider, both former Blazers.

He’s writing a children’s book

Not just any children’s book, but a children’s book inspired by Dr. Seuss. There is no way this won’t end up really freakin’ weird. Is Powell’s taking pre-orders yet? MICHAEL MANNHEIMER. Danny Brown plays at 6:30 pm on Sunday, Aug. 23.

DARREN ANKENMAN

COURTESY OF BELLE & SEBASTIAN

NINE COMPLIMENTS FOR FOSTER THE PEOPLE

Foster the People is playing MusicfestNW, which means there’s a chance you might see the band members hanging out in Portland this weekend. What are you going to say to them if you see them waiting at Church for a Clockwork Orange? It has to be something nice, but also cool. Can’t think of anything? That’s what we’re here for. As we once did for Nickelback, we’ve come up with this Foster the People-specific list of compliments to keep in your pocket as you travel through the hip spaces of the city this weekend. Play your cards right, and you might soon be the fourth People. LIZZY ACKER.

“You don’t seem too racist.”

BELLE & SEBASTIAN TWENTY YEARS IN, INDIE POP’S GREATEST BAND IS STILL LEARNING NEW TRICKS. LIKE DISCO! For the past 19 years, Belle and Sebastian has been on a quest. The purpose of that quest? “To make better records,” says guitarist and songwriter Stevie Jackson. Next year marks the beloved Glaswegian band’s 20th anniversary, and through all its musical evolutions and lineup changes, it has never wavered in that simple mission. Belle and Sebastian formed when singer Stuart Murdoch and bassist Stuart David, who left the band in 2000, wrote the album Tigermilk in music school, then recruited Jackson and the rest of the members to make the 1996 record. The group quickly followed with If You’re Feeling Sinister, which The New York Times called “the band’s masterpiece.” Over the proceeding seven albums, Belle and Sebastian has refined its quirky melodies and cheeky musings on love, death and disappointment, and established itself as one of indie pop’s quintessential acts. But with this year’s Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance, the band surprised a lot of people—including itself. “I kind of said, for a joke, ‘Let’s make a disco record,’ right from the start, because I play in this disco band back in Glasgow,” Jackson says, referring to his ’70s cover band, the Disco Sharks. “I was just kind of pushing for that kind of thing. But it’s always been there. We’ve toyed with it in the past.” Where previous B&S albums relied mostly on warm, acoustic instrumentation and lush orchestral arrangements, Girls in Peacetime is built on teetering synths, groovy basslines, funky guitars and steadily shuffling beats. Though Jackson had some experience playing dance music, the electronic production mystified him. So the band brought in Ben H. Allen, whose previous producing credits include albums by CeeLo, Animal Collective and Bombay Bicycle Club.

“It was a bit like making a record with the Wizard of Oz or something,” Jackson says. “I really liked it because making this record has been a bit more mysterious to me. On a lot of these albums, I really know what I’m doing. It’s quite good to be in a realm where you’re uncomfortable and not quite sure.” Jackson compares the experience of making Girls In Peacetime to that of Belle and Sebastian’s fourth album, 2000’s Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant, which was the product of the group spending years in the studio, recording and re-recording. “It got a bit soul-destroying at times, although I do like the result,” he says. “I don’t remember having any fun making that at all.” But continuing to challenge itself is exactly what’s kept Belle and Sebastian going for close to two decades. The members know how they like to work together—“fast and furious,” Jackson says—and remain open to whatever influences any of them have picked up outside the group. “That’s kind of tied into our quest, and one of the good things about being together for 20 years,” Jackson says. “There are lots of influences, and as we go along, we’ve been going deeper into them. In recent times, the electronic thing has come more to the forefront.” Jackson says, in the future, fans might expect to hear more classical influence in the band’s sound, or even jazz guitar. But for now, Belle and Sebastian is happy to make whatever feels good, one year at a time. “Anniversaries are times of reflection and all that,” Jackson says. “Naturally, I think that’s not a bad thing, but it just seems we go from year to year, and suddenly it’s 20. No one told us to stop.” KAITIE TODD. Belle and Sebastian plays at 7:30 pm on Saturday, Aug. 22.

When I Googled “Foster the People racist” there were two things that came up, and they were both very weak. That said, your videos do give off the impression that you aren’t acquainted with any nonwhite people. And there is an Instagram of Mark Foster wearing a sombrero and flipping off the camera. Our highly sensitized, liberal arts-educated interns have yet to determine whether this is officially cultural appropriation or not.

“You’re all so good at whistling!”

Honestly, you guys should give, like, a class in that.

“I think you’re feminists?”

Your “Best Friend” video seems to be about the damage Photoshopping can do to the self-esteem of models. Naming your last album Supermodel really shows your support for the cause of professionally attractive ladies. Kudos for your brave stance.

“You’re very cute.”

Certain elements in Willamette Week’s office believe it is a demeaning microaggression toward men to call them “adorable” or “cute” in print. To them I say, “Have you seen Mark Foster the Person?!”

“Your bass player is Cubbie Fink, probably the perfect name for a bass player.”

When I audition bass players for my new band, my one requirement will be that they are named some combination of Cubbie Fink. (Fink Cubbie and Fubbie Cink are also acceptable.) Unrelated, is Cubbie interested in Taylor Swift covers and available on Tuesday nights?

“You finally got the American people talking about gun violence.”

“Foster the People says with the right level of pumped-uppedness in your kicks you can outrun a bullet!”

“You finally got the American people talking about pumped-up kicks.”

“But Stan, how does one get these so-called ‘pumped-up kicks’ that one needs to outrun said bullet?”

“You are really into one of my interests: early ’90s music.”

On your newest album you have a song called “Nevermind,” which I am assuming is a Nirvana tribute, and a song called “The Angelic Welcome of Mr. Jones,” which can only be a reference to the Counting Crows’ first major hit.

“You never appeared on Glee.”

Yeah, according to the wiki, the cast did sing “Pumped Up Kicks” on a Season 4 episode called “New Beginnings,” but you guys weren’t physically there when it happened. Way to show a little self respect! Foster the People plays at 8:30 pm on Friday, Aug. 21.

Willamette Week AUGUST 19, 2015 wweek.com

TWIN SHADOW THE SHAPE-SHIFTING SOUNDS OF GEORGE LEWIS JR.

The music of George Lewis Jr. can be described in many terms, but “subtle” is not one of them. While contemporaries like Future Islands and Toro y Moi have parlayed a fetish for the ’80s into more nuanced, modern sounds, Lewis pushes his FM-pop-melting-pot Twin Shadow to its logical extreme. Call his bombastic 2015 record Eclipse what you will—synth pop, arena rock, montage music—but there’s no mistaking Lewis’ uncanny ability to dig deep through myriad

influences as anything but the bold efforts of an indie-blog darling swinging for the fences. Though the many highlights of his Warner Bros. debut sound tailor-made for the climax of a John Hughes movie, Lewis says there’s no calculation involved in bringing his genre-bending anthems to life. “I don’t try to define things before they define themselves,” he says. “It’s an exploration and whatever comes out on the other end. There’s a lot of chance and magic and luck. Toward the end of a composition,

THE TALLEST MAN ON EARTH A SOLITARY SONGWRITER FINALLY ENLISTS A LITTLE HELP FROM HIS FRIENDS—AND MAKES HIS RICHEST ALBUM YET. The beauty of Kristian Matsson’s music is that it’s never needed polish. The Swedish singer-songwriter has spent the better part of a decade crafting songs under the Tallest Man on Earth moniker with a lone acoustic guitar and a voice whose rawness could be mistaken for Bob Dylan’s. The comparison is almost a cliché at this point—and frankly, Matsson has had enough of it—but it remains apt, given the delicate way he pairs opaque lyricism with alternating shades of country and folk. But while Matsson’s music isn’t getting any less rough, it is getting bigger. On Dark Bird Is Home, the fourth and latest Tallest Man on Earth album, the bare-bones balladry and stripped acoustics are nearly nonexistent. Beginning with opening track “Fields of Our Home,” the understated guitarstrumming that has essentially defined Matsson’s career so far gives way to keyboards, subtle hints of brass and angelic voices that aren’t his own. It’s his richest album to date, and also his most personal. “I went through a divorce and I lost a family member who 20

Willamette Week AUGUST 19, 2015 wweek.com

I become more deliberate. I never think about things in terms of genre, though.” Lewis has little concern for the theoretical line between homage and pastiche that often torpedoes upstart indie artists with a flair for synthesizers, nor should he. Considering the disparate sounds of radio titans like Prince, Madonna and Bruce Springsteen, there’s no purer way for Lewis to proclaim his love for those artists than by throwing their best ideas in a blender and reveling in what comes out. Take, for example, Eclipse’s infectiously schlocky first single, “To the Top.” The title alone evokes images of a young Tom Cruise high-fiving anyone within arm’s reach, and the track’s redlined dynamics and massive chorus are certainly up to the occasion as well. It’s a major leap from the bedroom disco of Twin Shadow’s debut, Forget, but Lewis, 31, has had few issues reconciling major-label ambitions against the kind of punk-rock past an outsider from Florida would be inclined to hold onto. “When I was 18, I would’ve told you I only listened to punk rock, but that wouldn’t have been true because I was listening to a lot of Michael Jackson as well,” he says. “Like any teen in Florida, I was exposed to whatever was on the radio. Hip-hop and R&B were kind of the thing my sisters and I listened to. My mom really liked Marvin Gaye and Sade. I didn’t know it then that those were influences, but I’m one of those people who literally loves all kinds of music.”

C O U R T E S Y O F T H E TA L L E S T M A N O N E A R T H

COURTESY OF TWIN SHADOW

Lewis has since migrated to L.A. by way of Brooklyn, mostly to “soak up the sun and enjoy my motorcycle year-round.” Lewis endured a rather gnarly motorcycle accident before the release of his second record, 2012’s Confess, and he was forced to cancel a string of recent U.S. dates after a tour-bus accident in April. Rather than sit still while undergoing reconstructive hand surgery, Lewis dug into his archives and emerged in late July with Night Rally. To Lewis, the purpose of the scattered, lo-fi mixtape is both archival and transitory. Like pop music itself, the future of Twin Shadow is a constantly evolving idea rather than an established construct. “My mission is to always be excited about what I’m doing, and oftentimes that means changing in a big way or getting bigger, or even smaller,” he says. “I released Night Rally because it shows my creative path in a way people don’t get to see. I know that I’ll always continue to change. It doesn’t necessarily mean making music that’s more grand or bombastic. I’m as clueless to what the next thing will sound like as everyone else is.” PETE COTTELL. Twin Shadow plays at 6:30 pm on Saturday, Aug. 22.

was close to me,” the 32-year-old recently told Vice. “The year started off like that, and then the album-making process turned into something that I could use for escape.” That so-called “escape” became more ambitious with company. Matsson picked up a four-piece band to tour behind Dark Bird, including Bon Iver’s Mike Noyce and other notable bedfellows who helped shape the album’s epic atmosphere. Songs like “Slow Dance” and “Timothy” pirouette on French horns and clarinet, while “Singers” bathes Matsson’s intricate fingerpicking and cautious optimism in honeyed flurries of strings. “And suddenly the day gets you down,” he sings on the title track, before the drums and lush orchestration kick in. “But this is not the end/ No, this is fine.” Perhaps that, given Mattson’s newfound sense of direction, is the most telling of all. BRANDON WIDDER.

THREE KEY TALLEST MAN ON EARTH TRACKS “Honey Won’t You Let Me In” (from Shallow Grave) A beautiful, quivering portrait of someone at the end of a relationship, set to fluttering guitar and topped with a traditional touch of banjo. “Love Is All” (from The Wild Hunt) Not even Mattson’s ace fingerpicking can disguise the bleating pain of this linchpin tune. It’s a delicate look at what’s continually lost, whether inside or out. “Sagres” (from Dark Bird Is Home) An exemplary cut, named after the remote Portuguese village where the narrator finds solace. The lavish production features jostling guitars, violin and mandolin at the forefront. The Tallest Man on Earth plays at 7:30 pm on Sunday, Aug. 23.

CO U R T E SY O F L A DY L A M B

STRAND OF OAKS TIMOTHY SHOWALTER JAMS THE PAIN AWAY.

ANNEKEPEETERS.COM

For a guy who writes heartwrenching folk anthems with titles like “Shut In” and “Sleeping Pills,” Timothy Showalter is actually a pretty upbeat dude. As a matter of fact, his latest record under the Strand of Oaks moniker, Heal, is downright rollicking at times. You’d think a guy whose personal rock-’n’-roll mythology includes coming home from tours to a burned-down house and an unfaithful wife would be an unbearable (if understandable) sad sack, but the 33-yearold musician regards the lore of his decade-long career more as a series of tragicomic errors rather than the endless well of despair depicted in the media. “The press is like a game of telephone sometimes,” Showalter says. “I read one article where I’ve been married like three times. I look at [Bob] Dylan, and sometimes he said he was born in Mexico or was a gypsy’s child or whatever. I just talk and see what happens. It’s nice to have really terrible things turn into good things, which is songs. It’s a form of being productive rather than killing yourself.” Considering Heal’s centerpiece, “JM,” is dedicated to the late Jason Molina—the Magnolia Electric Co. frontman whose life was cut short by alcoholism in 2013—it’s hard, on a first listen, not to wonder if the man behind the music is going to be OK. The cognitive dissonance between the subject matter and the record’s widescreen approach to barnstorming Americana, however, is immediately disarming. Whereas Showalter spent his first few records airing out deeply personal issues over achingly spare and melodramatic arrangements, Heal sounds like a record written by a man who would rather invite his personal demons over for a jam session and some Jim Beam instead of wasting time running away from them. “It’s a lot easier to change your music than your life,” Showalter says. “It’s a lot easier to put on a sweet-sounding psych record instead of a Red House Painters record than it is to fix a relationship. That’s a lot harder. I think that’s probably why I’m a musician—you can always put on a new record. It’s just that easy.” PETE COTTELL. Strand of Oaks plays at 3:30 pm on Sunday, Aug. 23.

LADY LAMB

ALY SPALTRO DREAMS A LITTLE DREAM, THEN PUTS IT ON RECORD. Aly Spaltro has the ability to make anything seem lovely— even getting torn to shreds by a pack of wolves. On “Sunday Shoes,” a song from After, her second album as Lady Lamb, the New England singer-songwriter gently describes a woman attempting to protect her baby sister from a pack of hungry lupines, only to get dragged off to their den and devoured herself. “But don’t be afraid,” she sings over softly picked guitar. “Don’t worry my love/ It will feel so nice on your soul.” “The brain works in mysterious ways,” says Spaltro via phone from a tour stop in Iowa, explaining how “Sunday Shoes” sprang from some kind of vague family squabble. “For some reason, I wrote that song in a day and then felt better about things.” Spaltro is inspired by unexplainable imagery, particularly that produced by her subconscious. Her moniker, formerly Lady Lamb the Beekeeper, was pulled from an old dream journal. But Spaltro says After is more about the waking world: reveling in the sympathetic smiles from your fellow passengers on a bus you almost missed; the company of television failing to replace the company of a lover; peeling an orange on a train next to a yawning woman. Her songs seem to follow more of a narrative arc than the cycle of a typical pop song. But aside from “Sunday Shoes,” After is anything but sparse. It’s dense, with everything from banjos to brass—though Spaltro’s dauntless vocals and guitar stand out most. A self-described introvert, Spaltro says her music has always been a way “to kind of cure the parts of me that I felt were sad or lacking.” Despite their self-healing properties, though, her songs aren’t overly confessional. “Do I want to reveal every broody, black-and-white detail of my life? No, not really,” Spaltro says. “I want to work through the issues I have in a poetic way.” Still, she isn’t emotionally evasive. “I had an early discovery that part of the reason why people were drawn to [the music] is because I was just being myself,” she says. “I just try to stay focused on being honest and being myself, and I know if I do that, then people will connect to it.” SHANNON GORMLEY. Lady Lamb plays at 4:30 pm on Sunday, Aug. 23.

30% off

Custom PiCture framing

21st Anniversary Sale brianmarkiframing.com

2236 NE Broadway St • 503-249-5659 Sale runs through August 29th, 2015 Restrictions apply

Willamette Week AUGUST 19, 2015 wweek.com

MF NW

LOCALS ONLY

THE PORTLAND CONTINGENT CHIMES IN ON ITS FAVORITE MFNW MEMORIES. YEAR? “This spring, Alialujah Choir had the privilege of playing Sasquatch Music Festival, and after our set I watched Modest Mouse. It was absolutely kinetic. I’m looking forward to seeing that again.”

Lost Lander

[EPIC POP] Lost Lander hit the ground running in 2012 with its excellent first album, DRRT, pairing orchestral rock with rich vocal harmonies and a Sufjan Stevens-like dose of wide-eyed curiosity. The quartet’s follow-up, Medallion, shifted markedly toward pop, trading melodic meandering for marching synthesizers, and loose daydreaming for crisp arrangements. Opener “Gemini” is a straight-up hit, but it’s several leagues away from Lost Lander circa three years ago. The swelling synth lines, colossal builds and anthemic kick drum proclaim a changed band. Former Menomena member Brent Knopf, who plays with Lost Lander frontman Matt Sheehy in Ramona Falls, produced both records, and compared with its predecessor, Medallion sounds less like a Menomena project, which was perhaps the point. MARK STOCK. 5:30 pm Friday, Aug. 21. MATT SHEEHY’S FAVORITE MFNW MEMORY: “Lost Lander played one of its very first shows in 2012 at Doug Fir with Givers. I was completely floored by their performance, and I still think about it all the time.” WHAT ARE YOU MOST EXCITED ABOUT THIS YEAR? “I’ve had a chance to hear Pure Bathing Culture’s new album, and I’m really interested in hearing those new songs live.”

The Helio Sequence

[ROCK ’N’ ELECTRO] Like a proud father, Portland has watched the Helio Sequence grow over the years, from Beaverton startups playing the 24-hour Starbucks to Sub Pop darlings. For its self-titled sixth album, the duo of Benjamin Weikel and Brandon Summers wrote 26 songs in a month, the best of which—as voted by friends and family—ended up on the record. Expectedly, Weikel’s unerring drum work and Summers’ dreamlike vocals and guitar effects are in full bloom. More surprisingly, the record demonstrates a coolness and composure you wouldn’t expect from an album that came together so quickly. Standout tracks include the heaving, psych-tinged “Upward Mobility” and “Inconsequential Ties,” which fuses Revolver-era Beatles with pristine garage rock, while the concluding “Never Going Back” showcases Summers’ folky leanings with a song that sounds like atmospheric Dylan. MARK STOCK. 5:30 pm Sunday, Aug. 23. BRANDON SUMMERS’ FAVORITE MFNW MEMORY: “We played MFNW in 2008 at the Crystal Ballroom. For the final song of the night, we invited our friends in Menomena to join us for an ‘unsequenced’ five-person version of ‘Keep Your Eyes Ahead.’ I’ll always remember the chaotic bombast of being onstage with everyone and having Benjamin and Danny Seim bashing their drum kits full force in unison on that song.” WHAT ARE YOU MOST EXCITED ABOUT THIS YEAR? “Lost Lander. We just finished a full U.S. tour with them, and their songs are still stuck in my head.”

PHOTOS COURTESY OF ARTISTS

Alialujah Choir

[SUPERFOLK] It began with a song for a graveyard. In 2008, Weinland’s Adam Shearer was asked to contribute to a compilation album benefiting Lone Fir Cemetery. He called up Adam Selzer of Norfolk & Western, and together the pair recorded the sparse, haunting “A House, a Home.” It was such a departure from the layered, instrument-heavy work of their main projects that they decided, after hearing playback of the final mix, it should become something more. So they texted singer Alia Farah, asking if she wanted to be in a band. It was 1 am. Seven years and two albums later, Alialujah Choir has established itself as one of Portland’s finest folk outfits, and while the trio expanded its palette on February’s Big Picture Show, its three-part harmonies can still raise goose bumps. MATTHEW SINGER. 12:30 pm Saturday, Aug. 22. ADAM SHEARER’S FAVORITE MFNW MEMORY: “One of the best memories I have was opening for the Decemberists at Pioneer Square. It was exciting and fulfilled a certain death-list requirement.” WHAT ARE YOU MOST EXCITED ABOUT THIS 22

Willamette Week AUGUST 19, 2015 wweek.com

Pure Bathing Culture

[DREAM POP] On its first album, 2013’s Moon Tides, Pure Bathing Culture were dream-pop mystics with a New Age jones, singing about pentacles and fortune tellers as Daniel Hindman’s heavily chorused guitar passed through Sarah Versprille’s crystalline voice and hazy keyboards like sunlight through swaying blinds. It was gorgeous and transfixing, like watching the ocean at sunset from a beach-house porch, but the view rarely changed. From the

opening, near-hip-hop drums of “Pray for Rain,” the title track off the duo’s forthcoming sophomore effort, it’s clear that things are going to be different this time around. It’s bigger and brighter, more alive and joyous, than anything it’s attempted in the past, full of buzzing bass and refracting guitars and Versprille’s excited whooping. Apparently, the change even caught the band off guard. “It was like being in a vortex and then we came out with this record,” Versprille says. It doesn’t come out until Oct. 23, but expect to hear a lot of the new stuff here. MATTHEW SINGER. 2:30 pm Sunday, Aug. 23. PURE BATHING CULTURE’S FAVORITE MFNW MEMORY: “We played an MFNW show once before at a church with Julia Holter. It was a great night!” WHAT ARE YOU MOST EXCITED ABOUT THIS YEAR? “We’ll be returning from New York Saturday night so unfortunately we’re going to miss a lot of the festival, but we’ll be looking forward to seeing all the bands playing Sunday.”

Divers

[HEARTLAND PUNK] At a time when the cultural tides are receding from rock ’n’ roll, Divers went out and made the kind of record that used to inspire bored kids in dead-end towns to pick up guitars and scream their way out, full of shout-along choruses, bleeding-heart melodies and songs about locking arms and charging into the dying light of the world. Hello Hello is the stuff of Springsteen, played like the Replacements and recorded with the sweaty urgency of a band that came up through basement shows and generator parties in the desert outside Las Vegas, where singer Harrison Rapp, his guitarist brother Seth and drummer Colby Hulsey grew up. If SleaterKinney made the first great Portland album of 2015, Hello Hello is the second. And it was in the works for nearly as long, even though it plays with the immediacy of a record written and recorded yesterday. It’s no wonder a jury of Divers’ peers voted them Portland’s Best New Band in May. MATTHEW SINGER. 1:30 pm Sunday, Aug. 23. HARRISON RAPP’S FAVORITE MFNW MEMORY: “Godspeed You! Black Emperor at the Roseland a few years ago. They were incredible.” WHAT ARE YOU MOST EXCITED ABOUT THIS YEAR? “Free pizza and beer! There’s gonna be free pizza and beer, right?”

MF NW

MILO GREENE

SALES

CAYUCAS

BATTLES

[FOLK POPPED] Whether it was their intention to create a festival-ready powerhouse or not, the four college friends who comprise Milo Greene are most definitely bound for greatness. The way the L.A. group’s breezy four-part harmonies and gently shuffling folk ballads coalesced on its self-titled debut record provides a serene listening experience for the throngs of strangers who spend the summer gathering in sun-drenched fields in hopes of finding their next favorite band. For its most recent LP, Control, Milo Greene all but threw the Laurel Canyon-isms out the window in favor of a polished ’80s pop sound that’s far too groovy to be concerned with when and why the idea of populist, arenaready folk rock became so passé. With a disco-posi shot in the arm, Milo Greene’s live set is now ready to accept a whole new batch of converts to the party. PETE COTTELL.

[MINIMAL MELANCHOLIA] Everything about Sales is tiny—the Orlando, Fla., duo’s mixes are dynamically flat affairs built off little else than gently strummed guitars and dinky drum loops—but nothing about Lauren Morgan and Jordan Shih’s bedroom-pop project comes off as precious. It’s too early in the game to tell whether they’ll stay put in the confines of low-stakes, lo-fi bliss, but their endlessly pleasing six-track EP rarely feels in need of grander gestures by way of heavy-handed, major-label meddling. For now, Sales is just right. PETE COTTELL.

[GLOBALIZED GROOVES] Behind every argument about the hard-fought battle for authenticity in the hijacked sounds of African-influenced pop music lies an important absolute: If it sounds good, why split hairs over who’s making it? Judging by the confidence with which twin brothers Zach and Ben Yudin distill the grooves and gloss of Graceland through the buttoned-up preppy-pop of Dr. Dog and Bishop Allen on Dancing at the Blue Lagoon, their second album as Cayucas (original name: Oregon Bike Trails), it appears the quest for appeasing the anti-appropriation police is best left to the joyless wallflowers who would rather spend an evening being PC and still than cutting a rug with the rest of us. PETE COTTELL.

[TECH-POP] The idea of a math-rock outfit having enough cachet to be considered a “supergroup” may be a tad silly to the uninitiated, but it might be time to finally humor your barista with the one-man looping project and give Battles a listen. Little understanding of this esoteric curio of a subgenre needs to be in place to enjoy its forthcoming record, La Di Da Di, though some explanation of how a humble trio of dudes from bands you might remember from college (namely Helmet and Don Cabellero) makes such a melodically dense racket with so few hands on deck. You may see a laptop tucked away onstage at this year’s MFNW, but don’t expect Ian Williams and Co. to be checking email onstage. PETE COTTELL.

1:30 pm Saturday, Aug. 22.

3:30 pm Saturday, Aug. 22.

5:30 pm Saturday, Aug. 22.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE ARTISTS

6:30 pm Friday, Aug. 21.

MISTERWIVES

TALK IN TONGUES

TITLE FIGHT

BEAT CONNECTION

[NOW THAT’S WHAT I CALL POP!] MTV has called New York’s MisterWives “the next golden children of pop,” but its music brings to mind many other elements that aren’t on the Periodic Table—rainbows, melted Slurpee juice and unicorn emojis being just a few of them. Infectiously danceable and unrepentantly high in fructose, the band’s debut full-length, Our Own House, plays like a primer for the past decade of mainstream radio, mashing up disco guitars with ska horns and folk-pop melodies. Sure, it sounds like something manufactured in a record executive’s laboratory, but a pleasure this guilty is hard to ignore. Give yourself up to the sugar rush and don’t worry about how you’ll feel in the morning. MATTHEW SINGER.

[PSYCH LIFE] While most kids in Middle America grew up being shuttled between sports practices and shopping malls and back again, McCoy Kirgo had a radically different experience. Rather than being reared on pop radio and football, the 22-year-old native of L.A.’s Silver Lake neighborhood spent his youth at alternative schools with the quintessential California heavyweights of the early ’70s providing the soundtrack to his formative years. How else would he have landed on the slinky, swirling sounds that make the retro psych of his group, Talk in Tongues, so readily accessible? The flashes of brilliance that make the band’s debut LP, Alone With a Friend, such a worthy addition to the playlists of anyone with a taste for flower-powered alt-rock are far bigger than current fads—they’re the product of talented kids whose very idea of “alternative” is what us normies consider “everyday life.” PETE COTTELL.

[HYPER HARDCORE] There comes a time in every buzzworthy punk band’s career where a deviation from the path of loud and fast is considered a middle finger flown in defiance of its most loyal fans. For this Pennsylvania-based, post-hardcore outfit, the restrained vocals and chorus pedals of its latest record, Hyperview, is that to the umpteenth power. But the outraged early adopters are largely missing the point, considering how melodically dense and nuanced the record actually is. You curse it for pumping the breaks now, but you’ll be nothing but thankful when its notoriously rowdy live set has a moment to breathe while standouts like “Chlorine” and “Rose of Sharon” set the crowd’s agitated seething to a momentary simmer. PETE COTTELL.

[SEEING SOUNDS] Though Beat Connection began in earnest as a partystarting DJ duo at the University of Washington, Reed Juenger’s dorm-bound project has since blossomed into a fourpiece that’s all but left the house-party scene behind. It still brings the beats, obviously, but the orchestration of its incandescent, sample-heavy tropicalia has quickly evolved from laptops churning out four-on-the-floor grooves to a rock fan’s fantasy of exactly what a live electronic show should be—namely, dudes with instruments sweating it out in real time. It helps that Juenger—who grew up in Vancouver, Wash.—daylights as a graphic designer, a skill that has catapulted Beat Connection’s live set from modest collegiate beginnings to a mesmerizing multimedia experience. PETE COTTELL.

7:30 pm Friday, Aug. 21.

2:30 pm Saturday, Aug. 22.

4:30 pm Saturday, Aug. 22.

12:30 pm Sunday, Aug. 23. Willamette Week AUGUST 19, 2015 wweek.com

NEW LYFT USERS GET A FREE RIDE $ UP TO 20 USING THE PROMO CODE MFNW

Willamette Week AUGUST 19, 2015 wweek.com

MF NW

MUSICFESTNW SCHEDULE FRIDAY

SATURDAY

SUNDAY

FOSTER THE PEOPLE

BEIRUT

MODEST MOUSE

MISTERWIVES

BELLE AND SEBASTIAN

THE TALLEST MAN ON EARTH

MILO GREENE

TWIN SHADOW

DANNY BROWN

BATTLES

THE HELIO SEQUENCE

8:30-10 pm

7:30-8:25 pm

6:30-7:25 pm

LOST LANDER 5:30-6:25 pm

8:30-10 pm

7:30-8:25 pm

8:30-10 pm

7:30-8:25 pm

6:30-7:25 pm

5:30-6:25 pm

6:30-7:25 pm

TITLE FIGHT

5:30-6:25 pm

LADY LAMB

4:30-5:25 pm

CAYUCAS

STRAND OF OAKS

TALK IN TONGUES

PURE BATHING CULTURE

3:30-4:25 pm 2:30-3:25 pm

SALES

3:30-4:25 pm 2:30-3:25 pm

DIVERS

1:30-2:25 pm

ALIALUJAH CHOIR

BEAT CONNECTION

12:30-1:25 pm

8 COOL THINGS AT MFNW— THAT AREN’T MUSIC FREE HAIRCUTS, POPULIST LIQUOR AND ALL THE WATER YOU CAN DRINK. MusicfestNW isn’t just a concert. It’s an experience, of which music is only one part. The biggest part, sure. But man does not subsist on bands alone. Waterfront Park is going to be your home for two and a half days, and while Danny Brown and Foster the People will entertain you, they’re not going to feed you, keep you hydrated, park your bike or cut your hair. (Maybe if you ask nicely, but probably not.) Don’t worry, though. We’ve got the extracurricular essentials covered. EXPOSE YOURSELF TO ART: When your ears need a rest and your eyes want to gaze on something other than guitars, stroll through Eleven PDX’s Live Art Tent, where local artists such as Ashley Montague and Beth Myrick will be creating on the fly. Then, stop in at the Poster Mart and check out concert posters created by local artists. Sort through Dan Stiles’ bright Odesza artwork and Lou X-Ray’s eerie pieces inspired by the Murder City Devils. G E T ST U F F E D : As usual, MFNW eschews the usual fried country-fair food of most music festivals, instead bringing in your favorite carts from around town. This year’s slate: the Dump Truck, PDX

Sliders, So Cold Shaved Ice, Maiale di Volo wood-fired pizza, Taqueria La Merced, Oregon Beignet, Dogs & Fries, and Bunk Sandwiches, whose pork Cubano is, for our money, the best damn sandwich you can get at any festival in the world. OH, SNAPS: You know what they say: “Pics or it didn’t happen.” So head to one of two Smile Booths to say, “Milo Greeeene!” and snap a photograph, then share the moment with your Twitterverse. If those are too crowded, head to the Dr. Martens booth to admire its famously chunky footwear and take a photo in its mobile photo booth. Just don’t forget the MFNW hashtag. Otherwise, no one will believe you were there. LOCAL CUTS: It’s been a long summer. You’ve been letting that mullet grow out all long and luxurious, but the heat is finally starting to get to you. Why not trim it up? Ditch the dusty festival look and cut those locks to sweat in style. Since 1993, Rudy’s Barbershop has been styling the masses, and this weekend, it’ll do you up for free. That’s right: a free haircut that’s not from a barber college.

STARTED FROM THE BOTTOM...: Hard liquor isn’t just for MFNW VIPs anymore. Jack Daniels will be serving its brown stuff from its Airstream liquor garden, which will be open to of-age whiskey worshippers no matter what wristband they’ve got on. Not up for the hard stuff? Penner-Ash will also be serving the finest wine you’ll find at any festival in the country. No one will judge you for your third or fourth glass, especially at $7 each. SAFER TRAVELS: MailChimp has your bike parking covered, so feel free to forgo the waterfront’s stop-and-go traffic and head straight for the festivities. Afterward, in case you haven’t quite danced off your drinks, use the MFNW code with Lyft and get $20 off your first ride. As long as you don’t live out in McMinnville, that’s pretty much a free ride to your neighborhood bar to keep the party going. HYDRATION NATION: There is a drought upon us, but not at this festival. MFNW wants to make sure there’s not a single dry mouth in the house. That’s why MFNW attendees will have full access to a free waterrefilling station, courtesy of Earth20, the only

bottled-water brand that uses 100 percent recyclable bottles. If you’re in need of a fullbody cool-down, step inside Kind’s free misting station. While you’re at it, don’t forget to protect your skin. Kiehl’s will be handing out free sunscreen samples, ensuring you won’t return to work Monday tomato-red and sensitive to touch. NU REALITIES: A music festival already is essentially an escape from reality, but if you really want to escape, HTC Vive is bringing a state-of-the-art, fully interactive virtual reality experience to Waterfront Park. Want to jet across the galaxy? Visit ancient Rome? Shrink to Ant-Man size? All you need is to slip on one of the awesome headsets—no hallucinogens necessary. AMY WOLFE. Willamette Week AUGUST 19, 2015 wweek.com

Willamette Week AUGUST 19, 2015 wweek.com

WELCOME TO TECHFESTNW AUG 20-21 • REVOLUTION HALL• PORTLAND, OR

here’s a revolution going on in Portland. For the fi rst time, Portland’s high-tech talent pool this year grew faster than that of both Austin, Texas, and Silicon Valley. Companies like co-working startup WeWork are moving across the country to be here—just as e-bankers Simple did four years ago. Google is expanding its office in downtown Portland. The face of Portland technology is changing faster than ever before. So it’s fitting that in its fourth year, TechfestNW will move into the new Revolution Hall on Thursday and Friday, Aug. 20-21. This week TFNW hosts a wide range of innovators—the digital animators behind the onscreen monsters of NBC series Grimm, the smartest minds at the bleeding edge of video games and virtual reality, thinkers reimagining the future of robots and drones, and scientists at the forefront of mapping the weed genome. As the Portland tech industry expands, it’s no longer enough just to get our leading thinkers and entrepreneurs together in a room to network, party and trade ideas—although there’ll be plenty of that, too, from cocktail hours to an arcade room featuring old-school games from Ground Kontrol alongside new-school

games from the Portland Indie Game Squad that you can play right alongside their creators. TechfestNW will also try to help local businesses fi nd talent— and help young startups connect with investors who could help fund their bold ideas. A talent fair will match coders and content creators with companies that are hiring. And at a venture capital “speed dating” event, startups will pitch their ideas and maybe— just maybe—walk out with a check. On Saturday and Sunday, Techfest will continue with a series of hands-on workshops, including a session with graphics pioneer Ward Cunningham, bitcoin sessions and courses on how to best pitch your ideas. There’s no way to know what the Portland tech scene will look like this time next year. But TechfestNW offers a state of the union on exactly where it is right now—and a road map for how to be a part of it. What follows is more information about speakers and events during TFNW. GO: TechfestNW is at Revolution Hall, 1300 SE Stark St., 288-3895. Thursday-Friday, Aug. 20-21. Tickets and more details at techfestnw.com.

Willamette Week AUGUST 19, 2015 wweek.com

THURSDAY, AUGUST 20 8 AM—BREAKFAST NETWORKING Before the day’s programming, Whole Foods will provide breakfast for all attendees.

8 AM–2 PM—TALENT FAIR Free for TechfestNW attendees and $10 for job seekers.

STEVE BROWN—CEO, Possibility and Purpose LLC TOPIC: “How Computing Will

Change the World. Again.”

As resident futurist at Intel, Brown envisioned the impact of computing for the decade to come. He regularly is sought by news companies from BBC and CNN to Wired for insight on what’s next and has given popular talks for both TED and C2 Montreal. As CEO of Possibility and Purpose, Brown consults with a wide spectrum of companies and organizations spanning the transportation, retail, health care, media and entertainment sectors to help them decode the future of computing.

LATOYA PETERSON—owner and editor, Racialicious.com TOPIC: “Rethinking Mobile:

Beyond Devices.”

One of Forbes magazine’s 30 Under 30 rising stars in media for 2013, Latoya Peterson, deputy editor at Fusion’s Voices, is best known for the award-winning blog Racialicious, about the intersection of race and pop culture. She has been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Essence, Vibe and Spin, among others, and has worked with brands like NPR, Wikipedia, and Weber Shandwick to provide demographic analysis, ideas on improving user experience and specialized outreach.

BRITTANY LAUGHLIN— general manager, Union Square Ventures TOPIC: “How to stop talking about diversity and actually do something about it”

Brittany Laughlin is general manager at Union Square Ventures (USV), a venture capital firm that manages $1 billion in assets. Its portfolio companies include Twitter, SoundCloud, Tumblr, Foursquare, Zynga and Kickstarter, among many others. Prior to USV, Laughlin founded Incline, which helped military veterans transition to technology jobs, and co-founded Gtrot, a social travel-recommendation engine.

of studying the cannabis genome. Holmes is a member of the rules advisory committee responsible for implementing the legal cannabis system recently created by Measure 91 in Oregon. He’ll discuss the genome project with Lauren Terry, a freelance writer for Willamette Week, Dope Magazine and Weedhorn Media. “VIRTUAL REALITY—Will It Be as Big as Smartphones?” PANEL This will be a panel discussion on the future of virtual reality with three people at the forefront of the new technology: Justi n Moravetz (ZeroTransform), Gabe Paez (Wild) and Thomas Hayden (360 Labs). Moderated by Rachel Metz of MIT Technology Review.

OGO ARCADE LOUNGE Attendees are invited to play locally made indie games courtesy of PIGSquad as well as old-school arcade games from Ground Kontrol.

ZOE QUINN—founder, Crash Override Network TOPIC: “They Told Me I Could Be Anything I Wanted When I Grew Up, So I Became a Cyborg.”

COREY PEIN—founder, Laborize TOPIC: “The Dark Side of the Sharing Economy.”

Corey Pein is a former Willamette Week staff writer who went on to crash and burn in startupland— twice. His forthcoming book, tentatively titled How to Make $30 Billion the Silicon Valley Way, will be published by Metropolitan Books (Holt, New York). He also has written for the Santa Fe Reporter, Columbia Journalism Review, The American Prospect, Salon, Slate, CounterPunch, Foreign Policy, the Awl and The Baffler. Pein is also the founder of seed-stage startup Laborize, which offers strikes as a service. MOWGLI HOLMES—chief scientiﬁc oﬃcer, Phylos Bioscience TOPIC: “The Marijuana Genome Project.”

Mowgli Holmes is a biologist trained in molecular genetics, microbiology and evolutionary theory, with a Ph.D. from Columbia University. As chief scientific officer of biotechnology company Phylos Bioscience, he is on the forefront

Zoe Quinn is an independent game developer, author, artist and activist. After being a target of GamerGate, she went on to co-found the Crash Override Network, an online harassment help line and resource center. KEYNOTE:

CLARK JAMES—president, HIVE FX TOPIC: “Crossing the Uncanny Valley.”

A former animator with Portland’s legendary Will Vinton Studios, Clark (with Gretchen Miller) is the co-parent, creative director and president of HIVE, a Portland visual effects and animation studio that employs 35 artists in the creation of complex visual sequences for films, national commercials and the original children’s program Firehouse Tales, and the digital creature effects for the NBC series Grimm. EBAY PARTY Attendees are invited to enjoy drinks, Smokehouse Tavern barbecue and networking on the rooftop of Revolution Hall. DJ, music, games and fun.

TechfestNW August 20-21 • Revolution Hall • techfestnw.com

Willamette Week AUGUST 19, 2015 wweek.com

FRIDAY, AUGUST 21 8 AM—BREAKFAST NETWORKING Before the day’s programming, Whole Foods will provide breakfast for all attendees.

8 AM–2 PM—TALENT FAIR Free for TechfestNW attendees and $10 for job seekers.

mance Health Insurance, will describe how he’s disrupting health care as we know it by building a proprietary, full-stack tech solution from the ground up. VIDYA SPANDANA—chief growth oﬃcer, Popily TOPIC: “Shifting the Power—

Using Tech, Data, Storytelling for a Stronger Democracy.”

JOHN MARKOFF—The New York Times & G. PASCAL ZACHARY—School for the Future of Innovation at Arizona State University DISCUSSION: “Robots and the Future of Jobs.”

The coming robot revolution and the vital importance of keeping humans in the loop with our “machines of loving grace” is the subject of a blunt conversation between New York Times science writer John Markoff and technology historian G. Pascal Zachary. RIAN VAN DER MERWE—product design director, Jive Software TOPIC: “Why Enterprise Software

Sucks (and How to Unsuck It).”

Rian Van Der Merwe is a software designer and author of the book Making It Right, dedicated to helping teams make their strategy real by designing and building products that deliver measurable business results. DAVE SANDERS, M.D.—CEO and founder, ZoomCare and ZOOM+ Health Insurance TOPIC: “Using Technology to

Disrupt Health Care.”

Vidya Spandana is a tech entrepreneur, an adviser to city and federal government, and an advocate for partnerships between the private and public sectors. In the early days of the Internet, she co-founded one of the first successful government tech companies (DMV.org) while in college and turned it into a multimillion-dollar business by the time she earned her computer science and engineering degree. OGO ARCADE LOUNGE Attendees are invited to play locally made indie games courtesy of PIGSquad as well as old-school arcade games from Ground Kontrol.

“THE FUTURE IS HERE: How Augmented Reality Will Transform Everything.” PANEL

Panel discussion on augmented reality—views of the world augmented with additional digital information—with Ryan Fink (OnTheGo Platforms), Milos Jovanovic (SpaceView), Raven Zachary (Object Theory). Moderated by Rachel Metz (MIT Technology Review). RYAN GREPPER—inventor, the Coolest cooler TOPIC: “Life After Kickstarter.”

Oregon’s own Ryan Grepper is the founder of Coolest, whose multifunction cooler became the most-funded Kickstarter campaign of all time in 2014, raising $13.2 million from 62,000 backers in record-breaking time. He’ll talk about what happens after you get the funding—and the challenges that come with the opportunity of sudden success. The Coolest cooler started shipping to customers in July 2015, just 10 months after the Kickstarter campaign closed.

KEYNOTE:

JONATHAN EVANS—CEO, Skyward TOPIC: “Silicon Skies Over Portland:

Drones and the Next Era of Aviation.”

“Geeky pilot” Jonathan Evans was a professional pilot for 18 years, a three-time startup cofounder. He was an aircraft and air mission commander for the Army’s 236th Medical Company, and part of the Army’s 12th Aviation Battalion, an aviation unit charged with protecting the Washington, D.C., area and flying presidential cabinet members, congressmen and top Pentagon officials. As CEO of Skyward, Jonathan and his team are powering the global aerial robotics network and ushering in the next era of aviation.

JESSE SCHELL—founder, Schell Games TOPIC: “Practical Techniques for

Predicting the Future.”

Jesse Schell is CEO of Schell Games, the largest gamedesign and development company in Pennsylvania, and a professor at Carnegie Mellon University. Schell has worked on a wide variety of innovative game and simulation projects, and is best known for his award-winning book, The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses. PIGSQUAD GAMEJAM PREMIERE After a weeklong hackathon, the teams of the Portland Indie Game Squad will premiere the games they made on the big screen at Revolution Hall.

Dave Sanders, M.D., cofounder and CEO of ZOOM+ Perfor-

TALENT FAIR 8am-2pm • $10 These companies are hiringtalented candidates—is that you? techfestnw.com/talent-fair

Willamette Week AUGUST 19, 2015 wweek.com

A TWO DAY EDUCATIONAL EXPO DEDICATED TO THE ART & SCIENCE OF GROWING CANNABIS

SEE THE AGENDA & REGISTER AT CANNAGROWEXPO.COM

Willamette Week AUGUST 19, 2015 wweek.com

STREET

SELLWOOD FAVORITE LOOKS FROM THE CITYâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S SOUTHERN EDGE. PHOTOS BY CA R R IE WILSON wweek.com/street

wweek.com

Beyond the Print

FOOD: Portland’s best gelato. BAR REVIEW: Splash Bar & Brewing. MOVIES: Spy vs. spy. WEED: The Firefly vape reviewed.

36 50 56 60

SCOOP INAPPROPRIATE APPROPRIATION: A scheduled “lesbian luau” at Northeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard gay bar Local Lounge was canceled after online protests. The bar initially came under fire from the activist community after posting an image containing Confederate flags to promote the Aug. 14 event. Co-owner Harry Jarvis says no one saw the flags in the background. “Honestly, when we put the picture out there, what we intended to promote was the gay flag,” says Jarvis. “No one had seen the Confederate flag behind it, and would have never promoted a Confederate flag. We’re an all-inclusive, gay-owned business, not racist.” One bar supporter quickly inserted a Union Jack and a rainbow flag over the Confederate flags and reposted the image. Local activists also distributed an online flier titled “Not in Our Communities” protesting the event’s cultural appropriation of Polynesian culture. A consortium of “queers, people of color and white accomplices” asked that members of the community not attend the luau because of “silencing and ignoring community concern,” cultural appropriation, and the fact community members did not feel it was a genuine lesbian party. One of “many” admins of the Local Lounge Facebook account argued with commenters whether the event was racist. “People reacted emotionally, and I shut it down,” says Jarvis. “We canceled the luau, and we had live music and happy hour.” SIGN OF THE DEVIL: Sellwood vegan strip club Casa Diablo II has received complaints about its new digital sign featuring half-naked women kissing, reported KATU TV, including one from local mother Nichole Hoffman, who said her biggest concern was for children. “The city of Portland told her they don’t regulate content,” club owner Johnny Diablo tells WW. “We went through all the proper channels.” But the club will nonetheless have to change the sign by Aug. 26, because of a state safety rule forbidding lighted signs with moving images near highways. Diablo plans to change the sign to display a series of static images that change every two seconds. CASA DIABLO II But he says he refuses to tone down the images of women in bikinis and G-strings. “Mothers tend to get upset if they see anything that’s too sexy for them,” says Diablo. “I didn’t see any children complain.” OPEN AND SHUT: The 30-year-old Beaumont institution Alameda Cafe is closed again—and this time it won’t reopen. The location will become a new brick-and-mortar version of Thrive food cart and catering, with a soft opening planned for mid-September augmenting the cart’s healthy bowl fare with pan-global small bites. >> Sourdough favorite Handsome Pizza’s new location is finally open at 1603 N Killingsworth St., two doors down from Podnah’s Pit, ending a long stint during which its pizza was available only during Sunday pop-ups at Tabor Bakery. >> Just when you thought Division couldn’t handle more pizza, Scottie’s Pizza Parlor has opened in the old Spielman Bagels space at 2128 SE Division St., with $2 slices and the option to add Hatch chiles or arugula to any slice. 32

Willamette Week AUGUST 19, 2015 wweek.com

CHRISTOPHER ONSTOTT

FAC E B O O K / LO C A L LO U N G E

WALTER “CECIL KILLER” PALMER IS STILL AT LARGE.

HEADOUT

The Portland Trolley offers urban or regional wine tours Fridays-Sundays or by appointment. Call 876-5539 for details and reservations.

I L L U S T R AT I O N B Y L O VAT T O

WILLAMETTE WEEK

WHAT TO DO THIS WEEK IN ARTS & CULTURE

WEDNESDAY AUG. 19 OPERATION UNICORN [FUNNY FUNDRAISER] Portland’s love-hate-love standup comedy scene is coming together for a cause. Portlander Veronica Heath is recovering from rheumatoid arthritis-related illness, so her funny friend group—including Amy Miller and Whitney Streed, among others—is throwing a carnival-themed welfare party to fund treatment. Funhouse Lounge, 2432 SE 11th Ave., 841-6734. 7 pm. $10.

THURSDAY AUG. 20 IT’S NOT ME; IT’S ME [LIVE PODCAST] Portland likes its speed dating with standup comedy, beer and free condoms. Local “lady bachelors” JoAnn Schinderle and Barbara Holm host a live episode of their popular podcast, joined by WW Funniest 5 placer Kristine Levine, before leading a few rounds for singles burnt out on Tinder swipes. Bunk Bar, 1028 SE Water Ave., 328-2865. 9 pm. $7. 21+.

FRIDAY AUG. 21 MUSICFESTNW [A FESTIVAL OR SOMETHING] Hey, did you hear about this thing at the waterfront? Guess there’s gonna be, like, bands and stuff. Tom McCall Waterfront Park, Naito Parkway between the Morrison and Hawthorne bridges. See musicfestnw.com for tickets. Through Aug. 23.

The Portland Trolley (which, let’s be clear, is just a bus) is offering $98, five-hour wine tours to three urban wineries. The owner says discounts are always available, but who needs tickets to a drinking trolley? The Portland Streetcar charges a mere dollar. And while it’s totally useless to the able-bodied unless we’re hit by a hurricane—it moves slower than a Portland State economist on foot—the slow-moving, easy-riding streetcar is the perfect drunk-delivery device. And for less than $98, it can give you one hell of a boozy tour. All stops on the CL line, which will become the A and B loops Aug. 30. And we’ll even start you off with local wine. MATTHEW KORFHAGE.

McMenamins Market Street Pub (1526 SW 10TH AVE.)

Welcome to McMenamins’ least-known pub! Home to college students on the eight-year plan and staffers of The Oregonian, Market Street offers a flight of six wines for a mere $10, plus a $3 quesadilla at happy hour. You are off to a wonderful start. Now, spend another dollar on your streetcar ticket. COST WITH TIP: $17

Momo’s (725 SW 10TH AVE.)

Momo’s is the West End’s secret garden—a desolate-looking dive bar backed up by the city’s greatest downtownish patio (suck it, VQ). Drink the house specialty: an extremely stiff well gin and tonic. COST WITH TIP: $5

Life of Riley (300 NW 10TH AVE.)

The life of Riley is drunk and short—like the Irish themselves! Its namesake bar, however, is a mullet: all dull business upstairs, with the party in the dark-ass basement. Get a Miller High Life back, and a Bushmills up front. See? Mullet. COST WITH TIP: $9

Low Brow Lounge (1036 NW HOYT ST.) Seventeen years ago, the Low Brow almost seemed like a gentrifier. Now it’s a final Pearl holdout. It claims to be the first tater-tot bar in Portland; so wash the tots down with Pabst. COST WITH TIP: $8

Red Robin (1139 NE GRAND AVE.)

The streetcar ride across the river made you queasy. And you are drunk. But the Canadian Club-swilling traveling salesman at Red Robin will not judge you as you quaff a Beer Rita CanCrafted Cocktail™ that mixes Corona and tequila, plus a four-doughnut Doh!™ short stack. COST WITH TIP: $17

SATURDAY AUG. 22

My Father’s Place (523 SE GRAND AVE.)

My Father’s Place is where you go when you feel like your father. Right now you even look like your father. Get a cup of slightly burnt coffee with well whiskey in it, then go festive with whipped cream on top. This is named the Jay Horton, after one of Portland’s best-loved freelance writers. COST WITH TIP: $4

Star Bar (639 SE MORRISON ST. )

Nothing goes with a slushie machine quite like Minor Threat. COST WITH TIP: $5

Pour Sports Bar & Grill (832 SE GRAND AVE.)

Bro? Bro! COST WITH TIP: $5

This is your final bar. It’s been six hours, and you have consumed more of this world than hungry Cthulhu. Find that same traveling salesman from Red Robin to sit next to at Pour Sports, and get patriotic with the Bill Walton cocktail, which mixes Jameson, Fireball and Peppermint Schnapps. Look at the TV and ask what the score is. You clearly don’t know it. COST WITH TIP: $7

B-Side (632 E BURNSIDE ST.)

OMSI (1945 SE WATER AVE.)

Spirit of 77 (500 NE MARTIN LUTHER KING

JR. BLVD.) Skee ball! Also…Montucky Cold Snack!

By now you’re far too late for the $1 tallboy “crappy hour,” which means your Hamm’s tallboy costs a whopping $2. Console yourself with a Rainier tallboy, also $2. COST WITH TIP: $6

Fall asleep to the soothing sights and sounds of LASER! PINK! FLOYD!! COST: $7.50 GRAND TOTAL: $90.50

JADE INTERNATIONAL NIGHT MARKET [STREET FARE] Of course the only summer street fair where you’ll get Japanese taiko followed by the Russian party band Chervona is on 82nd Avenue. Night Market serves up ethnic fare, dance rockers the Slants and midway-inspired specials by Portland Brewing Company. Portland Community College Southeast Campus, 2305 SE 82nd Ave. 5 pm. Free.

SUNDAY AUG. 23 FRED ECKHARDT’S WAKE [BEER] Join probably every brewer in Portland to celebrate the life of the late dean of American beer writers, Fred Eckhardt. There’ll be a slide show of Fred pictures—contribute by mailing photos to past@ mcmenamins.com. Crystal Ballroom, 1332 W Burnside St., 225-0047. 2-6 pm. Free.

MONDAY AUG. 24 FELICIA DAY BOOK SIGNING [GEEKDOM] The self-proclaimed queen of the geeks will be in town signing her new memoir, You’re Never Weird on the Internet (Almost). Please keep druid-themed marriage proposals to under eight seconds. Powell’s Books at Cedar Hills Crossing, 3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd., 228-4651. 6 pm. Free.

Willamette Week AUGUST 19, 2015 wweek.com

FOOD & DRINK = WW Pick.

Sunday

Highly recommended.

11AM – 3PM

By MATTHEW KORFHAGE. Editor: MARTIN CIZMAR. Email: dish@wweek.com. See page 3 for submission instructions.

Where to eat this week.

THURSDAY, AUG. 20

6424 SE Powell Blvd., 206-4344. Ha & VL’s new sister restaurant serves most of the same delicate, lovely soups as Ha & VL—but on diﬀerent days, and for dinner. $.

Ballast Point Tap Takeover

1. Rose VL

Some of San Diego’s finest beers will be on draft at the BeerMongers—it’ll be unpacking “whatever special stuff they can pull off the truck” to serve up eight taps of Ballast Point. Expect seasonals and pray for specials like this year’s hoppy, Belgian-style Homework Series Batch No. 5. The BeerMongers, 1125 SE Division St., 234-6012. 6 pm.

SATURDAY, AUG. 22 Hot-Dog-Eating Contest

This is the 12th year for Zach’s Shack’s annual hot-dog-eating contest, for which the current record is 25 dogs by Max Carnage, who will be back to defend the championship belt. The rules are simple: You have 10 minutes and you must eat both the dog and the bun. Oh, and no throwing up. That this is laid out explicitly in the rules is evidence that some have, indeed, thrown up. Go for glory. Zach’s Shack, 4611 SE Hawthorne Blvd., 233-4616. 4 pm. $8 entry fee.

SUNDAY, AUG. 23 Wake for Fred Eckhardt

Drink a toast to a Portland beer legend, craft beer’s muse and dean of American beer writers Fred Eckhardt, who died at age 89 on Aug. 10. Join probably the whole Portland beer community in raising a glass or several to the guy who did more than anyone to help start the American craft beer revolution. There’ll be a slide show of Fred pics; if you have your own you’d like to share, submit them to past@ mcmenamins.com before the event. Crystal Ballroom, 1332 W Burnside St., 225-0047. 2 pm. Free.

BRUNCH

Lunch walk up window 11:30am–2:30pm

A little bit of Europe in NW Portland

La Calaca Comelona 2304 SE Belmont | 503-239-9675 4-10pm Mon–Sat 2. Doi Dua

6 SE 28th Ave. (inside PaaDee), 352-239-1586, doidua-popup.com. 5:30-10 pm Monday only. An excellent $55 Vietnamese prix ﬁxe with awe-inspiring diversity and balance of ﬂavor. But it’s on Mondays only. Call for reservations. $$$$.

3. Clyde Common

1014 SW Stark St., 228-3333, clydecommon.com. For the ﬁrst time in maybe seven years, chef Carlos Lamagna’s small plates have made Clyde Common’s food—and not just its happy-hour scene—some of the more exciting in town, from octopus to Filipino accents. $$$.

4. Kotori

Southeast 9th Avenue and Pine Street, 239-8830, biwarestaurant.com. This Biwa outdoor yakitori grill is here Thursday to Sunday evenings, all summer long. $.

Specializing in Belgian Beer

WE SELL DRINKS

OPEN TILL 2:30AM DAILY libertyglassbar.com

Hundreds of Bottles For Here or To Go 716 NW 21st Ave Portland TheAbbeyBar.com

5. New Seasons Slabtown Deli 2170 NW Raleigh St., 224-7522, newseasonsmarket.com. Just a gentle shout-out to the supermarket that opened next door to our oﬃce two weeks ago. Ancho chicken, motherfucker. $.

DRANK

JET PILOT, MAI TAI AND ZOMBIE PUNCH (B.G. REYNOLDS) Since his bar, Hale Pele, opened in 2012, B.G. Reynolds has been Portland’s point man for serious tiki cocktails. His Northeast Broadway bar’s geekily researched concoctions are far removed from the frat-house punch bowls that filled the syrupy void after tiki culture’s decline. The Walt Disney Company itself uses Reynolds’ line of exotic tiki-mixer syrups at its Trader Sam’s Polynesian resort bar—and so does Clyde Common’s Jeffrey Morgenthaler. Reynolds is now making a series of mixers for more casual bartenders, all intended to simply be mixed 2-to-1 with rum. Among the three we tried, the best was the Jet Pilot—a warmhearted lime-grapefruit tiki bomb that is possibly a perfect drink when prepared with a cinnamon-coated lime wedge. Even with overproofed Jamaican rum from J. Wray & Nephew (dark rum is recommended), it makes for a richly flavorful stew. The Zombie Punch, which calls for overproofed rum, was the headiest of the three—a face punch of pomegranate, clove, grapefruit and lime that tases the senses. Here, we’d say a splash of soda water might be helpful. That won’t be needed with the Mai Tai mixer. Reynolds’ take on the Oakland classic is comfortingly floral and subtle, with the fruity sweetness somewhat subdued, garnished with mint and fresh lime. While the Jet Pilot feels like it’s made for a room with thatch and a fake waterfall, the Mai Tai is best for direct sunlight. Both the Jet Pilot and Mai Tai are recommended. MATTHEW KORFHAGE.

Experience Lebanese cuisine at its best Call us for your event party & catering needs! Belly dancing Friday and Saturday evenings

223 SW STARK STREET PORTLAND, OR 503-274-0010 ALAMIRPORTLAND.COM Willamette Week AUGUST 19, 2015 wweek.com

FOOD & DRINK REVIEW PHOTOS BY COURTNEY THEIM

creamsicle, which tasted of freshly grated orange zest, was excellent for a nontraditional variety. We weren’t fans of the pistachio. Sorbetto ﬂavors are weaker than gelato. Texture: Not as dense as Pinolo, but still a creamy, mostly ice-free delight. Rating: 8.5

BASSOTO 1760 NE Dekum St., 209-2399, bassottopdx.com.

DIVISION CHAMPION: The new Pinolo makes the best gelato in town.

TOTES GELLY LICKING THROUGH TOWN ON A SEARCH FOR THE BEST GELATO IN PORTLAND. BY NIC K Z UK I N and

M IC HA E L C . Z US M A N

243-2122

Gelaterias—Italian-style ice-cream joints— had all but disappeared from Portland just a few years ago. The hip and trendy frozen treat of the early 2000s had been replaced by quality American-style ice-cream joints, like Cool Moon, and hipper, trendier joints like Salt & Straw. And while gelato could claim to be healthier (lower in butterfat) than American-style ice cream, the ascension of nouveau fro-yo took away even that advantage. And so gelato in Portland mostly disappeared. Up till now. Gelato is back in Portland, driven by true masters of gelato with high standards and a passion for quality ingredients, ready to compete with the best ice cream in Portland. We spent a few dog-day summer nights sampling and, of course, dissecting the local gelato offerings. Here’s the scoop:

Frozen Nirvana

PINOLO 3707 SE Division St., 758-1575,

facebook.com/pages/Pinolo-Gelato. Overview: Here we have a ray of Tuscan sunshine in the Southeast Division Street overdevelopment

zone (disclosure: Zukin owns a restaurant about 10 blocks away). Pinolo only opened in June, but immediately took over as the best gelato in town— and the others are not even close. We agreed it compares favorably to most of the places we visited on our respective trips to Italy in May. No surprise. The equipment, many of the ingredients and even the owner—an amiable beanpole from Pisa named Sandro Paolini—are all Italian imports. Taste: Intense, deep dark chocolate; naturally colored pistachio that tastes of fresh-roasted nuts; hazelnut as though right from the shell. Only a handful of ﬂavors, but each is pitch-perfect. Each sorbetto is like burying your face in fresh fruit. Texture: So dense, it might have its own gravitational ﬁeld. Perfectly smooth with no discernible ice crystals. Rating: 10 (of 10)

Overview: Who names a gelato shop in the heart of the historic Woodlawn neighborhood after a breed of dog, in this case the low-slung dachshund? We’re sure there’s a backstory, but we don’t care as long as the gelato is good, which it is here. The half dozen gelato flavors, traditional and creative, were matched by an equal number of fresh fruit sorbetti. And you can score a Spielman bagel, too. Taste: Michael fell for the black sesame, a rich, savory flavor normally associated with South Asian cuisine, but this was outstanding despite its unattractive cement color. Also exceptional: lime with a glaze of raspberry, and more orthodox fior di latte and gianduia varieties. Texture: Moderately dense and creamy. No ice crystals. Rating: 8.5

GELATO MAESTRO Gelatomaestro.com.

Overview: The good news is, you can buy this excellent gelato retail. The bad news, at least for now, is that you’ll have to track it down at area farmers markets. We were heartened to learn that the owner is an authentic Florentine, and even happier to discover Emilio Palici is doing his gelato right. Taste: Good selection (six gelatos, three sorbettos), especially for a road show. Our favorite flavors were the chocolate, which was dark and fudgy, and the less traditional Italian wild berry, which is really a sweet cream flavor with a drizzle of berry syrup over the top. Fior di latte was a bit sweet for our tastes. Overall, flavor intensity was not quite up to Pinolo’s ridiculously high standard. Texture: No complaints. Density about on par with the others in this category. Rating: 8

Below Freezing AFFOGATO 8712 N Lombard St., facebook.com/aﬀogatogelato.

Solid Cold STACCATO GELATO 232 NE 28th Ave., 231-7100, staccatogelato.com.

Overview: A Kerns stalwart since 2003, Staccato oﬀers a strong selection of 14 varieties of gelato, plus a selection of sorbetto, including seasonal specialties, in its small, brightly colored retail shop. Lesser known is its wholesale operation, meaning that the excellent gelato you get at Biwa and the Mingo restaurants, among others, such as the Sellwood cart Atlas Scoops, comes from here. Taste: Intense, true ﬂavors among nearly all our selections, including hazelnut and the mint in the chocolate mint variety. The basil gelato was less powerful but still pleasant. And the orange

Shandong www.shandongportland.com

Overview: Deep in the heart of St. Johns, a few doors down from some fellas smoking cigarettes, pounding PBRs and talking shit, there’s this holein-the-wall gelato stand and coffee shop. Michael enjoyed the solo server’s smartass shtick. Nick was unimpressed. Neither of us were big fans of the four gelato varieties on offer. Taste: We were OK with the salted caramel and chocolate stracciatella flavors, less so the peach, which wasn’t especially peachy. Texture: Graininess, indicative of slow freezing, was a problem in the peach and also the cookies and cream variety. Too airy, as well. Rating: 6

ROMAN CANDLE 3377 SE Division St., 971-302-6605,

romancandlebaking.com. Overview: Nothing explosive among the nearly secret selection of five gelato flavors offered here. Unlike the featured street pizza, the gelatos

Willamette Week AUGUST 19, 2015 wweek.com

ALOTTO GELATO 931 NW 23rd Ave., 228-1709, alottogelato.biz.

Overview: The strength at this Northwest 23rd Avenue long-timer is the fresh fruit sorbetto selection, which is to say the gelato is mostly mediocre. You can decide whether to hope for the best here, endure the Salt & Straw line across the street or abandon this quarter of town in disgust and head for greener pastures. Taste: We enjoyed the toasted almond variety for its sweet, natural ﬂavor, and the chocolate was fudgy and natural-tasting too. But the vanilla and “Orange Julius” ﬂavors, among others, were muted and unimpressive. The latter tasted like diluted orange juice with powdered eggs thrown in. Not good. Texture: Larger, sand grain-sized ice crystals ruined the texture of what we tasted. Sorbetti, oddly, were denser and less icy than the gelato. Rating: 5

I’m Melting… VIA DELIZIA 1105 NW Marshall St., 225-9300, viadelizia.com.

Overview: Our only Pearl District candidate used to be pretty good. Now it’s not, the aftermath of an ownership change a few years ago. For whatever it’s worth, it offers large servings and a lot of flavors, many of them traditional, a few offbeat. Taste: Major demerits for artificial flavors in nearly every variety we tried. The chocolate had the dusty taste of Nestlé’s cocoa powder, blackberry-lemonade was long on sweet lemon, short on blackberry, and the white chocolate mocha tasted like a frozen cup of Starbucks. Texture: The strong point, such as it is. A few icy shards, but reasonably smooth and creamy though not dense. Rating: 3

Disqualified J3650 GELATI SE Concord Road, Milwaukie, 659-1374,

jgelati.com. Apparently, word never made it this far south of town that “gelati” is the plural of gelato, not some Franken-freeze amalgamation of neonhued “Italian ice” and soft-serve frozen custard. Like a couple rubes, we schlepped all the way down 99E to the Milwaukie-Gladstone hinterlands only to discover the disappointing, gelatoless truth. That said, the Italian ices seemed naturally ﬂavored, so we didn’t one-star them on Yelp or anything.

SIMPLISTIC APPROACH

Shandong Free Pool www.shandongportland.com

BOLD FLAVOR Vegan Friendly

Open 11-10

Everyday

all the time

Happy Hour 3-7 2221 SE Hawthorne 503-445-4600 hawthornehideaway.com

are hidden and scooped somewhere in the back, and they aren’t advertised on any of the in-house signage. Nick found out the shop had gelato, so we tried it. Compared to Pinolo just up the street, or even any of the second-tier places, this was a waste of time and money—though the portions were enormous. Taste: Traditional ﬁor di latte and more creative cinnamon-almond biscotti ﬂavors were solid if not especially intense. Chocolate-hazelnut had a light chocolate base with bits of hazelnut in the mix. We prefer our chocolate much deeper and darker. Texture: You’d think with the resources behind this place, it could at least get the texture right. But, no, everything we tried was grainy, icy or both. Rating: 5.5

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

Willamette Week AUGUST 19, 2015 wweek.com

M AT T L I N G O

MUSIC You actually have a positive view of the gang lifestyle. What is the biggest misconception people have about being in a gang? The biggest misconception is, they think we’re all criminals and drug dealers. Yes, I’m a gang member, but I’m not a criminal. I am gang member, but I’m not a thief. Yes, I’m a gang member, but I’m not a bully. I’m a gang member, but I’m not a drug addict. I’ve been straight-edge 10 years. I’m none of those things. I’m a gang member, I represent my neighborhood. If I have to fight for an injustice, I will. But I never start anything. I will finish it, but I won’t start it.

CLASP YOUR HANDS SAY DEATH PRAYERS’ RAFAEL REYES TALKS GANGS, CHOLO GOTH AND FINDING GOD IN NATURE. BY M AT T H E W S I N G E R

msinger@wweek.com

When Rafael Reyes goes on tour with his band, his concerns run a bit deeper than lodging, food and acoustics. “I’m from Southern California, so sometimes when I play other cities, like San Francisco and San Jose, I do get death threats,” says Reyes, 40, who, in addition to being a member of the dark synth-pop duo Prayers, is also a member of San Diego street gang Sherman Grant Hill Park 27. “But when I play those cities, I make a point to walk out and meet people, so they know I’m not hiding and I’m not afraid.” Fear is not an emotion Reyes seems to have much experience with. He got jumped into a gang at age 13, he says, to protect his family, which immigrated from Mexico when Reyes was a child. Getting bused to a white high school, he became infatuated with goth rock, and brought the music, and the look, back to his neighborhood. After getting out of jail in 2010, and doing time in a few other failed projects, he formed Prayers with producer Dave Parley. Over minimalist electro beats recalling New Order and Pet Shop Boys, Reyes shout-sings autobiographical gangland stories tinged with occult imagery. They’ve dubbed the sound “cholo goth,” and with only two EPs to its name, Prayers has earned co-signs from the likes of the Cult and Travis Barker. It’s all pretty audacious, especially for someone who ventured into music only three years ago. But Reyes, speaking by phone from his porch in San Diego, believes there are other forces at work. “In order for it to bear fruit so strongly, and so immediately, for me it feels like destiny,” he says. “It has nothing to do with skill, nothing to do with fucking talent. This is fucking destiny.”

WW: How did you discover the music that informs Prayers? Rafael Reyes: I’m a child of the ’80s. Before I joined a gang, the music was everywhere. You go outside and people would be break dancing. You go inside and you’d be watching a new Duran Duran video. MTV was huge. I went to a white school. I grew up in a Mexican community, but where I grew up they put something together where they were busing certain kids to Pacific Beach, which was a neighborhood with surfers and skaters. I was inspired by their whole vibe. I was inspired by skate culture. BMX was huge. All the music, all the punk-rock kids and death rockers—it just opened my mind. What happened when you took that look back to the neighborhood? They were like, “What the fuck?” I couldn’t help it, though. I loved it. You’ve said you couldn’t connect with gangsta rap, despite actually living the life described in a lot of West Coast rap that was popular at the time you were growing up. It just didn’t resonate with me because I was there. I was seeing the aftermath of all these things people are glorifying. I guess, in some sense, I’m just a realist. I don’t try to pretend like I’m the toughest guy in the world or the cruelest or most insensitive. I have feelings and emotions, and I’ve seen what happens when someone gets shot. My friends have been shot. I’ve been shot. My cousin is doing life in prison. This lifestyle has left me brokenhearted. And when I hear these fools rapping about it, that’s glorifying this type of shit, it doesn’t resonate. I was out here living it, so I didn’t want to listen to it, too. Fuck that. I want to

Is there a particular person you’re trying to reach with Prayers? Yeah, the me. I have found them. They’re out there. I get these beautiful emails, direct messages, all these cool messages from people saying, “Hey, where were you when I was growing up? I wish you existed SMELL THE GLOVE: Prayers’ Rafael back then.” There are a lot of people out Reyes (right) and Dave Parley. there who lived and experienced the same escape my reality. I want to escape this life things I did, but didn’t have a voice. It’s these motherfuckers are rapping about. funny, I just got an email last night from It’s already fucked up I have to walk these this skinhead, this white supremacist. streets and watch my back and carry guns, He sent me an email and was like, “Yo, I and go home and see my mother crying respect what you’re doing. I spent a lot because I’m beat up. Now I’ve got to listen of time in prison, I was with the Aryan Brotherhood, but I identify with you.” He to it, too? Fuck that. wanted to be a skateboarder, a punk rocker. What was it about goth stuff that Secretly, he wanted to just be something else. But because of his family and where appealed to you? I just always felt safe around that music. he grew up, he had to be a white racist. There was another world out there, and it was Then he heard my music, and he was like, good to know there was something out there “Fuck this shit, I’m done with this shit. I’m other than the reality I was living. When I going to be what I want to fucking be.” It’s would listen to Pet Shop Boys or Christian empowering. Death, they took me to this world that, for me, was like a fantasy, and I just loved living There are various forms of spirituthere. Then I’d stop listening to the music ality referenced in your music and and go outside and it’s like, “Oh shit, here we visual art. What do you think you’re are. It’s about to get real.” It saved my life, looking for? because it gave me a different perspective. Everything I’ve ever done, from the way I For me, it was like a guardian angel, this dress to my paintings to my writing, they’re music. It was saying, “Yes, this is your reality, all about self-exploration. It’s about taking responsibility for your own life and not but there are other stories being told.” looking up to the sky or underground for You didn’t do music until you were people to blame. This project and everyalmost 40. Did you always want to be thing has been about finding the self—the in a band? self-God. Nature is the truth to me. I have From the beginning, man. There was a time no need to be looking into things I cannot when I wanted to start a band and no one see when it’s in front of me. I don’t think wanted to. No one took me seriously, and I’m from outer space, I’m from right fuckpeople were saying discouraging things to ing here. I’m from planet Earth. Mother me. But my desire was way stronger. So Nature created me. I don’t need to be thinkI secretly started doing it on my own in ing aliens or God came down and spread the house, until one day, before I got out his seed across the land. I don’t need those of jail, and I had a dream. That’s what the stories. Those stories are for those who song “Pentagram Medallion” comes from. are lost. I’m not lost. My mother is here; I I was in prison, and my dad came to me see myself in her. I see the fire in me when in a dream and told me, “Time to forgive I see the sun, I see the knowledge in me yourself. Grab your life and live it. Stop when the moon comes out. The energy of waiting for others to help you out.” I woke the ocean, the land I’m walking on—that’s up from that dream, and things changed. my God. So I’ve found it already. Nature I was always super-loyal to people—loyal is all I need. I don’t need to be looking at to my neighborhood, loyal to everything any book for anything. I just need to look I came across—but I wasn’t being loyal to within myself. myself. I was finally sick of it. I put so much time and effort and energy into everyone SEE IT: MFNW and Daze of the Dead present Prayers at Star Theater, 13 NW except me. What would happen if I put 6th Ave., with Force Publique, on Sunday, this amount of love and energy I’m putting Aug. 23. 9 pm. $13. 21+. into my neighborhood and everyone else, what if I put that into me? This is what happened. Prayers is what happened. Willamette Week AUGUST 19, 2015 wweek.com

MUSIC

NEWSLETTER

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Willamette Week AUGUST 19, 2015 wweek.com

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.

and the alien signals we can expect from the New Horizons probe as it haphazardly drifts deeper into the Kuiper Belt. But frontman Cody Berger’s jarring delivery always manages to cut through the motley percussion and waning feedback, channeling the sound of overdubs and ﬁzzing textures to great eﬀect. BRANDON WIDDER. Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi Ave., 288-3895. 9 pm. Free.

WEDNESDAY, AUG. 19

MFNW and Red Bull Sound Select presents Shlohmo, Manatee Commune, the Flavr Blue

= WW Pick. Highly recommended. Prices listed are sometimes for advance ticket sales. At-the-door increases and so-called convenience charges may apply. Event lineups are subject to change after WW’s press deadlines.

Circuit des Yeux, Marisa Anderson

[DOOM FOLK] Haley Fohr, aka Circuit des Yeux, has never been afraid of melodrama. Rather, she excels at it. On her rapturous In Plain Speech, released this past spring, Fohr’s theatric baritone sweeps across her would-be orchestral songs, shrouding them in a dark dirge. As ridiculous as this may sound, her music comes across as some kind of pastoral cabaret— over the top yet somehow completely controlled, vast and intense yet somehow still serene. Basically, Circuit de Yeux describes the sublime better than any art history textbook ever could. SHANNON GORMLEY. Doug Fir Lounge, 830 E Burnside St., 231-9663. 9 pm. $8-$10.

Denver, Evening Bell, Ellis Dodi

[COUNTRY STRAIGHT UP] What Denver has dealt with over the past few years would end most bands. The beloved Portland act has had to look at what a lot of country musicians sing about, dead in the eye. Illness, addiction and divorce have armed the group with enough material to write songs for decades. Denver’s fantastic sophomore eﬀort, Rowdy Love, is country the way its forefathers designed it—raw, twangy and heartbreaking. This is not your bullshit Brad Paisley playlist. This is Willie Nelson- and Lefty Frizzellapproved outlaw music that’ll have you looking at the wrong side of a bottle of Old Crow. MARK STOCK. The Secret Society, 116 NE Russell St., 493-3600. 8 pm. $10.

THURSDAY, AUG. 20

Dr. Martens MFNW Kickoff Party: The Helio Sequence, Divers

[LOCAL HEROES] What better way to kick oﬀ Portland’s biggest music festival with two of the city’s best band? Helio Sequence are the veterans, cleverly blending the electronic with the acoustic for over a decade and who just put out perhaps the grooviest album of its career. Divers, meanwhile, are Portland’s reigning Best New Band, and once you witness their sweaty, urgent live show, you’ll understand why. Dr. Martens parking lot, 2 NW 10th Ave. 5 pm. Entry with wristband or free ticket available during regular business hours. All ages.

Talkative, the Tamed West, Golden Hour

[COSMIC PUNK] They say old habits die hard, and Portland’s Talkative would know. Although the group once existed as a performance-art duo, the guys never truly shed their experimental curiosity when they dropped ﬁddling with dials for drums and guitar. Hot Fruit Barbeque, the band’s latest album, sounds like a fuzzed-out crossbreed between Wavves-inspired punk

[EMOTIONAL DANCE MUSIC] Shlohmo is responsible for bringing brooding, electronic hip-hop beats to the EDM foreground. The video for his latest single, “Beams,” from his darkly blasé new record Dark Red, is a handheld, POV braggadocio covering all the regrettable decisions you and your friends would make if someone bankrolled your weekend in New York. The artist known as Henry Laufer and his Wedidit crew out of L.A. have managed to brand independent production with an admittedly impressive business acumen as synonymous with melancholic rave music. But what started as a DIY bedroom-style project with pop sensibility that led to a collaboration with R&B star Jeremih now embraces the bass-drop-meetstrap melody convention which so enfranchises millennials. WYATT SCHAFFNER. Star Theater, 13 NW 6th Ave., 248-4700. 9 pm. $3 with RSVP at redbullsoundselect. com. 21+.

CONT. on page 42

PREVIEW DUSTIN RABIN

Beyond the Print

AUG. 19–25

MFNW Presents: Aesop Rock, Rob Sonic & DJ Abilities, Illmaculate

[FUTURE-FACING RAP] As much as they want to do anything, MCs Aesop Rock and Rob Sonic want to “rock the spot”—or, at least, that’s the chief concern on “The Soup,” a track on their 2014 duo release as Hail Mary Mellon, Bestiary. Trying to maintain that sort of party atmosphere while commenting on American life should be a struggle. The robotic, future-facing productions all come oﬀ as a profound dance party. Supported by Portland’s Illmaculate, whose beat selection hedges toward classic, fuzzy psych, it’s unlikely the evening’s going to be short on political commentary. DAVE CANTOR. Star Theater, 13 NW 6th Ave., 345-7892. 9 pm. $3.

Máscaras, Cash Pony, Blesst Chest

[SPAGHETTI NORTHWESTERN] With the August release of Máscara vs. Máscara, the Portland trio should be just about ready to take oﬀ on some dusky touring route. Instead, Mascarás seems headed for at least a bit of a break from its rumbling and surprisingly concise psych instrumentals, as drummer Papi Fimbres prepares for a German sojourn after one additional show at Mississippi Studios on Aug. 25. Despite that pending departure, the ensemble hopes to hit Europe during the hiatus, toting its eighttrack long-player’s aberrant, ﬂitting guitar lines along the way. And with guitarist Carlos Segovia’s heartrending tremolo often resembling an appropriated Ennio Morricone work, there might be a built-in audience over there. DAVE CANTOR. The Know, 2026 NE Alberta St., 473-8729. 8 pm.

MFNW, Red Bull Sound Select and Kill Rock Stars present Fucked Up, Wimps, And And And [THE SHAPE OF PUNK TO COME] Hardcore has never been a genre open to experimentation. Anti-establishment and hyperpolitical, sure, but the music coming out of the D.C. and L.A. punk scenes in the ’80s wasn’t intended to push things sonically as much as socially. So while Canadian sextet Fucked Up upholds many of the ideologies associated with hardcore, the band is constantly striving to push the boundaries of what is acceptable in “loud rock music” while still making songs that just sound really awesome blaring out of your car speakers. Punk-rock opera? Check. A series of singles based on zodiac signs? Duh. Modern classical experiments and guitars layered like a My Bloody Valentine orchestra? Chyeah! The band’s most recent album, 2014’s Glass Boys, ditches some of the narrative constructs of past works to focus on singer Damian “Pink Eyes” Abraham’s thoughts on art versus commerce and trying to be a band with ideals in a world where you kind of need that Coachella money to survive. Abraham’s vocals are still rough and shouted, with both feet fully planted in the hardcore scene, but the songs continue to push Fucked Up into a world where pop and punk meld into a beautiful thing. MICHAEL MANNHEIMER. Star Theater, 13 NW 6th Ave., 345-7892. 9 pm Friday, Aug. 21. $3 with RSVP at redbullsoundselect.com. +21.

5 Day Vinyl Sale

Beyond the Print

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WATKINS FAMILY HOUR THURSDAY, AUGUST 20TH AT 6PM

For singer-songwriter-multi-instrumentalists Sara Watkins and Sean Watkins (AKA 2/3rds of the Grammy Award winning trio Nickel Creek), the Watkins Family Hour has long been an oasis from the rigors of the road, a laboratory where they can try out new material or master beloved cover songs. Their monthly show at L.A.’s famed venue Largo has been hailed as a convivial, communal event where they welcome an impressive array of musician friends old and new.

FERNANDO

SATURDAY, AUGUST 22ND AT 3PM

Fernando is now ready to dive in to the next phase of his career, with Leave The Radio On. 3 years in the making, the album itself features a virtual who’s who of Portland’s finest musicians, including Peter Buck and Scott McCaughey as well as members of M.Ward, Elliott Smith, Richmond Fontaine and The Delines. This is a new chapter in Viciconte’s ever-evolving musical trajectory, a career marked by creative integrity and an almost painful honesty which attracts fans from high and low that still believe in the redemptive power of rock and roll.

TRACY BONHAM SATURDAY, AUGUST 22ND AT 5PM

“Mother Mother”, her first single, became a nationwide anthem and earned the singer an MTV Video Music Awards nomination. From the late 1990s to the mid 2000s, Bonham steadily recorded and performed both individually and with numerous groups, appearing with everyone from Blue Man Group and Aerosmith and to Ron Sexsmith and Juliana Hatfield. After taking time off to focus on her private life, Tracy returns with her new album ‘Wax & Gold’, available August 21st.

GARY OGAN

TUESDAY, AUGUST 25TH AT 6PM “Woogie was born Easter morning, 1990, and we had each other for 20 years. That morning.. marked the beginning of a relationship that became one of the great loves of my life.” So begins the story behind Suite Woogie, Gary Ogan’s amazing song cycle inspired by a very special feline friend. As that friend’s ninth life drew to a close, the veteran Northwest songwriter channeled his emotions into 12 new songs that celebrate the love of a faithful companion. Warning to animal lovers: These tunes don’t just tug at the heartstrings, they yank with both hands.

Willamette Week AUGUST 19, 2015 wweek.com

FRIDAY

FRIDAY, AUG. 21 An Evening With the Watkins Family Hour

[COVER TROOP] What started as a weekly show curated by Sara and Sean Watkins at West Hollywood club Largo has blossomed into an all-out, all-star aﬀair. The Watkins are joined by Fiona Apple, Don Heﬃngton and Greg Leisz Sebastian Steinberg, with probably more local musicians ushered onstage at each tour stop. The highly enriched band takes on classic covers, from Robert Earl Keen to the Grateful Dead. Given the Watkins’ past work with Nickel Creek, it’s no surprise the group is rooted in vibrant folk. The addition of a barn-burning lineup only makes the family trade stronger. This may just be the most competent Americana cover band out there. MARK STOCK. Aladdin Theater, 3017 SE Milwaukie Ave., 234-9694. 8 pm. Sold out.

MFNW Presents: Bearcubbin, 1939 Ensemble

[FRANTIC FRETWORK] It’s difficult to know what to expect from a band called Bearcubbin, yet the name is appropriate given the the unpredictable nature of the trio’s sound. Guitarist Chris Scott has a freakish affinity for stringing together some of the crispest notes imaginable, and bassist Patrick Dougherty and tour-deforce drummer Mike Byrne—a Smashing Pumpkins alum—not only hold the rhythms down, but instill them with melodic elements from jazz and post-rock. The band’s latest effort, Girls With Fun Haircuts, is a perfect snapshot of its math-rock eccentricities, abetted by inventive percussion,

repetitive loops and synthesizers that are nearly as wacky as the masks the band members don in their press shots. BRANDON WIDDER. Bunk Bar, 1028 SE Water Ave., 328-2865. 9 pm. $8.

MFNW Presents: Twin Shadow, Lany

[INDIE POP] George Lewis Jr. was a Florida kid from the Dominican Republic who grew up in the ’80s and listened to a whole lot of FM radio. His latest LP, Eclipse, draws references from the guilty pleasures you’d imagine a kid from the suburbs indulges in whenever they’re feeling a little cinematic. On his first few records, Lewis took cues from the Smiths and Echo and the Bunnymen, but on Eclipse, the inspiration comes more from the pop fluff of the era. It’s understandable to want to go from John Hughes to Joel Schumacher, though, and Lewis is still capable of producing an entire album’s worth of dance floor-filling bangers, even if the production is a bit kitschy. CRIS LANKENAU. Doug Fir Lounge, 830 E Burnside St., 231-9663. 9 pm. $20.

MusicfestNW: Thanks, Just Lions

[SOUL ROCK] If you’re going to see Thanks, you’re going to hear frontwoman Jimi Hendrix’s voice. Sure, it’s a rock band with a cellist, which is pretty cool, but considering Hendrix’s pipes are half Adele, half the Kills’ Alison Mosshart, the vocals are a hard-to-beat selling

CONT. on page 45

TOP

MIGUEL LYRICS YOU SHOULDN’T QUOTE IN YOUR TINDER PROFILE “Pillage and plunder, call me ya plumber/ Knock on this wood, get rocked by this thunder.”

“Quickie” is a highlight from Miguel’s overlooked 2010 record, All I Want Is You, but there’s no quicker way to get blocked then to jump into a plumber metaphor.

2 “Kiss me like a cream pie/ Sweet, sweet control” Going to Lauretta Jean’s on a first date is a great idea as long as you don’t use this as your pick-up line. 3 “Skip dinner heading straight for dessert.” Trust me, it sounds better in your head. 4 “Body built for the beach, do you got that ocean?/ Body surf, don’t sleep/ Body surf on me.”

Passionate love-as-wave metaphor? Save it for the honeymoon.

5 Every single word of “The Valley.” Miguel’s ode to the San Fernando Valley porn industry is so raunchy that we’re hesitant to even print the lyrics. Swipe left on anyone who dares, ’cause gross. MICHAEL MANNHEIMER. SEE IT: MFNW, Soul’d Out and Double Tee present Miguel at Roseland Theater, 8 NW 6th Ave., with Dorothy, on Friday, Aug. 21. 9 pm. Sold out. All ages. 42

Willamette Week AUGUST 19, 2015 wweek.com

DA N I E L S A N N WA L D

MUSIC

Willamette Week AUGUST 19, 2015 wweek.com

MUSIC

J U L I A D R AT E L

FRIDAY–TUESDAY

CLOSE-UP: Circuit des Yeux plays Doug Fir Lounge on Wednesday, Aug. 19. point. But the keyboard-driven psychedelia and catchy, bluesy guitar hooks of Thanks’ 2014 debut, Blood Sounds, certainly aren’t shabby. As for what to make of the fact that her name—maybe her given name, maybe not—is Jimi Hendrix, you’re on your own. But damn can she howl. SHANNON GORMLEY. Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi Ave., 288-3895. 10 pm. $10.

Festicide II

[ANTI-FEST] Portland is festival crazy this summer, and the biggest is MusicfestNW, which doesn’t even attempt to cater to heavy metal, hard rock, punk and/or experimental audiences. So for the second year in a row, the Eolian Records collective has organized its own “anti-fest” to celebrate the rougher edges and higher numbers on the volume knob of ampedup Portland rock. Over three days and nine venues, 30 bands will make a ruckus. Each day there will be an all-ages show, and all gigs are either free or $5, tops. If you think PDX Pop Now is a great way to expose yourself to music, here’s another gift to you. And if you’re hoping to catch Friday’s crown-jewel show of Danava, Long Knife and Rabbits at Black Water, best get in line early. NATHAN CARSON. Multiple venues, on.fb. me/1DZeRlA. Friday-Sunday, Aug. 21-23. Some events 21+.

Six Organs of Admittance, Hush Arbors

[HARSH WANDERINGS] Guitarist Ben Chasny, the founder of Six Organs of Admittance, isn’t the kind of man who strives for cohesiveness. His catalog under the Six Organs umbrella is so vast and varied—he often dashes between classical folk and acid-drenched psychedelia on the same album— he can be easily mistaken for multiple artists. Hexadic, his latest endeavor, is more in line with doom metal than with folk. Chasny uses the album to lay down a barrage of piercing notes over his self-made cacophony of distortion, employing a composition method based on how some cards align with speciﬁc notes on his guitar. The process makes for an interesting listen, even if it’s not the most accessible aspect of his work. BRANDON WIDDER. The White Eagle, 836 N Russell St., 282-6810. 9 pm. $12.

SATURDAY, AUG. 22 MFNW and Doug Fir Lounge presents Brothers & Sister

[NOT QUITE ALL-MAN] Lewi Longmire and Anita Elliott lead this co-ed Allman Brothers tribute, which will be recreating the classic 1971 live album At Fillmore East in full tonight. Doug Fir Lounge, 830 E Burnside St., 231-9663. $10 advance, $12 day of show. 21+.

MFNW and Mississippi Studios presents Homeshake, Sheer Agony [BEDROOM TAPES] From his

bedroom in Montreal, Peter Sagar records languidly groovy, oﬀ-kilter lo-ﬁ soul as Homeshake. It’s rough around the edges and slightly outof-tune, but also bizarrely funky. Dig it. Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi Ave., 288-3895. 10 pm. $10. 21+.

MFNW presents Magic Sword, Willis Earl Beal, Transistor Send

[ELECTRO-ROCK] Last year, on a balmy night in mid-August during MFNW, a trailer rolled up in Old Town carrying a bunch of gear and two masked men in full-length druid cloaks. It was a sight to behold: two Ghosts of Christmas Future cloaked in LED masks, playing heavy-metal electronica by way of a nostalgic gamer. Magic Sword is no less mysterious now—all we really know about the band is it originated in Boise— but it has gone legit, getting itself on an actual MFNW-branded bill. It’ll be joined by Willis Earl Beal, the acclaimed lo-ﬁ bluesman who recently moved to Portland and whose new album, Noctunes, is being released through Tender Loving Empire. MARK STOCK. Star Theater, 13 NW 6th Ave., 248-4700. 10 pm. $10. 21+.

SUNDAY, AUG. 23 AJ Dávila, Psychomagic, Charts

[PUNK GARAJÉ] AJ Dávila is the solo outing of Puerto Rican garage-punk band Davilla 666, which sounds a lot like a Spanishlanguage version of Atlanta’s Black Lips. Dávila’s work sans the other 666ers, though, is a little more pop-leaning. Last year’s Beibi, made with his band Terror Amor, features contributions from Black Lips frontman Cole Alexander, as well as other members of the Latin punk scene. Any gringos who paid attention in Spanish class will have the upper hand when belting out the syrupy sweet choruses, but the raw catchiness is universal. CRIS LANKENAU. Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi Ave., 288-3895. 9 pm. $12.

TUESDAY, AUG. 24 Mutoid Man, Wild Throne

[MODERN METAL] It’s no surprise that a project formed by Steve Brodksy of Cave In and Ben Koller of Converge is an intricate musical aﬀair. Brodsky brings his love of melody to the vocals and deftly bobs and weaves on the guitar while Koller slays on the drums, as always. Together, these Bostonians form Mutoid Man—one of the more focused and exciting side projects to ever emerge from the crème de la crème of the metalcore scene. In tow for this tour is Bellingham’s Wild Throne. Better known to many in these parts as Dog Shredder, the math-metal trio is rapidly ﬁnding long-overdue success with a more commer-

CONT. on page 47 Willamette Week AUGUST 19, 2015 wweek.com

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tuesday/classical, etc. PROFILE

BRIAN DERAN

cial makeover and a debut album produced by Ross Robinson. Did I mention that Wild Throne is labelmate to Opeth and Rush? NATHAN CARSON. Hawthorne Theatre, 1507 SE César E Chávez Blvd., 233-7100. $12 advance, $15 day of show. 9 pm. 21+.

MUSIC

CLASSICAL, JAZZ & WORLD Summer on the Green

[OUTDOOR MUSIC] Marylhurst University’s August outdoor series of plays and concerts is one of the best summer freebies around. Wednesday features classical guitarist Peter Zisa. On Thursday, Portland’s own Grammy-winning jazz trumpet and educator legend Thara Memory plays R&B, jazz and more. Conductor Lajos Balogh brings his Portland Festival Symphony (which has been performing in Portland parks every summer for 35 years) to play Mozart, Bartók and Beethoven in the performing shell named after him on Friday. On Sunday, Balogh’s son Bela follows with his band 3 Leg Torso’s inimitable blend of chamber music, jazz, world music and wit on Sunday. Klezmocracy clarinetist Jack Falk plays you can probably guess what on Monday. BRETT CAMPBELL. Lajos Balogh Performing Shell at Marylhurst University, 17600 Pacific Highway. 7 pm Wednesday-Friday and Sunday-Monday, Aug. 19-21 and 23-24. Free.

Vancouver Wine & Jazz Festival

[SUBURBAN SWING] Portland’s Hoboken does have its own nice things. For instance, a jazz festival featuring nationally acclaimed jazz acts. This year, Vancouver’s annual foray into the fancy boasts four dozen wineries and is heavy on Latin music—featuring musicians like Poncho Sanchez and Arturo Sandoval, along with jazz-dad favorites like guitarist Johnny A. and the vocals of the Manhattan Transfer. A three-day event in a small park, it’s not as long or elaborate as Portland’s own jazz festival, but it does well to fill the void between now and February. PARKER HALL. Esther Short Park, 415 W 6th St., 360-906-0441. Friday-Saturday, Aug. 21-22. $15-$55. See vancouverwinejazz.com for complete schedule.

Béla Fleck, Abigail Washburn

[BANJO HENDRIX] There might be permanently raised eyebrows on the foreheads of everyone who hears the banjo stylings of Béla Fleck in person. The 13-time Grammy winner, who plays nontraditional jazz on five strings with a speed and cleanliness unlike anyone alive, busts through his instrument’s Beverly Hillbillies stereotype, elevating it to the level of a full-blown classical instrument. Fleck performs tonight with his wife, songwriter Abigail Washburn, as a benefit for the Children’s Cancer Association, set to the edible stylings of chef Vitaly Paley, in the hills of wine country at sunset. PARKER HALL. Penner-Ash Wine Cellars, 15771 NE Ribbon Ridge Road, 244-3141. 5 pm Saturday, Aug. 22. $125-$250.

XX Digitus Duo

[DEBUSSY REVOLUTIONIZED] After taking a break from staged performances and focusing on its weekly jam sessions for the past year, Classical Revolution is back with new and old music, projections, dance and more, all devoted to and inspired by the music of France’s greatest composer, Claude Debussy, whose music still beguiles nearly a century after his demise. The impressive new XX Digitus Duo plays Debussy’s sparkling duo piano music Six Antique Epigraphs, accompanied by a pair of Agnieszka Laska Dancers and visual projection. BRETT CAMPBELL. Holocene, 1001 SE Morrison St., 239-7639. 6 pm Saturday, Aug. 22. $10.

For more Music listings, visit

NICK WATERHOUSE THURSDAY, AUG. 20 Judging by his music, it’s easy to imagine Nick Waterhouse spending his free time holed up in some vintage-decorated apartment—cigarette in one hand, Agatha Christie in the other—with an old soul B-side perpetually spinning in the background. But that would be posturing, something he doesn’t have much time for. In fact, Waterhouse, 29, has very little time for anything but work. He’s ear-deep in production projects, session stints and fronting his very own eponymous R&B outfit. This week, Waterhouse is wrapping up work on a new record by Portland soul paragon Ural Thomas. He’s been collaborating with Thomas and his band, the Pain, for about a year. It started with a conversation over a cup of coffee, and before he knew it, Waterhouse had jumped from casual consultant to part of the group. As he’s done with so many musicians he admires, Waterhouse dug in. He wanted to know everything about Thomas, from his early work with Ron Buford to releases on Uni Records. Absorbing history is something Waterhouse is immensely good at. He rattles off the names of unsung artists as if they were immediate relatives. He raves about Mose Allison like a kid describing his favorite Matchbox car. And he listens to his idols. “Honor your inner voice,” Waterhouse says. “That’s what Ural always said.” Waterhouse grew up in Huntington Beach, Calif., amid surf, punk and weightlifting culture. He befriended beloved post-punk delegates like Ty Segall and Mikal Cronin and entrenched himself in the musical underground. Unlike his colleagues, Waterhouse interpreted the punk ethos as an invitation to do something else entirely—in this case, traditional R&B and rock ’n’ roll. Two albums later, he has become somewhat of an international sensation, treating stages from Berlin to Sydney to an education in American music history. His 2014 sophomore record, Holly, is a soulful, surf-flecked album about a dead girl. It pulls from the formative rock of Bo Diddley, the shadowy jazz of Morphine and the jumpy, beach-bumming sounds of fellow California bands like Allah-Lahs. Waterhouse is at the helm throughout, offering punchy guitar riffs and his timeless voice, which is doubly impressive, given that he’s leading a sprawling band of about a dozen, including a horn section, keys and background singers. The themes are familiar, but don’t call Waterhouse a revivalist. “All those ‘re’ words—retro and whatever—it’s so far and away from what’s really going on,” he says. “It betrays respect for the influences on sound.” Instead of repurposing old genres, Waterhouse is sticking with true-blue approaches. “There’s a reason people used to dance to music,” he says. “When everyone is locked in, the power of that is staggering.” While he admits the digital age has afforded modern musicians everything at their fingertips, Waterhouse isn’t exploiting a trend or cutting and pasting from yore. “I’m not like Mr. Burns, tapping my fingers together and saying, ‘We really pulled this off!’” he says. Instead, he’s going for musical terroir, a sound that reflects both the place it came from and those who put it in motion. In doing so, Waterhouse has honored Ural Thomas’ words of advice, and created his own, very danceable, historically informed thing. MARK STOCK.

Just don’t call him retro.

SEE IT: Nick Waterhouse plays Doug Fir Lounge, 830 E Burnside St., with DJ Cooky Parker, on Thursday, Aug. 20. 9 pm. $13 advance, $15 day of show. 21+. Willamette Week AUGUST 19, 2015 wweek.com

Willamette Week AUGUST 19, 2015 wweek.com

MUSIC CALENDAR WED. AUG. 19 Alberta Street Pub 1036 NE Alberta St Dum Spiro Spero

Ash Street Saloon 225 SW Ash Breaker Breaker

Dante’s Live

350 West Burnside ROB WYNIA and PETER CORNETT (of Floater) featuring Skip vonKuske

Doug Fir Lounge

830 E Burnside St Circuit des Yeux, Marisa Anderson

Goodfoot Pub & Lounge

2845 SE Stark St VOODOO LADYBOYS

Holocene Portland

1001 SE Morrison St Jacques Renault, Karl Kling (DJ Set), Natural Magic DJs

Jimmy Mak’s

221 NW 10th Ave Mel Brown B3 Organ Group

Kennedy School Theater

5736 N.E. 33rd Ave. Great Northwest Music Tour

Kit Kat Club

2530 NE 82nd Ave.

231 SW Ankeny St The Sweet and Sultry Side of Burlesque Jazz

Blues Jam, Arthur Moore

2958 NE Glisan St,

Duff’s Garage

Edgefield

2126 S. W. Halsey ST. The Junebugs

Holocene Portland 1001 SE Morrison St Sutro

Jimmy Mak’s

221 NW 10th Ave The Christopher Brown Quartet

Kelly’s Olympian

426 SW Washington St Rose City Round : Nashville style writer’s round

LaurelThirst

2958 NE Glisan St,

Wilkinson Blades with Ron Rogers & the Wailing Wind, the Colin Trio Liquor Store 3341 SE Belmont St Lubec, LiquidLight, Ladywolf Marylhurst University 17600 Pacific Highway Summer on the Green

Star Theater

13 NW 6th Ave MFNW Presents: Aesop Rock, Rob Sonic & DJ Abilities, Illmaculate

The Know

2026 NE Alberta St Máscaras, Cash Pony, Blesst Chest

The Secret Society 116 NE Russell St Denver, Evening Bell, Ellis Dodi

The White Eagle 836 N Russell St Peter Kasen

Tonic Lounge

3100 NE Sandy Blvd Black Cobra, Hungers

THUrS. AUG. 20 Ash Street Saloon 225 SW Ash Rain Light Fade

Dante’s Live

350 West Burnside The Freeze, 13 Scars, Long Knife

Doug Fir Lounge

830 E Burnside St MFNW presents Nick Waterhouse

Dr. Martens

2 NW 10th Ave. Dr. Martens MFNW Kickoff Party: The Helio Sequence, Divers

Duff’s Garage

2530 NE 82nd Ave. The Wilds, JT Wise Band

Edgefield

2126 S. W. Halsey ST. Alexa Wiley & the Wilderness

LaurelThirst

Lewi Longmire and the West Coast Roasters, Jaime Leopold and the Short Stories Mississippi Pizza Pub 3552 N Mississippi Ave Red Yarn kids show

Mississippi Studios

3939 N Mississippi Ave Talkative, the Tamed West, Golden Hour

Moloko

3967 N Mississippi Ave Brazilian Night with Nik Nice & Brother Charlie

No Ho’s Hawaiian Café 4627 Northeast Fremont Street David Friesen

Spare room restaurant and Lounge

4830 NE 42nd Ave Caleb Klauder Country Band

Star Theater

13 NW 6th Ave MFNW and Red Bull Sound Select presents Shlohmo, Manatee Commune, the Flavr Blue

The Historic Old Church

1422 SW 11th Ave Love’s Sorrow, Love’s Joy, The life and music of Fritz Kreisler

The Know

2026 NE Alberta St Dogheart, the Minders

The Secret Society

116 NE Russell St The Portland Lindy Society Presents Pink Lady & the John Bennett Jazz Band

The White Eagle

836 N Russell St The Coastline, Jeffrey Martin, Meet Your Makers

FrI. AUG. 21 Aladdin Theater

3017 SE Milwaukie Ave An Evening with the Watkins Family Hour

Alberta Street Pub 1036 NE Alberta St Fell Runner

Ash Street Saloon 225 SW Ash CiG

Bunk Bar

1028 SE Water Ave MFNW Presents: Bearcubbin, 1939 Ensemble

Bunk Bar Water

1028 SE Water Ave MusicFestNW and Bunk Bar Present: Bearcubbin, 1939 Ensemble

Dante’s Live

350 West Burnside

Top Flyte Entertainment presents: INNER CIRCLE with Sol Slippers

Doug Fir Lounge

830 E Burnside St MFNW Presents: Twin Shadow, Lany

Duff’s Garage

2530 NE 82nd Ave. Mitch Kashmar

Edgefield

For more listings, check out wweek.com.

[AUG. 19-25]

LAST WEEK LIVE CHRISTOPHER ONSTOTT

= WW Pick. Highly recommended.

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

2126 S. W. Halsey ST. Michael Franti & Spearhead

Esther Short Park

415 W 6th St. Vancouver Wine & Jazz Festival

Hawthorne Theatre

1507 SE 39th Sisyphean Conscience, Southgate, Prometheus, To Die Elsewhere, Increate, Vow of Volition

Holocene Portland 1001 SE Morrison St DJ Kez

Jimmy Mak’s

221 NW 10th Ave Soul Vaccination, with special guest Andy Stokes!

Kelly’s Olympian

426 SW Washington St Bad Ass Hard Party Glam Rock

LaurelThirst

2958 NE Glisan St, Michael Hurley and the Croakers, Malachi Graham, Mts. and Tunnels, Will St. John

Mississippi Pizza Pub 3552 N Mississippi Ave GoldFoot

Mississippi Studios

3939 N Mississippi Ave MusicfestNW: Thanks, Just Lions

Pekin Ferry Campground

34115 NW Pekin Ferry RD GBB FEST 2015

roseland Theater

8 NW 6th Ave MFNW, Soul’d Out and Double Tee presents Miguel, Dorothy

Star Theater

13 NW 6th Ave MFNW presents Fucked Up, Wimps, And And And

The Know

2026 NE Alberta St GLADNESS

The Secret Society

116 NE Russell St Ken Chapple, Annalisa & The TornHearts, The Sportin’ Lifers

The White Eagle

836 N Russell St Six Organs of Admittance, Hush Arbors

Tom McCall Waterfront Park SW Naito Parkway MusicfestNW: Foster the People, Misterwives, Milo Greene, Lost Lander

Tonic Lounge

3100 NE Sandy Blvd LEVITY / LITTLE HEARTS / NO MORE PARACHUTES / special guests

SAT. AUG. 22 Ash Street Saloon 225 SW Ash Rum Rebellion

Doug Fir Lounge

830 E Burnside St MFNW and Doug Fir Lounge presents Brothers & Sister

Duck Pond Cellars 23145 Hwy 99W

PAIN IS THE NAME OF YOUR BAND: It’s been a busy summer for Ural Thomas & the Pain, wrapping its debut album and releasing its first 45. So a celebratory mood prevailed at the still new Revolution Hall on Aug. 14—as new as a venue refashioned from a 109-year-old building can be, that is. A smiling Thomas took the stage with his young band, front-loading feel-good tunes like band favorite “You Got Me Humming” and smoldering single B-side “I’ll Do It for You.” The 10 men and women of the Pain, steered from the drum stool by leader Scott Magee and featuring L.A. R&B practitioner Nick Waterhouse, who produced Thomas’ forthcoming album, fell in lockstep behind the affable, Portland-bred soul man, its three-piece horn section tight as hell. Thomas grew increasingly frisky and footloose as the night progressed, at first anchored to the mic stand center stage, but eventually skipping from side to side in a manner that would hobble most men in their mid-70s. Thomas has a timelessly tough and elastic soul voice—never more so than on some tender falsetto runs late in the show—but, on this Friday night, at least, he did not delve as deeply into powerful emotional territory as a certain subset of soul fans might prefer. His faithful band responds to his every whim, though, with unassailably tight ensemble playing and individual instrumental panache, and the night surely seemed to leave most of the folks filing out of lovely Revolution Hall with a bounce in their step, a smile on their faces, and perhaps, a buoyed sense of Portland pride. JEFF ROSENBERG. See the full review at wweek.com/lastweeklive. Music by the Pond at Duck Pond Cellars

Star Theater

2530 NE 82nd Ave. Radio Giants

13 NW 6th Ave MFNW presents Magic Sword, Willis Earl Beal, Transistor Send

Edgefield

The Know

Duff’s Garage

2126 S. W. Halsey ST. John Bunzow

Holocene Portland

1001 SE Morrison St Lights & Music DJs; XX Digitus Duo

Hotel deLuxe

SW 15th & Yamhill REGGAE & SALSA ON THE ROOFTOP

LaurelThirst

2958 NE Glisan St, The Yellers, Dusty Boots, Zach Bryson and the Meat Rack, Kjirsten Tornfelt

Liquor Store 3341 SE Belmont St

Criminal Guitars, Sleeping Beauty, The Blimp

Mississippi Studios 3939 N Mississippi Ave MFNW and Mississippi Studios presents Homeshake, Sheer Agony

Oregon Zoo

4001 SW Canyon Road Chris Isaak

Penner-Ash Wine Cellars

15771 NE Ribbon Ridge Road Béla Fleck, Abigail Washburn

roseland Theater 8 NW 6th Ave Alex Wiley/ Johnny Polygon

2026 NE Alberta St BATH PARTY

The White Eagle

836 N Russell St Life During Wartime

Tom McCall Waterfront Park SW Naito Parkway MusicfestNW: Beirut. Belle & Sebastian, Twin Shadow and more

SUN. AUG. 23 Alberta Street Pub 1036 NE Alberta St The Onlies

Ash Street Saloon 225 SW Ash Virtual Zero

Cully Grove Cohousing Community 4779 NE Going St Tyler Carson

Dante’s Live

350 West Burnside GAEA

Doug Fir Lounge

830 E Burnside St Lewi Longmire & the Coast Roasters; Meiko, Santi Elijah Holley

Edgefield

2126 S. W. Halsey ST. Summer Sunday Sing-aLongs with Julie McCarl and Friends

Hawthorne Theatre

1507 SE 39th Futuristic, Huey Mack, Stevo The Weirdo, Kinetic Emcees

LaurelThirst

2958 NE Glisan St, Freak Mountain Ramblers

Liquor Store 3341 SE Belmont St

Fur Coats, Weezy and the Barking Dogs, Brut

Mississippi Pizza Pub 3552 N Mississippi Ave Professor Banjo

Mississippi Studios

3939 N Mississippi Ave AJ Dávila, Psychomagic, Charts

rontoms

600 E Burnside St Tango Alpha Tango, Battlehooch

St. Stephen’s Catholic Church

1112 S.E. 41st Avenue THE FESTIVAL CHORAL CONCERT: Music by Byrd, Tallis, Taverner, and Mundy

Star Theater

13 NW 6th Ave MFNW & Daze of the Dead present: PRAYERS with Force Publique

The White Eagle 836 N Russell St Rob Johnston

Tom McCall Waterfront Park SW Naito Parkway MusicfestNW: Modest Mouse, The Tallest Man on Earth, Danny Brown and more

MON. AUG. 24 Ash Street Saloon 225 SW Ash Castle

Dante’s Live

TUES. AUG. 25 Aladdin Theater

3017 SE Milwaukie Ave One Heart: PDX at Aladdin Theater

350 West Burnside JENNIFER WESTWOOD & THE HANDSOME DEVILS

Alberta Street Pub

Edgefield

225 SW Ash Insubordination

2126 S. W. Halsey ST. Groovy Wallpaper with guest Rob Wynia

Goodfoot Pub & Lounge 2845 SE Stark St Sonic Forum

1036 NE Alberta St Los Seriosos

Ash Street Saloon

Duff’s Garage

2530 NE 82nd Ave. The Fancy Schmancies

Edgefield

1507 SE 39th Mutoid Man, Wild Throne

2126 S. W. Halsey ST. Irish Tuesdays: Hanz Araki , Colleen Raney, Elizabeth Raney Nicholson, Bob Soper

Kelly’s Olympian

Hawthorne Theatre

426 SW Washington St Eye Candy VJ’s Music Videos in the bar

Kelly’s Olympian

426 SW Washington St Open Mic hosted by Lee Aulson and Talon Bronson

LaurelThirst

2958 NE Glisan St, Portland Country Underground, Kung Pao Chickens

Liquor Store 3341 SE Belmont St 20,000 Strongmen

The Know

2026 NE Alberta St Thirsty City

1507 SE 39th Insomnium, Omnium Gatherum, Mortal Plague, Where Lovers Rot, IronSerpent

Holocene Portland 1001 SE Morrison St Portugal. The Man

LaurelThirst

2958 NE Glisan St, Jackstraw, the My Oh Mys

Mississippi Studios

3939 N Mississippi Ave Mothertapes

The Know

2026 NE Alberta St HELLSHOCK, NECROT

The White Eagle

836 N Russell St Anthemtown Artist Showcase

Willamette Week AUGUST 19, 2015 wweek.com

MUSIC CALENDAR

AUG. 19-25

A N N A J AY E G O E L L N E R

BAR REVIEW

Where to drink this week. 1. Analog Cafe

720 SE Hawthorne Blvd., 206-7439, analogpdx.com. After mild contention, the great demonstration of freedom that is Marijuana Mondays will survive OLCC scrutiny with bud giveaways continuing through October.

2. Trifecta

726 SE 6th Ave., 841-6675, trifectapdx.com. Trifecta is a great restaurant, but in some ways it’s an even better bar, sporting one of the most inviting rooms in Portland, and a kick-ass drink list that includes a Gibson with oregano-brined pearl onions and obscure Spanish gin.

3. Bit House Saloon

727 SE Grand Ave., 729-9929. In an old-man bar gone carnivalesque, former Knock Back bartender Jesse Card has a pile of single-batch bourbons, mystery-ﬂavored boozy Otter Pops, a houseblended sherry that tastes like toﬀee, and a pack of mostly sweet taptails.

4. Shift Drinks

1200 SW Morrison St., 922-3933, shiftdrinkspdx.com. Get the “drinking tobacco”—actually a richly ﬂavorful vermouth—or a heartbreakingly good Palermo Viejo #2 ($10) with gin, Cynar, grapefruit liqueur, mint and bitters, plus one of the richly adorned bruschettas ($8).

5. Belmont Station

4500 SE Stark St., 232-8538, belmontstation.com. At a Wandering Aengus tasting Aug. 19, some of Oregon’s only true Old World cider apples will be brought straight to a tap from 5 to 7 pm at Southeast Portland’s greatest bottle bar.

WED. AUG. 19 Holocene Portland 1001 SE Morrison St Sutro

Lovecraft Bar

421 SE Grand Ave Event Horizon. DJs Straylight and Miss Q

The Rose Bar

111 SW Ash St. Proper Movement

THURS. AUG. 20 Holocene Portland

1001 SE Morrison St Jacques Renault, Karl Kling (DJ Set), Natural Magic DJs

Lovecraft Bar

421 SE Grand Ave Shadowplay

The Rose Bar 111 SW Ash St. Tetsuo

DOLLAR BEERS: Once, seven strangers were picked to live in a house in Portland to find out what happened when people stopped being nice and started being real. Mostly, they hung out at Splash Bar, where at least some staff members still remember them. (“Their place was a few blocks away,” says one bouncer. “It was pretty accurate. There’s probably worse things they could’ve shown.”) Well, that bar has gone through a soft reboot, and is now Splash Bar & Brewing (904 NW Couch St., 893-5551, splashbarpdx. com). It’s basically every college town’s vaguely tropical meat market—think for-display-only surfboards, Japanese fishing bobbers and a yellow hippie van with a snow-cone machine inside—except it’s now selling its own beers for just $1 at happy hour. They’re only half-brewing it here. The beer actually starts on the other side of the world, and gets shipped here as unfermented wort. (“Making the wort would take all kinds of special vents and stuff,” says another staffer. “There’s no room for that.”) Once it arrives from New Zealand, Splash Bar’s house beer gets local water, plus yeast and hops, and sits in big, steel tanks for a few weeks to become beer—a process that truly is cheaper than buying kegs of American macro lagers. It’s just 15 feet from tank to tap, and once the beer has completed those last few inches of its transglobal journey, it’s released unfiltered into the world from a whiteboard handle that bears its name in dry erase marker. Upon arriving at about 5 pm on a Friday, the place is mercifully unbusy as the staff congregates around the bar, waiting for the bros and ladybros to arrive. Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb” plays from the kitchen. The lager tastes like lavender soap and the American Hefeweizen tastes like slightly sweeter Widmer. But it costs just $1 then. In the Pearl. On Friday night. Wait till the crowd at Tony’s Tavern hears about this place. It was on TV, you know. MARTIN CIZMAR.

FRI. AUG. 21 Holocene Portland 1001 SE Morrison St DJ Kez

Liquor Store

3341 SE Belmont St. Spend The Night feautring Matrixxman (Ghostly International/SF), Graintable, Ben Tactic

Lovecraft Bar

421 SE Grand Ave Electronomicon. DJ Straylight and friends

The Goodfoot

2845 SE Stark St Soul Stew featuring DJ Aquaman

The Rose Bar 111 SW Ash St. Uplift

SAT. AUG. 22 Holocene Portland 1001 SE Morrison St

Willamette Week AUGUST 19, 2015 wweek.com

Drake vs. Kanye Tribute Party featuring Lights & Music DJs Lovecraft Bar 421 SE Grand Ave Darkness Descends w DJ Maxamillion

The Goodfoot

2845 SE Stark St. Get on Up featuring Takimba and DJ Firie

The Rose Bar 111 SW Ash St. Cosine

SUN. AUG. 23 Lovecraft Bar

421 SE Grand Ave Softcore Mutations with DJ Acid Rick

Star Theater

13 NW 6th Ave Church of Hive

MON. AUG. 24 Kelly’s Olympian

426 SW Washington St Eye Candy VJ’s Music Videos in the bar

Lovecraft Bar

421 SE Grand Ave rock w/ Cory, dance w/ Cory, watch videos w/ Cory

TUES. AUG. 25 Lovecraft Bar

421 SE Grand Ave BONES with DJ Aurora and DJ Acid Rick

The Rose Bar 111 SW Ash St. Fresh

Willamette Week AUGUST 19, 2015 wweek.com

aug. 19–25

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

THEATER OPENINGS & PREVIEWS A Lover’s Complaint and The Rape of Lucrece

This two-part dive into the dark side of Shakespeare will stage a poem set to music and a 15-minute theatrical piece about beautiful lovers. But if that sounds like light Shakespeare, it’s not. Lucrece is an intense classical drama straight out of Greek mythology, set to music by local composer Matt Insley and sung by Post5 member Jessica Tidd. Then, Michael Streeter directs the Oregon premiere of Complaint—a short and sour, 15-minute play about a lover picking up the pieces of her broken life when her young lover leaves her to pursue his next conquest. Both shows are not recommended for children. Lucrece is after Complaint on weekends and before Complaint on weekdays. Post5 Theater, 1666 SE Lambert St., 971-258-8584. 7 pm WednesdayThursday, 8 pm Friday-Sunday through Aug. 30. No performance of Complaint on Aug. 22. $15.

Up The Fall

The first-ever original musical commissioned for PHAME (Pacific Honored Artists, Musicians, Entertainers)—an arts community for adults with disabilities—Up the Fall follows various myths from cultures around the world. Playwrights West founder and multiple Drammy Award-winner Matthew B. Zrebski directs a cast of adults both with and without disabilities in what PHAME calls a “mythical music-theater journey,” set to the folksy original soundtrack by Portland singer-songwriter Laura Gibson. This premiere is a collaborative effort from some of Portland’s largest theater supporters, including WillaKenzie Estate winery and Artists Repertory Theatre. Artists Repertory Theatre, 1515 SW Morrison St, 503-241-1278, 2 pm SaturdaySunday. $15-$28.

ALSO PLAYING How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying

Clackamas Repertory makes it look easy. Following the seven-time Tony Award- and Pulitzer-winning musical’s titular advice, this Oregon City production sticks to Broadway’s formula for success—showy song-and-dance acts and toothy grins. It shouldn’t be any other way. Handsome and brighteyed, local acting and voice teacher Jameson Tabor fits perfectly in the role of ambitious mailroom staffer J. Pierrepont Finch, who works his way up to becoming chairman of the board. Ex-Disney cruise-ship performer Cassi Q. Kohl plays Finch’s love interest, the secretary Rosemary, who dreams of wearing a “wifely uniform” someday. Both play their parts with giant smiles and the absurd amounts of vigor that Broadway, and Clackamas, demands. YouTube vlogger Teresa Renee stands out in the role of Hedy, the sassy and busty pin-up mistress to the company president, and the entire cast holds its own vocally even with live orchestra accompaniment. While the doeeyed secretaries will make feminists gag and the toothy grins are bound to deter edgy artists, Clackamas’ How to succeeds in the business of Broadway musicals. ALLIE DONAHUE. Clackamas Repertory Theatre, 19600 Molalla Ave., 594-6047, 7:30 pm Thursday-Sunday. $35.

Dear Galileo

Three women from three different eras ponder science, space and daddy issues in this premiere of Playwrights West writer Claire Willett’s 2012 Fertile Ground feature. In modern day Texas, the 10-year-old daughter of a cre-

ationist TV pundit finds a passion for science and pens diary entries to Galileo. In 1990s Arizona, a New York sculptor copes with the absence of her astrophysicist father. And in Renaissance Italy, Celeste Galilei cares for her elderly father Galileo, who lives under house arrest for defying the Catholic Inquisition. CoHo Theater, 2257 NW Raleigh St., 220-2646, 7:30pm Thursday-Sunday. $15-$25.

Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog

In 2008, the debut of Joss Whedon’s (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) online superhero musical starring Neil Patrick Harris got so many views that it crashed the drhorrible.com site. Lacking Harris, Funhouse’s Isaac Frank stars as Billy, aka Dr. Horrible, whose sole aspirations are getting accepted into the Evil League of Evil and finding the balls to speak to his crush at the laundromat. But Dr. Horrible’s superhero archnemesis, the dashing Captain Hammer, is making both corruption and love difficult. Fully utilizing his 3-D advantage, Funhouse artistic director Trenton Shine added songs, dancing and a gender swap to the serial blog. On Aug. 13 to 15, the leads playing Dr. Horrible and Penny switch roles. Funhouse Lounge, 2432 SE 11th Ave., 841-6734, 7 pm Thursday-Saturday. $16-$20.

and dancers. A corps of kids perform as “raindrops” before the show and during intermission, and proceeds will be split fifty-fifty between Mask & Mirror and the Foundation for Tigard-Tualatin Schools. Tualatin High School Auditorium, 22300 SW Boones Ferry Road, 620-5262, 7 pm Friday-Sunday. $15.

COMEDY & VARIETY Art Party

A mixed-media open mic hosted by Andie Main that turns the remodeled nook above the Bossanova Ballroom into a stage for grown up show-andtell acts from local musicians, comedians and artsy types. Sign ups at 7:30. Black Barrel Social Club in Bossanova Ballroom, 722 East Burnside St., 8 pm Thursdays.

Curious Comedy Open Mic

Curious hosts a weekly open-mic night. Sign-ups begin at 7:15, and comics get three minutes of stage time apiece. Curious Comedy Theater, 5225 NE MLK Blvd, 503-477-9477, 8 pm Sunday August 23. Free.

Curious Comedy Showdown featuring PIPES

Curious Comedy’s improvisers duke it out, in hopes of winning audience votes. After a brief intermission, Curious’ finest perform PIPES, a totally improvised musical comedy that is completely new and different for every performance. Curious Comedy Theater, 5225 NE MLK Blvd, 477-9477, 7:30 pm Friday August 21 Saturday August 22. $12-$15.

Fly Ass Jokes Presents Nerd Fight

Nerd alert! Brody’s special version of its Fly-Ass Jokes showcase features geeks fighting over subjects like Star Trek versus Star Wars and other super dorky things. Push up your spectacles and flaunt those high-waters: This performance is nerdalicious. AMY WOLFE. Brody Theater, 16 NW Broadway, 2242227, 10 pm Friday August 21. $8.

Friday Night Fights

Competitive improv, with two teams battling for stage time. Curious Comedy Theater, 5225 NE MLK Blvd, 477-9477, 9:30 pm Friday August 21. $5.

Howard Kremer

Howard Kremer, comedic rapper and host of the Who Charted? podcast, has appeared on Jimmy Kimmel

REVIEW BRUD GILES

PERFORMANCE

The Praying Mantis

Chilean playwright Alejandro Sieveking lived in political exile in Costa Rica for 10 years, hence the heavy theme of political repression in this comedic mystery play. When Adela brings her suitor home to meet the family, lust takes over. Her two elder sisters, both accused of killing their husbands, try to steal the young buck, but the only woman he’s drawn to is a mysterious younger sister who stays shuttered behind closed doors. Twilight Theater’s three-person cast takes on the play’s six roles, weaving an intricate web of characters in practice and in theory. ENID SPITZ. Twilight Theater, 7515 N Brandon Ave., 847-9838, 8 pm Thursday-Sunday. $15.

Wicked

What is there to say about the perennially performed Wicked, an outsized commercial success since its premiere in 2003? In this iteration, Alyssa Fox brings a sexy assertiveness to the green-skinned Elphaba, and Carrie St. Louis shines with a flair for physical comedy, channeling Glinda’s delightfully daffy cluelessness. Their chemistry more than overcomes the limitations of the show’s overambitious but undercooked plot and a score replete with unmemorable, generic-sounding songs. (The sole exception was the tender ode to platonic love, “For Good,” which is impossible to listen to without tearing up.) Michael DeVries is another standout as the talking goat known as Doctor Dillamond, bringing disproportionate pathos to this small part. The musical’s sumptuously campy costumes, designed by Susan Hilferty, are fittingly grandiose, especially the steampunk-meets-leprechaun gowns and suits donned by the denizens of Oz. Together it all makes for a flittingly glittering escape to Oz, courtesy of Broadway in Portland. RICHARD SPEER. Keller Auditorium, 222 SW Clay St., 800-273-1530, 1 pm Wednesday-Sunday. $40-$175.

Singin’ in the Rain

Directors Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen’s 1952 musical holds first place on the American Film Institute’s list of the 25 greatest musicals of all time. The movie follows the lives of three Hollywood performers transitioning from silent actors to “talkies” in 1920s Hollywood. Mask & Mirror Community Theatre brings the music to the stage with a troupe of over 25 local singers

Willamette Week AUGUST 19, 2015 wweek.com

Not aloNe: Katie Watkins.

SCHIZO (KATIE WATKINS) HER BROTHER’S DIAGNOSIS WAS A TABOO TOPIC. NOW IT’S CENTER STAGE. On an otherwise sparse stage in a large, empty room, Katie Watkins sits on the ground, surrounded by a semicircle of more than two dozen lamps. The lights flicker on and off as the distant roar of a hundred whispers begins to build like a storm. She hugs her knees close to her body, her bare feet flexing and twitching. The tremors move out to her arms and into her hands, which form rigid claws. She stands in what looks like an attempt to run before buckling at the waist, her back and arms stiff, and releases a breathy, voiceless scream. It is terrifying, uncomfortable and hypnotic. It may be impossible to convey what it feels like to be held hostage in your own mind—locked in the grip of mental illness. Even Watkins, whose new one-woman performance piece, Schizo, is about her brother Jeff ’s struggle against schizophrenia, makes no claims to truly understand what he has dealt with. At age 11, Jeff was unusually young when he was diagnosed with schizophrenia. While the disorder typically appears in patients during their early 20s, he spent his adolescence balancing medications, therapy, hospital stints and high school. “Even though we know some of the things the voices have said to him, I would never presume to understand what he is really going through,” said

Watkins at the talk-back after her opening-night performance. Watkins observed it all but says she’s only now starting to discover how it affected her. “It was this thing that was always the center of attention, and yet we were never supposed to talk about it,” she said. So for the past two years, she has been in the process of creating Schizo in an attempt to sort through her own emotions. What Watkins created is a collage of movement, light and soundscapes, where she plays the role of Jeff based on how she observed him as they were growing up. What little dialogue there is comes in the form of phone messages discussing incidents at school, troubled relationships and whether Jeff ’s dad should hide the kitchen knives. Watkins gives a recitation of the myriad prescriptions given over the years, from Paxil and Zoloft to a potent cocktail of antipsychotics. A particularly haunting song describes all the ways Jeff could kill himself if he really wanted to—from household poison to a tin-can lid. Jeff, now 24, won’t be attending the performance, because he’s starting school and pursuing a bioscience technology degree at Georgia Gwinnett College. “But I do have his blessing,” said Watkins, whose short but provocative performance proves an effective vehicle for illustrating a topic that is often ignored. “It was my experience too.” PENELOPE BASS. see it: Schizo is at Shaking the Tree Theatre, 823 SE Grant St., 235-0635. 8 pm Thursday-Saturday and 2 pm Sunday, through Aug. 29. $15.

aug. 19–25 Live! and had a half-hour special on Comedy Central Presents. Also known as Dragon Boy Suede, Kremer will showcase his rap talents and Summahtology, just for us. AMY WOLFE. The Waypost, 3120 N Williams Ave., 503-367-3182, 8 pm Sunday August 23. $10.

Random Acts of Comedy

It’s Not Me; It’s Me

Suzanne Westenhoefer

Mike Epps

Mike Epps, who starred in the onehour HBO special Inappropriate Behavior and acted in Next Friday and Friday After Next, appears at Helium in a three-night standup stand. Discovered by Ice Cube at the Comedy Store in L.A., Epps has acted alongside Samuel L. Jackson and Will Smith and appeared in The Hangover. This guy knows his funny, and we’re ready for onstage ridiculousness. AMY WOLFE. Helium Comedy Club, 1510 SE 9th Ave, 888-643-8669, 9:30 pm FridaySunday. $30-$50.

Out and proud, Suzanne Westenhoefer has her own comedy special/documentary, A Bottom on Top, and began her career by accepting a dare: delivering gaythemed standup to straight audiences at comedy clubs in New York. Prepare yourself for some lively lesbianism. AMY WOLFE. Alberta Rose Theatre, 3000 NE Alberta St, 7196055, 8 pm Friday, August 21. $30.

Night on the Town

The quaint Defunkt Theatre plays host to a new sketch comedy show by Lori Ferraro and Brooke Totman, who act out about 20 different side-splitting personas and crazy scenarios within 90 minutes. This installment is directed by Shelley McLendon of witty Portland sketch duo the Aces. AMY WOLFE. Defunkt Theater, 4319 SE Hawthorne Blvd.,974-4938, 8 pm ThursdaySaturday. $15.

Odd Couples

A new Brody showcase enters its extensive lineup, an all-in-one improv, music, sketch comedy and mash-up jam. Audience members will have the opportunity to sign up, join the ensemble and bare it all onstage. Don’t worry, if you chicken out this time, it’ll be back the following Thursday. AMY WOLFE. Brody Theater, 16 NW Broadway, 224-2227, 9:30pm Thursday, August 20. $5.

Open Court

Team-based, long-form improv open to audience members and performers of all stripes. Curious Comedy Theater, 5225 NE MLK Blvd, 477-9477, 7:30 pm Thursday August 20. $5.

Operation Unicorn

Portland standup comedy scene is an incestuous, love-hate-love world. But its comedians are coming together for a cause: Portlander Veronica Heath is recovering from rheumatoid arthritisrelated illness and her funny friends are gathering under Funhouse’s roof to raise funds for her recovery. And because they’re comedians, welfare is carnival-themed. The full lineup of local comedians includes Portland’s Funniest Person, Amy Miller, WW’s 2014 Funniest 5 comic Nariko Ott, around-town showcase performer Adam Pasi and will be hosted by Lez Stand Up regular Whitney Streed, Jason Traeger and Portland’s Funniest Person semifinalist Andie Main. AMY WOLFE. Funhouse Lounge, 2432 SE 11th Ave, 841-6734, 8 pm Wednesday August 19. $10.

Death of Glitter: Dance Night and GenderFuck Cabaret

Crush’s monthly performance and dance night fundraiser does drag for a cause. Portland queens including Mars, Darcy Blows, Carol Gates and Neon Starlight start the show, then DJs like GlitZ Shimmersteed spin while you go. Crush, 1400 SE Morrison St., 235-8150, 9 pm Thursday, August 20. $5-$10.

For more Performance listings, visit

PREVIEW

wild card: the Bylines.

Naked Comedy Open Mic

The Brody hosts a twice-weekly open-mic night. Comics get fourminute standup slots and can sign up online. Free with one-item minimum purchase. ENID SPITZ. Brody Theater, 16 NW Broadway, 224-2227, 9:30 pm Wednesday August 19, Monday August 24. Free.

DANCE

C O U r T E S T Y O F T H I r D r A I L r E P E r TO r Y T H E AT r E

Witness a live episode of the podcast featuring Midwesterner, all-around Portland performer and Curious Comedy Ensemble member JoAnn Schinderle and Barbara Holm, the clever comic who has performed at the Bridgetown Comedy Festival, Bumbershoot and the Women in Comedy Festival. Hear qualms about Portland’s passive dating scene in person. Who doesn’t love to dish about their dating life being an absolute failure? AMY WOLFE. Bunk Bar Morrison, 1028 Water Ave., 328-2865, 9:30pm Thursday August 20. $7.

Curious Comedy puts on a freewheeling show that brings together sketch, standup and improv. Curious Comedy Theater, 5225 NE MLK Blvd, 477-9477, 9:30 pm Saturday, August 22. $7 -$10.

PERFORMANCE

NETFLIX, LIVE?

After nearly a decade spent hopping around Portland’s theaters to stage its famously varied programming, Third Third Rail Repertory Theatre is Rail Repertory Theatre has launching a new membership model. finally settled down. With a new, permanent residence at Imago Theatre, the troupe packed its 10th season with a daunting array of events, and in an even more ambitious move, presumed that the Third Rail faithful will want to attend them all. For just under $30 a month, patrons can effectively buy unlimited entry to any performance—dance, drama, readings and screenings. It’s a familiar method. “Officially, we’re calling it Third Rail Membership, a new way to subscribe,” said PR coordinator Isaac Lamb. “It’s like the Netflix model for theater.” While Netflix achieved its current ubiquity by being a multimedia giant that underspends on product and sells to a nation of bingewatching subscribers, the transformation of American leisure habits has left many corners of the culture struggling to adapt. “The subscription model is dying for many artistic organizations,” Lamb said. “Young people want to go out at the last second and see whatever they want to see. Thirty or 40 years ago, there was a value to being able to purchase tickets up front and have things scheduled.” Whether the modern consumer views reserved seating as an untenable burden, Third Rail’s breadth of programming is ideally suited to membership. Celeb-studded National Theater live screenings beg impromptu indulgences, letting Portlanders see London’s top shows on screen. Mainstage productions like the upcoming Mr. Kolpert, an absurdist play of critical acclaim, draw cultish admirers. Most pointedly, Third Rail created its new Wild Card series to bundle with the membership rollout. Genre-melting, short-run shows, like this week’s artisanal cabaret from Portland singer-songwriter duo the Bylines, play to modern audiences’ predilections for immediate gratification. This fall, a “sightless” drama about doomed Arctic explorers will be staged in total darkness. “Typically, if you’re doing a subscription model, you don’t take as many risks,” said Lamb. “You’ve got to have an accessible show here, a holiday show there, and you base the business model on those tent poles instead of engaging your audience.” Membership will change that, he hopes. “If a play doesn’t sell as well, that’s OK,” according to Lamb, because some Wild Card in the same quarter could compensate and be a huge hit. “It loosens the reins.” JAY HORTON. see it: The Bylines: Meant to Be is at Imago Theatre, 17 SE 8th Ave., 235-1101, thirdrailrep.org. 7:30 pm Wednesday-Saturday, Aug. 19-22. $20 without membership. Willamette Week AUGUST 19, 2015 wweek.com

Hot Dog Eating Contest

VISUAL ARTS

August 22, 4pm

AUG. 19–25

= WW Pick. Highly recommended. By MEGAN HARNED. 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: mharned@wweek.com.

10 minutes all the dogs and buns you can eat Sign up at the Shack

Allyson Ross

Open Noon until 3am EVERYDAY

www.zachsshack.com

4611 SE Hawthorne Blvd • Portland

Plinths and drapery hold strong meaning in art history, not as art themselves, but as the accessories that allow ﬁne pieces to be elevated and protected. Allyson Ross turns her eye to these accessories, merging them into a single piece. In so doing, she asks her audience to notice these “extra” structures not as supporting materials, but as the focus themselves. Furthermore, she recreates the ﬁne plinth and velvet out of mundane contemporary building materials. If Cameo Gallery continues to show this level of work, then I look forward to a long and successful run. Closing reception 6-9 pm Thursday, Aug. 27. Cameo Gallery, 2809 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.

artists to respond to the ideas in the titular book by recently deceased Oxford University linguist Roy Harris. Surprisingly for a group show inspired by postmodern art theory, it doesn’t suck. Featuring work by Ben Buswell, Srijon Chowdhury, Max Cleary, Anne Doran, Zack Dougherty, Erika Keck and Rodrigo Valenzuela. Through Aug. 29. Upfor Gallery, 929 NW Flanders St., 227-5111.

Prehensilities

Prehensility: The quality of a limb or organ that has adapted for grasping or holding. Olivia Knapp’s intricate, hand-drawn, pen-and-ink style is

influenced by European line engravings of decorative relief and scientific specimens from the 16th to 18th centuries. Her current collection uses body organs as contrasting characters in an ongoing story. By subtly anthropomorphizing these organs, she hopes the viewer can separate their “sense of self” from their own mind and yearnings, and empathize with these vital, fleshy vessels. Through Aug. 29. Hellion Gallery, 19 NW 5th Ave., Suite 208.

For more Visual Arts listings, visit

REVIEW

A Peanut in a Suit Is a Peanut Nonetheless

Jobs for the Food and Drink Industry Staffing solutions for owners and managers

Beauty in the Age of Indifference

NYC/ CHI/ SFO/ SEA /PDX/ AUS

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Daniel Long appropriates both common painting techniques and visual symbols into an open-ended rumination on representation and narrative. The ensuing world—populated by scenes of largely ancient Egyptian and Greco-Roman pottery ﬂoating amidst textured backdrops and hieroglyphic serpents, disguised as MS Paint squiggles, attempting to pop oﬀ the surface plane—is a rabbit hole wherein visual references constantly collide and combust. Through Sept. 19. Nationale, 3360 SE Division St.

6/10/12 9:41 AM

This self-proclaimed “controversial” exhibition celebrates and challenges our notions of what is beautiful, and what role beauty plays in a contemporary society obsessed and distracted by new technologies which have obliterated old ways of doing and seeing things. These disruptive patterns of behavior, and our ability to constantly need to upgrade and adapt to them have taken us away from traditional appreciation of how important beauty is in our lives. Through Sept. 12. Jeﬀrey Thomas Fine Art, 2219 NW Raleigh St., 544-3449.

Decimate Mesh

Ryan Woodring’s latest work comes in response to the recent onslaught of videos released by terrorist groups depicting the destruction of sculpture and artifacts from ancient Near East civilizations. Utilizing his background in the visual eﬀects industry, Woodring reconstructs these artifacts both digitally and physically using only the pixels supplied in the videos. The accuracy of the reconstruction is dependent on the amount of screen time the object was given as well as the stability of the footage (i.e. camera shake, obstruction of the view of the object, etc.). Through this process of reconstruction Woodring explores digital dissemination as a complicated mechanism of both destruction and introduction—sensationalism and education—via 3-D printed objects, manipulated videos, and fabric work. Through Aug. 31. Duplex Gallery, 219 NW Couch St., 206-5089.

Emerging Dissolving

Loving and losing love, an action and state of being that is as much a part of being human as is the need to drink water, are the themes of Danielle Wyckoff ’s site/sight-specific installation at Northwest Portland’s newest gallery. Using hand-scribed mulberry paper, salt and water, Wyckoff ’s installation will use material and metaphorical transformations found in the natural world to explore common human experiences. Soltesz Fine Art, 1825 NW 23rd Ave., 971-276-9097. Through Aug. 25.

The Great Debate About Art

Curated in collaboration with Envoy Enterprises, this show prompted

Willamette Week AUGUST 19, 2015 wweek.com

DO BAD THINGS BY ANALISE CLEOPATRA AND JAMES SNEED

BCC: BROWNHALL IN RESIDENCE Black Creative Collective: Brownhall comprises black artists and creatives who produce interdisciplinary art programming to address the dearth of black art and creative spaces in Portland. The massive offering of video, photography, mixed-media sculpture, oil on panel, installation and performance at the new BCC: Brownhall in Residence group show at Compliance Division is doing its best to fill the void. It’s an excellent, expansive collection that’s too large to detail, with highlights covering everything from eco-commentary to futuristic fantasy. In a photograph from Elijah Hasan’s series Catching My Eye, the foreground shows a colorful, overflowing trash can—the type commonly seen at street festivals. Behind it, in black-andwhite, a crowd of people with their backs turned is walking away. The pieces of Do Bad Things, oil and poetry on panel by Analise Cleopatra and James Sneed, are all evocative, but the standout is a seated woman, shoulders broad and straight, head tilted back and haloed by her Afro. Between her wide-spread legs, lines of verse run like a life-giving river. Pacific Northwest College of Art student Bre Gipson’s biomorphic mixed-media sculpture titled New Nature resembles a cyborg heart encased in a plastic box. The work both harks back to fairy tales and predicts the sterile future in which we’ll tell them. Nubian Fairy by fantastical author, illustrator and publisher Brian W. Parker shows a dark and shining armed woman standing in a moonlit grove. Her ethereal pink wings extend above and behind her while she delights in the glowing orb of light she’s cradling in her cupped hands. Calligraphic text on the piece quotes Socrates: “Wonder is the beginning of wisdom.” The show’s real centerpiece is Jamondria Harris’ installation holy & broken & rising: black bodies beyond anti-blackness. Soft, dark cushions cover the floor. Tall, white votive candles light the inner sanctum. All over, gold filigree and mirrors catch and refract the subdued, soothing illumination. This gleaming space is a chapel for mourning, healing, ritual and performance created by a community in pain—by and for themselves—a “space for rage, love, healing and visions of a world freed from anti-black violence.” Soon, the installation will grow to include space for visitors to bring gifts, offerings and mementos of their own personal experiences. MEGAN HARNED. A collective of artists shows that black art matters.

SEE IT: BCC: Brownhall in Residence and additional works are at Compliance Division, 625 NW Everett St., No. 101. Performances at 7 pm Thursday, Aug. 20 and 27.

BOOKS

AUG. 19–25

= 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.

author Jennifer Steil’s new novel, The Ambassador’s Wife, examines a marriage tested by impossible choices. Powell’s City of Books, 1005 W Burnside St., 228-4651, 7:30 pm. Free.

MONDAY, AUG. 24 Adam Johnson

WEDNESDAY, AUG. 19 Christopher Sebela

Eisner Award-nominated writer and graphic artist Christopher Sebela (Screamland: Death of the Party, Marvel’s Captain Marvel) will release his new series for BOOM! Studios, Welcome Back #1, about a pair of soldiers cursed with repeated reincarnations. Sebela will sign copies of the comic. Plus, food and beer! Things From Another World, 2916 NE Broadway, 800-862-0052. 5 pm. Free.

Nancy Flynn

Nancy Flynn is quick to profess her love aﬀair with words. She uses them to pave her journey through the world, and to observe and understand a society she often feels removed from. Flynn will read from her ﬁrst full-length book of poetry, Every Door Recklessly Ajar, as part of the Mountain Writers Series. Vie de Boheme, 1530 SE 7th Ave., 232-4517. 7:30 pm. $5.

William Ritter

When a sinister species of shapeshifters disguise themselves as a litter of kittens and murder their owner, then dinosaur bones disappear and a mysterious beast begins attacking people, there is a seriously foul plot afoot. In William Ritter’s new novel, Beastly Bones— the sequel to Jackaby—Abigail Rook and supernatural detective R.F. Jackaby ﬁnd themselves on the trail of a monster and murderer. Powell’s Books at Cedar Hills Crossing, 3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd., 228-4651. 7 pm. Free.

THURSDAY, AUG. 20 Girlhood: Our Bodies, Our Stories

The attitudes and expectations placed on women’s bodies are unrealistic at best, particularly to young girls. Author Renée Watson will host the workshop “Girlhood: Our Bodies, Our Stories,” which will use poetry and prose as a vehicle to discuss beauty, body image and perceived expectations. Watson will explore the writing of Sandra Cisneros, Lucille Clifton and Jamaica Kincaid, along with her own. Gresham Library, 385 NW Miller Ave., 988-5387. 3:30 pm. Free.

Slasher Girls and Monster Boys

You might have prattled on about the moving imagery and symbolism of All the Light We Cannot See, but we know the truth. On your nightstand is a pile of young adult novels, stacked like literary Little Debbie products hidden in the back of the fridge. Just embrace it. Slasher Girls and Monster Boys is a new collection of psychologically terrifying tales crafted by a slew of contemporary YA authors pulling from ﬁlm, TV and literature for original scary stories. Editor and author April Genevieve Tucholke will be joined by contributors Cat Winters and McCormick Templeman. Powell’s Books at Cedar Hills Crossing, 3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd., 228-4651. 7 pm, Free.

FRIDAY, AUG. 21 Jennifer Steil

After falling in love with the ambassador to an Arab country, bohemian artist Miranda ﬁnds herself in a world she has never experienced, with luxury coming at the price of freedom. This literally becomes the case when she is kidnapped. Married to an ambassador herself,

After having earned the Pulitzer Prize for his novel The Orphan Master’s Son and being compared to the likes of Kurt Vonnegut and George Saunders, Adam Johnson has a lot to live up to. But if early praise is any indication, his new collection of darkly humorous stories, Fortune Smiles, won’t disappoint. Powell’s City of Books, 1005 W Burnside St., 228-4651, 7:30 pm. Free.

Felicia Day Book Signing

Actress, writer and self-proclaimed queen of the geeks, Felicia Day is best known for her roles on shows like Buﬀy the Vampire Slayer, Eureka and Supernatural. Her new memoir, You’re Never Weird on the Internet (Almost), examines her unusual upbringing and rise to fame in the Internet age. She will only be signing books, and probably not humoring any RPG-themed marriage proposals. Powell’s Books at Cedar Hills Crossing, 3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd., 228-4651. 6 pm. Free.

For more Books listings, visit

REVIEW

PARNAZ FOROUTAN, THE GIRL FROM THE GARDEN Eden is rife with thorns in Parnaz Foroutan’s The Girl From the Garden (Ecco, 271 pages, $26.99), a lush debut novel about the pangs and triumphs of an Iranian family. Foroutan is a modern-day Scheherazade, weaving her tale through the entire 20th century, from an aging woman in her L.A. garden to the brothers whose determination to spawn heirs tortured “Paradise is a Farsi word.” the harem she was raised in. Mahboubeh fled Tehran just before Iran’s 1978 revolution, feeling “that she had finally escaped history.” But past family troubles and her mother’s mysterious death “from the complications of womanhood” haunt her as “she grafts more and more, searching for a rose with the color and the perfume of the one she remembers from another garden.” Like Mahboubeh’s stream of consciousness, Foroutan’s story slips time frames and tones with ease. As Mahboubeh reminisces lightheartedly about the time she used her piggy-bank savings to buy her way into third grade, a slamming car door suddenly wakes her at 6:40 am in L.A., and just a sentence later Foroutan seamlessly telescopes to the men chanting, “Ya Allah, ya Allah,” as Kurdish traders arrive in old Kermanshah. The beating heart of the book is a tale of two brothers, Asher and Ibrahim, who trade wives and offspring like playing cards. “I want a child,” Asher tells his barren wife. “I am tired of this waste… and I will give you until spring.” Foroutan is above regurgitating the tired Middle Eastern harem narrative, though. Her women are unimaginably vicious and relatably human. Asher’s infertile wife, Rakhel, is raised on tales of the evil spirit Al, who “takes the form of a fish, swims in your belly, and eats the baby before it even has a heartbeat,” and as a woman she slaps her pregnant sister-in-law to the ground out of jealousy. But in some of the novel’s most endearing moments, the women bathe virgin brides at the hamam baths and call on each other to celebrate “the sixth night of a daughter’s birth, the first meal of a baby, the spilt blood after the first night of being a wife…to counsel, to tell stories, to eavesdrop.” Foroutan’s novel does the same. She offers us a glimpse into a secretive society filled with round bellies and passionate hearts. And thanks to the author’s deft narrative, we share her characters’ inescapable pain as both hearts and bellies bleed out. Melancholy without whining, Foroutan’s writing only falters when she tries to tie things up too neatly. When Mahboubeh summarizes, “There once was a garden…” in the final chapter, it recalls the throaty melodrama of Meryl Streep in Out of Africa: “I had a farm in Africa.” But in this tangled Eden of lush descriptions and well-tended drama, we’ll not begrudge the author this one weed. ENID SPITZ. GO: Parnaz Foroutan is at Powell’s City of Books, 1005 W Burnside St., 800-878-7323, on Tuesday, Aug. 25. 7:30 pm. Free. Willamette Week AUGUST 19, 2015 wweek.com

MOVIES

AUG. 19–25 FEATURE

= WW Pick. Highly recommended. Editor: ENID SPITZ. 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: espitz@wweek.com. Fax: 243-1115.

The Diary of a Teenage Girl

A Minnie (Bel Powley) begins an

aﬀair with her mom’s (Kristen Wiig) boyfriend (Alexander Skarsgård), Monroe. She’s 15. But it’s not as bad as it sounds—she’s got other hobbies! Powley delivers line after line of confessions and observation into her tape recorder with Dunham-style naivete, interpreting her sexual encounters through the cartoons of her idol and fellow San Franciscan, Aline Kominsky. Minnie’s aﬀair leads her into some dark corners of ’70s San Francisco, but writer-director Marielle Heller—who adapted the movie from Phoebe Gloeckner’s semi-autobiorgraphical illustrated novel (no, neckbeard, I don’t mean graphic novel) of the same name—makes it clear that this isn’t some Nightline investigation. Minnie wants to have sex, so she does. Minnie wants to do drugs and does (there’s a joint roller listed in the credits). Sometimes bad things happen, but they’re all Minnie’s choice. I guess this is growing up. R. JAMES HELMSWORTH. Cinema 21.

STILL SHOWING Amy

A Even if you followed Amy

Winehouse’s career, it’s hard to keep from crossing your ﬁngers for a different ending while watching Amy. R. LAUREN TERRY. Cinema 21, Hollywood, Kiggins.

Ant-Man

B+ Ant-Man is a largely self-contained, breezy, hilarious and gorgeous heist film that manages a feat few recent superhero films do: It stands up well on its own. Ex-con Scott Lang (a beefed-up Paul Rudd) invades the home of Dr. Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and finds a weirdlooking suit that can shrink its wearer to insect size while granting super strength and the ability to control ants telepathically. He’s nobody’s favorite superhero, but director Peyton Reed is fully aware of this dopiness, and just runs with it. . If it were a comic book, it wouldn’t be the kind you put in a Mylar bag. It’d be one that you read with greasy fingers and childlike relish. PG-13. ANDY KRYZA. Cedar Hills, Eastport, Clackamas, Bridgeport, City Center, Division, Evergreen, Lloyd Center, Movies on TV, Pioneer Place, Tigard, Wilsonville.

Best of Enemies

A Though this doc centers on the debates between Gore Vidal and William F. Buckley during the 1968 Republican and Democratic conventions, Best of Enemies has less to do with a presidential election, and more to do with the birth of clickbait culture. Opening with a drumroll and a cymbal crash, the ﬁlm plunges viewers into the frothy political climate of protests against militarized police forces and a decade when people were ﬁghting for freedom of body and opinion. Director Morgan Neville reveals how ABC set up this onscreen rivalry in hopes of saving the failing network. “We needed a provocative media event.” Enriched with commentary from people like Christopher Hitchens and Dick Cavett, Enemies digs deep into the mutual obsession between Vidal and Buckley, showing their shared insecurities after failed political campaigns and rumors of homosexuality. These dueling intellectuals had 80 percent of the nation glued to their TV screens, posing the question: What absurd pair of reality stars would it take for even half the country to tune in today? R. LAUREN TERRY. Fox Tower.

Dark Places

sisters and helping to put her brother in prison for the crime, Libby Day (Charlize Theron) is drawn into the ranks of the Kill Club, a group of nerdy murder aficionados intent on finding out what really happened on the night Day’s family died. Based on the novel by Gone Girl author Gillian Flynn, Dark Places is a lurid little puzzle that offers a few minor thrills, but director Gilles Paquet-Brenner—who also wrote the screenplay—kills the vibe with intrusive narration, clumsy flashbacks and risible forays into teenage satanism. Had Paquet-Brenner resolved to run headlong into prurience and sleaze, he might have had something wild and weird and knowingly ridiculous here. Instead, the film flails about in the space between shlock and seriousness, and even though it accidentally bumps into an intriguing moment or two, it is mostly just a mess. R. CHRIS STAMM. Living Room Theaters.

Enchanted Kingdom

B+ Those nostalgic for March of the Penguins will get their fix with the BBC’s newest Earth-loving documentary, all hi-def nature montages and overzealous narration that thunders like the voice of God himself. Wait just 15 minutes for the unnerving remix of flamingo mating rituals to blow your mind. Footage is spliced, sped up and set to a synth soundtrack so that it resembles an EDM video for Audubon fanatics. Watching wildebeests flee crocodiles never really gets old, and it’s especially rewarding when paired with punk-metal tracks. We’re left pondering why no one’s made a rock opera starring water buffalo. G. ENID SPITZ. Clinton Street Theater.

The End of the Tour

B If you haven’t read Infinite Jest, this film about late, lauded author David Foster Wallace will make you biblio-curious. Ably portrayed by Jason Segel—the stoner drummer from Freaks & Geeks—Wallace was an academic who struggled with his iconic fame. Jesse Eisenberg plays Rolling Stone scribe David Lipsky, whose 2010 book, Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself, described the two Davids’ time together on the final days of the Infinite Jest tour. By the end, anyone seeking entertainment over verity will be better served by another viewing of Almost Famous. R. NATHAN CARSON. Hollywood, Bridgeport, Fox Tower.

Fantastic Four

D While neither Avengers: Age of Ultron nor Ant-Man were total failures, they were, at least, fun. Fantastic Four is decidedly not fun and—with the exception of largely decent casting and some genuinely compelling ﬂashbacks—a total failure. It is a gloomy, vacuous parade of junk science wherein four perfectly serviceable actors spend most of their time staring at computer holograms or strapped to hospital beds. The comics are kitschy, colorful aﬀairs, and this mess is unbearably self-serious and claustrophobic. Please God, make it stop. I’d ask Thanos, but for contractual reasons he cannot intercede. PG-13. CASEY JARMAN. Bagdad, Cedar Hills, Eastport, Clackamas, Mill Plain, Oak Grove, Bridgeport, City Center, Division, Evergreen, Hilltop, Lloyd Center, Movies on TV, Pioneer Place, Tigard, Wilsonville, St. Johns Theater.

The Gift

C The Gift is that rare mass-marketed psychological thriller that’s less concerned with scares than nuanced interiority. It’s as ominous, thoughtful and ultimately meaningless as any of the elaborate gifts left at the sparkling new home of Simon (Jason Bateman) and Robyn (Rebecca Hall). Following his dream job, the couple leaves Chicago for Simon’s hometown of Los Angeles,

C- Twenty-ﬁve years after witnessing the murders of her mother and

W W S TA F F

OPENING THIS WEEK

Willamette Week AUGUST 19, 2015 wweek.com

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ONE OF THESE THINGS IS NOT LIKE THE OTHER: Rupert Friend as Agent 47 (upper left); John Leguizamo and Jesse Eisenberg (below) in American Ultra.

ASSASSIN VS. ASSASSIN AMERICAN ULTRA AND AGENT 47 ADD MORE HIT MEN TO THE SUMMER’S STOCK. BY JOHN LOCA N THI

jlocanthi@wweek.com

In late summer, once the glut of comic-book movies is in the rear-view mirror, Hollywood releases its more original ideas. We’ve got adaptations of a ’60s TV spy show, a popular video game franchise, and something appallingly similar to the Bourne series (whose fifth installment is slated for release next summer). But with all these kind of familiar heroes filling the box office, it can be difficult to keep them straight. Hitman: Agent 47’s titular character and American Ultra’s Mike Howell are both young, pensive-looking white guys who are, like, super-good at killing people. So what’s the difference, beyond their names? In their respective trailers, Agent 47 kills a guy with a propeller blade, whereas Howell throws a frying pan in the air and ricochets a bullet off of it into a bad guy. Here is a handy guide to how else you can tell the two assassins apart when they hit theaters this week.

AGENT 47 Who is he? Agent 47 is a genetically engineered man trained from birth to kill people. He wasn’t given a proper name so he adopted “47” as a tribute to former Atlanta Braves pitching ace Tom Glavine. Who does he work for? A secret assassination syndicate named simply “The Organization,” which maintains its secrecy by requiring all employees to wear black suits and red ties, shave their heads and have visible barcode tattoos. How long has he been killing people? The first Hitman video game came out 15 years ago. Agent 47 has been assassinating people ever since. What is the conflict? He’s trying to kill the guy who taught him how to kill people or something. Strengths? Created by scientists to be better, stronger and faster than other humans—they had the technology. Unparalleled ability to deliver poorly written lines without a trace of emotion or self-awareness. Works hard, doesn’t play hard. Encyclopedic knowledge of weaponry. No off-the-field distractions. Keeps head clean-shaven to reduce drag.

Weaknesses? Has to play through missions several times to figure out how to best perform the assassination and complete all objectives. “Super-assassin kills overmatched people” is a really lame film plot. Does it have any prequels? Yes, Timothy Olyphant played Agent 47 in the 2007 adaptation. I do not have many regrets, but watching Hitman in preparation for this story is one of them.

MIKE HOWELL Who is he? Mike Howell is a checkout clerk at Cash-N-Carry. He likes to smoke weed (like, a lot), and he’s dating Phoebe (Kristen Stewart). He is also a sleeper agent for the CIA. Who does he work for? Since 1953, the CIA has been developing mind control and creating “sleeper agents” across the country, but saying Howell works for the CIA might be a stretch since the plot largely turns on agents trying to stop him. But the agency did train him. How long has he been killing people? Ever since Connie Britton walked into the store where he works and uttered a special code phrase. Now he is an unstoppable killing machine. What is the conflict? The guy from That ’70s Show wants him dead. Strengths? Ability to turn mundane household items into lethal weapons. The inability to control his newfound killing abilities makes Mike Howell a more sympathetic protagonist than Agent 47. Has a girlfriend, unlike that loser Agent 47. High THC tolerance. Weakness? Literally doesn’t know what he is doing. As a marijuana enthusiast, he is not a gogetter. Does it have any prequels? Nope. Despite similarities to the Bourne series—highly trained CIA assassin who doesn’t know how he gained his skills is being hunted down by the CIA— American Ultra is different in that it actually has a sense of humor. SEE IT: Hitman: Agent 47 and American Ultra are rated R. They open Friday at Portland-area theaters.

AUG. 19–25 where a chance encounter with a forgotten schoolmate leads “Gordo the Weirdo” (writer-director Joel Edgerton) to aggressive efforts at rekindling a friendship Simon insists never existed. The meandering narrative relishes faulting Simon for his past cruelties, and even as Edgerton blurs beneath a fog of battered fragility and Bateman steers hard into the Dark Bluth pose of caustic indifference, the film’s slow reveal creates oddly rich portraits of unremarkable figures. But how intently should we care about the empty actions of awful or absent characters? Some presents are perhaps best left unopened. R. JAY HORTON. Cedar Hills, Eastport, Clackamas, Mill Plain, Oak Grove, Bridgeport, City Center, Division, Evergreen, Fox Tower, Hilltop, Movies on TV.

is slightly hard to follow, but that’s to be expected (even relished) in a Cold War spy movie. Of course, it ends with the obligatory setup for sequels. If Guy Ritchie is at the helm, I’m down for it. PG-13. ALEX FLACONE. Cedar Hills, Eastport, Clackamas, Mill Plain, Oak Grove, Bridgeport, City Center, Hilltop, Movies on TV, Pioneer Place.

A The newest installment in the Tom Cruise-led series is top-of-class for the genre. Sure, James Bond had his Walther P99 pistol-equipped surfboard, but Rogue Nation uses cool spy gadgets to perfection, like the sniper riﬂe built into a bassoon for all your opera-hall assassination needs. And Tom’s aging actually plays well in the movie without becoming a huge deal. The only thing missing is the mushy, romancy stuﬀ. But that’s

Mr. Holmes

C- There’s a reason we don’t often follow our heroes into the sunset: Retirement is pretty boring and aging is depressing. In Mr. Holmes, the great Sherlock (Ian McKellen), a celebrity thanks to Dr. Watson’s embellished accounts, spends his

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PREVIEW COURTESY OF TYLER HURD

B- Mark Ruffalo stars as a bipolar dad forced to care for his two daughters alone when his wife (Zoe Saldana) moves to New York to pursue her career. As you’d expect, sometimes things are terribly awful and other times they’re wonderful. You definitely won’t enjoy this film if (like me) you agreed to go because you assumed it was a Disney documentary about how polar bears mate for life. R. ALEX FALCONE. Academy, Hollywood, Fox Tower.

another appeal of the franchise. It’s not sappy. It’s a tight action movie focused on talented people working together for the good (or harm? You have no idea!) of the world. PG-13. ALEX FALCONE. Cedar Hills, Eastport, Mill Plain, Clackamas, Cinetopia, Oak Grove, Bridgeport, City Center, Division, Evergreen, Hilltop, Lloyd Center, Movies on TV, Pioneer Place, Tigard, Wilsonville, St. Johns Cinemas, St. Johns Cinemas, St. Johns Theater.

Mission: Impossible: Rogue Nation

Infinitely Polar Bear

MOVIES

Inside Out

A Pretty much everybody in the theater was sobbing at some point during Inside Out. It’s sad. Crushingly, relentlessly sad. And absolutely brilliant from writer-director Pete Docter (Up). It’s not about depression per se. It’s about young Riley, who has to move across the country for her dad’s job, and the tiny people in her head who represent her emotions. The main story seems aimed more at parents and, to a lesser extent, older kids. There’s a talking elephant made of cotton candy to help occupy the littles, but you will love it, because it’s great. And since you’re paying for it, screw them. PG. ALEX FALCONE. Cedar Hills, Eastport, Clackamas, Bridgeport, City Center, Evergreen, Lloyd Center, Movies on TV.

Irrational Man

F Of all Woody Allen’s ﬁlms in recent memory, this has the worst icky-to-interesting ratio. The moment Joaquin Phoenix is introduced as the controversial new professor at an elite liberal arts school, you know this is a movie about a professor preying on a student, in this case the supremely likable Emma Stone. If you wanted to forget the fucked-up power dynamic between the two, you couldn’t because he orders for her at restaurants, and if you know anything about Woody, that’s all you can see. R. ALEX FALCONE. Bridgeport, City Center, Fox Tower, Movies on TV.

Magic Mike XXL

C If I base my critique on the room

temperature when I left the theater, XXL gets the job done. Channing Tatum returns as the toned and thrusting Mike Lane, who left the stage to start a furniture business. Magic Mike writer Reid Carolin reunites the crew for one last show before they hang up their G-strings for good. PG-13. LAUREN TERRY. Laurelhurst, Living Room Theaters.

The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

B+ If you walked out of Mission: Impossible: Rogue Nation and thought, “I can’t wait to see another spy thriller with too much punctuation based on a ’60s TV show,” then fear not. Hollywood is looking out for you with The Man From U.N.C.L.E. It’ll win you over in the first few minutes with an impressively innovative car-chase scene and the rest of the film feels a lot like writer-director Guy Ritchie’s amazing heist flick Snatch: innovative action sequences, unflappable characters and lots of jazzy flute riffs. The cast is U.N.C.L.E.’s weakest feature. The whole thing

LIKE MAGIC: Butts by Tyler Hurd.

KALEIDOSCOPIC VISION Portland cinephiles may be spoiled with beer taps in theaters and rare screenings of Vertigo in 70 mm, but the best movie experience includes motion-sensing earbuds and what look like Samsung ski goggles. This is the future of film, if San Francisco’s Rene Pinnell and his fellow virtual-reality evangelists succeed. “It’s the best of music videos—the sound, the visuals, the experience, the full package—times 10,” Pinnell says of VR films, like the ones his fledgling Kaleidoscope management company oversees. “What’s better than being right there with the characters?” Kaleidoscope’s premiere VR Film Festival launches its 10-city tour in Portland on Saturday, Aug. 22. The one-day event lets 300 ticket holders move between 20 stations, donning a pair of Samsung viewers to experience each film. “We can take you to places you’ve never been,” Pinnell says. Some films are lighthearted like the technicolor Butts, while others transport viewers to unreachable venues more seriously: DMZ: Memories of a No Man’s Land explores the Korean Demilitarized Zone from the viewpoint of a former soldier, and The Nepal Quake Project immerses viewers in the wreckage while Susan Sarandon narrates from their earbuds. Some films wax artistic— The Night Cafe makes van Gogh’s most famous works interactive. Others are existential—Tana Pura channels The Tibetan Book of the Dead and The Psychedelic Experience for an audiovisual exploration of the moment right after death. “We’ve crossed that magical line,” Pinnell says, explaining that the explosion in recent years of smartphone usage and high-quality VR from companies like industry leader Oculus Rift are making VR accessible for mainstream movie fans. “On one side you have pixelated, disorienting experiences that make you nauseous, if they’re not up to the technical specifications,” Pinnell says. “The other side is a magical, immersive experience. And now we’re on the right side.” Like traveling evangelists peddling a new reality, Pinnell is loading up a U-Haul for the 50,000-mile journey across 10 cities to spread the word. “It’s a tectonic shift in the way we’re consuming stories,” he says. “The people I know, once they’ve experienced VR…they become true believers.” ENID SPITZ.

Virtual Reality Film Festival premieres in Portland.

GO: The Kaleidoscope VR Film Festival is at Flex Space, 1307 NW Overton St., kvrﬀ.com, on Saturday, Aug. 22. 3:30-8 pm. $20.

American Ultra (R) 11:15AM 2:05PM 4:40PM 7:15PM 10:05PM Ant-Man (PG-13) 11:10AM 2:00PM 4:55PM 7:45PM 10:35PM Fantastic Four (2015) (PG-13) 11:45AM 2:30PM 5:10PM 7:55PM 10:35PM Gift, The (2015) (R) 11:05AM 1:50PM 4:35PM 7:20PM 10:05PM Hitman: Agent 47 (R) 11:30AM 12:50PM 2:10PM 3:30PM 4:50PM 6:10PM 7:30PM 8:50PM 10:10PM Inside Out (PG) 11:15AM 1:55PM 4:35PM 7:15PM 9:55PM Jurassic World (PG-13) 10:50AM 4:30PM 10:25PM Minions (PG) 11:25AM 2:00PM 4:30PM 7:05PM 9:40PM Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (PG-13) 12:45PM ® 4:00PM ® 7:15PM ® 10:25PM ®

Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (PG-13) 12:45PM 4:00PM 7:15PM 10:25PM Pixels (PG-13) 10:55AM 1:35PM 4:25PM 7:10PM 10:00PM Ricki and the Flash (PG-13) 11:00AM 1:40PM 4:15PM 7:00PM 9:45PM Shaun the Sheep Movie (PG) 12:10PM 2:35PM 5:00PM 7:25PM 9:50PM Sinister 2 (R) 11:50AM 2:25PM 5:05PM 7:45PM 10:20PM Southpaw (R) 10:50AM 1:45PM 4:45PM 7:40PM 10:35PM Straight Outta Compton (R) 10:50AM 2:15PM 5:40PM 9:05PM Vacation (R) 1:55PM 7:30PM The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (PG-13) 10:55AM ® 1:50PM ® 4:45PM ® 7:40PM ® 10:35PM ® The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (PG-13) 10:55AM 12:15PM 1:50PM 3:15PM 4:45PM 6:15PM 7:40PM 9:10PM 10:35PM Trainwreck (R) 10:50AM 1:45PM 4:40PM 7:35PM 10:30PM

Mr. Holmes (PG) 11:40AM 2:15PM 4:50PM 7:25PM 10:00PM Ricki and the Flash (PG-13) 11:20AM 2:00PM 4:40PM 7:20PM 10:00PM Trainwreck (R) 10:50AM 1:45PM 4:40PM 7:35PM 10:30PM Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (PG-13) 11:30AM 1:00PM 2:30PM 4:00PM 5:30PM 7:00PM 8:30PM 10:00PM Straight Outta Compton (R) 12:15PM 3:35PM 7:00PM 10:20PM The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (PG-13) 11:30AM 2:15PM 5:00PM 7:45PM 10:30PM Shaun the Sheep Movie (PG) 11:45AM 2:05PM 4:30PM Sinister 2 (R) 12:15PM 2:45PM 5:15PM 7:45PM 10:15PM

Ant-Man (PG-13) 11:00AM 1:50PM 4:40PM 7:30PM 10:20PM Fantastic Four (2015) (PG-13) 12:10PM 2:40PM 5:10PM 7:40PM 10:15PM Minions (PG) 11:20AM 1:45PM 4:05PM 6:30PM 9:00PM American Ultra (R) 12:30PM 3:00PM 5:30PM 8:00PM 10:30PM Inside Out (PG) 12:00PM 2:30PM 5:00PM 7:30PM 10:05PM Kick 2 (Classics) (NR) 9:00PM Gift, The (2015) (R) 11:45AM 2:25PM 5:05PM 7:45PM 10:25PM Hitman: Agent 47 (R) 12:00PM 2:30PM 5:00PM 7:30PM 10:05PM

Pixels (PG-13) 11:20AM 2:05PM 4:50PM 7:50PM 10:30PM Ricki and the Flash (PG-13) 11:15AM 2:00PM 4:40PM 7:30PM 10:05PM Trainwreck (R) 6:50PM 9:50PM Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (PG-13) 11:00AM 12:30PM 2:10PM 3:40PM 5:30PM 7:00PM 8:45PM 10:10PM Straight Outta Compton (R) 11:30AM 3:00PM 6:30PM 10:00PM The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (PG-13) 1:00PM 4:10PM 7:20PM 10:25PM Shaun the Sheep Movie (PG) 11:10AM 1:45PM 4:15PM 6:45PM 9:30PM

Sinister 2 (R) 12:00PM 2:30PM 5:15PM 7:45PM 10:30PM Ant-Man (PG-13) 11:00AM 1:55PM 4:45PM 7:35PM 10:25PM Assassination (Well Go USA) (NR) 12:35PM 3:55PM 7:05PM 10:15PM Minions (PG) 11:10AM 1:50PM 4:20PM American Ultra (R) 11:45AM 2:15PM 5:00PM 7:30PM 10:15PM Hitman: Agent 47 (R) 11:30AM 2:00PM 4:45PM 7:15PM 10:00PM Inside Out (PG) 11:05AM 1:40PM 4:25PM 7:10PM 9:55PM Fantastic Four (2015) (PG-13) 11:35AM 2:15PM 5:00PM 7:45PM 10:20PM Gift, The (2015) (R) 11:25AM 2:10PM 4:55PM 7:40PM 10:20PM

Straight Outta Compton (XD) (R) 12:20PM 3:40PM 7:00PM 10:20PM

FRIDAY Willamette Week AUGUST 19, 2015 wweek.com

AUG. 19–25

days at a rustic estate struggling to remember his last case, allowing his health to deteriorate and tending to his beehives. Without Ian McKellen, this would be the story of a boring old man doing boring, old-man things. PG. ANDY KRYZA. Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Kiggins, Living Room Theaters, City Center, Movies on TV.

Paper Towns

B- This is the classic manic-pixiedream-girl story of a bunch of highschoolers ﬁguring out who to go to prom with. PG-13. ALEX FALCONE. Living Room Theaters, Bridgeport, Vancouver.

Phoenix

A Since its debut at the Toronto

International Film Festival last summer, the nominations keep coming for this concise, moving neo-noir set in postwar Germany. Nelly (Nina Hoss) has just returned from a concentration camp, her face disﬁgured beyond recognition. After recovering from reconstructive surgery, she learns of her massive inheritance, but is only concerned about ﬁnding her husband, Johnny (Ronald Zehrfeld). Director Christian Petzold crafts this stylish period piece without relying on dramatic lighting or odd angles, instead thickening the mystery with jarring cuts that keep the audience guessing. PG-13. LAUREN TERRY. Cinema 21.

Pixels

C I’ve got to hand it to Pixels: It’s refreshingly colorful for a summer blockbuster, but the all-white cast is dull and unconvincing. A trip to Ground Kontrol would have been cheaper and more satisfying. PG-13. CASEY JARMAN. Cedar Hills, Eastport, Clackamas, Oak Grove, Division, Hilltop, Movies on TV.

Ricki and the Flash

D It sounds all right on paper: the story of rocker mom Ricki Rendazzo (Meryl Streep), who left her kids and ex to focus on her career, returning home to comfort her newly divorced daughter, Julie (played by Streep’s real-life daughter Mamie Gunner). One expects another fresh, touching tale from the pen of Diablo Cody. But this ﬁlm has none of the soul that made Juno so endearing. Ricki’s rock persona relies on her Viking-like, halfbraided hairdo and the scenes of her aging cover band are more cheesy than rock ’n’ roll, especially when they play covers like Pink’s “Lets Get It Started.” Besides a joke about Ambien shits, Gunner’s post-suicidal Julie doesn’t do much more than throw random angsty stabs at her absentee mother. Lacking any hook, the ﬁlm doesn’t give us cause to care when their relationship is inexplicably repaired after a mother-daughter salon visit. PG-13. LAUREN TERRY. Cedar Hills, Eastport, Clackamas, Bridgeport, City Center, Division, Evergreen, Fox Tower, Movies on TV.

Shaun the Sheep Movie

A- In a vibrant return to traditional clay animation, Shaun the Sheep Movie tells a fresh story with the familiar painstaking imagery that makes Aardman Studios the “English Pixar.” Steeped in the tongue-incheek charm of the original Wallace & Gromit, parents will ﬁnd as much in store for them as their children. PG. LAUREN TERRY. Cedar Hills, Eastport, Clackamas, Oak Grove, Bridgeport, Division, Evergreen, Hilltop, Lloyd Center, Movies on TV, Tigard.

Southpaw

B- There’s no way to describe Southpaw without making it sound like a list of boxing movie clichés, because that’s exactly what it is. Jake Gyllenhaal’s light-heavyweight champion through the ringer in a familiar tale of redemption. Undefeated Billy Hope loses everything in short order: his wife (Rachel McAdams), riches, entourage and daughter. Even a rookie could see Forest Whitaker’s no-nonsense trainer and Eminem’s hype song coming from a mile away. That probably won’t stop you from jumping out

of your seat in bloodthirsty joy when Gyllenhaal punches the other guy in the head. R. MICHAEL NORDINE. Cedar Hills, Eastport, Clackamas, Bridgeport, City Center, Division, Evergreen, Fox Tower, Movies on TV.

AP FILM STUDIES W W S TA F F

MOVIES

Straight Outta Compton

C Straight Outta Compton struggles mightily to get a flow going— imagine finding a “$20 Sack Pyramid” skit every third song on The Chronic. And they’re ultimately what prevents Compton from being the classic it could’ve been. Instead, we essentially have a Wikipedia wormhole— fun only for those few of us who get the many deep references. Telling the greatest story in the history of popular music—full of actual violence and sex and death and betrayal and redemption and brotherhood— wasn’t going to be easy. Especially since it attempts to follow three main story lines, as Dre, Cube and Eazy-E all get major play, with DJ Yella and and MC Ren rightly relegated to bit player status. And even more especially since it’s co-produced by the star subjects, who all want to manage their own image and follow their own arcs. That doesn’t really work here. To its credit, Compton is not an oversimplification and extreme dramatization of the N.W.A. story. As best I know, it’s a fairly faithful telling of the story, but it’s not the movie N.W.A. deserved. R. MARTIN CIZMAR. Cedar Hills, Eastport, Clackamas, Mill Plain, Hollywood, Oak Grove, Bridgeport, City Center, Division, Evergreen, Lloyd Center, Movies on TV, Pioneer Place, St. Johns Cinemas, St. Johns Theater.

Tangerine

B+ Sin-Dee (Kitana Kiki Rodriguez)

is fresh out of jail after a 28-day stint and looking to ﬁnd her unfaithful pimp boyfriend’s lover. The quest narrative that follows is often hilarious, giving a more ground-level view of Los Angeles than in any other movie in recent years. R. MICHAEL NORDINE. Academy, Cinema 21, Laurelhurst.

Trainwreck

C Amy Schumer stars as Amy, a version of herself as a magazine writer instead of a comedy writer. She inexplicably falls in love with a boring guy (Bill Hader from Saturday Night Live) who loves her back unconditionally but for no apparent reason. It goes well for a while, then it doesn’t for a couple days, then it does again. Save your time, save your money, and most importantly, save your little heart from breaking over what this ﬁlm could’ve been. R. ALEX FALCONE. Cedar Hills, Eastport, Clackamas, Mill Plain, Moreland, Bridgeport, City Center, Evergreen, Fox Tower, Lloyd Center, Movies on TV.

Vacation

D+ You can look forward to the same opening tune of Lindsey Buckingham’s “Holiday Road,” but this spin on 1983’s National Lampoon’s Vacation replaces the original’s irreverent, campy charm with puke scenes and punch lines that rely on the comedic value of a child saying “vagina.” Rusty Griswold (Ed Helms) is all grown up and wants to refresh his relationship with his wife (Christina Applegate) and kids by re-creating his family’s road trip to Walley World. The drive from Chicago to California is a bumpy ride for middle-class Rusty, forced to defend his adequacy in the face of his wealthy sister, Audrey (Leslie Mann), and her well-endowed husband, Stone (Chris Hemsworth). Director John Francis Daley focuses more on Rusty’s emotional voyage than consistent laughs, but strategic cameos help to keep things light (including two of the Always Sunny in Philadelphia crew). Ultimately, Helms’ character is just too sad of a clown to ever make it out of Chevy Chase’s shadow, as is surely the fate of this sort-of remake. R. LAUREN TERRY. Cedar Hills, Eastport, Clackamas, Oak Grove, Bridgeport, City Center, Division, Evergreen, Hilltop, Lloyd Center, Movies on TV.

Willamette Week AUGUST 19, 2015 wweek.com

DOUBLE THE GUNS: John Travolta and Nicolas Cage.

CAGE MATCH FACE/OFF IS EVEN WEIRDER THAN YOU REMEMBER.

BY A P KRYZA

apkryza@wweek.com

In 1997, Hong Kong action auteur John Woo unleashed his third, and best, American offering, Face/ Off (Laurelhurst Theater, Aug. 21-27). The blockbuster combined the director’s signature style—double-fisted gunfights, doves flying in slow motion, more ham than Virginia—with some of the weirdest shit to compose a major-studio tentpole in the ’90s. Nearly 20 years later, it’s simply gotten weirder. I’m not talking about the concept itself—an unbelievable tale of an FBI agent whose face is swapped with a comatose terrorist’s. That’s plenty weird. So is the scene in a maximum security prison in which inmates are controlled via magnetic boots. So is the weird sexual tension between the villains, a pair of brothers named Pollux and Castor Troy. But what makes Face/ Off completely bananas beyond the gonzo shootouts, weird sex shit and hallucinogenic bouts of violence is the fact that it starred two of the pre-eminent action stars of the day: John Travolta and Nicolas Cage. Twenty years ago, Cage was still the same skinny weirdo he is today, though he was slightly more jacked from his work in Con-Air. And Travolta still looked like a dead-eyed, bloated teddy bear who stole his dad’s suit and went to a movie studio. Yet, suddenly, we were to believe they were action heroes. Just a couple years prior, Travolta was yukking it up with babies and dogs in the Look Who’s Talking films before striking gold with Pulp Fiction—a tough-guy role, sure, but not a traditional action flick. Before you could say “Barbarino,” he was double-fisting machine guns in Woo’s dumbass runaway-train feature Broken Arrow. Cage, meanwhile, had won a Best Actor Oscar the year before for Leaving Las Vegas and seemed to have willed himself into action movies solely through the power of his hair. First, he was the wimpy chemist in The Rock, then he was the ultrajacked hillbilly in Con-Air.

None of this made sense, career-wise. And yet, it was as beautiful as it was perplexing. Face/Off marks the apex of both men’s bizarro forays into action. Cage lets loose with a bug-eyed insanity, imploring women to “suck his tongue” while gleefully mowing down fields of bystanders during a runway chase. When the actors swap roles, Travolta gets to go bad, ramping up his token charm to perverse levels as he infiltrates his foe’s family and work life. Even the actors’ lively performances will never make the sight of Cage doing pointless flips while dodging bullets or Travolta engaging in any physical activity that isn’t dancing less jarring. But the ’90s were a very weird time, and Face/Off ’s layers upon layers of strangeness are the decade at its best. ALSO SHOWING:

Weird Wednesday puts the crap on hold for a free screening of a genuine classic, Fritz Lang’s M, one of the ﬁrst—and still best—serial-killer dramas. Joy Cinema. 9:30 pm Wednesday, Aug. 19.

Portland Anarchist Black Cross presents Incident at Oglala, a film about a 1975 conflict between Native Americans and the FBI in South Dakota that left two agents dead. The screening includes a talk by Chauncey Peltier, son of Leonard Peltier, the only man convicted in the incident, some say wrongly. Clinton Street Theater. 7 pm Wednesday, Aug. 19. Top Down Cinema Rooftop Cinema goes crisscross with Strangers on a Train, arguably the finest film of Alfred Hitchcock’s storied career. Hotel deLuxe. 8 pm Thursday, Aug. 20. Never Let Me Go depicts a near future in which pretty British schoolchildren fall in love, learn about life and slowly waste away because they’re actually bred to be organ donors for rich people who harvest from them like apple trees. 5th Avenue Cinema. 7 and 9:30 pm Friday-Saturday, 3 pm Sunday, Aug. 21-23. The Academy revisits the early days of specialeffects blockbusters with 1958’s The 7th Voyage of Sinbad—presented in Dynarama! Academy Theater. Aug. 21-27. Mrs. Doubtfire takes over Pioneer Courthouse Square during a Flicks on the Bricks event that could see a rise in drive-by fruitings. Pioneer Courthouse Square. Dusk Friday, Aug. 21. Any conversation about car chases that doesn’t include the high-octane, drug-addled 1971 gearhead masterpiece Vanishing Point is a not a conversation worth having. Hollywood Theatre. 7:30 pm Tuesday, Aug. 25.

AUG. 21–27

MOVIES Beyond the Print

MOBILE PETER LORRE CONTEMPLATING A CRIME: Fritz Lang’s M plays Wednesday, Aug. 19, at 9:30 pm at Joy Cinema. NEVER LET ME GO FriSat-Sun 03:00 NO FILMS SHOWING TODAY Mon-TueWed

Forest Theatre Regal Lloyd Center 10 & IMAX 1510 NE Multnomah St. HITMAN: AGENT 47 FriSat-Sun 11:40, 02:15, 04:50, 07:25, 10:00 STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON Fri-SatSun 11:30, 03:00, 06:30, 09:55

Regal Evergreen Parkway Stadium 13 & RPX

2625 NW 188th Ave. HITMAN: AGENT 47 Fri-SatSun-Mon-Tue-Wed 01:45, 04:15, 07:00, 10:30

Regal Hilltop 9 Cinema

325 Beavercreek Road HITMAN: AGENT 47 FriSat-Sun 11:15, 01:55, 04:30, 07:15, 10:00

Regal Division Street Stadium 13 16603 SE Division St. HITMAN: AGENT 47 Fri 12:00, 02:30, 05:00, 07:30, 10:15 WAR ROOM

Avalon Theatre & Wunderland

3451 S.E. Belmont St., 503-238-1617 TERMINATOR GENISYS Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-Tue-Wed 04:40, 07:00, 09:20 MAX Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-Tue-Wed 12:30, 02:35 SPY Fri-SatSun-Mon-Tue-Wed 07:10, 09:25 SAN ANDREAS Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-TueWed 03:00, 05:00 PITCH PERFECT 2 Fri-Sat-SunMon-Tue-Wed 12:50

Bagdad Theater

3702 SE Hawthorne Blvd., 503-249-7474 AMERICAN ULTRA Fri-SatSun-Mon-Tue-Wed 01:30, 04:00, 07:00, 09:45

Cinema 21

616 NW 21st Ave., 503-223-4515 THE DIARY OF A TEENAGE GIRL Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-TueWed 01:45, 04:15, 07:00, 09:15 AMY Fri-Sat-SunMon-Tue-Wed 01:00, 03:45, 07:00, 09:35 PHOENIX Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-Tue-Wed 01:30, 04:00, 06:45, 09:00

Laurelhurst Theatre & Pub

2735 E Burnside St., 503-232-5511 MAGIC MIKE XXL Fri-SatSun-Mon-Tue-Wed 07:00 FACE/OFF Fri-Sat-SunMon-Tue-Wed 09:15 I’LL SEE YOU IN MY DREAMS Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-Tue-Wed 07:15 WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS Fri-Sat-SunMon-Tue-Wed 09:40 SPY Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-Tue-Wed

06:45 MAD MAX: FURY ROAD Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-TueWed 09:30 LOVE & MERCY Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-Tue-Wed 06:30 TANGERINE Fri-SatSun-Mon-Tue-Wed 09:00

Mission Theater and Pub

1624 NW Glisan St. SPY Fri-Sat-Wed 05:30, 08:30

Moreland Theatre

6712 SE Milwaukie Ave., 503-236-5257 INSIDE OUT Fri-Sat-SunMon-Tue-Wed 05:30 TRAINWRECK Fri-Sat-SunTue-Wed 08:00

Mt. Hood Theatre

401 E Powell Blvd., 503-665-0604 MAX Fri-Sat-Sun-MonTue-Wed 04:45 PIXELS Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-Tue-Wed 12:15, 07:00 TERMINATOR GENISYS Fri-Sat-Sun-MonTue-Wed 02:15, 09:10

CineMagic Theatre

2021 SE Hawthorne Blvd., 503-231-7919 TRAINWRECK Fri-Sat-SunMon-Tue-Wed 04:30, 07:00, 09:30

Kiggins Theatre

1011 Main St., 360-816-0352 ZARAFA Fri-Sat-Sun-MonTue 07:00 MR. HOLMES Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-Tue 04:45, 08:45 NO FILMS SHOWING TODAY Wed

Regal Cinema 99 Stadium 11

9010 NE Highway 99 HITMAN: AGENT 47 Fri-SatSun 12:00, 02:30, 05:00, 07:30, 10:00

Regal City Center Stadium 12

801 C St. HITMAN: AGENT 47 Fri-Sat 11:00, 01:30, 04:05, 06:35, 09:05

Empirical Theatre at OMSI

1945 SE Water Ave., 503-797-4000 WALKING WITH DINOSAURS 3D Fri-Sat-Sun 11:00, 02:00 SECRET OCEAN Fri-Sat-Sun 10:00, 01:00 JOURNEY TO SPACE Fri-Sat-Sun 12:00, 03:00, 05:30 MONKEY KINGDOM Fri-Sun 04:00 TOMORROWLAND Fri-Sat 06:00 AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON Fri 08:45 SEA MONSTERS: A PREHISTORIC ADVENTURE Sat 04:00 MAD MAX: FURY ROAD 3D Sat 10:00

5th Avenue Cinema

510 SW Hall St., 503-725-3551

1911 Paciﬁc Ave., 503-844-8732 MINIONS Fri-Sat-Sun-MonTue-Wed 05:25 THE GIFT Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-Tue-Wed 07:30

Hollywood Theatre

4122 NE Sandy Blvd., 503-281-4215 STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON Fri-Sat-Sun-MonTue-Wed 06:45 THE LOOK OF SILENCE Fri-Sat-SunMon-Tue-Wed 09:30 THE END OF THE TOUR Fri-SatSun-Mon-Tue-Wed 07:15 THE THIEF OF BAGHDAD Sat 02:00 ELIJAH HASAN: THREE THE HARD WAY Sun 02:00 MAKE MINE COUNTRY Sun 07:00 PHILIP GUSTON Mon 07:30 THE VANISHING POINT Tue 07:30 JAPANESE INVASION Wed 07:30

Regal Sherwood Stadium 10

15995 Tualatin-Sherwood Road HITMAN: AGENT 47 Fri 12:00, 02:30, 05:00, 07:40, 10:20

NW Film Center’s Whitsell Auditorium

1219 SW Park Ave., 503-221-1156 THERE WILL BE BLOOD Fri-Sat 04:00 BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK Sat 07:00 GIANT Sun 06:00

Regal Pioneer Place Stadium 6

340 SW Morrison St. HITMAN: AGENT 47 Fri-SatSun-Mon-Tue-Wed 01:15, 04:15, 07:15, 10:00

St. Johns Theater

8203 N Ivanhoe St. 503-249-7474-6 MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE ROGUE NATION Fri-SatSun-Mon-Tue-Wed 04:30, 07:30, 10:20 STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON Fri-SatSun-Mon-Tue-Wed 03:45, 07:00, 10:10

Century 16 Cedar Hills

3200 SW Hocken Ave. INSIDE OUT Fri-Sat-SunMon-Tue 12:00, 02:30, 05:00, 07:30, 10:05 MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE ROGUE NATION Fri-SatSun-Mon-Tue 11:30, 01:00, 02:30, 04:00, 05:30, 07:00, 08:30, 10:00 MINIONS Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-Tue 11:20, 01:45, 04:05, 06:30, 09:00 ANT-MAN Fri-Sat-Sun-MonTue 11:00, 01:50, 04:40, 07:30, 10:20 TRAINWRECK Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-Tue 10:50, 01:45, 04:40, 07:35, 10:30 MR. HOLMES Fri-SatSun-Mon-Tue 11:40, 02:15, 04:50, 07:25, 10:00 THE

GIFT Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-Tue 11:45, 02:25, 05:05, 07:45, 10:25 FANTASTIC FOUR Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-Tue 12:10, 02:40, 05:10, 07:40, 10:15 RICKI AND THE FLASH Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-Tue 11:20, 02:00, 04:40, 07:20, 10:00 SHAUN THE SHEEP MOVIE Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-Tue 11:45, 02:05, 04:30, 07:15, 09:35 THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-Tue 11:30, 02:15, 05:00, 07:45, 10:30 STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON Fri-Sat-Sun-MonTue 12:15, 03:35, 07:00, 10:20 HITMAN: AGENT 47 Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-Tue 12:00, 02:30, 05:00, 07:30, 10:05 SINISTER 2 Fri-Sat-SunMon-Tue 12:15, 02:45, 05:15, 07:45, 10:15 AMERICAN ULTRA Fri-Sat-Sun-MonTue 12:30, 03:00, 05:30, 08:00, 10:30 KICK 2 Fri-Sat 09:00 ESL ONE COLOGNE COUNTER-STRIKE: GO FINALS LIVE Sun 10:00 THE CROODS Tue 10:30

STAY CONNECTED

WWEEKDOTCOM WWEEKDOTCOM WWEEKDOTCOM WWEEKDOTCOM

Regal Cinemas Bridgeport Village Stadium 18 & IMAX

7329 SW Bridgeport Road HITMAN: AGENT 47 Fri-SatSun 12:00, 02:30, 05:00, 07:35, 10:05 WAR ROOM

Academy Theater

7818 SE Stark St., 503-252-0500 TANGERINE Fri-Sat-SunMon-Tue-Wed 05:00, 09:20 LOVE & MERCY Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-TueWed 12:05, 06:50 SPY Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-Tue-Wed 02:30, 07:20 INFINITELY POLAR BEAR Fri-SatSun-Mon-Tue-Wed 02:20, 07:05 TOMORROWLAND Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-Tue-Wed 02:40 MAD MAX: FURY ROAD Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-TueWed 04:20, 09:05 HOME Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-Tue-Wed 12:15 THE 7TH VOYAGE OF SINBAD Fri-Sat-SunMon-Tue-Wed 12:30, 05:20, 09:50

Valley Theater

9360 SW Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway, 503-296-6843 TOMORROWLAND FriSat-Sun 01:20, 04:00 SPY Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-TueWed 06:40, 09:10 HOME Fri-Sat-Sun 02:15, 04:15 TERMINATOR GENISYS Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-Tue-Wed 06:20 SAN ANDREAS Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-Tue-Wed 08:45 MAD MAX: FURY ROAD Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-TueWed 07:00, 09:30

SUBJECT TO CHANGE. CALL THEATERS OR VISIT WWEEK.COM/MOVIETIMES FOR THE MOST UP-TO-DATE INFORMATION FRIDAY-THURSDAY, AUG. 21-27, UNLESS OTHERWISE INDICATED

Willamette Week AUGUST 19, 2015 wweek.com

END ROLL

REVIEW: THE FIREFLY

Cannabis news, culture & reviews from Portland.

potlander.com

One of the annoying things about most portable loose-leaf vaporizers is the inability to tell when you need to reload. Since they gently bake the intoxicating oils out of the flower, even when you get the stuff out of the chamber it can be hard to tell when the brownish-green plant matter has turned greenish brown. And by that point you’ve already emptied the device. Chances are, you don’t want to reload the oven to leach that last little bit of good stuff out of your flower. Which is a great reason to check out the Firefly Vaporizer ($269.95 including free shipping, at vapeworld.com). This hefty portable vape also has a completely idiot-proof, two-button design (a sliding on-off switch and a button to heat the oven) and offers a smooth pull, though there are a few drawbacks. Here’s what’s good about the Firefly. It starts with that see-through chamber, which gets just a little condensation forming as the heating element inside glows bright orange and starts vaporizing the cannabis. As your session draws to a close, you’ll see those leaves inside turning a frail brown. Second, there’s a reassuring metal heft to the sleek device, which is shaped like a giant thumb drive. It feels like a Taser in your hand. That can be a drawback if you’re putting it in your pocket for a walk—it seems to weigh about double what an iPhone does—but it does feel a lot better in your hand than a disposable oil pen. Third, the draw is silky smooth—those who’ve OWL TURD COMIX

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mastered the technique of preheating the convection oven and drawing just the right amount each time swear by the Firefly. That convection oven also provided a flavorful, citrusy vapor from my Eco Firma-grown Headband. The limitations start with that draw, which I couldn’t get to offer as much vapor as its many competitors, even when I pressed the button and let it heat up for 15 seconds or so before my first pull. That could be partly because the bowl of the oven is so wide and shallow, you need to pack it really densely for the best results. Getting the first big, thick cloud required holding the button down for almost 30 seconds, and it seemed to take at least that long the next time around. The unique design finds you pulling off the magnetic top of the unit like the faceplate on an old Alpine car stereo. You load the flower and then put the top back on. That glass window makes it possible to see the herb, but it also resulted in actually sucking a little bit of ground flower into the mouthpiece. That could be because I didn’t load it carefully enough, but it’s also something that hasn’t happened to me with other units. My last complaint—and this truly is a quibble—is that this is the rare unit that doesn’t come with a USB charging cord. I far prefer the Pax 2 to the Firefly—it’s smaller and its lights provide a clear indication when you can expect a big, thick cloud—but for those who want to closely monitor the condition of their bud, or who swear by the flavor of convection-baked smoke, the Firefly does a good job. MARTIN CIZMAR.

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Week of August 20

ARIES (March 21-April 19): You’d probably prefer to stay in the romantic, carefree state of mind. But from what I can tell, you’re ripe for a new phase of your long-term cycle. Your freestyle rambles and jaunty adventures should now make way for careful introspection and thoughtful adjustments. Instead of restless star-gazing, I suggest patient earth-gazing. Despite how it may initially appear, it’s not a comedown. In fact, I see it as an unusual reward that will satisfy you in unexpected ways. TAURUS (April 20-May 20): In accordance with the current astrological omens, I recommend the following activities: Sing a love song at least once a day. Seek a message from an ancestor in a reverie or dream. Revisit your three favorite childhood memories. Give a gift or blessing to the wildest part of you. Swim naked in a river, stream, or lake. Change something about your home to make it more sacred and mysterious. Obtain a symbolic object or work of art that stimulates your courage to be true to yourself. Find relaxation and renewal in the deep darkness. Ruminate in unbridled detail about how you will someday fulfill a daring fantasy. GEMINI (May 21-June 20): The ancient Greek epic poem the Iliad is one of the foundation works of Western literature. Written in the eighth century BCE, it tells the story of the ten-year-long Trojan War. The cause of the conflict was the kidnap of Helen of Troy, reputed to be the world’s most beautiful woman. And yet nowhere in the Iliad is there a description of Helen’s beauty. We hear no details about why she deserves to be at the center of the legendary saga. Don’t be like the Iliad in the coming weeks, Gemini. Know everything you can about the goal at the center of your life. Be very clear and specific and precise about what you’re fighting for and working towards. CANCER (June 21-July 22): The comedian puppets known as the Muppets have made eight movies. In The Great Muppet Caper, the muppets Kermit and Fozzie play brothers, even though one is a green frog and the other a brown bear. At one point in the story, we see a photo of their father, who has the coloring and eyes of Kermit, but a bear-like face. I bring up their unexpected relationship, Cancerian, because I suspect that a similar anomaly might be coming your way: a bond with a seemingly improbable ally. To prepare, stretch your ideas about what influences you might want to connect with. LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): English author Barbara Cartland published her first novel at age 21. By the time she died 77 years later, she had written more than 700 other books. Some sources say she sold 750 million copies, while others put the estimate at two billion. In 1983 alone, she churned out 23 novels. I foresee a Barbara Cartland-type period for you in the coming months, Leo. Between now and your birthday in 2016, I expect you to be as fruitful in your own field as you have ever been. And here’s the weird thing: One of the secrets of your productivity will be an enhanced ability to chill out. “Relaxed intensity” will be your calming battle cry. VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): ‘’On or about December 1910, human character changed,’’ wrote English author Virginia Woolf in 1924. What prompted her to draw that conclusion? The rapidly increasing availability of electricity, cars, and indoor plumbing? The rise of the women’s suffrage movement? Labor unrest and the death of the King? The growing prominence of experimental art by Cezanne, Gauguin, Matisse, and Picasso? The answer might be all of the above, plus the beginning of a breakdown in the British class system. Inspired by the current astrological omens, I’ll borrow her brash spirit and make a new prediction: During the last 19 weeks of 2015, the destiny of the Virgo tribe will undergo a fundamental shift. Ten years from now, I bet you will look back at this time and say, “That was when everything got realigned, redeemed, and renewed.” LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): “The greatest and most important problems of life are all in a certain sense insoluble,” said psychologist Carl Jung. “They can never be solved, but only outgrown.” I subscribe to

that model of dealing with dilemmas, and I hope you will consider it, too -- especially in light of the fact that from now until July 2016 you will have more power than ever before to outgrow two of your biggest problems. I don’t guarantee that you will transcend them completely, but I’m confident you can render them at least 60 percent less pressing, less imposing, and less restricting. And 80 percent is quite possible. SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Hundreds of years ago, Hawaiians celebrated an annual holiday called Makahiki. It began in early November and lasted four months. No one worked very much for the duration. There were nonstop feasts and games and religious ceremonies. Community-building was a featured theme, and one taboo was strictly enforced: no war or bloodshed. I encourage you Scorpios to enjoy a similar break from your daily fuss. Now is an especially propitious time to ban conflict, contempt, revenge, and sabotage as you cultivate solidarity in the groups that are important for your future. You may not be able to make your own personal Makahiki last for four months, but could you at least manage three weeks? SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Located in Ann Arbor, Michigan, the Museum of Failed Products is a warehouse full of consumer goods that companies created but no one wanted to buy. It includes caffeinated beer, yogurt shampoo, fortune cookies for dogs, and breath mints that resemble vials of crack cocaine. The most frequent visitors to the museum are executives seeking to educate themselves about what errors to avoid in their own companies’ future product development. I encourage you to be inspired by this place, Sagittarius. Take an inventory of the wrong turns you’ve made in the past. Use what you learn to create a revised master plan. CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.” Virtually all of us have been guilty of embodying that well-worn adage. And according to my analysis of the astrological omens, quite a few of you Capricorns are currently embroiled in this behavior pattern. But I am happy to report that the coming weeks will be a favorable time to quit your insanity cold turkey. In fact, the actions you take to escape this bad habit could empower you to be done with it forever. Are you ready to make a heroic effort? Here’s a good way to begin: Undo your perverse attraction to the stressful provocation that has such a seductive hold on your imagination. AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): “Everything I’ve ever let go of has claw marks on it,” confessed the late, great author David Foster Wallace. Does that describe your experience, too? If so, events in the coming months will help you break the pattern. More than at any other time in the last ten years, you will have the power to liberate yourself through surrender. You will understand how to release yourself from overwrought attachment through love and grace rather than through stress and force.

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PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): “Most people love in order to lose themselves,” wrote Hermann Hesse in his novel Demian. But there are a few, he implied, who actually find themselves through love. In the coming months, Pisces, you are more likely to be one of those rare ones. In fact, I don’t think it will even be possible for you to use love as a crutch. You won’t allow it to sap your power or make you forget who you are. That’s good news, right? Here’s the caveat: You must be ready and willing to discover much more about the true nature of your deepest desires -- some of which may be hidden from you right now.

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