43.07 - Willamette Week, December 14, 2016

KATE BROWN’S ETHICAL GRAY AREAS. P. 9

WILLAMETTE WEEK PORTLAND’S NEWSWEEKLY

“SOMETIMES YOU”VE GOTTA DO YOU.” P. 35 WWEEK.COM

VOL 43/07 12.14.2016

SOUL-WARMING BOWLS TO BEAT THE WINTER CHILL. PAGE 12

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JULIAN ALEXANDER

FINDINGS

PAGE 31

WHAT WE LEARNED FROM READING THIS WEEK’S PAPER VOL. 43, ISSUE 7.

Some of the city’s best barbecue comes from a little cart near our office. Sadly, the owner might go to jail for stealing $3 million. 6 City Commissioner Amanda Fritz is pushing to reinstitute a program voters rejected by putting it under the oversight of a bureau the city auditor has said is plagued with problems. 11 Some of Tokyo’s rough-andtumble ramen shops are not really fit for ladies. 15

ON THE COVER:

One of Portland’s oldest bars won’t be closing after all. 32 Portland’s most popular R&B singer got his break from an internet troll who tricked people into thinking he was Drake’s protégé. 37 Fancy-man millionaire Joey Harrington is too good to go to B-Dubs with us schlubs. 47 Our movie critic compares the new Star Wars to Black Hawk Down and Band of Brothers. 55

OUR MOST TRAFFICKED STORY ONLINE THIS WEEK:

Afuri ramen photographed

by Thomas Teal.

Illustrations by Caitlin Degnon and Tricia Hipps.

It snowed.

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

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Willamette Week DECEMBER 14, 2016 wweek.com

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BLACK’S ADVOCACY FOR RENTERS

all the other variables that impact housing will While I applaud Margot Black for overcoming an remain the same, is comical. Banning no-cause adverse upbringing by going back to school and evictions is a horrible idea. Some restrictions/ getting an education, it’s clear she never took an limitations are OK, but these rent-control miliEcon 101 class [“The Most Dangerous Woman in tants are so far down their rabbit hole, they can’t understand some of their ideas are simply nuts.

Portland,” WW, Dec. 7, 2016].

As far as a rent freeze, who is going to be —Jeff Chadwick anointed the grand determiner of rents? Is Black going to determine what is “fair” market rent? Rent control is about giving long-term residents a stake in their community, regardWhy not just make all rent free? less of whether they own a home. In Then who is going to invest? a community with no rent control, So an apartment renting for $600 a month that has a market value of renters may make the rational deci$1,000 should be “frozen” at $600? OK, sion to trash their community to keep rents low. With rent control, this conis the county then going to “freeze” the tradiction is eliminated. property taxes for that building?

THE MOST S —Baraldo J. Rosenberg Why doesn’t Black, who thinks DANGEROU WOMAN IN PORTLAND homeownership is a pyramid scheme, just advocate for a free sociLONG WAITS FOR POLICE REPORTS ety? Is she going to tell all of Portland “Is Black we need to live in a commune?

The exact same thing that Matthew going to Topolewski experienced happened I understand the frustrations, but tell all of this is ridiculous. to me a few months ago [“Waiting Portland —Seth L. Leavens Game,” WW, Dec. 7. 2016]. I was we need to stopped at a red light and a truck live in a Something needs to be done about tried to get around the streetcar, hitcommune?” ting me on my bicycle and sending increasing rents, and it needs to be done now. We need diversity in the me flying. inner city, and you don’t need to be a math expert I got the make, model and six digits of the to understand that people need to have a place to license plate. When I called 911, I was told it was an hour wait for an officer to take a report or I live and call home.

Whims of developers and landlords to profit could wait for a call back. I took the call-back more and more without restraint should not be option, got in a cab and went to urgent care to deal with a back sprain and deep thigh bruise. part of the equation.

I’m still waiting for a call from Portland I salute Margot Black and others like her who are moving beyond theories and addressing a police.

—“nwhatz” human need for housing in our inner cities.

—“Multnomah” THE MASTER OF TENTACLE PORN P. 21

A FAST-ACTING CURE FOR BEING TOO STONED? P. 42

IF YOU’RE AN IMMIGRANT, DON’T SCREW UP. P. 9

WILLAMETTE WEEK

HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE INSIDE!

VOL 43/06 12 .7. 2016

Periods of intense rent appreciation don’t last as long as the policies implemented to deal with them.

The idea that we can just freeze rents, and

MARGOT BLACK IS HARNESSING TO CHANGE THIS CITY. PAGE 12

THE POWER OF RENTERS

BY RACHEL MONAHAN

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR must include the author’s street address and phone number for verification.

Letters must be 250 or fewer words.

Submit to: 2220 NW Quimby St., Portland, OR 97210.

Email: mzusman@wweek.com.

Is it true that by moving to another country (and not having any U.S. seize-able assets) you can kiss your student loans goodbye? Other papers’ columnists will not answer. —Oenie Oh, those other papers’ columnists—always deserting you just when shit is getting real.

Dear Abby won’t shut up when somebody’s husband is leaving toenail clippings in the tub, but as soon as you need to dispose of a body, she goes dark. Savage Love? Great on dildos, lousy on laundering $150,000 in small bills. And where the hell was Ask Amy when my last batch of crank came out all yellow and gummy?

Let’s face it, when you need someone to directly advise you, in print, to do something illegal, it’s Dr. Know or nobody.

In this case, plenty of advice about this loan dodge has already been published—you just didn’t like the conclusion, which is that it’s illegal, it can blow up in your face, and it’s probably not worth it.

First, what foreign country wants to give deadbeats like you permanent-resident status, including the right to work? (And I know you’ll need a job; if you were rich, you would have paid cash for college.)

4

Willamette Week DECEMBER 14, 2016 wweek.com

Assuming you can clear that bar, did your folks co-sign any of those loans? Because when the loan company puts a lien on the family home while you’re AWOL, Mom and Dad are gonna be pissed.

All your loans are in your name alone? And you’re sure you won’t ever need to file a U.S. tax return again? And you’re prepared to have bad credit for seven years?

You are? Well, then…it might work. Few foreign countries are prepared to enforce U.S. debts, and initiating collection actions in overseas courts has so far proved to be too much trouble even for Sallie Mae. Even after all this, though, those familiar with the process agree that student-loan exile just isn’t worth the trouble, unless you already have some compelling reason for wanting to leave the United States. Oh, wait.

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

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Steve Buel, a member of the Portland School Board who represents North Portland, says he will run to keep his seat in the May election.

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Moore had the support of the teachers’ union when she lost to González in 2009—a race in which Buel also ran. PAT President Suzanne Cohen says it’s too early to say whom the union will endorse in the race.

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Loretta Smith Keeps on Fundraising

Multnomah County voters rejected a ballot initiative Nov. 8 that would have allowed county commissioners to serve three consecutive terms—a change that would have aided the career prospects of Commissioner Loretta Smith, whose second term ends in 2018. But the initiative’s failure hasn’t stopped Smith from campaign fundraising. Since Election Day, Smith has received two $1,500 contributions— one of them from developer Tom Cody, a vocal opponent of the high-profile proposal for a homeless campus on the Terminal 1 industrial property in Northwest Portland.

Smith has been rumored as a potential challenger to City Commissioner Dan Saltzman, who’s a champion of Terminal

1 and announced earlier this month he’d seek a sixth City Council term in 2018.

Smith, contacted last week about her future plans, said she’s “not ruling anything in or out.”

CAIT PEARSON

DEALS GOOD THROUGH 12/19

Barbecue Cart Owner to be Sentenced in Felony Beef

Winter is a tough time for food-cart operators—and this winter will be particularly harsh for Darren Bottinelli, whose Northwest Portland cart Botto Barbecue drew raves from critics. (Our reviewer in August declared Botto’s ribs “the finest I’ve had in this city.”) Bottinelli is scheduled to be sentenced this week on a federal felony conviction for theft. He pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court earlier this year to stealing more than $3 million from thousands of clients— many of them poor—of his company, Axis Benefit Administrators, which held funds for health care reimbursement accounts. In August, Bottinelli told WW he’d been “Obamacared out of a job.” Botticelli couldn’t be reached for comment.

Give!Guide Tops $1.5 Million

WW’s annual Give!Guide is live and accepting donations at giveguide.org. Giving has surpassed $1.5 million and 5,200 donors. If you give on Dec. 15, you’ll have a chance to win a package of cultural adventures in Portland and Eastern Oregon and on the Oregon Coast, sponsored by the Oregon Cultural Trust.

NEWS

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW THIS WEEK THE BIG NUMBER

73

No Veteran Left Behind The Obama White House recognized Multnomah County and the city of Portland on Dec. 10 for establishing successful programs to house impoverished veterans. In a press release from Mayor Charlie Hales, local officials declared they had “effectively ended veteran homelessness.”

Well, not quite. But the city and county, working through their Joint Office of Homeless Services, have made it so more needy veterans are getting housing services than are becoming homeless each month. And they’re making it happen faster than the White House expects.

“It’s not a static group of people,” says Marc Jolin, director of the joint office. “We don’t have 400 homeless veterans we house and say, ‘We’re done.’ We have new people becoming homeless, too.”

Here’s what the accomplishment looks like.

BETH SLOVIC.

No chronically homeless veteran who wants services is turned away.

A chronically homeless veteran is someone who’s faced homelessness for 12 or more months or has experienced four or more bouts of homelessness in the past three years.

Since January, the city and county have housed 156 chronically homeless vets.

On average, homeless veterans are housed within 90 days of being identified.

Over the past year and a half, the county and city say the average wait has ranged from 54 to 80 days.

By month, the number of veterans being housed is greater than the number becoming homeless.

On average, the city and county make about 53 housing placements and identify about 42 new homeless veterans a month.

MILLION

That’s how many pounds of food the Oregon Food Bank Network distributed to 21 regional food banks in Oregon and Clark County, Wash., in 2015-16, up from 68 million the year before. And while giving has increased, so has need.

The food bank served an average of 290,000 people per month in 2015-16 and 2014-15. The food bank says it’s serving the same number of people, but it’s serving them repeatedly, probably due to widespread rent increases. “We are serving the same people more frequently,” says spokeswoman Myrna Jensen. “It used to be that a person would seek help a couple of times a year, but now we are seeing people visit more often.”

Every two years, on one night in January, volunteers and government workers fan out across the country to do what’s called the “point-in-time” homeless count. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development requires the count and establishes rules for how it should be conducted.

Since October, 40-year-old Ryan Deibert, who works for the city of Portland and Multnomah County’s Joint Office of Homeless Services, has been preparing for this year’s effort, which is set to take place Jan. 25. Deibert has done four previous tallies, including one in 2015, when Multnomah County counted 3,801 people who met the federal definition of homeless—872 were in emergency shelters, 1,042 in transitional housing and 1,887 “unsheltered.” That total was little changed from 2013. Here’s what Deibert says about the count, results of which are to be published by May.

It’s a big job: Hundreds of volunteers from more than 20 organizations take to the streets, clipboards in hand.

Outreach workers know many places where the homeless sleep, but finding them all requires some detective work.

CHRISTOPHER ONSTOTT

5 Things You Didn’t Know About Multnomah County’s Homeless Count “One of our first challenges is trying to identify all the places where people are camping,” Deibert says.

Workers here try to contact every person, rather than estimating.

Multnomah County is compact and relatively flat so this is easier to do than in many counties with large populations.

The volunteers divide the county into grids and reach out to people in camps, in soup kitchens and on the street. “We also ask multiple times in multiple sites,” Deibert says.

The volunteers record basic information to avoid duplication.

To preserve privacy, counters write down a homeless person’s first initial, first three letters of the last name, and age. They also ask people how long they’ve been homeless, and record the number of people who refuse to cooperate. “We get some pushback, but we rely heavily on outreach workers who already have relationships with people who are homeless,” Deibert says.

SLOUGH TOWN IN OUTER NORTHEAST PORTLAND.

The one-night count actually continues for a week.

Outreach workers will ask people where they slept on the night of Jan. 25 to capture any they missed on the night designated for the count. “We know we don’t reach everybody that night,” Deibert says. “We know it’s an undercount.”

Counties must participate in HUD’s process or lose out on federal funding.

There’s no reward, however, for finding extra people. “The count’s required, but it has nothing to do with how many resources we get,” Deibert says. NIGEL JAQUISS.

Willamette Week DECEMBER 14, 2016 wweek.com

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Willamette Week DECEMBER 14, 2016 wweek.com

L O VAT T O

NEWS

Conflict Avoidance GOV. KATE BROWN IGNORED UNDISCLOSED CONFLICTS OF INTEREST INVOLVING TOP STAFFERS.

BY NIG E L JAQ UI SS

njaquiss@wweek.com

Two of Oregon Gov. Kate Brown’s top staffers, both former lobbyists, are running the governor’s office while juggling potential conflicts of interest, WW has learned.

The first potential conflict involves Brown’s chief of staff, Kristen Leonard, and a company she and her husband own.

That company has a six-figure contract—soon to come up for renewal—to supply state government with computer software. Leonard’s position as Brown’s chief of staff gives the company a competitive advantage.

The second potential conflict involves the double employment of Brown’s newly hired deputy chief of staff, Abby Tibbs. She was Oregon Health & Science University’s top in-house lobbyist, but for the past three months, she has simultaneously overseen the preparation of the governor’s budget—a document in which the university that employs her has a major financial interest.

State law requires public officials to disclose potential or actual conflicts of interest. Neither Leonard nor Tibbs did, the governor’s office tells WW. Jim Moore, who teaches political science at Pacific University, says that was a mistake. “If transparency is Brown’s No. 1 goal, those are not good decisions,” Moore says.

Brown has spoken repeatedly of her desire to restore accountability in state government and is backing legislation in 2017 aimed at reducing the influence of lobbyists.

Yet she has also depended heavily on lobbyists since taking office two years ago. Brown recently increased that reliance: On Dec. 9, she hired Tibbs to become her deputy chief of staff and hired Debbie Koreski, a lobbyist for Portland State University, as her adviser on housing and human services.

“By going repeatedly to the pool of lobbyists, she raises questions that could be avoided by hiring people who are not lobbyists,” says Moore. “It’s a very simple thing to avoid.”

In October, WW reported that Leonard and her husband, Kevin Neely, still had a financial interest in a bookkeeping

firm whose biggest customer was Brown’s election campaign (“Campaign Contract Raises Ethical Questions,” WW, Oct. 4, 2016). In all, Brown’s campaign paid that firm, C&E Systems, $81,188 after Leonard became Brown’s chief.

Leonard told WW she had no influence on the Brown campaign’s business relationship with C&E. But WW has learned there are further entanglements between Leonard’s day job and her family’s private interests.

Neely and Leonard own a company called Election Solutions that provides software to all state agencies via the Oregon Department of Administrative Services. DAS reports to Brown.

The Election Solutions contract was authorized by thenDAS deputy chief operating officer Barry Pack, a longtime Brown associate whom she recently appointed to head the Oregon Lottery.

Election Solutions’ software allows state employees to track the status of bills in the Oregon Legislature. The twoyear contract is worth $214,920.

The Election Solutions contract with the state preceded Leonard’s becoming Brown’s top aide. Neely signed the contract in October 2014, four months before Brown succeeded Gov. John Kitzhaber.

But Todd Donovan, who teaches political science at Western Washington University, says once Leonard entered the governor’s office, she should have disclosed the potential conflict.

“If she has a private business that could benefit from her public position, that’s a small-scale version of what people are worried about with Donald Trump,” Donovan says.

Oregon law says public officials cannot use their positions to benefit a relative or company they are associated with, or help either avoid a loss. If a public official encounters an actual or potential conflict of interest, the law requires she disclose it in writing.

Leonard has failed to fill out the conflict-of-interest form disclosing her conflict with either the campaign bookkeeping firm or the software firm.

Kristen Grainger, Brown’s spokeswoman, says Leonard did not need to make such disclosures because she has never made a “decision in which her conduct as a state official would or could benefit her financially.” She says Leonard will make such a disclosure when Election Solutions’ contract, which expires in June 2017, comes up for renewal.

“When that time comes, and she is met with a potential conflict, [she] knows to declare the conflict and recuse herself from that decision,” Grainger says, “but she hasn’t yet.”

Tibbs, the new deputy chief of staff, also glossed over a serious potential conflict.

In September of this year, Tibbs came to work for Brown on loan from OHSU, where she was registered as a lobbyist.

That leap was not unprecedented. In fact, Tibbs took over as the university’s lobbyist from Brian Shipley, who left to become Brown’s first chief of staff in 2015.

In her Dec. 9 announcement of Tibbs’ hiring, Brown explained what Tibbs had been doing since September.

“Abby joined my office on a two-month assignment to help lead the development of my proposed budget,” Brown said.

Records show Tibbs registered as a lobbyist for the governor’s office on Oct. 14, 2016, even as she remained a registered lobbyist for the university, which is a public corporation not owned by the state. (After WW asked questions, OHSU wrote to the Oregon Government Ethics Commission and said Tibbs’ registration as a lobbyist for the university should have been canceled when she was loaned to the governor’s office but wasn’t, due to “clerical error.”)

In fact, although Brown’s office covered Tibbs’ salary and benefits while she worked on the governor’s budget, Tibbs remains an OHSU employee and won’t leave the university’s employ until Dec. 22.

When then-Vice President Dick Cheney invited oil lobbyists to help make policy and budget decisions, Democrats were outraged. OHSU is no oil company, but it would be unusual at any time to have the governor’s chief budget adviser being employed by an organization that competes directly with other groups for a share of the state budget.

That competition is heightened in the current environment when the state is facing a $1.7 billion deficit. The potential conflict of interest is that Tibbs might favor her employer, OHSU, over other agencies or interest groups.

There’s no evidence Tibbs did so, but her failure to disclose a potential conflict left the public in the dark.

“There has to be a very clear line there between OHSU’s interest and the public’s interest,” Moore says. “There’s no way to prove there was.”

The governor’s budget is a preliminary document and will be replaced by a lawmakers’ budget, but it is the starting point for all discussions of how the state will spend more than $20 billion in discretionary taxpayer funds.

Grainger says Tibbs didn’t make decisions about OHSU’s budget.

The potential conflict is now moot because the budget is finished and Tibbs is joining Brown’s staff.

The state’s top Republicans did not know about Tibbs’ or Leonard’s potential conflicts until informed by WW. “This sounds like a glaring example of a systemic problem that comes from one-party rule,” says House Minority Leader Mike McLane (R-Powell Butte). “Kate Brown promised transparency, but she hasn’t delivered.”

A reluctance to address conflicts of interest played a central role in the downfall of Gov. Kitzhaber.

Then-first lady Cylvia Hayes successfully pursued consulting contracts with groups seeking to influence the state while she served as an adviser to Kitzhaber.

When Brown took office Feb. 18, 2015, she pledged to restore accountability to the governor’s office.

“When the public trust has been violated in a willful way, we need the tools to hold that person accountable,” Brown told lawmakers shortly after taking office. “It’s imperative that the governor, and the governor’s office, be a model.”

Grainger says that neither Leonard nor Tibbs has done anything wrong.

Willamette Week DECEMBER 14, 2016 wweek.com

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ANIMAL NEGLECT

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OTTEMAN

NEWS

CITY COMMISSIONER AMANDA FRITZ IS POISED TO HAND PUBLIC CAMPAIGN FINANCING TO A BUREAU OVERWHELMED BY UNRELATED TASKS.

BY R AC H E L M O N A H A N

rmonahan@wweek.com

Portland Commissioner Amanda Fritz is on the cusp of achieving a cherished goal: reviving a public campaign financing system.

On Dec. 14, City Council is scheduled to vote on Fritz’s so-called Open and Accountable Elections, which would match every dollar donated to an election campaign, up to $50 per donor, with $6 in public money.

Fritz appears to have the votes: Mayor Charlie Hales and Commissioner Steve Novick have expressed support for Fritz’s plan. Last week, they decided not to send it to voters, who in 2010 rejected a public financing program marred by waste and fraud.

“Everybody wants to do this well,” says Kate Titus, executive director of Common Cause Oregon, who is supporting Fritz’s proposal. “I don’t think we take this lightly.”

Last week, The Portland Mercury reported that Fritz plans to hand responsibility for managing the public campaign financing system to the Office of Neighborhood Involvement, a bureau she oversees.

But ONI was called out last month by city auditors for lacking clear direction and being beset by management problems.

Now, a review of additional public records from the Nov. 16 audit raises further questions about the plan for ONI to oversee the new program. According to audit work papers, ONI’s own director, Amalia Alarcón de Morris, disparages her office as an “Island of Misfit Toys” owing to the City Council’s past practice of heaping disparate and unconnected programs on the office.

(She denies saying this and tells WW a predecessor used that nickname.)

In interviews with auditors, ONI employees criticized past decisions to add extra duties to the bureau, including Portland’s program for licensing and monitoring recreational marijuana, and the bureau’s ability to manage multiple programs, according to the auditors’ notes.

Asked to identify ONI’s strengths during a Jan. 12 audit interview, the office’s leadership— Alarcón de Morris and Amy Archer, the bureau’s business operations supervisor—appeared to have difficulty coming up with an answer.

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

The Office of Misfit Toys

“Amy mentioned that things keep getting added to their portfolio—Noise and Marijuana,” the auditor’s notes from the interview read.

“The Marijuana program increased ONI staffing.

They struggle internally with basic administrative support. Amalia stated that people have an expectation of ONI interactions, so management being diverted to these new programs creates an external friction.”

The auditor’s office, in its report, did not weigh in on whether ONI should take on management of public campaign financing, cautioned Drummond Kahn, director of audit services.

“This audit was looking at neighborhood programs and did not reach conclusions about whether new topics or new efforts should be added to ONI in the future,” Kahn says.

Alarcón de Morris, who told auditors her bureau was overwhelmed by unrelated duties, now tells WW the new task wouldn’t be a problem. She says ONI has added two administrative staff members this year—and the office’s proposed campaign-financing responsibilities, unlike some past additions to ONI, come with funding for two more staffers..

“We’re definitely in a much better place,” she says. “I feel comfortable that the program comes with staffing. I feel fairly confident that what’s being proposed will get us ramped up.”

A representative for Fritz rejected the idea that any problems at the bureau would be an impediment to publicly financing campaigns.

“The audit was focused primarily on the neighborhood structure and associated grants, and did not address most of the functions of ONI,” says Fritz chief of staff Tim Crail. “We believe that ONI is entirely capable of running this.”

According to the auditors’ interview notes, management problems have plagued the agency: Amanda Fritz The director herself told auditors she plans to retire in three years; at least some employees view Alarcón de Morris as disengaged, in part because of her impending retirement; and benchmarks for the bureau aren’t in place.

As for the community and neighborhood involvement division, the focus of the audit, Archer told auditors that resources are directed based on “some element of the Commissioner in Charge,” and staffers “mainly wait ‘until it somehow becomes a fire,’” according to the auditors’ notes from a March 14 interview.

Alarcón de Morris now downplays the significance of those complaints, saying she’s happy with Fritz’s management.

Fritz selected ONI, which she oversees, to carry out the campaign-financing program only after other public agencies that already had responsibilities related to elections turned her down, including the city auditor.

Fritz is undeterred. In a hearing Dec. 7, elected officials gave voice to high-minded reasons to support the proposal—including breaking down barriers for a new, diverse pool of candidates.

“This is going to open things up, and that’s what we need,” said Fritz.

Willamette Week DECEMBER 14, 2016 wweek.com

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THOMAS TEAL

JOE RIEDL

THE SOUP ISSUE THE JAPANESE INVASION P. 14

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TOP RAMEN P. 17

POZOLE P. 18

HOT POT P. 19

PHO P. 20

THOMAS TEAL

PORTLAND IS ONE OF THE WORLD’S GREAT SOUP CITIES. WE DIPPED INTO HOT POTS, RAMEN, POZOLE AND MORE. Forget Guinness, it’s soup that makes you strong.

That’s true when you’re sick, when you’re cold, when you’re dragged down by the gray skies and the ceaseless drizzle that defines winter in Portland. Some days, especially as holiday cheer fades into the dreary haze of January, it feels like this whole town has the sniffles.

We’re prone to self-medicate—with soup.

The world always seems brighter through the steam rising off a bubbling bowl of broth. A truly great bowl not only nourishes, but comforts, heals and heartens.

It makes sense that Portland—a city that so often fares poorly in mental health surveys—has such a rich soup culture. While razor-clam chowder is the only recipe we can really claim as our own, Portland’s passion for bubbling broths has inspired people from all over the world to hand us a bowl.

Some of Japan’s top ramen shops picked this city for their first American locations (page 14). After eating 39 bowls of ramen across the city, we found that most of the best stuff comes from the two newest imports.

It’s no secret to foodies, but one of Portland’s most beloved restaurants is a divey Vietnamese soup shop that sells its world-beating bowls for the price of two Frappuccinos. We talked to the family about the bowls of bun bo Hue that took it from a hellish refugee camp to the pages of Bon Appétit and Lucky Peach (page 20).

As we spooned through the city for this issue, we also found some surprises.

Like a farm-to-table Japanese spot that’s now doing a luxe version of Japanesestyle hot pot (page 19), a lively pozole showcasing locally made hominy (page 18), and a Russian spot making lagman, a long-lost cousin to ramen (page 25).

We also talked to the chef who’s about to open what may be Portland’s first great house of Chinese soup dumplings (page 27), got another to share his recipe for one of Portland’s best-loved deli soups (page 29), and learned the secrets behind an extraordinary version of classic cioppino with Oregon-caught Dungeness crab (page 22).

It’s cold, it’s wet, and the country looks to be headed for 1,460 dark days.

Grab a spoon.

THE SLURPTOWN RECIPE CONTEST Submit your best. We will make five and have a panel pick the winner.

Do you have a great soup recipe? Either a cherished family recipe or even an especially tasty twist on a classic? Well, it’s time to share. In honor of our soup issue, Willamette Week is holding a recipe contest. Our editors will choose five of your recipes.

Five staffers will prepare them and serve them to a panel of judges. Whoever submits the winning recipe will get a $150 gift certificate to spend on food and drink at Mississippi Studios. Email dish@wweek.com.

CIOPPINO P. 22

RUSSIAN RAMEN P. 25

SOUP DUMPLINGS P. 27

HUNGARIAN MUSHROOM P. 29

Willamette Week DECEMBER 14, 2016 wweek.com

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THOMAS TEAL

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WHY ARE TOKYO RAMEN SHOPS SUDDENLY TAKING OVER PORTLAND?

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mkorfhage@wweek.com

THOMAS TEAL

verywhere the guy with the Mohawk went, the cameras followed.

It was grand-opening night, Oct. 18, at the new Portland location of Tokyo-based ramen chain Afuri just off Southeast Morrison Street. Brothers and celebrity ramen chefs Hiroshi and Shigetoshi Nakamura strode through their stately Japaneseinflected pleasure dome trailed by not one but two camera crews.

Shigetoshi, who designed the noodles his brother’s ramen chain uses in Portland, was the one with the flattened ’hawk.

“They’re filming a documentary,” we were told by bartender Ryan Magarian, who made the punctiliously precise cocktails on Afuri’s menu. “It’s like Jiro Dreams of Sushi, but for ramen.”

The other camera guy was for local TV news, and sometimes the crews pointed their cameras at each other. Afuri’s ramen is so popular in Tokyo that would-be diners line up around the block in the morning to buy a “ticket” to their afternoon meal from a little vending machine, like crowds in the aughts trying to get into David Letterman.

That night at Afuri, one thing became very clear: Real-deal Japanese ramen had finally come to Portland.

Ramen is, of course, Japan’s drunky, slurping comfort food, the equal province of late-night hard-drinking salarymen and harried lawyers at lunchtime. But it is also serious business. The

R E V E N S MIS A T A E B AFURI

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THOMAS TEAL

The Soup Issue

separate bars for dining and drinking, and an open kitchen larger than some entire restaurants. Many consider Afuri’s light, delicate broths the best in all of Tokyo—and celebrity ramen chef Ivan Orkin, describing the phenomenon of the “lady ramen shop” for Lucky Peach magazine, said it’s also one of the few ramen shops where as many women eat as men. (Tokyo ramen shops, believe it or not, can be rough and tumble.)

With Afuri, as with Olympia beer, it’s all about the water.

Afuri’s United States CEO, Taichi Ishizawa, tells WW he criss-crossed the country testing the water each place he went, trying to find water as pure as the waters of Mount Afuri in Japan. The minerals in hard water, he says, “steal the flavor” from a broth.

Portland has the softest water he found, a quality one can’t help but think has rubbed off on the people here.

And while Afuri has expanded its offerings for the Portland restaurant to include robata-grilled skewers and precious spoon dishes with layered flavor bites, layered maki rolls and sashimi, every single meal there should include the yuzu shio ramen (see opposite page), whose aromatic, bonito-spiked chicken broth opens out like a flower.

Marukin, meanwhile, is here for personal reasons. Long ago in Japan, local investment broker David Rademacher was the next-door neighbor and friend of Masa Hayashi, now a co-owner of Marukin. “We were both hockey play-

ers,” says Rademacher, “which is rare in Japan.”

During one of Hayashi’s visits three years ago to his son, who was going to school in British Columbia, he liked the region so much he turned to Rademacher and said, in a line familiar to impulsive Portland transplants from everywhere, “What about here?”

Marukin keeps it simple—counterservice ramen with a few sides—and unlike almost every other shop in town, it make its constantly improving, firmtextured noodles by hand at its own shop. Chef Mayumi Hijikata, who traveled here from Japan after cooking with Marukin for more than a decade, cooks down its trademark, impossibly rich and balanced tonkotsu for eight hours from pork bone stock, creating a broth neither oversweet nor overly fatty but nonetheless big as hell, like a Pollock painstakingly made with fine brushwork. (Her favorite, for the record, is YAMA the chicken-stock paitan shio.)

The ramen doesn’t seem to have suffered in the translation to Portland, but Hijikata says the diversity of interests and backgrounds of Portland-trained chefs is something she has to work through when making something so dedicated to consistency. “[Marukin’s] founders love talking to the cooks here,” says Rademacher. “They ask about the tattoos. They’re not used to cooks being in bands.”

JOE RIEDL

maker of a city’s finest tonkotsu or shio broth is a subject for debate every bit as serious as the brisket champ of Texas hill country or the finest bistro burger in Portland.

A truly great bowl of ramen, marrying the subtle flavors of tare seasoning with soup base, pinged by salty nori and the alkaline tang of lightly al dente noodles, deepened by molten egg and fatty pork chashu, is not just comfort but revelation. Ramen can make you cry.

But Portland ramen used to be crap.

Until 10 years ago in this town, it was still mostly a dry good scarfed by college kids after 2 am, fancied up maybe with a drunken egg drop and about 6 ounces of Sriracha. Even as recently as a few years ago, if you wanted a good Hakata-style tonkotsu pork broth, you had to drive to a Beaverton strip mall to seek out an almost unmarked door with blacked-out windows next to the cellphone store.

Now in the past two years alone, three different ramen chains from Japan have parked themselves here, while seemingly every strip-mall neighborhood in town gets its own local ramen-ya next to the artisan wood-fired pizzeria.

But the best bowls in town right now are mostly from just those three chains from Tokyo: Kizuki, Marukin and Afuri.

I know, because I ate them all—almost 40 bowls at over a dozen spots that specialize in ramen (see opposite page).

So why are the Japanese slinging noodles in a midsized provincial city like Portland? Well, it’s a little bit of luck, and a little bit of fear.

The sudden onslaught of Japanese restaurants expanding to the U.S. isn’t just a Portland phenomenon. Even with our three Shigezo izakayas beginning in 2011, we’re actually late to the game.

According to national food blog Tasting Table, the glut of Japanese expansion to Los Angeles and New York is partly inspired by Japan’s low birth rate: Turns out if there are fewer people in the country, your restaurant doesn’t do as well. New York PR firms are now staging seminars for Japanese restaurateurs eager to follow ramen dons Ippudo and Ichiran to Manhattan and Bushwick.

That’s the story with Kizuki, whose palatially high-ceilinged strip-mall spot in Beaverton has wait times of over 30 minutes even at 1 pm on a Tuesday for bracingly garlicky tonkotsu and the lovely tsukemen, a variety of ramen dipped in broth as you eat. The chain came first to Seattle and is now churning out locations and franchises all over the country: Carmel, Ind., Chicago and God knows where else. (Kizuki swapped out its international name from Kukai after noting its unhealthy resemblance to both a French perfume brand and the Hawaiian word for birdshit.)

But for the time being, only Portland gets Marukin and Afuri. Both are well-loved Tokyo boutique chains, and both are probably making some of the best ramen in the country.

Afuri has the higher profile, and not just because of the considerable money it obviously sunk into its flashy izakaya behind the Commons Brewery, which sports a deep sake list, two

CONT. on page 17 Willamette Week DECEMBER 14, 2016 wweek.com

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The Soup Issue

BEST BOWLS The best ramen in Portland, by style.

BY M AT T H E W KO R F H AGE

mkorfhage@wweek.com

Ramen ain’t nothin’ but a noodle. Generally, it’s a pretty thin one with some alkaline salts added, which keep the noodles firm in hot broth and also tasting a wee bit like a soda cracker.

But beyond that, the world is your huckleberry. Sure, there are the traditional four “classes” of ramen covering the three main flavorings, called “tare”—shoyu (soy), shio (salt) and miso (fermented soy)—and also a fourth class called tonkotsu, which describes the super-rich pork broth that came out of Kyushu in the south of Japan.

In a country obsessed with tradition but addicted to novelty, there are seemingly no limits. Depending where you are in Japan, you can pick up abura (oily ramen), mazemen (nobroth ramen) and tsukemen (dipping ramen). There’s spicyass ramen and ramen that comes with cheese, tan tan ramen with Chinese-style spicy sauce, citrus-laden ramen, and apparently even ramen that tastes like spaghetti Bolognese.

We slurped our way through more than a dozen ramen houses in Portland and Beaverton, eating 39 bowls to find our favorites of each type. Here’s where to get the best of the best of the best in Portland.

Shio

Yuzu shio at Afuri ($15) Afuri’s American CEO, Taichi Ichizawa, worries that its signature soup—a citric, clarified (chintan, as opposed to paitan) chicken salt broth—might be too subtle for Americans more accustomed to the pork-fisted appeal of tonkotsu. But holy hell: Though certainly light, this soup doesn’t feel subtle at all. The citric notes of yuzu swirl with fish-flake brine in a beautifully expressive chicken broth full of deep veggie flavors. If eating were dancing, this soup is Fred and Ginger—it’s nimble as all hell, and fools you into thinking love is easy. For fans of Ha VL and Teo Bun Bo Hue’s pho ga, which, frankly, should be everyone alive.

Honorable mention: The emulsified paitan shio ($10) at Marukin is like the polar opposite of Afuri’s, all richness and chicken fat, like the tonkotsu of chicken. It’s a damn treasure. Also, Umai RIP.

Shoyu

Torigara shoyu at Afuri ($15) Shoyu is the O.G. ramen, the ramen from which all other ramens done sprang—in many ways the baseline and middle ground for what ramen can be, neither light and pure as shio nor palate-filling as miso or tonkotsu. But sometimes this also makes it a poor cousin, light but unsubtle. Not so the shoyu at Afuri: The shop’s chicken-bone broth has the floor dropped on its flavor by shimeji mushroom and lightly sweet endive, offset with salty nori and a delicately seasoned egg. Avoiding the woodiness of many local pork shoyus, Afuri’s broth is like a depth charge for soy, a palate-changing monster from the center of the earth.

Miso

Spicy yuzu miso at Mirakutei ($11.50) Miso is the youngest of the Big Four, coming out of Hokkaido in the ’60s alongside a mess MARUKIN of curried ramens, throwing a wash of sweet fermented soybean into the tare for a nevermiss formula. Mirakutei uses the citrusy sweet-heat formula perfected by the Caribbean to make an equally perfect flavor bomb, deepened with miso ferment like the pith to a fruit, with a wonderfully satisfying circular slab of pork chashu.

Honorable mention: Marukin’s pork-chicken miso shoyu ($10) is beautifully simple, its flavor easing in like an old recliner; it’s as if the basic soy-sauce broth were always anticipating the ferment. Also Afuri’s vegan miso (see below) shames most in town.

Tsukemen

Chicken tsukemen at Kizuki ($10) Tsukemen has a thick noodle used for dipping into a muchcondensed broth. It’s a strangely addictive ritual, accentuated by glutinous noodle and density of flavor, with greens and chashu also there for the dipping. You have shio and tonkotsu options, but Kizuki’s rich chicken broth is its true treasure. Once you’re done, pour in clear broth as dilution and drink your soup.

Abura soba

Abu ramen at Shigezo Kichinto and Yataimura Maru ($10, $5 at happy hour) Abura soba, “oily ramen,” dates back to the ’50s and is much, much better than the name would have you believe. The abu ramen at Shigezo, introduced at its Minizo cart, is perhaps the best thing Shigezo makes, a lovely soft-egg-sopped, chashu-thick ramen drenched in salty-sweet soy kaeshi and chili oil. Think of it as soy-chili ramen carbonara.

Wild-style

Italian miso at Yama ($11.95) There is no reason for a Parmesan-cheese, Italian-spiced “Bolognese” beef ramen to exist—it’s like one of those alternate histories written by Newt Gingrich. And yet here we are, slurping a beefy, cheesy world ripe with miso ferment and satisfyingly alkaline, springy noodles. Can it really be wrong when it feels so right? The answer, when it comes to ramen, is always no.

JOE RIEDL

Tonkotsu shoyu at Marukin ($10) Thanks in part to the success of Hakata-style ramen giant Ippudo in this country, tonkotsu is what Americans talk about when we talk about ramen. The broth is big, loud, fatty, sometimes sweet and always full of pork—everything we are as a people. Not only that, but tonkotsu is so dense with umami it covers flaws: It doesn’t even have to be good to be good, the same way a puppy doesn’t have to be cute to be cute. But Marukin’s tonkotsu is nonetheless in a class by itself in Portland—slightly light for the form, avoiding both indelicate porky sweetness and the gut bomb afflicting lesser tonkotsus, without sacrificing any depth of flavor. The effect is like an elephant riding a unicycle, terrifying and amazing in the bigness of its balance. If you like spicy, get the red version: Marukin has lately dialed in its chili levels to perfection.

Honorable mention: Beaverton’s Yuzu serves a broth devoted to the excessive pork-sweet fatness that Marukin dodges—and it is wonderful, a butterball of pure comfort for which no other broth in town substitutes.

If you like garlic so intense you’ll wake up in the middle of the night with the smell of it in your sweat, the garlic tonkotsu shoyu at Beaverton’s Kizuki is yours to love.

THOMAS TEAL

Tonkotsu

SHIGEZO

Vegan

Black truffle miso at Afuri ($18) Japan doesn’t do vegan much. And yet, this wholly vegan broth is the finest no-meat broth in town—with a black bean miso aged 8 months until the ferment grows into its character, with still more earthy depths in the form of truffle, shiitake and lightly smoky hoji tea, amid that riot of ferment and the gentle herbal notes of Chinese chive.

Honorable mention: Until last month, I would have sent you straight to Biwa spinoff Noraneko in the Water District, whose shiitake broth was up to then the richest and most satisfying vegan broth I’ve had—though I prefer to unvegan it with Noraneko’s baconesque chashu and delightfully salty seasoned egg.

YAMA

RAMEN SHOPS VISITED: Afuri, Akasuru, Boke Bowl, Boxer Ramen, House of Ramen, Kayo’s Ramen Bar, Kizuki, Marukin, Masu Sushi, Mirakutei, Noraneko, Ramen Ryoma, Shigezo Kichinto, Shigezo Yataimura Maru, Yama Sushi and Izakaya, Yuzu.

Willamette Week DECEMBER 14, 2016 wweek.com

17

PHOTOS BY JOE RIEDL

TOURNANT’S POZOLE NIGHT IS A SOUL-WARMING EVENT BUILT ON LOCALLY MADE HOMINY.

BY ADR IE N N E SO

@adso_sheehan

It seems like every culture has some soup or stew at the center of its comfort cuisine, from Texas chili to Chinese congee. In Mexico, it’s pozole, a hearty stew built on a base of nixtamalized corn kernels.

In my St. Johns neighborhood, pozole has become the standard centerpiece of many a small gathering and potluck. On a wet, chilly night, nothing is cozier. But I have yet to convince anyone at these gettogethers to serve me cocktails, and I usually end up loading the dishwasher.

Since I can’t invite everyone over—and since I hate doing dishes—I dropped by Tazon, the monthly pozole night at Tournant, a tiny boutique event space in Northeast Portland.

Tazon started the right way, as an excuse to share something special and delicious.

Last spring, Tournant co-chef and coowner Jaret Foster discovered the local organic nixtamalization company, Three Sisters Nixtamal. Nixtamalization is the process of exposing hulled corn kernels to an alkaline solution, typically limewater, to make it more nutritious and easier to digest. That process forms the basis of much Mexican cuisine.

“I love masa and hominy,” Foster says.

“Most of the corn in this country is not nixtamalized, and when it is, it changes the whole chemistry and flavor profile of the corn. It’s beautiful to have these guys 18

Willamette Week DECEMBER 14, 2016 wweek.com

locally, and I wanted to showcase them.”

And so began Tazon (“bowl” in Spanish). The event occurs every month in the a warm, intimate space that looks like a small, European country kitchen with white walls, honey-wood accents and communal tables.

There are no reservations, so if you’re a couple or a lone diner, you may end up getting absorbed into a larger group.

That’s especially true if that group has ordered a round of mescal Manhattans or margaritas.

After being seated, you choose between three kinds of pozole, which are quickly delivered to your table. Pork rojo, pollo verde, and verduras (red pork, green chicken, and vegetables) all start at $12 and come with a plate heaped high with

garnishes like shredded cabbage, onion, cilantro, radish, lime and tortilla chips.

You can also select other toppings for $2 or $3 apiece. I recommend spending $3 to get a queso fresco tamalito on the side—a tiny tamale with Ancient Heritage Dairy queso fresco tucked inside.

Tournant’s pork rojo comes with generous helpings of tender, slow-braised shoulder meat and big, rich kernels of hominy, served in a dark, opaque, spiced and aromatic broth. Both the pork rojo and pollo verde, served with salsa-braised chicken thigh, were a little thin, more like soup than the thick and flavorful stews I’ve had before. But topped with plenty of tortilla chips, radishes and cabbage, both were filling and savory.

“In my mind’s eye, I saw a big, simple bowl of food that you could put ingredients in across the board, like the slow egg or the tamal, to make it really soul-satisfying,” Foster says.

At first, the chocolate flan seemed like the perfect ending—pudding made with Woodblock chocolate drizzled with mescal caramel and chile salt.

But then came the best possible ending: I finished eating and no one started pestering me to help clean up.

GO: Tournant, 920 NE Glisan St., 503206-4463, tournantpdx.com. Pozole night is the third Thursday of each month.

ALLISON JONES

The Soup Issue

PONO FARM’S SHABU SHABU TAKES PORTLAND HOT POT TO A NEW LEVEL. mcizmar@wweek.com

In Japan, they like food to be as fresh as possible. That preference defines the teppanyaki steakhouses, DIY okonomiyaki pancake spots and ikizukuri, seafood served and eaten while the heart beats on.

So it’s not surprising the Japanese have their own versions of the hot pot self-serve soups you find across East Asia.

In Japan, soup that bubbles at the center of a family table is called nabemono, and there are many variations.

The one you’re most likely to spot in Portland is called shabu shabu. It’s a lot like familiar Chinese hot pots, except the boiling broth is made with kombu, or kelp, and is very simple to start with, picking up flavors from the cooking leeks, chrysanthemum leaf, tofu and napa cabbage.

Until recently, the only shabu shabu in town was lowgrade stuff served at spots that also make California rolls.

But, in November, Pono Farm Soul Kitchen upped the ante with a reservation-only shabu shabu service that uses exceptional meat from its family farm in central Oregon.

For $35, you get a platter of meat ranched by Pono Farm and fresh produce acquired by trading its beef at the farmers market on Saturdays.

Pono’s regular menu is inconsistent, but the thin-sliced rib-eye in its shabu shabu is the best beef I’ve eaten this year.

“All of the parties that come in, you can tell just by the head nod as soon as they eat the meat,” says co-owner Ellen Chien. “They just eat it and, ‘Wow.’” This is the first time Pono, which also has a restaurant in Bend, has offered shabu shabu. But Chien and co-owner Ted Nakato have a lot of experience with it.

“That’s actually our Thanksgiving meal,” says Chien, who is from Taiwan. “We don’t do turkey, we gather around the hot pot. With the winter season coming, we figured it’d be something new to try and a great way to present our meat.”

“In Asian culture, a lot of people like to eat in that type of setting,” says Nakato, of Japanese descent. “A lot of families, they grow up eating shabu shabu or sukiyaki in the winter time. It’s something that you grow up eating.”

In Japan, shabu shabu is so common that butcher cases

typically offer pre-sliced cuts, says Nakato, showing a photo on his phone as proof.

“The hardest part is slicing the meats,” he says. “No one at home is going to have a slicer like that, so buying it pre-cut is important. In Japan, they would like to eat really good meat in small portions, sliced thinly, rather than a big steak.”

The key to cooking that meat is to dip in the boiling broth until the pink starts to disappear. Don’t let go of it, Chien cautions, and don’t let it cook through. Aim for medium rare, like a steak. With lesser meats at hot pot spots, I’m not so precious. But at Pono, I became focused on the ritual dunking, then gave the meat only the briefest of baths in the soy served on the side.

For those accustomed to Chinese hot pot, there are a few other twists, like the emphasis on the final broth. Pono

finishes its shabu shabu by adding rice to make a soup. It even offers an optional $10 upgrade to spike that final broth with mushrooms—black trumpet, yellowfoot, hedgehog, maitake and the like—and make it extra, extra savory.

“In Japanese cuisine, they want to end the meal with a starch, either rice or noodles,” says Nakato. “So with a lot of these hot pot dishes, they add either rice or noodle at the very end to finish the meal.”

To me, this seemed unnecessary. So we passed on the upgrade. But given the surprise of that steak, maybe that was a mistake.

GO: Pono Farm Soul Kitchen, 4118 NE Sandy Blvd., 503889-0885, soulkitchenpdx.com. $35 for beef and pork, $45 for all beef. To make a reservation, contact Ellen Chien at ellen@ponofarm.com.

I L L U S T R AT I O N S B Y C A I T L I N D E G N O N

BY M A RT I N C I Z M A R

Hot pot can be intimidating. You’re sitting in front of a bubbling, bronze cauldron straight out of the Middle Ages, with a giant, laminated menu of raw foods, and a group of expectant, equally confused pals. Once you get past ordering, you’re still responsible for cooking your own dinner.

To learn this process, we went to Beijing Hot Pot (2768 SE 82nd Ave., 503-774-2525, thebeijinghotpot.com) and asked about the ideal cooking times for each ingredient. Once you have your plates of raw vegetables, uncooked noodles and dark-pink meat flanks, lay this chart on your table. Boom. SOPHIA JUNE. Cooking Times Raw beef—10 seconds Bean curd sheet—20 seconds Romaine heart—20 seconds Shrimp—30 seconds Beef tripe—30 seconds Chinese greens—40 seconds

Vermicelli—40 seconds Imitation crab meat—50 seconds Fish—50 seconds Golden needle mushroom—50 seconds King oyster mushroom (white)—50 seconds Fried tofu—1 minute

Shiitake mushroom (black)—1 minute Spinach—1 minute Shrimp ball—1 minute Chicken—1 minute Fresh bean curd (tofu)—1 minute, 30 seconds Frozen bean curd (tofu)—2 minutes

Chicken meatball—2 minutes Tofu knots—2 minutes Napa cabbage—3 minutes Fresh taro—5 minutes Noodles—7 minutes Dumplings—8-9 minutes Willamette Week DECEMBER 14, 2016 wweek.com

19

PHOTOS BY CHRISTINE DONG

The Soup Issue

HOA LUU

WILLIAM VUONG

20

Willamette Week DECEMBER 14, 2016 wweek.com

CHRISTINA HA LUU

LOAN DANG

PETER VUONG

THE EPIC JOURNEY OF THE FAMILY BEHIND HA VL, PORTLAND’S MOST FAMOUS BROTH MASTERS.

BY ZAC H M I D D L E TO N

zmiddleton@wweek.com

Ha VL is probably the worst-kept secret in Portland. Sure, the tiny banh mi shack is tucked almost invisibly into the back end of a Southeast 82nd Avenue strip mall, and its exterior looks a bit like an inner-city smoke house. But its rotating menu of meticulously crafted Vietnamese soups has become legend.

After eating there four days in a row on a 2010 tour stop, Pavement bassist Mark Ibold became so obsessed with the place that he wrote a love letter to Ha VL in Lucky Peach.

Bon Appétit’s Alex Grossman declared Ha VL one of his favorite five restaurants in the world, alongside Manfreds in Copenhagen and Contramar in Mexico City.

But while the meaty, herbal, elegant compositions of turmeric noodles, snail meatball soup and shrimp-caked vermicelli will indeed shock your taste buds like licking a 9-volt battery, few of Ha VL’s customers know the family’s worldspanning, decades-long journey to starting the restaurant.

It all began with the CIA and the fall of Saigon.

Before and during the Vietnam War, William Vuong, patriarch of the family behind Ha VL and sister restaurant Rose VL Deli, served as a Provincial Reconnaissance Forces Commander cooperating with the United States.

“I was working with the CIA,” the 76-year-old says with a wink, sipping tea while manning his usual station at one of Rose VL’s tables.

But after the withdrawal of American troops in 1975, Vuong became distinctly unpopular with the Communist government, which he says “confiscated” his country after the war. His American connections landed him in a Vietnamese prison for 10 years.

With her husband gone, Christina Ha Luu (who loaned her name, somewhat shortened, to Ha VL) was left alone to raise their six young boys until William was eventually released as a prisoner of war in 1985. But even after his release, it quickly became apparent that the family’s future lay outside the heavily destabilized country.

“There was murder and rape, it was horrible,” says son Peter Vuong, now chef at Ha VL. So in 1986, Peter and three of his brothers fled Vietnam, striking out on their own to find a place for their family.

They washed ashore at a Malaysian refugee camp on Bidong Island in the South China Sea, where the government housed countless “boat people” abandoning Vietnam. Peter doesn’t like to talk about it, but the conditions were unimag-

Three at VL Bun cha oc

inably harsh. Some reports claim 40,000 people were housed in a space approximately the size of a football field.

Luckily, he didn’t have to stay long. After stopping at a way station in the Philippines, Peter was sponsored to gain immigrant status by one of his father’s former students, and was able to travel to the U.S. in 1986. He survived by washing dishes and cooking, often working multiple full-time jobs, but always bouncing back to a kitchen.

But even with four of their sons already in the United States, William Vuong and Luu were unable to attain refugee status, and were stuck in limbo in Saigon. It would take seven years before they were able to rejoin their family, and 13 more before they were able to realize their dream of starting a restaurant.

Luu, 68, who seems never to stop moving and speaks in staccato bursts, was the entrepreneurial energy responsible for opening Ha VL in 2006. She’d completed a trade program in baking back in Vietnam, and had been taught how to cook by her mother and mother-in-law. Both, she says, were excellent cooks. In those early days, Ha VL was just a cafe. “We wanted a small restaurant, just sandwiches and coffee,” says William.

But after a few months of miserable business, Luu decided to add a soup—bun bo Hue—to the menu. It soon began to sell out, so they added another soup, then another. Now Luu and her family serve a rotating menu of two soups each day, six days a week. Each morning, Vietnamese men, including chefs from nearby restaurants, sit in front of Ha VL eating, smoking, and drinking the restaurant’s phenomenal iced coffee made with William’s secret blend of beans.

They sell out of their soups each day. After noon, you’re usually out of luck.

Ha VL has passed on to Peter, 49, who’s maintained his parents’ high standard of excellence.

He shops at several markets to buy ingredients for his soups, and wakes up early to start making the broths. “I don’t serve people leftovers,” he says, peering over his eye glasses. He’s sporting a backward paperboy cap and a sweater unzipped to reveal a small, gold chain around his neck. “It has to be made fresh every day.”

You can find many of William Vuong and Luu’s grandchildren working at Ha VL and Rose VL, the restaurant the couple opened when they got bored of retirement in 2015. But the family doesn’t think the shop

will be passed on to the next generation, whose studies include radiology, illustration and pharmacology.

For now, William can be found each day at Rose VL sitting at his table next to the kitchen. He drinks tea made from a “very special flower” from Vietnam and greets every customer (especially babies) with a smile. Luu moves quickly around the dining room and kitchen, delivering soups, taking orders and chatting with family.

Just above the front windows, where William and Luu can admire it, hangs a large photograph of their entire family, united and smiling.

GO: Ha VL, 2738 SE 82nd Ave., 503-772-0103. Rose VL Deli, 6424 SE Powell Blvd., 503-206-4344.

SOUPS YOU MUST TRY.

(snail noodle soup, available Thursdays at Ha VL) One of Peter Vuong’s unique innovations is his take on bun cha oc, Ha VL’s snail noodle soup. Traditionally, this soup contains whole snails, but Peter developed a lemongrass-scented snail meatball “to make the snails more flavorful.” Floating in a broth made from pork bones, the hearty soup is bolstered by fried tofu and slices of pork loin, while tomato provides a fresh and acidic contrast.

Bun bo Hue

(available Saturdays at Ha VL and Wednesdays at Rose VL) The first soup offered at Ha VL was bun bo Hue, a spicy, lemongrass-scented beef noodle soup named after the central Vietnamese city where it was invented.

Round, vermicelli noodles are supple and slurpable, while three cuts of meat provide textural dynamics: pork meatloaf has a smooth and even texture, thinly sliced beef round steak is somewhat tougher, and pork loin has a luxurious texture. Ha VL’s bun bo Hue—a family recipe, according to patriarch William Vuong—omits the red-brown cubes of

congealed pig’s blood that are used in many renditions of the soup. Topping the accompanying plate of salad and herbs are tiny shavings of banana flower that have a sweet, clean taste.

Mi Quang

(Vietnamese turmeric noodle soup, available Sundays at Ha VL and Saturdays at Rose VL) This may be the Vuongs’ most complex soup, made with condensed pork broth and turmeric-dyed noodles. When asked about it, William Vuong—as he sometimes does—leaned in to whisper in grave secrecy, a trait that’s fun to

imagine is a holdover from his time colluding with the CIA: “The secret is a concentrated broth. Twelve ingredients cooked over low fire for three hours. No one else can make it right.”

The porcine party continues with pork ribs, pork meatloaf, ground pork and pork loin. There’s also shrimp, shrimp cake, and dried, ground shrimp for seasoning, with a handful of ground peanuts and a sesame rice cracker giving a final crunch. ZACH MIDDLETON. Willamette Week DECEMBER 14, 2016 wweek.com

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Alongside the bastard stepchildren of Los Angeles—the Korean taco and the California roll—cioppino is the West Coast’s only homegrown food tradition that matters, the only one we made for ourselves.

The first time Jacqueline chef Derek Hanson tried it, he couldn’t believe what he was tasting.

Hanson grew up in Denver, but accompanying his father on a business trip to San Francisco, he got his first taste of the Italian-style, fiery-hot tomato-and-wine broth brimming with fish and shells and crab legs fresh from the Pacific.

“I come from a landlocked state,” he says. “I’d never had anything like it.”

Neither has most of the country. Although some easterly fish houses serve a version, often one much closer to that found in Italy, cioppino remains tied to the specific bounty of the Pacific: our King and Dungeness crabs, our bountiful mussels and delicate oysters.

Like all of us here on the edge of the country, cioppino began as a somewhat fishy stew of leftovers, steeped in alcohol.

The way the story goes, the Italian fishermen of old San Francisco used to make a communal pot at the end of the day, each fisherman adding a bit of leftover seafood to an herbed brine of wine, garlic, onion and tomato: a mussel or clam here, a crab leg there, a hulking hunk of whitefish to boot.

It was called “ciuppin”—the word for “chop” and “little soup.”

By the ’20s, it was San Francisco’s signature restaurant dish, and it spread up and down the coast.

Though I grew up hundreds of miles north of its birthplace, the spicy Genoese-style peasant soup remains the only food I think of as my birthright. My father discovered it through an old Sunset magazine article, and when I was young our family ate cioppino just once a year, in September or October. It was the brief moment in Oregon when the seasons for tomatoes and shellfish converged. We invited everybody we knew—especially people with boats who would now owe us favors—to come eat a mammoth pot of the stuff.

Salty’s, Cabezon, Gino’s, Mama Mia and RingSide Fish House each have their own versions, as do 20 other seafood and Italian spots all over town.

“But none of the new, young, hip spots are making it,” Hanson says. “It’s all the old-school places.” On a West Coast not used to maintaining its traditions—or even having them to begin with— the existing fan base for cioppino looks a bit like a convention for General Motors car salesmen, enthusiastic and devoted to better days.

Southeast Clinton Street’s Jacqueline is the first Portland restaurant in years to make cioppino a trademark, even if the stylish hall of spicy-smoky cocktails, delicate butterfish and shiitake-bottarga salads may seem an unlikely home for an updated take on a dish often eaten with the help of pliers. But Jacqueline’s cioppino is the best I’ve had in a restaurant.

And it happened almost by accident. Hanson had planned to serve a bouillabaisse, but the classic French fish stew was too complicated and time-consuming to make sense for his restaurant. He went with cioppino in part because it was simpler.

But it quickly got complicated. Early versions of the soup came out too thin, Hanson says. And the seasons were a problem. Shells

photoS by ChriStinE dong

The Soup Issue

CRABS IN A BOWL: Jacqueline’s cioppino.

and especially local Dungeness crab are best in the winter, tomatoes in late summer.

He hit on the idea of preserving tomatoes, and drying them in the oven overnight, while deriving most of his water not from tomatoes but from his cooked-down jus of mussels and the wine he adds in the braise. The result was a denser flavor: more tomato, more thickness, more seafood, more everything.

But, Hanson says, “the thing that makes cioppino is the heat.”

Hanson discovered that researchers at the Oregon State University Food Innovation Center had begun fooling around with growing Peruvian aji amarillo peppers on Sauvie Island.

The farming experiment worked. “But they never came back for the peppers,” Hanson says.

So now they’re in Jacqueline’s kitchen.

Hanson made an aji amarillo concentrate that tastes like the molten core at the center of life itself: bright, vinegary, citric. This is the source of most of the cioppino’s heat, but the acid burst of flavor also brings out that dense, garlicky tomato, wine, onion, Herbsaint fennel and garden pepper stock that forms the base of his broth.

It is a blockbuster—the first cioppino since I was 8 years old that has offered that same heartshaking sense of discovery. It also indulges that affinity, natural to coastal people, for the primitive crack of shell and tomato spatter up to your neck, amid swirling herb and a touch of fire.

“Honestly, I thought more people would complain about the mess,” Hanson says. “Really, it’s what keeps my restaurant in business. The oldschool fish-house fare lets me experiment, make fancier things elsewhere on the menu. You can’t just be fancy everywhere.”

GO: Jacqueline, 2039 SE Clinton St., 503-3278637, jacqeulinepdx.com.

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PHOTOS BY THOMAS TEAL

The Soup Issue The Wheelwright Boot from

, LAGMAN IS AN ALTERNATE EVOLUTIONARY PATH FOR CHINESE NOODLE SOUP.

BY NIC K Z U K I N

@extramsg

The ’Stans of Central Asia are a melting pot of cultures in a way much more profound and ancient than the United States. Tucked between Europe and Asia, countries such as Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan are a fulcrum between two empires, Russia and China. Both influences show up in the pots on their stoves.

Among the interesting twists on the region’s food is lagman—the ramen of the ’Stans.

If the dish were called “Russian ramen,” who knows, it might be the next cronut. Instead, it’s one of Portland’s rarest exotic soups, and a ready-made lesson in the way most foods we eat today qualify as “fusion.”

The place to eat lagman in Portland is at Traditional Russian Cuisine, a cart that recently moved to Northeast Sandy Boulevard. Despite the name, this cart serves more than borscht, blini, piroshky and pelmeni, digging into the Central Asian specialties of co-owner Bella Abdullaeva’s Uzbek grandmother.

Noodles emigrated from China to Central Asia along with two Muslim minorities: the Uyghur and the Dungan (Hui). Noodles’ popularity grew in places like Uzbekistan until they became part of the local cuisine. Tsarist Russia in the 19th century and Communist Russia in the 20th century each conquered most of Central Asia, not only importing the natural resources, but some of the food as well. So if you search YouTube, you’ll find Russian cooking shows demonstrating how to make lagman.

“Lagman” sounds authentically foreign, even to enlightened hipsters who insist they have no friends who voted for Donald Trump. Like ramen, it was inspired by China’s lamian (literally “pulled noodles”), a limitless canvas for the cultural influences of the cook making it. It can be served wet or dry and with whatever toppings or vegetables are local and seasonal.

Compared to Japanese ramen, lagman is

closer to the Chinese original. Ramen primarily uses pork or chicken broths. Lagman, like the original lamian, usually begins with beef or lamb.

And the noodles for ramen are usually thinner; typical udon noodles are closer in size to classic lamian. Ramen is usually made by cutting thin sheets of dough, much like Italian pasta. Lamian is stretched, twisted, divided and re-stretched, during what looks like an impossibly convoluted game of cat’s cradle. The finished product is similar: round, slightly chewy wheat noodles.

Traditional Russian Cuisine doesn’t employ either technique—it uses dry noodles because, as Abdullaeva explained, not enough people order the lagman to justify the labor of handmade noodles.

But her soup ($7) is still enjoyable and unique to Portland. The broth, tinted red from tomato, is meaty, punctuated with chunks of stewed beef.

Cabbage, scallion, carrot and squash give it heartiness. Pelmeni, dumplings filled with ground lamb, swim in the broth as well, providing a more delicate, yet toothsome noodle for the soup.

GO: Traditional Russian Cuisine is at Rose City Food Park, 5235 NE Sandy Blvd., 503-449-1531, pdxrussiancuisine.com. Nick Zukin is the owner of Mi Mero Mole on Southeast Division Street and in Old Town, and co-author of The Artisan Jewish Deli at Home.

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Scratch made soups, stews, chili’s & chowders

Willamette Week DECEMBER 14, 2016 wweek.com

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Willamette Week DECEMBER 14, 2016 wweek.com

HOW TO EAT AN XLB LIKE A PRO

The Soup Issue

If the soup ends up anywhere other than your mouth, that’s a fail. Likewise, popping a freshfrom-the-steamer XLB directly into your gob is a no-no unless seared flesh is your thing. Bearing in mind that there is no one correct way to eat an XLB (see YouTube), Jasper Shen offers his preferred method:

BY M I CHA EL C. ZU SMA N

1

Using the sides (not the points) of your chopsticks, carefully remove an XLB from the steamer basket to a waiting Chinese soup spoon.

2

While still holding the XLB with your chopsticks, bite a small hole in the side of the XLB and pour all the soup into the spoon.

3

Drink the soup from the spoon.

4 5

Place the dumpling back on the spoon and pour a little dipping sauce over it and add a few threads of ginger.

“Shoot” the dumpling, scraping lightly with your teeth if it doesn’t slide off the spoon on its own.

PHOTOS BY JOE RIEDL

FINALLY, THE XLB SOUP DUMPLING CRAZE IS COMING TO PORTLAND. @mczlaw

It took chef Jasper Shen two and a half years to master the pinching, pulling and twisting technique needed to create a perfect Shanghai soup dumpling.

“It’s all about feel,” Shen says, as he demonstrates his routine in my kitchen.

In Portland, it’s heartening to see Shen’s expert technique as he lays out the dumplings. He practiced, he says, every day of those two and a half years.

By the time his restaurant, named XLB, opens in North Portland in January, he will already have put in hundreds of hours of reps, all devoted to making the perfect dumpling.

Until the ’90s, almost no one in America had ever tasted a xiao long bao soup dumpling—XLB for short. But since Taiwanese dumpling chain Din Tai Fung took the XLB international two decades ago, opening shops all over the world, the cult of the dumpling has become fervid. New Yorkers and San Franciscans who move to Portland cast around desperately and vainly for a good XLB. Though dumplings are of ancient provenance, the XLB has a relatively short history. San Francisco food writer Patricia Unterman attributes the XLB’s origins to an unknown, late19th-century Chinese baker who set up a soup dumpling stand outside a popular public garden in Nanxiang, a village on the outskirts of Shanghai.

Encased in a delicate, nearly translucent pleated purse of noodle dough, each XLB contains a shot of blistering pork broth and a nugget of ground pork. The allure lies in the tender bite-and-slide of noodle, the subtle seasoning and chew of meat, and the mouthfilling savor of the soup. Maybe there’s the element of risk, too—of failing to get soup, meat and noodle down the hatch without spilling or of ingesting scalding soup.

Whatever the source of its ineffable attraction, once you’ve had a perfect XLB, you too will forever crave the elegant harmony of its ingredients.

I stumbled on my first XLB at a branch of Din Tai Fung in Sydney after noticing a line of supplicants and then the exhibition kitchen, with its brigade of prep cooks in white smocks and surgical masks turning out dozens of dumplings. The experience was revelatory. The soup burn on the roof of my mouth healed quickly, and I had to go back the next day. I was powerless to do otherwise.

Although you can get XLBs from two Din Tai Fung outlets in the Seattle area, Portland’s XLB offerings have been hit-and-miss at best, though the newly opened Duck House Chinese Restaurant near Portland State University makes a decent version.

That’s expected to change in January, when Shen, who cofounded Portland’s Aviary restaurant after years of cooking in high-end New York City kitchens, opens his own XLB counter in the former Lardo location on North Williams Avenue. Shen’s restaurant will serve a few kinds of buns, noodle dishes and stirfried greens. But the focus will be on its namesake dumplings.

Those looking for a romanticized recounting of a young Jasper learning how to make soup dumplings at the knees of his grandma are in for disappointment. A self-professed ABC (“American-born Chinese”), the 37-year-old Shen picked up the craft watching YouTube videos.

But already, each element of Shen’s XLB is its own art form.

“The dough has to be made with all-purpose flour and warm water to allow for faster gluten development,” Shen explains.

The dough is weighed out into small pieces and shaped into balls, which are rolled out with a dowel to paper-thin circles maybe 3 inches in diameter.

Although Din Tai Fung offers pork and pork-and-crab versions of its XLB, Shen is sticking with pork alone. The ground meat is combined with ginger, soy, sesame oil, rice wine, a little cornstarch and Shen’s own nontraditional touch, minced garlic chives.

The broth begins with water and pork bones accompanied by a mirepoix (chopped carrots, onions and celery) plus whole black peppercorns, Sichuan peppercorns, coriander seeds, a bit of clove, dried shiitake mushroom and kombu. With all those glutamates in the mix, you know this broth is going to have plenty of body. The mixture gets cooked down for about six hours. Then, it’s strained and refrigerated overnight. The resulting gelatinized broth goes into the food processor “until it pebbles,” says Shen, to be mixed with the meat before the XLBs are assembled.

Using just the right ratio of ingredients and forming the dumplings properly will allow them to steam to perfection. The only further addition is a little dipping sauce of red or black vinegar (optionally combined with soy sauce) and a few threads of fresh ginger.

As I watch Shen spin out XLBs with the muscle memory that can only come with countless hours of practice, he recounts common pitfalls that can yield torn and leaky soup dumplings— an insult to demanding customers.

“Too much air or broth in the dumpling, or a skin that’s rolled out unevenly, can lead to a blowout,” Shen says. But even a wellmade XLB can leak, especially in the hands of a novice nosher (see below for tips).

As we relax over a freshly steamed basket of Shen’s XLBs, he mentions two uncles who ran restaurants and offers a reflection on the Chinese experience in America that seems to run in his family: “The thing they know is food.”

GO: Jasper Shen’s restaurant XLB is expected to open in January at 4090 N Williams Ave. Willamette Week DECEMBER 14, 2016 wweek.com

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Local ingredients, Gluten-free and Vegetarian Ramens available 27th & Alberta St.

Find us @ akasaruramen

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Willamette Week DECEMBER 14, 2016 wweek.com

The Soup Issue

CHEF KEN GORDON SHARES THE RECIPE FOR HIS MUCH-LOVED HUNGARIAN MUSHROOM SOUP.

BY K E N G O R D O N

@kennyandzukes

Few foods have the versatility of soups. They run the gamut from vegan to meat-laden, healthful to comfort food-rich. Some are complex and planned, others a fridge-cleaning-out hodgepodge of improvisation.

Everything I know about soup I learned while cooking in Paris, working under an old-school chef from Normandy who had spent a two-year apprenticeship doing nothing but preparing soups. He taught me about consommés and veloutes, thick

porridges and light airy broths, stews and provincial porridges of vegetables and herbs. A master at extracting the maximum flavors from each ingredient, he passed his craft on to me.

I’d like to think the soups we make at my Jewish deli, Kenny & Zuke’s, honor his legacy. And of those soups, there’s no question about the most popular.

Our Hungarian mushroom soup has been on the menu since we opened, nearly a decade ago now. It has a loyal following that forbids ever removing it from the menu, even if we wanted to—which we don’t.

Compared to many of the soups I learned in Paris, it’s also a reasonably fast, easy and inexpensive recipe perfect for making at home. Willamette Week asked me to share the recipe.

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INGREDIENTS 3 large yellow onions, peeled and diced 2 peeled carrots, peeled and diced 3 ribs of celery, diced 1/2 pound of unsalted butter 2 tablespoons minced fresh garlic 2 pounds crimini or white mushrooms, sliced 3 tablespoons sweet Hungarian paprika 1 tablespoon dried thyme 3 tablespoons flour 1 cup heavy cream Salt and black pepper to taste

In a large, heavy pot over medium heat, cook diced onions, carrots and celery in unsalted butter, until the vegetables are softened. Stir in garlic and cook for 5 minutes longer, stirring frequently. Season lightly with salt and black pepper, stirring occasionally. Don’t allow the vegetables to color. Turn up the heat to medium-high and add mushrooms. Stir frequently until mushrooms are cooked through. Season again.

Sprinkle with paprika and dried thyme.

(Note: Thyme is one of the few herbs I think are good dried, but if you want to use fresh,

XCVI.COM

use a bit more and add it toward the end.)

Stir to mix well.

Turn the heat back to medium and sprinkle with flour. Stir well and keep stirring for 4 to 5 minutes while cooking, coating the mixture well and making sure the flour, which has now formed a roux with the butter, doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pot and burn. Add 2 quarts of hot water and stir well. Bring to a simmer, stirring frequently, and cook for about 10 minutes or so. Add a cup of heavy cream and bring back to a simmer. Correct the seasoning and serve.

Should serve up to a dozen people.

Note: There are some customizations you can do to make this a bit finer, such as adding some wild mushrooms into the mix, or a little dry sherry a few minutes before the soup is finished. Feel free.

Another note: You’ll notice I season often. I don’t really add any more salt than I would if I just seasoned all at once, but seasoning each element of a dish as you go along gives more layers to the flavor of your food.

Ken Gordon is the owner and chef at Kenny & Zuke’s Delicatessen, 1038 SW Stark St., 503-222-3354, and Bagelworks, 2376 NW Thurman St., 503-954-1737, kennyandzukes.com.

THE SLURPTOWN RECIPE CONTEST Submit your best. We will make five and have a panel pick the winner.

Do you have a great soup recipe? Either a cherished family recipe or even an especially tasty twist on a classic? Well, it’s time to share. In honor of our soup issue, Willamette Week is holding a recipe contest. Our editors will choose five of your recipes. Five staffers will prepare them and serve them to a panel of judges. Whoever submits the winning recipe will get a $150 gift certificate to spend on food and drink at Mississippi Studios. Email dish@wweek.com.

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Stree t

What’s the most important thing to happen to you this year? “I met the love of my life, but then had to end it.”

What’s the most important thing to happen to you this year?

“I moved back to Portland from New York.”

What’s the most important thing to happen to you this year? “It’s been a weird year for sure.”

BEAVERTON TRANSIT CENTER LOOKS WE LIKE. PHOTOS BY JU LIA N A LEXA N DER

I like your outfit. “I wish you had seen my outfit yesterday; it was much more vintage. I think the Nasty Woman pin really makes it.”

What’s the most important thing to happen to you this year?

“My poetry got published in a magazine from Long Beach, California.”

www.wweek.com/street

What’s the most important thing to happen to you this year? “I moved to Beaverton from Portland, which was a really big change.”

What’s the most important thing to happen to you this year? “I decided to update myself and my style.

I’m very connected to history, I love it.”

What’s the most important thing to happen to you this year? “I opened for tWitch. He chose me because I was the only break dancer on the crew who could do spins.”

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SCOUTPORTLAND.COM Willamette Week DECEMBER 14, 2016 wweek.com

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STARTERS

SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTE

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

homecoming: Congress has passed legislation to direct the federal government to return the remains of Kennewick Man, or the Ancient One, to Pacific Northwest tribes for burial. The decision comes after a two-decade fight over who has rightful claim to the remains, which scientists say are about 9,000 years old. In 2004, a federal appeals court ruled that tribes couldn’t claim the remains because they were too old to determine where they were originally from.

But in 2015, scientists at the University of Copenhagen studied Kennewick Man’s DNA, finding that he was in fact most closely connected to the native people of the Columbia Plateau, prompting public officials to call for the return of the remains. As soon as President Obama signs the legislation, the Ancient One will be returned to the five claimant tribes, which will work together to place him at rest. “It’s an undiscoverable feeling. It’s a big victory, and this is going to send a message out to Indians and non-Indians,” says Armand Minthorn, a member of the board of trustees for the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Reservation.

IDWPUBlISHINg.COM

A chRiSTmAS miRAcLe: The Rialto will not be closing.

Three months ago, management declared the century-old pool hall, cafe and off-track-betting parlor in downtown Portland would issue its last last call Christmas Day. But WW has confirmed nightlife impresarios Frank Faillace (Dante’s, Star Theater) and Manish Patel (Bar XV) have purchased the Rialto with the intent of maintaining the establishment under its original name. “A smooth transition will be happening in the next couple weeks,” Faillace tells WW. “It won’t be closing.” He stressed the new owners would be “keeping it the same but better” with cosmetic upgrades.

Love Endures Maloy's offers a fabulous selection of antique and estate jewelry and fine custom jewelry, as well as repair and restoration services.

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comic ciTY: San Diego-based IDW Publishing, whose credits include Ghostbusters and Star Trek comics, is opening a Portland branch. The local office will focus on a new imprint called Woodworks, which will include a new line of books and a magazine. Dirk Wood, IDW’s vice president of marketing and a Portland native, says he is looking forward to being a part of “the incredible comics scene that’s taking off in Portland.”

mezcALLing: Portland may soon have America’s largest mezcal bar. The owner of Teote, the South American streetfood restaurant in Southeast Portland, is planning to open a bar on Northeast Alberta Street, in a former auto body shop next to Akasaru Ramen. The building will be called Enclave, but it will be divided into two sections: a mezcal bar called Coyote Mezcaleria and a second restaurant named Teote. “It will have the biggest [mezcal] selection probably on the West Coast, if not the country,” owner Michael Kennett says.

The bar is expected to open by April 2017.

WEDNESDAY, DEC. 14

TYuS Portland’s answer to new-wave R&B stars like Bryson Tiller

Zwanzig Fest

and Jeremih is a 20-year-old kid who hasn’t even gotten his braces off yet. Signed to Warner Brothers after growing a massive online following, Tyus Strickland’s Forget, delivers frank pillow talk new EP, Never Forget over spacey lava-lamp production, much of which he crafted himself. Hawthorne Theatre, 1507 SE César E. Chávez Blvd., hawthornetheatre. com. 7 pm. $13 advance, $15 day of show. All ages.

Lompoc celebrates its 20th anniversary all week with events at four of its five locations. Visit the Hedge House on Wednesday for a bevy of sour and fruit beers, including a 2008 blueberry sour and a 2012 peach wheat. Lompoc Hedge House, 3412 SE Division St., lompocbrewing.com. 4 pm-midnight. $12 for a taster tray. 21+.

THURSDAY, DEC. 15

From Coraline to Kubo: A History of Laika

N.W.I.P.A. Ugly Sweater Party Overheard in our office: “Wait, so a bunch of dudes with huge bellies and huge beards hang out in ugly sweaters and drink beer? What could be wrong with that?” Nothing is wrong with that. And the beer will be from Fremont, the medalwinningest brewery in the Pacific Northwest this year. N.W.I.P.A., 6350 SE Foster Road, nwipa.beer. 6-10 pm. Free.

FRIDAY, DEC. 16 The Portland Bazaar

All of those award-winning animated flicks that Hillsboro’s Laika have produced over the years—Coraline and Kubo and the Two years— Strings, Strings to name two—were made by hand. Tonight, Laika’s Mark Shapiro explains how the studio brings all its creations to life. Cerimon House, 5131 NE 23rd Ave., cerimonhouse.org. 7 pm.

Suggested donation $15 adults, $5 kids.

Get Busy

Hipster Santa is back, and the Portland Bazaar is exactly the place you’d find him picking up lastminute gift ideas for the artisanally inclined local on your Christmas list. With Tanner Goods, Olympia Provisions, Bridge & Burn and Jacobsen Salt making appearances, this is a onestop shopping and dining experience. The North Warehouse, 723 N Tillamook St., portlandbazaar.com. 6-9 pm. $15, includes drink ticket, raffle and bites. 21+.

10 am-5 pm Saturday-Sunday, Dec. 18. Free.

Homegrown DocFest

WHAT WE'RE EXCITED ABOUT DECEMBER 14-20

Portland nonprofit NW Documentary has been teaching the art of do c u ment a r y filmmaking to people like you and me since 2003. Tonight, you can see films from the next generation of amateur documentarians, as Clinton Street Theater hosts its thrice-yearly screening of new works. Clinton Street Theater, 2522 SE Clinton St., cstpdx.com, 7 pm. $8.

SATURDAY, DEC. 17 Red Fang

Snowshoe at Mount Hood

On Only Ghosts,, Portland’s most fun-loving sludgebeasts continue to deliver the goods, forging big rock-candy mountains out of burly riffs and sticky-sweet melodies.

And with radio-metal kingmaker Ross Robinson behind the boards, this could be the one that finally makes Red Fang a household name—in homes with Slipknot and Korn posters on the wall, anyway. Wonder Ballroom, 128 NE Russell St., wonderballroom.com. 7 pm. $23 advance, $25 day of show. All ages.

The powder is getting heavy up on Mount Hood, which means now is the perfect time to snowshoe around Trillium Lake. Outfitters abound, but Next Adventure’s guided day trips, which include snowshoe rental and a ride to and from the mountain, are a great chance for newbies to get a feel for the sport.

Next Adventure, 426 SE Grand Ave., nextadventure.net. 9:30 am. $50.

SUNDAY, DEC. 18 Cinnamon Bear Cruise

Cinnamon Bear is an Olde Portland institution, born of a radio program and kept alive only in the quickly deteriorating gray matter of our most, ahem, experienced citizens—and by the Portland Spirit. This boat’s a two-way ticket to Maybeland, with fairies and elves and Queen Melissa. And the bear himself.

Join Paddy O’Cinnamon and the gang on a huge tub for a local tradition that sort of confuses and delights everyone. Salmon Street Springs Dock. Cruises throughout the month, including 10 am-noon and 2-4 pm Sunday. Visit cinnamonbearcruise.com. $30 adults, $22 kids.

MONDAY, DEC. 19

Portland Cookbook Signing Party

Last-minute Christmas shopping? Do it tipsy. The chefs from Beast, Ox, Olympia Provisions and Ken’s Artisan will be hanging out with their own cookbooks, signing them with personal messages to whomever. But also? There’s wine, and a bite from each cookbook for the having. Beast, 5425 NE 30th Ave., beastpdx.com. $10.

TUESDAY, DEC. 20 All-Star Tribute to Paul Simon

Just when you think there’s nothing left to read on the icons of classic rock, Peter Ames Carlin drops another biography. The former Oregonian critic’s latest is about Paul Simon, and as is tradition, he’s celebrating its publication with a tribute show. Luz Elena Mendoza, Rebecca Gates, Casey Neill and other local luminaries will Graceland the stage. Get it?!

Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi Ave., mississippistudios.com. 8 pm. $8 advance, $10 day of show. 21+.

Local Cut with Mic Capes

Willamette Week and Holocene’s newmusic series is headlined by Portland’s fiercest rapper, who finally dropped his long-awaited Concrete Dreams project this year. Rising soul singer Brown Alice and dream-pop two-piece Ellis Pink join him. Holocene, 1001 SE Morrison St., holocene.org. 8:30 pm. Free. 21+.

Máscaras and Thee Commons

As the holidays get closer, the show calendar gets slimmer.

No matter the season, you can always count on Papi Fimbres to be playing somewhere. Tonight, Portland’s busiest drummer thrashes with psyched-out instrumentalists Máscaras, who’ll be joined by L.A.’s similarly minded cumbia punk troupe, Thee Commons. Bunk Bar, 1028 SE Water Ave., bunksandwiches.com. 9:30 pm. $7. 21+.

A Christmas Story

Beloved for its sardonic take on a notoriously sappy movie format, Bob Clark’s 1983 classic, A Christmas Story, has been essential holiday viewing for dysfunctional families spanning multiple generations. Tonight, it shows at the Mission Theater, complete with cozy seating and the option to leave your bickering family members behind. Mission Theater, 1624 NW Glisan St., 503-223-4527, mcmenamins.com. 5:30 pm. $4 for adults, $3 for kids 12 and under.

Willamette Week DECEMBER 14, 2016 wweek.com

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ELEMENTS GLASS GALLERY PRESENTS

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Willamette Week DECEMBER 14, 2016 wweek.com

$40 PER ORNAMENT Advance payment and registration required.

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The Bump

Crawls of Shame THE MOST EMBARRASSING THEMED DRINKING EVENTS WE’VE ATTENDED. It’s peak season for stupid theme parties and dumb, costumed bar crawls.

This week alone, Portland will see an ugly-sweater party at an otherwise very cool beer bar, and a drunken Santa rampage through downtown.

Look, we get it. Binge drinking is fun. Being transgressive is fun. It’s natural to seek out a spirit of community. There’s a healing power to embracing the absurdity of this horrific era.

And yet, come the fuck on. Ugly Christmas sweaters are played. They were played a decade ago. Santa rampages haven’t been cool since Clinton was in office.

But, hey. Sometimes you’ve gotta do you. To prove that we’re not claiming to be “too cool” for this stuff, we’ve shared the details of the lamest themed parties we’ve ever attended. We’re embarrassed. So embarrassed that we’ve granted ourselves anonymity. But take heed: You can be cooler than us. Just give that stupid sweater to Goodwill and go on with your life.

Wu-Tang Birthday

As stated in the Constitution, if you’re white and went to college, you’re mandated to profess an exaggerated love of the Wu-Tang Clan, and my college-educated white friends are no scofflaws. But quoting RZA lyrics in casual conversation is one thing; dressing up like him is another. When my buddy turned 30, he insisted on throwing a Wu-Tangthemed birthday party, the notion of which made me a tad uncomfortable. No one showed up in blackface, because we’re not that stupid, but that didn’t mean I was willing to be photographed anywhere near the guy in the Old Dirty Bastard costume. Some of us managed to get around the theme while still attending the party. One of my friends came as a can of Tang. Myself? I wore a suit and said I was Wu-Tang’s accountant.

Snuggie Bar Crawl

Remember Snuggies? They were blankets with sleeves, and in 2009 they rode silly infomercials to ironic infamy.

A bunch of my friends and I decided to wear them around to bars in a crawl, using safety pins to keep them on while

standing and enjoying many a toddy. I didn’t feel bad until I saw a Tumblr meme that explained the Snuggie was popular with people in wheelchairs— like most other infomercial products that seem silly to the able-bodied but which are life-savers to people with limited mobility and dexterity. The Clapper? Slap Chop? Comfort Wipe? Gyro Bowl? EZ Cracker? Universal Jumbo Remote?

Yup, very obviously these products were designed for handicapped people. We inadvertently mocked them. Eek.

Too Soon Party

If you recognize that it’s “too soon,” it’s not that bad, right?

Wrong. There are photos of me at the Too Soon party that I not only attended, but hosted while my dad was out of town. Before Trump, I thought the photos would keep me from running for public office.

Now that nothing matters, I’ll confess: I dressed up as Twin Tower 1.

Brittany Murphy, Michael Jackson and Matthew Shepard were there.

There were three or four Amy Winehouses—she had, like, just died. The only person who managed to pull this off without offending anyone was the girl who dressed as pregnant Hilary Duff.

Unironic White Trash Party

About 80 percent of the weekends during my teenage and college years were spent with hesher friends, drinking extremely shitty beer and listening to death metal in freezing-cold apartments. But every once in a while we’d go out, and I’d usually see some hillbilly shit I couldn’t unsee. In one notable case: a 30-strong house party with literally one girl, which climaxed with a guy running a gas mower through the living room while Pantera blared.

Wigz and Chainz Flip-Cup Tournament

This happened in Portland, and not as long ago as you might think. None of us wore a costume, but several of us attended, and that in itself is problematic.

GO: N.W.I.P.A.’s third annual Ugly Sweater Party, featuring Seattle’s Fremont Brewing, is 6-10 pm Thursday, Dec. 15.

N.W.I.P.A., 6350 SE Foster Road, 503-805-7342, nwipa. beer. SantaCon starts at Splash Bar, 904 NW Couch St., on Saturday, Dec. 17. 3-11 pm. $10 advance, $20 day of event.

21+.

White Trash Party

Given the whole Trump situation, it’s hard to feel bad about making fun of what the French call “garbage blanc,” and who are otherwise euphemistically referred to as “working-class whites” by the polite press and Bernie Sanders. And yet, there were so many three-armed babies born of cousin incest (a serious problem in West Virginia!) and meth (this was before they got into Oxy and black tar) that, I dunno, maybe there’s something to feel ashamed about? Oh, who am I kidding. There are basically two kinds of white people now: white people who’ll wear blackface and white people who’ll mercilessly mock poor white people.

Willamette Week DECEMBER 14, 2016 wweek.com

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MUSIC PROFILE

= WW Pick. Highly recommended.

GUS BLACK

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.

Editor: MATTHEW SINGER. TO BE CONSIDERED FOR LISTINGS, go to wweek.com/ submitevents and follow submission directions. All shows should be submitted two weeks or more in advance of event. Press kits, CDs and especially vinyl can be sent to Music Desk, WW, 2220 NW Quimby St., Portland, OR 97210. Please include show or release date information with all physical mailings. Email: msinger@wweek.com.

Fax: 243-1115.

WEDNESDAY, DEC. 14 December 2 Remember: Glass Animals, Hustle and Drone

[ALT-JPEG] Hailed as the latest bright young things of genre-bending indie pop by an adoring British press, Glass Animals exhibited off-kilter charms sparkling through their 2014 debut, Zaba, that couldn’t always distract from the opaque insularity of frontman Dave Bayley’s lyrics. But last year’s 130-plusdate marathon tour allowed the former neuroscientist-in-training an alternative to self-expression. The near-dozen characters unprettily assembled on the cover art for sophomore release How to Be a Human Being were each based on different conversational fragments from strangers secretly recorded by Bayley and then expanded into telling monologues set against the Oxford quartet’s typi-

cally disjointed tunes. Alas, glib appropriation of strangers’ remarks isn’t the easiest shortcut to empathetic renderings—private musings absent personal context feel limp, petty or inane—and, considering the shallowness of vision this project demands, Glass Animals shouldn’t throw stones. JAY HORTON. Crystal Ballroom, 1332 W Burnside St., 503-225-0047. 8 pm. Sold out. All ages.

Soft Kill, All Your Sisters, Lunch, Sex Park

[POST-PUNK] It usually takes a lot for a band to reach the potential of its heroes.

CONT. on page 39

ToP

5

FIVE RECOMMENDED GOOD CHEER RECORDS STOCKING STUFFERS Turtlenecked, Pure Plush Bone Cage

Recommended for: Grad school dropouts Harrison Smith’s wily work as Turtlenecked is unsettling in the best way. On Pure Plush Bone Cage, Smith carves up the history of post-punk until it is all sharp edges and dangerous drops. But buried in the chaos is the perfect pop of “Mondrian,” a gem of lo-fi wistfulness that belongs on all mixtapes from now on.

2 Floating Room, Sunless Recommended for: Your sweeties You know how a lover’s bed can feel like outer space? How a single touch can kill a year? How minds can meet without words getting in the way?

The dense and delirious Sunless, which recalls Grouper’s studies of otherworldly states, is a gorgeous evocation of such fleeting raptures.

3 Little Star, Being Close Recommended for: Anyone with a heart Little Star’s debut LP is the best record released by Good Cheer this year and one of the best albums of 2016, period. Being Close is a startlingly intimate document that invites listeners to let their guards down and feel everything, from the tiniest hiccup of grief to the grandest howl of defiance.

4 Sabonis, Sabonis Recommended for: Graying Evergreen graduates Nineties revivalists still seem pretty fixated on the grungy first half of that decade, but Sabonis anticipates a wave of nostalgia for the swirling and spiraling guitar work with which Built to Spill, Carissa’s Wierd, Modest Mouse and 764-Hero decorated the turn of the century. The future sounds great.

5 Mo Troper, Beloved Recommended for: Neurotics who hate holidays Mo Troper is a master craftsman of sugary power pop, but like Elvis Costello and Elliott Smith before him, Troper’s hooks hide a bitter core. On Beloved, Troper is as angry as he is heartsick, and every song is a thrilling battle between his desire to please and his need to seethe.

CHRIS STAMM. SEE IT: Good Cheer’s Holiday Show, featuring Turtlenecked, Floating Room, Cool American, Mayhaw Hoons & the Outsiders, Two Moons, Alien Boy and Chain, is at Holocene, 1001 SE Morrison St., on Wednesday, Dec. 14. 7 pm. $7. All ages.

New Rose

HIS CAREER STARTED WITH CONTROVERSY, BUT NOW TYUS IS PUTTING PORTLAND R&B ON THE NATIONAL RADAR.

BY MATTHEW SIN GER

msinger@wweek.com

Overnight success rarely happens overnight. But in the case of 20-year-old Tyus Strickland, that’s pretty much exactly how it went down. He went to sleep one night, woke up, and had his music career jump-started in a way he never anticipated—or really wanted.

Two years ago, the Portland-raised R&B singer’s self-produced tracks began circulating online, through no concentrated push of his own. Someone had taken his songs, pitched the vocals down and tried to pass them off as unreleased material from Drake protégé PartyNextDoor. It fooled the right people—namely, social-media maven Karen Civil, who shared the “leaks” with her 400,000 Twitter followers. Fans quickly figured out the ruse, leading them back to Strickland’s originals and exploding his SoundCloud plays. The problem, of course, is the internet commentariat assumed he orchestrated the whole stunt himself.

“It was a gift and a curse,” Strickland says. “The weird part about it was that first initial week. People were bashing me like a motherfucker. I was like, ‘What should I do? Should I keep it going?’”

At this point, though, whatever ill effects the “curse” part may have had on his future have been quarantined to message-board archives. Once the controversy blew over, Strickland had gained thousands of legitimate new fans. He attracted the attention of a Kentucky-based marketing firm, which led, in June, to a deal with Warner Bros. Like Aminé, TYuS—as he prefers to stylize it—circumvented the barriers that still exist in Portland for singers and rappers with pop aspirations, harnessing the power of virality to reach a national audience before many in his hometown knew his name.

But again, overnight success never actually happens overnight, even when it literally happens overnight. In truth, Strickland’s been preparing for this moment since he was a child, when he’d sing Usher songs to impress his mother. From the age of 13, he was producing his own beats; by 16, he’d released

two mixtapes under his rap name, TY the Rebel. But even for an exceedingly confident teenager, “R&B star” hardly seemed like a viable career option. So a few years ago, Strickland went to California to work on a pot farm run by some family members, with the promise of a big payday that never materialized.

“I got sold a dream that I was going to be helping and stuff,” he says, “and it never happened.”

Strickland says the experience helped him refocus. Moving back to Portland, he dropped the TY the Rebel moniker and divested from anyone who might distract him from his creative goals. By the time of the PartyNextDoor incident, his music had matured to where it could easily pass for the work of an artist with a lot of industry muscle behind him.

And now that he’s got those resources working for him for real, Strickland is able to show what he can really do. On Never Forget, his debut EP for Warner Bros., Strickland places himself somewhere between Bryson Tiller’s “trap soul” and the more vintage seductions of Jodeci. While his voice is graceful and airy, it’s the moody, headphone-worthy production he’s especially proud of. He made several of the beats himself, and it’s not hard to imagine them alongside Jeremih and the Weeknd on mainstream radio.

Some kids his age might be overwhelmed by the very idea of being included in such company, but Strickland insists he’s not tripping on any of it. Right now, his main concern is putting on for his city. He’s using his cachet to create a company, StrickRose, to develop new artists from the Pacific Northwest.

Portland might not be the place you’d expect the future of R&B to take root. But as Strickland is already proving, it doesn’t have to stay that way.

“I’m trying to build a new Portland,” he says.

“I’m never trying to go somewhere else or rep somewhere else. I’m bringing it back to the city, and we can build from there.”

SEE IT: TYuS plays Hawthorne Theatre, 1507 SE César E. Chávez Blvd., with Cassow, Jonny Cool and A-Russ, on Wednesday, Dec. 14. 8 pm. $13 advance, $15 day of show. All ages.

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MUSIC

Marty O’Reilly, Royal Jelly Jive

[WOODSY ROCK ‘N’ ROLL] There’s a reason for the recent preponderance of drunken, Tom Waits-tinged roots blues coming out of the Pacific Northwest. Whinier definitions of “alternative” had long overstayed their welcome here, and as an added bonus, this stuff isn’t rocket science to play. For the most part, bluegrassleaning stages serve as foot-stomping wood for bands that can strum loud and sing gravelly, which makes having any musical chops stand out immediately. Marty O’Reilly may sound like a solo project, but they actually refer to themselves as “a four-man orchestra,” and they can all pick and harmonize convincingly. Same goes for Royal Jelly Jive, who shares tonight’s bill.

ISABEL ZACHARIAS. Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi Ave., 503288-3895. 8 pm. $10 advance, $12 day of show. 21+.

slow, pedal-driven soundscapes permeating the world of noise music, Explode Into Colors drummer Lisa Schonberg added five percussionists into the mix, creating a rhythmically intricate wall of sound called the Secret Drum Band. For drum nerds and eclectic music fans, it’s a real sight to behold—a mass of instruments and movement, and the hippest drum choir you’ll ever see.

Compositions feature Latin, rock, and world rhythms made by drums both manufactured and found teetering atop a bed of instrumental noise and lap-steel guitar. Joined by the 1939 Ensemble, the jazzy, vibraphone-fueled project of Revival Drum Shop owner Jose Medeles, this is an opportune time to share a beer with the best (and nicest) drummers in town before the new year. PARKER HALL. Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi Ave., 503-288-3895. 9 pm. $8 advance, $10 day of show. 21+.

Sugar Skulls & Marigolds, Spatia, Saola

[POWER OF THE RIFF] Denver duo Sugar Skulls & Marigolds are brothers. Together they bash out a frenetic, high energy, riff-powered onslaught of mountain-time metal. Since there are only two of them (and neither sings), they make it a point to take up as much sonic territory as possible, with busy drum patterns and a suitcase full of stomp-box effects that launch their latest three-song EP, Blood Moon, into outer space. It’s there in the cosmos that local instrumental trio Spatia drifts onto the scene, taking a pleasant post-rock approach to their intricate spaceage explorations. Portland’s favorite teenage sludge heavyweights, Saola, open, then probably dash off to catch an opening-night showing of Star Wars: Rogue One. NATHAN CARSON.

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MIC CHECK ADRIAN WHARTON

An endless pursuit of replication can be stifling, but all of the bands on this local bill have managed to pay homage to the greats without sounding recycled. Fans of Magazine can turn the page to Soft Kill as a modern incarnation, while Lunch chews loudly at the Cure’s sage roots. And for a pair of duos, San Francisco’s All Your Sisters and newer locals Sex Park could dominate any DJ-curated playlist. Any opportunity to catch good post-punk live, as opposed to sweating it out during some themed dance night, should always be taken.

CERVANTE POPE. High Water Mark Lounge, 6800 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., 503-286-6513. 9 pm. $8. 21+.

THURSDAY, DEC. 15 December 2 Remember: Bishop Briggs, Bed

[TIGER TRAP] Another raven-tressed singer borne aloft through girlish severity, minimalist melancholia, epileptic stagecraft and a moniker namechecking Old World power structures, Bishop Briggs is hardly the first darkpop diva to exploit the star-making appeal of belting American Idol-chic choruses to the rafters above chilled clubland beats. But, like a central Banks or Lorde commander, there’s an air of imperial inevitability to such a rapid ascension. Her first single, “Wild Horses,” soundtracked an Acura commercial. The second, “River,” earned 20 million Spotify streams. In summer, she made The Tonight Show her TV debut. In fall, her first stint on the road came opening arenas for Coldplay. Nearing one year since first plucked from SoCal coffeehouse obscurity, she’s yet to announce plans for an album proper, which may be strategic, given the increasing similarities between the five tunes already released. As with any game of speed chess, the quality of individual moves hasn’t nearly the importance of overwhelming targets through sheer speed of deliberation. JAY HORTON. Crystal Ballroom, 1332 W Burnside St., 503-225-0047. 8 pm. $19.50. All ages.

John Craigie, Brad Parsons, Jay Cobb Anderson, Bart Budwig

[TROUBADOUR FOLK] West Coast Americana favorite John Craigie owes a debt to Bob Dylan so great and unpayable that he said “fuck it” and titled one of his most popular songs, “I Wrote Mr. Tambourine Man.” Uh, whoa, John. Just because you’re both rugged and emotive and you rock your shirt half unbuttoned doesn’t make you a real big-boy folk singer.

What might suck the most, though, is that while singing through the platitudes instilled from years on the open road (i.e. “the road giveth and the road taketh away”), the music is sturdy and consistent. Some might say that’s missing the point of folk, but it’s hard not to note that, unlike Dylan, it seems Craigie actually knows how to play the harmonica. ISABEL ZACHARIAS. Doug Fir Lounge, 830 E Burnside St., 503-231-9663. 9 pm. $12 advance, $15 day of show. 21+.

Secret Drum Band, 1939 Ensemble, Doubleplusgood

[DRUM HANG] Dissatisfied with the

Larry Beckett

High-flying, young-dying ’60s troubadour Tim Buckley’s already generous posthumous discography gained two important additions this fall: Along with the just-released Wings: The Complete Singles 1966-1974, October’s Lady, Give Me Your Key: The Unissued 1967 Solo Acoustic Sessions collects demos for Buckley’s second album, 1967’s Goodbye and Hello, adding seven previously unknown songs. Roughly half its tracks were written with Buckley’s lifelong friend, songwriting partner and longtime Portlander, Larry Beckett. Willamette Week sat with Beckett at his home to talk about collaborating with Buckley, honoring John Lennon and, as you’ll see below, getting ripped off by Bob Dylan. Read the full Q&A at wweek.com. JEFF ROSENBERG. WW: The newly released Buckley demos are fascinating.

It’s great to hear unadorned takes of songs from Goodbye and Hello, especially since some say that album’s elaborate production hasn’t aged well.

Larry Beckett: Well, I sort of take exception to that, because I think what’s happened is there was sort of a critical cliché about Goodbye and Hello, that it was overdone in terms of orchestration and “of its time.” And that point of view prevailed through the ’90s. But then, slowly, in the aughts, positive reviews of it started to crop up, where they said, “No, this isn’t over-orchestrated at all, it’s just itself, and it’s very strong.” Maybe his strongest album, in terms of all aspects: vocalization, lyrics and arrangement. Take a look at “Hallucinations”—which I think, actually, [Bob] Dylan, for “Political World,” stole the opening of. Because we know he knows all things.

Yes, and steals from all things!

And steals from everything. If you listen to the opening of “Hallucinations,” and listen to the opening of “Political World,” you think, “OK, I get this. He played this for [producer] Daniel Lanois, and said, ‘That’s what I want it to sound like.’” So, that’s huge. And that’s not dated—that’s, now, an influence on future music. So, I think the critical current has started to run the other way. When I listen to Goodbye and Hello, I don’t feel any of the criticisms about it. I mean, I don’t particularly like my lyrics, but that’s all. Everything else, I love.

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MUSIC FRIDAY, DEC. 16 Bluetech, Plantrae

[AMBIENT GLITCH] Ambient electro toes a fine line between the background and foreground, creating a dynamic that Evan Bartholomew positions squarely at the center of the music he makes under the name Bluetech. Combining the glitchy earworms of Aphex Twin and the warm surrealism of Brian Eno, Bluetech touches down in the same celestial realm that Ghostly International artists like Christopher Willets and Tycho call home. His 2016 EP, The 4 Horsemen of the Electropocalypse: The Red Horse, is packed with lush atmospherics and pingponging synths that would sound equally great in a packed festival tent or on a nice pair of headphones, solidifying Bluetech’s prowess as an exciting producer with respectable taste and even better timing. PETE COTTELL. Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi Ave., 503-288-3895. 9 pm. $12 advance, $14 day of show. 21+.

Ashleigh Flynn & the Hazeltines, Ragged Union, Honey Don’t

[STRING SUMMIT] Raised in Kentucky, musician Ashleigh Flynn has spent a considerable amount of time in the Northwest, namely due to her close musical ties to the Decemberists’ Chris Funk. Her 2013 release, A Million Stars, offered a soulful take on Americana and garnered wide critical acclaim. Presently, she’s operating as part of a twangy trio called the Hazeltines, built around her insightful songwriting and lively stage persona.

Given Secret Society’s tight and cozy quarters, this show promises to be the closest thing to a hoedown you’re likely to find in town right now. MARK STOCK. The Secret Society, 116 NE Russell St., 503-493-3600. 9 pm. $10 advance, $12 day of show. 21+.

SATURDAY, DEC. 17 I’m Glad It’s You, Hemingway, Lubec, Glacier Veins, Radler

[POP PUNK] This lineup at Black Water proves that even in an indierock town like Portland, pop punk is alive and well. The Things I Never Say from I’m Glad It’s You is one of the best examples of the genre to come out this year, offering the same sort of intelligent lyrics and emotive phrasing that fans of the Hotelier would appreciate. Acting as direct support is Hemingway, whose rotating lineup is anchored by the indelible and clever songwriting of lead singer Benjamin Ward, while likeminded pop-punk outfit Glacier Veins has a reputation as being one of the best live acts within the city’s burgeoning DIY all-ages scene. Adding some texture is dream-rock band Lubec, whose album Cosmic Debt should be near the top of every Portland music fan’s Best of 2016 list.

BLAKE HICKMAN. Black Water Bar, 835 NE Broadway, 503-281-0439. 7 pm. $5. All ages.

David Bazan’s Christmas Miracle, Advance Base

[SEASONAL DEPRESSION] On Dark Sacred Night, Seattle’s Suicide Squeeze label collects the somber 7-inch tracks that former Pedro the Lion frontman David Bazan has been releasing somewhat regularly around the holidays since 2002. Considering Bazan’s plaintive, sobering vocals, uncensored penchant for realism, and openly conflicted relationship with spirituality, it’s intriguing to imagine him aiming the candid cynicism of his regular songs at something as conventional and phony as Christmas music. Bazan has been touring private living rooms as of late in hopes of providing a more intimate setting for his plainspoken live performances, but he should have no problem bringing that familiar feel to Revolution’s larger

CONT. on page 43

INTRODUCING COURTESY OF BANDCAMP

Twilight Cafe and Bar, 1420 SE Powell Blvd., 503-232-3576. 8 pm. Call venue for ticket prices. 21+.

Brown Alice WHO: Vaughn Kimmons (vocals), Matthew Tomac (beats).

SOUNDS LIKE: Sipping poppy tea with Truth on Mars.

FOR FANS OF: CocoRosie, Erykah Badu, Ashra Kwesi’s “The African Origin of Freemasonry.”

Vaughn Kimmons has stood out ever since she was a kid. In elementary school, a friend called her “weird” for listening to Fiona Apple, whose albums shared shelf space with early releases from No Doubt, Cake, Alanis Morissette—“things that people wouldn’t necessarily expect a little black girl to like,” as she puts it.

Then she discovered Erykah Badu.

“Baduizm came out when I was in eighth grade,” Kimmons says, “and it was like everything clicked. All of a sudden, I felt super-comfortable in my skin.”

Kimmons, who performs under the name Brown Alice, is a co-founder of Portland’s Y.G.B. art collective, a singer in both the Brazilian funk-samba group POPGoji and soul band Tribe Mars, and half of Brown Calculus, a “jazzy, intergalactic soul” project with Tribe Mars keyboardist Andre Burgos.

It may sound like a lot of juggling, but for Kimmons, this plurality of musical identities is how she maintains balance. Her voice is an airy alto gem, and her singing is a natural expression of the big imagination, slight nuttiness and personal history that is distinctly her.

With a pastor grandmother, a hippie mom who was “around a lot of Black Panthers growing up,” and a pierced, tatted, punk-leaning uncle, Kimmons was encouraged throughout childhood to explore the disparate facets of her own identity. It wasn’t until her move to Portland three years ago, though, that Kimmons’ confidence in her eclectic sense of self translated to having enough confidence to sing in public.

“Singing on my own used to make me so nervous,” she says, adding that gathering the courage to share her own music with people is a continuing process. “It’s just practice. And also, realizing that I shouldn’t try to sound like someone else.”

Kimmons might not be one for big volume, quick vocal runs or crazy ad-libs, but she doesn’t need to be. The emotive, historically reverent lo-fi of Brown Alice doesn’t fit perfectly into any stereotyped molds of black music, but that doesn’t make it any less an expression of blackness.

“That’s the ‘why,’” says Kimmons, “to show people the diversity and versatility of the black experience. That’s my main goal.”

Some of Brown Alice’s songs speak directly to Ausar and other ancient black gods of Kemet, while others struggle through young love. Whether explicitly socially engaged or not, Brown Alice’s purpose is innately political.

“I can’t say, ‘I believe that art should do this or that,’” Kimmons says. “But my grandmother was my pastor. And when I was nervous to sing in church, she would always say, ‘If you don’t use your voice, God will take it away.’” ISABEL ZACHARIAS. SEE IT: Brown Alice plays Local Cut at Holocene, 1001 SE Morrison St., with Mic Capes, Ellis Pink and DJ Fritzwa, on Sunday, Dec. 18. 9 pm. Free. 21+.

Willamette Week DECEMBER 14, 2016 wweek.com

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MUSIC HOLIDAY

GIFT GUIDE

Best Restaurants 2016/2017

* The Top 50 R E S TA U R AN T S in Town, Ranked.

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Willamette Week DECEMBER 14, 2016 wweek.com

ONLY GHOSTS (RELAPSE) [PROGRESSIVE POP METAL] R e d Fa n g ’s m o s t recent release delivers 10 tracks of barraging alt-metal brimming with hooky riffs sure to conjure nostalgia for the headbanging earworms of Korn, Slipk n ot a n d M a c h i n e Head. Having helmed some of the seminal albums of that era, producer Ross Robinson is no doubt responsible for the subtle nu-metal flavor that bleeds into Only Ghosts—see the repetitive, distorted guitar and screaming vocals on “Cut it Short” and “Shadows.” But don’t let the big names in the liner notes fool you. Only Ghosts is still killer, ear-popping fun. Red Fang’s colossal, party-inducing chops have not slowed or been tamed since its inception in 2005, regardless of who’s behind the boards. The album contains the best of Red Fang ’s twin musical worlds, with shorter, simpler tracks like “Not for You” following drawn-out psychedelic metal trips like “The Smell of the Sound.” Red Fang proves on its fourth album that it’s more than capable of delivering heavy, entertaining material without sacrificing progress. And the band members haven’t lost their sense of humor, either—check out the Predator-andPBR-themed video for “Shadows” as proof. CASEY MARTIN.

YOU ARE AN ALIEN (SELF-RELEASED)

5

plus: our f av o r i t e Pop-Ups and Pop- Ins

Red Fang

Moon by You

$

Portland’s

ALBUM REVIEWS

SEE IT: Red Fang plays Wonder Ballroom, 128 NE Russell St., with Torche and Whores, on Saturday, Dec. 17. 9 pm. $23 advance, $25 day of show. 21+.

A Great Stocking Stuffer!

— W i l l a m e t t e We e k P r e s e n t s —

dates here

FIND IT AT WWEEK.COM/ GIFTGUIDE2016

[MARTIAN ROCK] Moon by You isn’t just a soulful fivepiece space-rock band, it’s a microculture. In the past six years, Sarah Q and company have d a b b l e d i n o t h e rworldly themes from their headquarters, the aptly titled practice space and houseshow venue the Moon Base. Unfortunately, that culture is coming to an end as the band dismantles, but not before one last release. The outfit’s latest extraterrestrial creation, You Are an Alien, pulls from the dramatic acid rock of Iron Butterfly and Jefferson Airplane while flirting with elements of surf, soul and doo-wop. Despite the disparate elements, engineer Cameron Spies of Radiation City makes them all cohere. As a result, it feels like a concept album, both in terms of sonic narrative and repeating lyrical symbolism stressing things beyond our earthly confines. Tracks like “Insatiable Alien” remind of the British psych rock of Temples, while the cocktail of hyper-rhythmic guitar and vocal crooning on “Intergalactic Fumes” is reminiscent of Foxygen.

It’s tough to see Moon by You go, but then, the band was never really meant for this planet anyway. MARK STOCK. SEE IT: Moon by You plays Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi Ave., with Weeed and Reptaliens, on Sunday, Dec. 18. 9 pm. $5. 21+.

DATES HERE

Robt Sarazin Blake

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

Appearing at Al’s Den Dec. 14-17 11-17 with guests:

Wed: Preston Howard & Conor O’Bryan Thurs: Jacob Jolliff Fri: Mick Overman Sat: Johanna Warren

TAKE IT TO THE BRIGGS: Bishop Briggs plays Crystal Ballroom on Thursday, Dec. 15. stage. CRIS LANKENAU. Revolution Hall, 1300 SE Stark St., No. 110, 503288-3895. 8 pm. $20. All ages.

SUNDAY, DEC. 18 Bad Santa Bash: Disassturbator, Jagula, Slather

[CRUSTY] No, this show is not celebrating the recently released sequel to an already pretty bad early-2000s Billy Bob Thornton movie. We’re talking about a means of redemption for all the unsavory crap you’ve done this year. With all proceeds going directly to the Oregon Food Bank, Disassturbator and Jagula will be dishing out some slinky punk tunes, while the blackened thrash of Slather will leave you feeling all sorts of crunchy in that ugly holiday sweater. If your pockets are a bit empty, come bearing some shelf-stable foods and get a ticket back onto Santa’s nice list.

CERVANTE POPE. Kenton Club, 2025 N Kilpatrick St., 503-2853718. 9 pm. $5 or free with three cans of food. 21+.

MONDAY, DEC. 19 Thee Commons, Máscaras

[WORLDLY EXPERIMENTALISM] See Get Busy, page 33. Bunk Bar, 1028 SE Water Ave., 503-328-2865.

9:30 pm. $7. 21+.

TUESDAY, DEC. 20 Peter Ames Carlin’s Homeward Bound: An All-Star Tribute to Paul Simon

[FEEL-GOOD POP ROCK] See Get Busy, page 33. Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi Ave., 503-2883895. 8 pm. $8 advance, $10 day of show. 21+.

Aesop Rock, Rob Sonic, DJ Zone, Homeboy Sandman

[ELECTRO SKATER RAP] Ian Bavitz, aka Aesop Rock, has served as a one-man Wikipedia for the history of “alternative rap” for the better part of two decades. Aside from stints with two of the genre’s most important labels—Def Jux and Rhymesayers—Rock has welcomed all manner of collaborations and side work to keep his creative juices flowing. Just the past two years found him releasing collaborative albums with tonight’s openers, Homeboy Sandman and Rob Sonic, creating an instrumental mix for Nike’s skateboarding division, and assembling this year’s grimy, electro-tinged full-length, The Impossible Kid—an album that points Rock’s future away from the backpack rap of yesteryear toward a future of crossover success within the growing overlap between techno and hip-hop. PETE COTTELL. Wonder Ballroom, 128 NE Russell St., 503-284-8686. 7:30 pm. $20 advance, $23 day of show. All ages.

Al’s Den at Crystal Hotel • 303 SW 12th Ave.

CLASSICAL, JAZZ & WORLD Mark O’Connor’s An Appalachian Christmas

[APPALACHIAN HOLIDAY] Back for the fourth consecutive year, bluegrass giant Mark O’Connor and his talented offspring bring their downhome sound to the perfect acoustics of the Schnitz. O’Connor, a child prodigy who got used to winning national string competitions by his teens, went on to earn several Grammy nominations and developed his own trademarked playing style. His debut as a family band, Coming Home, is an easy-listening, pluck- and harmony-filled collection of Appalachian folk. Tonight, the band flexes its festive wares, putting a roots spin on a few holiday classics. MARK STOCK. Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, 1037 SW Broadway, 503-248-4335. 7:30 pm Wednesday, Dec. 14. $18-$105. All ages.

Andrew Durkin

[JAZZ] Californication has its upside. Andrew Durkin studied at USC, scored films and for years led L.A.’s acclaimed theatrical Industrial Jazz Group big-band through world tours and five recordings. Then he earned a doctorate, wrote a book about music, moved to Portland, started a family—and has just released his first album in eight years on the Portland Jazz Composers label. Despite some relatively serious inspirations (loss of innocence, the afterlife), Breath of Fire often exhales a breezy, Fender Rhodes-fueled ‘70s vibe that touches on funk and melodic rock, in contrast to IJG’s denser, flashier style—perhaps a reflection of moving from L.A. glitz and gridlock to the laid-back Northwest.

BRETT CAMPBELL. Taborspace, 5441 SE Belmont St., 503-238-3904.

7 pm Thursday, Dec. 15. $10 general admission, $7 students.

In Mulieribus

[EXTREMELY OLD-FASHIONED CHRISTMAS] You could probably go to a different choral concert on each of the 12 days of Christmas.

But if you have to pick only one concert of old Christmas choral music, it’s hard to go wrong with the 10th-anniversary performance from the seven-member female vocal ensemble In Mulieribus, which reliably turns in superb performances of ancient music you’re unlikely to hear anywhere else.

This show includes Christmas-y selections from a 12th-century manuscript they performed in their first concert, as well as chants by the great Hildegard of Bingen and seasonal music from the Renaissance (polyphony by Josquin, Palestrina and Morales) and country music carols. BRETT CAMPBELL. St. Mary’s Cathedral, 1716 NW Davis. 8 pm Tuesday, Dec. 20. $15-$30. All ages.

For more Music listings, visit Willamette Week DECEMBER 14, 2016 wweek.com

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M I C CA P E S BROWN ALICE ELLIS PI NK SOUNDS F R I T Z WA PROVIDED BY

DEC 18TH

8:30PM

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Willamette Week DECEMBER 14, 2016 wweek.com

MUSIC CALENDAR

For more listings, check out wweek.com.

December 2 Remember: Bishop Briggs, bed.

C O U R T E S Y O f R H Y M E S AY E R S . C O M

= 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.

Dante’s

WED. DEC. 14 Alberta Rose

3000 NE Alberta St Magical Strings Celtic Yuletide Concert

Alberta Street Pub

350 West Burnside A Benefit for Pacific Northwest Stands with Standing Rock

Doug Fir Lounge 830 E Burnside St. John Craigie

1036 NE Alberta St Local Roots Northwest Music Showcase

Duff’s Garage

Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall

Fremont Theater

1037 SW Broadway Mark O’Connor’s An Appalachian Christmas

Crystal Ballroom

1332 W Burnside St December 2 Remember: Glass Animals, Hustle and Drone

Doug Fir Lounge 830 E Burnside St. Bear Mountain

Hawthorne Theatre

1507 SE César E. Chávez Blvd.

TYuS

High Water Mark Lounge

6800 NE MLK Ave Soft Kill, All Your Sisters, Lunch, Sex Park

Holocene

1001 SE Morrison St. A Good Cheer Holiday Show featuring Turtlenecked, Cool American, Floating Room, Mayhaw Hoons, Two Moons, Alien Boy, Chain

Jimmy Mak’s

221 NW 10th Ave. The Christopher Brown Quartet; Mel Brown Quartet

LaurelThirst Public House

2958 NE Glisan St Anita Margarita & the Rattlesnakes

Mississippi Pizza

3552 N Mississippi Ave Tallulah’s Daddy

Mississippi Studios

3939 N Mississippi Ave. Marty O’Reilly, Royal Jelly Jive

The Goodfoot

2845 SE Stark St Shafty

The Liquor Store

3341 SE Belmont St, Sweatpants, Tiger Touch, Frenz

The Old Church

1422 SW 11th Ave Michael Allen Harrison; Holiday Concert with Phoebe Gildea, soprano & Noah Brenner, harp

The Raven

3100 NE Sandy Blvd PDX Hip Hop for Standing Rock

Twilight Cafe and Bar 1420 SE Powell Karaoke From Hell

Valentines

232 SW Ankeny St Shaun Murray, Lee Faulkner

White Eagle Saloon

836 N Russell St Christy Hays, Nomi and Garanzuay

THURS. DEC. 15 Aladdin Theater

3017 SE Milwaukie Ave Citizen Cope

Alberta Rose

3000 NE Alberta St WORTH, David JacobsStrain, King Radio

Crystal Ballroom

1332 W Burnside St

2530 NE 82nd Ave Petunia and the Vipers 2393 NE Fremont Street Tonight’s Special

1422 SW 11th Ave Michael Allen Harrison

221 NW 10th Ave. Mel Brown B3 Organ Group

The Secret Society 116 NE Russell St The Quadraphonnes, Melao De Cuba; James Mason & The Djangophiles

LaurelThirst Public House

2958 NE Glisan St Archangels Thurderbird, Erik Clampett; Bad Assets

Twilight Cafe and Bar 1420 SE Powell Flashback 2: Satyricon Daze Reading By Bruno With Musical Guest Chris Newman

Mississippi Pizza

3552 N Mississippi Ave Red Yarn

Mississippi Studios

Valentines

3939 N Mississippi Ave. Secret Drum Band, 1939 Ensemble, Doubleplusgood

232 SW Ankeny St LIT

White Eagle Saloon

836 N Russell St Matthew Lindley, Purusa, Silver Lake 66

Taborspace

5441 SE Belmont St. Andrew Durkin

Wonder Ballroom

The Analog Cafe

128 NE Russell St. Red Fang

720 SE Hawthorne Blvd.

X-Day, Stab in the Dark, The Whining Pussys, Raw Dog, The Close Calls

SUN. DEC. 18 Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall

The Fixin’ To

8218 N. Lombard St Electro-Kraken, The Wild Body, Elphin Elephant

1037 SW Broadway Comfort and Joy: A Classical Christmas

The Goodfoot

2845 SE Stark St Erotic City (Prince Tribute) 1422 SW 11th Ave Michael Allen Harrison 116 NE Russell St Thursday Swing!

Featuring Trashcan Joe, Pink Lady & John Bennet Jazz Band

B-BOy: Aesop Rock plays Wonder Ballroom on Tuesday, Dec. 20.

Twilight Cafe and Bar 1420 SE Powell Sugar Skulls & Marigolds, Spatia, Saola

Duff’s Garage

Valentines

Duff’s Garage

Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall

1037 SW Broadway The Chris Tomlin Adore Christmas Tour

Dante’s

350 West Burnside Mbrascatu, Mexican Gunfight

Doug Fir Lounge

830 E Burnside St. Foghorn Stringband with Kevin Burke

2530 NE 82nd Ave Johnny Boyd 2530 NE 82nd Ave Rockin’ Ricki

Fremont Theater

2393 NE Fremont Street Natty Staggs, MAITA

Hawthorne Theatre

1507 SE César E. Chávez Blvd.

Retch

Jimmy Mak’s

221 NW 10th Ave. Thankusomuch

Landmark Saloon

4847 SE Division St, JT Wise Band

LaurelThirst Public House

2958 NE Glisan St Rose City Kings; Michael Hurley & the Croakers

Mississippi Pizza

3552 N Mississippi Ave Christmas Show: Angry Moofah & the Joints; Oleada

Mississippi Studios

3939 N Mississippi Ave.

Bluetech, Plantrae

Skyline Tavern

8031 NW Skyline Blvd Terry Robb; Buzz Holland Band, Paula Sinclair

The Analog Cafe

720 SE Hawthorne Blvd.

Wes Sp8, The Apollo Proxy, Mongoose, Coloring Electric Like

High Diving Horses, Anther, Tweaker Sneakers

Duff’s Garage

Valentines

Hawthorne Theatre

232 SW Ankeny St Salo Panto with Mouthbreather, Mingus Uh-Oh, Maxwell William

White Eagle Saloon 836 N Russell St Foreign Talks

The Firkin Tavern 1937 SE 11th Ave Small Souls, Pretty Gritty, Naked Luck

The Lovecraft Bar

421 SE Grand Ave Vacant Stares, Atomic Candles, Sex Park

The Old Church

1422 SW 11th Ave Michael Allen Harrison

The Secret Society 116 NE Russell St Ashleigh Flynn & the Hazeltines, Ragged Union, Honey Don’t

Twilight Cafe and Bar 1420 SE Powell

SAT. DEC. 17 Alberta Abbey

126 NE Alberta St Tender Loving Empire Winter Formal

Alberta Street Pub 1036 NE Alberta St Grey for Days

American Legion Hall 2104 NE Alberta Woolen Men, Mope Grooves, Wave Action, Marcy’s Band

Black Water Bar

835 NE Broadway I’m Glad It’s You, Hemingway, Lubec, Glacier Veins, Radler

2530 NE 82nd Ave The Ventilators 1507 SE César E. Chávez Blvd.

Hed PE

Jimmy Mak’s

221 NW 10th Ave. Lloyd Jones

LaurelThirst Public House 2958 NE Glisan St Low Bones; Jawbone Flats (all ages); Redray Frazier

Lincoln Recital Hall

1620 SW Park Avenue Choral Arts Ensemble

Lombard Pub

3416 N Lombard St Old Mill, Watch List

Mississippi Pizza

3552 N Mississippi Ave Tribute to Tribe Called Quest

Revolution Hall

1300 SE Stark St #110 David Bazan’s Christmas Miracle, Advance Base

Dante’s

350 West Burnside Karaoke From Hell

Hawthorne Theatre

1507 SE César E. Chávez Blvd.

The Sounds

Jimmy Mak’s

221 NW 10th Ave. Dan Balmer Trio

LaurelThirst Public House 2958 NE Glisan St Wheels; Kung Pao Chickens

Mississippi Pizza

3552 N Mississippi Ave Mr. Ben

Mississippi Studios

3939 N Mississippi Ave. Pilgrim

The Goodfoot

2845 SE Stark St Sonic Forum

The Old Church

1422 SW 11th Ave Michael Allen Harrison

Twilight Cafe and Bar 1420 SE Powell Red Tank, The Sweatpants, Nuisance

Village Ballroom

700 NE Dekum St, The Ne Plus Ultra Jass Orchestra Dance for the Dogs, featuring The Puddin’ River Jazz Band

TUES. DEC. 20 Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall

1037 SW Broadway Dancing with the Stars Live!

Jimmy Mak’s

221 NW 10th Ave. Mel Brown Septet

LaurelThirst Public House 2958 NE Glisan St Logger’s Daughter; Jackstraw

Mississippi Pizza

Kenton Club

3939 N Mississippi Ave. Peter Ames Carlin’s Homeward Bound: An All-Star Tribute To Paul Simon

2025 N Kilpatrick St Bad Santa Bash: Disassturbator, Jagula, Slather

The Secret Society

Thee Commons, Máscaras

Holocene

1001 SE Morrison St. Local Cut ft. Mic Capes, Brown Alice, Ellis Pink, DJ Fritzwa

The Old Church

1036 NE Alberta St The Loved, Don Dilego & the Touristas, the Don of Division Street

1937 SE 11th Ave AKA Faceless (X-Patrimony), Comanche Joey, Pining Hearts

The Old Church

Jimmy Mak’s

Alberta Street Pub

The Firkin Tavern

421 SE Grand Ave Die Robot, House Of Light

1001 SE Morrison St. Coco Columbia, Sheers, Korgy & Bass

FRI. DEC. 16

720 SE Hawthorne Blvd.

Garcia Birthday Band; Zen Mountain Poets, Ky Burt, Water Eye

The Lovecraft Bar

Holocene

836 N Russell St Tribute to Rob Johnston

The Analog Cafe

2845 SE Stark St The Goodfoot All-Stars

1507 SE César E. Chávez Blvd.

Andie Case

White Eagle Saloon

8635 N Lombard St. The Mutineers, Mysterious Jim, Afterlife Revival

The Goodfoot

Hawthorne Theatre

232 SW Ankeny St Gun Party, Golden Handcuffs, sad trips

Slim’s PDX

[DEC. 14-20]

LaurelThirst Public House

2958 NE Glisan St Freak Mountain Ramblers; Pagan Jug Band

Lincoln Recital Hall

1620 SW Park Avenue Choral Arts Ensemble

Mississippi Studios

3939 N Mississippi Ave. Moon By You

Rontoms

600 E Burnside St No Lala, Cardioid, Merō

The Liquor Store

3341 SE Belmont St, NEW BOOG’S: E. live

The Old Church

1422 SW 11th Ave Michael Allen Harrison

Valentines

3552 N Mississippi Ave Atlantis Underground: Songwriter Sessions

Mississippi Studios

Raven and Rose

1331 SW Broadway Na Rósaí

The Analog Cafe

720 SE Hawthorne Blvd.

Ultra Magnetic

The Goodfoot

2845 SE Stark St Jimmy Russell’s Party City 2034

The Liquor Store

3341 SE Belmont St, Party Boy 1’s Birthday Party

The Old Church

1422 SW 11th Ave Michael Allen Harrison

Valentines

232 SW Ankeny St Nugwort, Chip Scout

White Eagle Saloon

232 SW Ankeny St Michael Deresh, Steven Schayer, ADOS 33

836 N Russell St Double Rainbow With Rainbow Acoustic And Rainbow Electric

White Eagle Saloon

Wonder Ballroom

836 N Russell St Harvest Gold Band, Aron & Colin Duo from Sell the Farm

128 NE Russell St. Aesop Rock, Rob Sonic, DJ Zone, Homeboy Sandman

MON. DEC. 19 Bunk Bar

1028 SE Water Ave.

Willamette Week DECEMBER 14, 2016 wweek.com

45

MUSIC C O U R T E S Y O F S E A N B AT T L E S

NEEDLE EXCHANGE @WillametteWeek

@WillametteWeek

@wweek

Sean Battles Years DJing: Five.

Genres: Eclectic dance (1980-present).

Where you can catch me regularly: The High Dive every second Friday, Dig a Pony every third Thursday, Jackknife every fourth Thursday.

Craziest gig: All the good nights seem crazy to me, but the weirdest was definitely DJing the finish line at the women’s half marathon in Hillsboro, mainly because I’m out there at 8 am playing “She’s a Maniac” like it’s no big deal.

R E V NE S MIS A BEAT

My go-to records: Raf ’s “Self Control,” a classic ’80s synth nightlife vamp, and the new album by homegirl Reva DeVito.

Don’t ever ask me to play…: Justin Bieber, ’cause fuck that shit.

NEXT GIG: Sean Battles spins at Dig a Pony, 736 SE Grand Ave., on Thursday, Dec. 15. 9 pm. 21+.

Swift Lounge

1932 NE Broadway St Leftside Lean w/ Sknny Mrcls (funk, soul)

The Liquor Store

WED. DEC. 14 Beech Street Parlor 412 NE Beech Street DJ Miserific

Fortune

329 NW Couch St Level Up with QUAZ

Ground Kontrol

511 NW Couch St. TRONix: Popcorn Mixed Signals

Killingsworth Dynasty 832 N Killingsworth St Free Form Radio DJ’s

Sandy Hut

#wweek

1430 NE Sandy Blvd.

DJ Joey Prude

Star Bar

639 SE Morrison St. DJ Suzanne Bummers

The Lovecraft Bar

421 SE Grand Ave Event Horizon (darkwave, industrial, synth)

46

Willamette Week DECEMBER 14, 2016 wweek.com

The Raven

3100 NE Sandy Blvd Wicked Wednesdays (hip hop, soul, funk)

Tube

18 NW 3rd Ave. Easy Egg

THURS. DEC. 15 Dig A Pony

736 SE Grand Ave. Battles & Lamar (freestyle, electro, boogie)

Double Barrel Tavern 2002 SE Division St. DJ Easy Fingers

Killingsworth Dynasty 832 N Killingsworth St Post Punk Discotheque

Moloko

3967 N. Mississippi Ave. Nik Nice & Brother Charlie (brazilian)

3341 SE Belmont St, Small Axe (reggae/ dancehall night)

The Lovecraft Bar

421 SE Grand Ave Shadowplay, DREAD (goth, industrial)

The Raven

3100 NE Sandy Blvd House Call w/ Richie Staxx & Tetsuo

Tube

18 NW 3rd Ave. DJ Jack

FRI. DEC. 16 45 East

315 SE 3rd Ave Sweater Beats

Black Book

20 NW 3rd Ave The Cave (rap)

Dig A Pony

736 SE Grand Ave.

HOLIDAY HOEDOWN TO FIGHT HUNGER

Where to Drink This Week

1.

THOMAS TEAL

BAR REVIEW

e

e

e

e

3.

5.

529 SW 4th Ave., 503-228-7605, rialtopoolroom.com.

Rack ’em! This downtown bar, nearly a century old, just got new owners and a stay of execution (see page 32).

Montel Spinozza (the noise / the funk)

Gold Dust Meridian

3267 SE Hawthorne Blvd.

DJ Andy Maximum

Ground Kontrol

511 NW Couch St. DJ Alan THE ROCKET Hart The Excellence of Traxicution

Holocene

1001 SE Morrison St. The Way Up Afro-Caribbean Dance Party

Killingsworth Dynasty 832 N Killingsworth St Strange Babes

Moloko

3967 N. Mississippi Ave. Sappho & Friends (disco)

The Goodfoot

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

The Liquor Store

3341 SE Belmont St, Booms and Claps: Mikos Da Gawd

The Lovecraft Bar

421 SE Grand Ave Darkness Descends (classic goth, dark alternative)

e

e

e

THE WAYSIDERS

Great Notion

Rialto Poolroom

e

THE

8218 N Lombard St., 503-477-4995, thefixinto.com.

We always done loved this rickety little bar up in St. Johns. Then they done expanded and added a stage, turning the Fixin’ To into the concert venue the ‘hood has long needed.

We’s fixing to move in.

1620 NW 23rd Ave., 503-894-9374, lompocbrewing.com.

The holidays find us returning to old friends, like the brewpub nearest our office, which celebrates its anniversary this week (see page 33).

e

AND

2.

4.

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JENNY DON’T THE SPURS STUBBORN LOVERS

The Fixin’ To

New New Lompoc

e

NET PROCEEDS TO BENEFIT THE OREGON FOOD BANK

Wayfinder

304 SE 2nd Ave., 503-718-2337, wayfinder.beer.

This German-focused inner-Southeast brewpub is starting to round into form. Get the sausage plate and the collaboration beers that brewmaster Kevin Davey is making all over town while he waits for his own kettles to arrive.

2204 NE Alberta St., No. 101, 503-548-4491, greatnotionpdx.com.

Not a week goes by that we don’t get a hankering for this yearold Alberta brewery’s signature cloudy IPAs, exotic stouts and puckery sours. It’s also the best spot in town to bring the tykes while you sip and chat.

e

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 17th, 8:00 PM PEARLS BEFORE PIGSKINS: When he gets to a certain point in his life, a man knows what he wants. For former Ducks, Lions, Dolphins, Falcons and Saints quarterback Joey Harrington, that’s a woody room that takes reservations and serves up a good rib-eye ($31) and a glass of Wahluke Slope primitivo ($11) while showing the day’s ball games. And thus, Pearl Tavern (231 NW 11th Ave., pearltavernpdx.com), the upscale new sport lounge with bottle service and spiced toffee beer nuts ($3). “I’m at the age where I don’t want to go to Buffalo Wild Wings,” Harrington told The Oregonian when announcing his new project with ChefsTable. “If I want to hang out and get a good meal, and maybe catch a game, where am I going to do that?” Now, there’s a place, the former Parish space, outfitted as a manly study, with rugged wood floors, stately green walls and lots of big, cushy booths. If you’re headed to this Pearly pub during peak hours, reserve one of those booths.

Otherwise, expect to be crammed into a narrow space behind the bar, waiting for a stool to open. Once you’re seated, it’s a very pleasant place. Barman Ryan Magarian has put together an excellent and distinctive drink list, with cocktails like an Angostura fizz ($14), which uses bitters as its only liquor and combines them with lemon, simple syrup, cream and soda water, and what’s probably the only keg of Great Notion’s wildly popular Juice Jr. ($7) tapped outside its own brewpub right now. The TVs are optimized for bar viewing, with some of the tables qualifying as “obstructed-view seats.” But if you’ve got a good spot, and the scratch for a nice steak, and a taste for fine bourbon, there’s now a place for you, away from the ball-capped riffraff eating mini corn dogs over at Lloyd Center. MARTIN CIZMAR. SAT. DEC. 17 45 East

315 SE 3rd Ave BT & Kristina Sky

Crystal Ballroom

1332 W Burnside St 80s New Wave Video Dance Attack: Bowie Tribute

Double Barrel Tavern 2002 SE Division St. DJ Johnnie Spaceman

Ground Kontrol

511 NW Couch St. DJ “Showtime” Dylan Reiff (disco, house)

Holocene

1001 SE Morrison St. Infinite Vision: Wave Theory

Killingsworth Dynasty

832 N Killingsworth St Max Capacity w/ DJ Nightchild & Ian Hicks

Moloko

3967 N. Mississippi Ave. Montel Spinozza

DJ Matt Stanger

DJ Just Dave

Saucebox

Ground Kontrol

The Liquor Store

Star Bar

214 N Broadway St Alex LeMove 3341 SE Belmont St, Spend The Night : Aurora Halal & Ital

The Lovecraft Bar

421 SE Grand Ave Sabbath (darkside of rock, electronic)

Valentines

232 SW Ankeny St Devil’s Disco

SUN. DEC. 18 The Lovecraft Bar

421 SE Grand Ave Super Merry Kawaiimas!

(Jpop, Kpop, cosplay)

White Owl Social Club 1305 SE 8th Ave East Your Sunday Best (house, disco, techno)

Quarterworld

4811 SE Hawthorne Blvd DJ Always Already

Sandy Hut

1430 NE Sandy Blvd.

MON. DEC. 19 Club 21

2035 NE Glisan St.

511 NW Couch St. Reaganomix: DJ Rocket (80s) 639 SE Morrison St. Metal Monday

Swift Lounge

THE FIXIN’ TO 8218 NORTH LOMBARD ST., PORTLAND, ORE.

$7.00

$10.00

AT THE DOOR WITH DONATION OF NON-PERISHABLE FOOD ITEMS

The Old Church Concert Hall Presents Bryan Sutton Sunday, Jan. 15 7:30 pm

Dave Alvin with Christy McWilson

Tuesday, Jan. 17 7:30 pm

1932 NE Broadway St Legendary Mondays w/ DJ Dubblife

The Lovecraft Bar

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

TUES. DEC. 20 Beech Street Parlor 412 NE Beech Street DJ Crudlord

Dig A Pony

736 SE Grand Ave. Noches Latinas (salsa, merengue, cumbia)

David Olney Friday, Jan. 27 8:00 pm

The Lovecraft Bar

UPCOMING SHOWS Edna Vazquez - Feb 17, Leonard Cohen Tribute - Feb 18, Emmet Cahill - Feb 26

Tube

THEOLDCHURCH.ORG

421 SE Grand Ave Mood Ring (electronic, dance) 18 NW 3rd Ave. Tubesdays

Willamette Week DECEMBER 14, 2016 wweek.com

47

M AT T W O N G

Health & wellness WILLAMETTE WEEK PORTLAND’S NEWSWEEKLY

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Publishes: Jan. 4, 2017

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Visit bit.ly/tidesfoundation to provide tax deductible contributions to WW’s Fund for Investigative Journalism (and use the drop-down menu to choose Willamette Week).

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Willamette Week DECEMBER 14, 2016 wweek.com

In these times, speaking truth to power is more important than ever.

Thank you for your support

PERFORMANCE BRUD GILES

REVIEW

= WW Pick. Highly recommended.

Most prices listed are for advance ticket sales. At-the-door increases and so-called convenience charges may apply, so it’s best to call ahead.

Editor: SHANNON GORMLEY (sgormley@wweek.com).

TO BE CONSIDERED FOR LISTINGS, submit information at least two weeks in advance to: sgormley@wweek.com.

THEATER OPENINGS & PREVIEWS 1941 Christmas From Home

If there’s ever a time to go see radio theater, the holidays are probably it.

The format kind of makes sense for a Christmas-themed show: December is a time when you want to guzzle as much syrupy nostalgia as possible, and 1941 Christmas From Home’s got the strongest dose. Every year, Ralph Radio Theatre puts on a recreation of a 1940s radio show taping that features storytelling, live big-band jazz, and ads for stuff like toothpaste. On top of all that, this year it will be held in the quaintest of all settings: the replica Western frontier town of Dairyville. Alpenrose Dairy Opera House, 6149 SW Shattuck Road, ralphradiotheatre.com. 7:30 pm FridaySaturday, Dec 16-17. $18.

Superhero Old Folks’ Home

You have a lot of options in Echo Theater’s show, Superhero Old Folks’ Home: if you’re into superheroes, they’ve got it. If you’re into acrobatics, they’ve got that. If you’re into puppets, trapeze or aerial dance they’ve got all that, too. Echo Theater specializes in theater that involves various forms of acrobatic and aerial dance, and this time they’re showing off those skills with a plot that’s reminiscent of the Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy episodes of SpongeBob SquarePants—it imagines what happens to aging superheros. Still, you’re going for the spectacle, and if the plot amuses you on top of that stuff, it’s just a bonus. Echo Theater, 1515 SE 37th Ave., echotheaterpdx. org. 7:30 pm Friday-Saturday, 3 pm Saturday and 1 pm Sunday, Dec. 16-18. $25.

ALSO PLAYING A Civil War Christmas

Buyer & Cellar

Hey look, it’s not a Christmas show.

Instead of Santa or elves or whatever, Triangle’s holiday production is about Barbra Streisand’s basement. The play gets its premise from Streisand’s real-life basement, which is elaborately designed to look like a street lined with shops that hold all her stuff.

Buyer & Cellar imagines Alex, a struggling actor who works in Streisand’s basement mall. The absurd comedy is a one-man show: actor James Sharinghousen will play Streisand, Alex, and Alex’s boyfriend Barry. The Sanctuary at Sandy Plaza, 1785 NE Sandy Blvd., trianglepro.org. 7:30 pm Thursday-Saturday, Dec. 15-17. $15-$35

Flash! Ah-Ahhh!

One of Portland’s few annual seasonal shows that’s not at all holiday-themed, StageWorks Ink’s signature production Flash! Ah-Ahhh! adapts Flash Gordon for the stage with a Queen-heavy soundtrack. Now in its third year, StageWork’s tribute to the adventures of the football player-turned-space adventurer is lo-fi and high camp, with live accompaniment by the School of Rock. Alberta Abbey, 126 NE Alberta St., stageworksink.com. 7:30 pm Thursday-Friday, Dec. 15-16. $18.

Hay Fever

Hay Fever is not explicitly holiday themed, but it centers around crazy family dynamics, which most people seem to find particularly relatable this time of year. The 1920s three-act play is about an artsy family inviting guests to their house, only to scare them all away. It’s PAC’s first show of the season, and the actors are from all over the Portland performance scene: from Shakespeareans to Brody Theater improvisers to actors who have been working with August Wilson Red Door Project’s Hands Up. Portland Actors Conservatory, 1436 SW Montgomery St., pac.edu. 7:30 pm Thursday-Saturday and 2 pm Sunday, Dec. 15-18. $18.

It may not be A Christmas Carol, but Artists Rep’s holiday production packs in a lot: singing, period costumes, politics and Lincoln. Set during the Civil War, Paula Vogel’s A Civil War Christmas traces the lives of a bunch of different people on Christmas Eve, 1864: Mary Todd and Abraham Lincoln, Grant, Sherman, and a fictional character named Hannah, a woman escaping from slavery with her pre-teen daughter. Artists Rep had the show slated way before Trump ruined Christmas, but hopefully it can provide us with some answers about seeking peace in a divided nation. Artists Repertory Theatre, 1515 SW Morrison, artistsrep.org. 7:30 pm Tuesday-Sunday and 2 pm Sunday, through Dec. 23. Additional shows 2 pm Saturday, Dec. 17 and 2 pm Wednesday, Dec. 21. $25-$50.

Hershey Felder as Irving Berlin

A Tuna Christmas

Portland theater is getting in on the buzz around the upcoming live-action Beauty and the Beast movie. There’s the more straightforward adaptation opening at Newmark Theatre this month, and then there’s Imago’s version. La Belle is basically a steampunk adaptation of the tale. Set in a steamship’s engine room, the play plans to go heavy on effects, from animation to puppets. And unlike the PG-13 rating on the Disney update, this one’s geared toward family crowds. Imago Theatre, 17 SE 8th Ave., imagotheatre.com. 7 pm Friday, noon and 3:30 pm Saturday-Saturday,

Most of us may be a little pissed off at small town rural America at the moment, but A Tuna Christmas ask you to spend some time with the residence of Tuna, Texas. For almost a decade now, Winningstad has been staging the family friendly, farcical comedy which casts two men to portray all of the play’s characters as they deal with seasonal small town troubles, like holiday yard-display contests and local productions of A Christmas Carol. Winningstad Theatre, 1111 SW Broadway, portland5.com.

7:30 pm Tuesday-Saturday and 2 pm Sunday, through Dec. 23. $20-$40.

Even if you don’t go to this show, there’s no escaping Irving Berlin in December: He’s the guy who wrote “White Christmas,” along with “There’s No Business Like Show Business” and “God Bless America” to name a few. The one-man play is starring and created by actor and pianist Hershey Felder, who’s done similarly formatted musical biographies of pianists like Gershwin and Liszt. They’ll be plenty of old-timey piano music and probably a retro set to fulfill your seasonal nostalgia. The Armory, 128 NW 11th Ave., pcs.org. 7:30 pm TuesdaySunday, 2 pm Saturday-Sunday, noon Thursday, through Dec. 30. No 7:30 pm show Dec. 24. No shows Sunday, Dec. 25. $25-$75.

La Belle

CONT. on page 51

THE TINIEST OF TIMS: Mrs. Cratchit (Quinlan Fitzgerald), Bob Cratchit (Rachel Lewis) and Tiny Tim (Serelle Strickland) in Portland Playhouse’s production.

Triple Dickens

WE SAW THREE VERSIONS OF A CHRISTMAS CAROL IN ONE WEEKEND. A Christmas Carol is like the Shakespeare of Christmas plays if Shakespeare’s entire body of work were just one play: It’s done every year in every imaginable way.

Case in point: There are three different productions of the play in Portland this week, from a periodcostume production to a circus adaptation to a one-man dinner-theater show. That might sound like stuffy traditionalism and gimmicks disguising traditionalism, but we saw all three (with the exception of A Circus Carol, which we watched in rehearsal) and found that we still liked the sci-fi thriller about an old white guy who’s taught how to love life and Christmas with the help of time-traveling ghosts.

A Circus Carol at Alberta Rose Theatre

A Circus Carol is the only Portland production of A Christmas Carol in which Tiny Tim wears breakaway pants. In Wanderlust Circus’ adaption, Tiny Tim (Tera Zarra) is an aerialist, Marley’s Ghost (Scot Crandal) is an opera singer, and Bob Cratchit (Charles Brown) is a juggler. In the flashback scene, young Scrooge (Jon Dutch) and his fiancee (Sophia Karenina) sing “Baby It’s Cold Outside” before launching into the air for an acrobatic interlude. It might seem completely random to turn A Christmas Carol into a circus, but according to the show’s Scrooge and creator, Noah Mickens, it actually makes total sense. “A Christmas Carol is really useful for us as a circus review because it’s so episodic,” Mickens says. “Because people recognize the iconic scenes from A Christmas Carol. You can just kind of move through the scene, crack a few jokes and go into the circus act.” SHANNON GORMLEY. Alberta Rose Theatre, 3000 NE Alberta St., albertarosetheatre.com. 8 pm Friday-Sunday, Dec. 16-18. $20$40 adults, $15 12 and under.

One-Man A Christmas Carol at Picnic House

In a dining room reminiscent of the first-class quarters aboard the Titanic, Phillip J. Berns plays

Scrooge and everybody else in A Christmas Carol.

Though it’s just one guy performing on a staircase, Berns pulls it off. One moment, he’s wide-eyed and flailing his arms to portray a child. In the next scene, he chillingly locks eyes with the audience as Scrooge, and you feel palpably inadequate just as Dickens intended. Even the accompanying pianist (Christopher Beatty) succumbs to the role of the boy paid to buy the giant turkey on Christmas morning by squawking in fear in response to Berns’ Scrooge.

But it’s Berns’ acting chops that are most impressive. The sheer complexity of memorizing pages of Victorian London dialect is an accomplishment on its own, and his zealous portrayal of an endless procession of personalities is what makes the interpretation both endearing and innovative. JACK RUSHALL. Picnic House, 723 SW Salmon St., picnichousepdx.com. 5:45 pm Sunday, Dec. 18 (sold out), and Monday, Dec. 26. $75, includes dinner.

Traditional A Christmas Carol at Portland Playhouse

You don’t expect the traditionalist version of an extremely familiar play to be mind-blowing. But Portland Playhouse leverages the well-trodden script to show off some arty production values that are actually very cool. Marley’s Ghost (Todd Van Voris) arises from an eerily lit sub-stage stairwell, and several other actors join in with his lines to create one giant, dissonant voice. The Ghost of Christmas Future (played by multiple actors) looks like a shadow-puppet Babadook with the help of a large sheet of fabric and some candles. Both the sound effects and music are played live, and the actors convincingly switch from one role to another, sometimes without changing costume or even their position on the stage. Plus, it’s pretty fucking cute when Tiny Tim (Serelle Strickland) sings a tiny carol in a tiny voice at the Cratchits’ Christmas dinner. SHANNON GORMLEY. Portland Playhouse, 602 NE Prescott St., portlandplayhouse.com. 7 pm Tuesday-Sunday, 2 pm Saturday-Sunday, through Dec. 30. $34.

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PERFORMANCE

Parfumerie

Even if you’ve never heard of it before, you will probably recognize the plot of Parfumerie. The 1937 Hungarian play was never performed in the U.S. until 2009, it’s the source material for You’ve Got Mail, The Shop Around the Corner, In the Good Old Summertime, and the Broadway musical She Loves Me. A tale of love mix-ups involving a parfumerie employee, it’s admittedly old-fashioned, but that’s the kind of thing people like this time of year, and Bag & Baggage’s oldtimey charm is certainly capable of bringing you full-force nostalgia. The Venetian Theatre, 253 E Main St., Hillsboro, bagnbaggage. org. 7:30 pm Thursday-Saturday and 2 pm Sunday, through Dec. 23. Additional show 7:30 pm Wednesday, Dec. 21. $22-$32.

Venus and Adonis

Shaking the Tree’s winter show isn’t a safe bet in the sense that it’s holiday oriented. It’s not really family oriented, either: Shakespeare’s narrative poem is about the goddess Venus’s lusty attempts to woo the mortal Adonis, who keeps brushing off her advances in favor of going hunting. Plus, its tragic ending involves death by the horns of a bull. But it is a safe bet in the sense that it already had a successful stint at CoHo’s Summerfest, is directed by Shaking the Tree’s creatively undaunted artistic director Samantha Van Der Merwe, and the two lead roles are occupied by trusted Shaking the Tree regulars, Rebecca Ridenour and Matthew Kerrigan. In the season of safebet productions, this one manages to also be compelling material.

Shaking the Tree Theatre, 832 SE Grant St., shaking-the-tree.com.

7:30 pm Thursday-Saturday and 2 pm Sunday, through Dec. 24. $25.

soft piano music and features only Scherman and two other dancers.

Performance Works NW, 4625 SE 67th Ave., pwnw-pdx.org. 7:30 pm Thursday-Saturday, Dec. 15-17. $12

The Nutcracker

It’s like A Christmas Carol, or Rocky Horror in October: people are going to want to go see The Nutcracker.

Besides, if you’re going to get in on the glittery goodness of holiday-themed productions, The Nutcracker is hardly the worst way to do it. Tchaikovsky is awesome, the choreography is pretty as fuck, and since it’s one of the bigger dance productions in Portland, they probably have one of the most substantial budgets for all bells and whistles you could hope for. Keller Auditorium, 1111 SW Broadway, portland5.com. 7:30 pm FridaySunday, 2 pm Saturday-Sunday, through Dec. 26. Additional shows 7:30 pm Tuesday-Wednesday, Dec. 20-21, 2 pm Wednesday-Friday, Dec. 21-23, noon Saturday, Dec. 24, and 2 pm Monday, Dec. 26. No shows Saturday-Sunday, Dec. 24-25. $29-$146.

Muppets Burlesque

When you hear that there’s a Muppet-themed burlesque show, it’s hard to get past the initial reaction of “why?” Sure, the Muppets are totally worth paying homage to, but there’s something about homage in the form of strip tease that seems, well, uncomfortable.

Maybe it’s due to the furry undertones, or something that has to

do with co-opting precious childhood memories for adult-themed purposes. There probably really are people who have muppetrelated fetishes, and even though trying to understand what that’s like could be a compelling exercise, that doesn’t seem to be the angle Muppets Burlesque is going for. Muppets Burlesque just hopes to make you laugh, via the likes of scantily clad women with big rubber old-man masks or Miss Piggy noses. Funhouse Lounge, 2432 SE 11th Ave., funhouselounge. com. 7 and 9:30 pm Thursday, Dec. 15. $15.

COMEDY Holidazed

Post5 may sadly be short a theater, but the sketch comedy show that the company sparked is still at large. Helmed by creator Sam Dinkowitz, Spectravagasm’s past shows have covered topics like drugs and zombies, but now they’re hosting their first Christmasthemed show, Holidazed. They’ll tackling all things Christmas-y, from the Grinch to Jesus, with the group’s unabashedly crude humor.

Shaking the Tree Theatre, 823 SE Grant St., shaking-the-tree.com. 10 pm Friday-Saturday, Dec. 16-17. $10.

For more Performance listings, visit

NICOLE

PERLROTH KNOWS CYBERSECURITY

DO YOU KNOW NICOLE?

PREVIEW CORRINA LEE ALLEN

though Jan. 8. Noon and 3:30 pm Tuesday and Thursday, Dec. 20-29.

Noon and 3:30 pm Wednesday, Dec. 21; Monday, Dec. 26; and Friday, Dec. 30. Noon Monday, Jan. 2. Noon and 3:30 pm Friday, Dec. 30 (no 7 pm show). No show Friday, Dec. 23, and Sunday, Dec. 25. $24.50-$42.50.

Viva’s Holiday

Most Christmas shows aren’t about strippers, and neither are most operas. But Viva’s Holiday is, in fact, a Christmas opera about perhaps the best known stripper in Portland, Viva Las Vegas. The connection isn’t totally random, either. The one act opera is based on the first Christmas Viva went home to her disapproving religious parents after starting her career as a stripper. Her family members try to convince her why she should find her new job demeaning, and several arguments ensue. Created by Christopher Corbell of alt-opera purveyor Cult of Orpheus and directed by close friend and bandmate of Viva Las Vegas, Pat Janowski, it’s a closeknit production. And for anyone who feels intimidated by operas, you should know that the libretto for Viva’s Holiday is not only in English, but also includes tampon jokes. Star Theater, 13 NW 6th Ave., vivas-holiday.com. 9 pm Wednesday-Saturday, Dec. 14-17. $25. 21+.

DANCE Complicated Women

It’s no secret that the arts have a history of failing to portray women with depth or from the perspective of women. Which is why Complicated Women is somewhat of an identity piece: resident Performance Works NW artist Katie Scherman uses her choreographic research as an attempt to locate herself within that history.

It address femininity from all kinds of angles, from vulnerability to narcissism. It’s a lot to take on, but for such dense subject matter, Complicated Women is fairly sparse: the piece is set to

Reading the Bible With Dan Dan Weber and the Bible are perfect for each other. Selfdescribed as a cross between Rob Zombie and Harry Potter, Weber’s jokes are largely based on shock factor. Nothing taboo or creepy is off limits, including the fact that he’s pretty sure he’d continue to sleep with a woman even if he found out she was his sister separated at birth. And that’s kind of the case with the Bible, too: Despite whatever PG excerpts you learned about in catechism, there’s some pretty crazy shit in there. In his podcast and standup show, Reading the Bible With Dan, Weber uses passages from the Good Book to riff some material with the help of a panel of other comedians. The longrunning show may reaffirm basically all atheist stereotypes, but Weber really knows how to assemble a panel. This one in particular is a massive lineup of notable names in Portland comedy that, along with Weber’s co-host, Nariko Ott, includes the likes of visiting former Portlander Shane Torres, Wendy Weiss, and the most recent Funniest Five winner Adam Pasi.

SHANNON GORMLEY.

Nicole Perlroth

Cybersecurity Reporter for the New York Times

TECHFESTNW A GLOBAL TECH CONFERENCE ON THE UPPER LEFT COAST

techfestnw.com – PARTNERS –

SEE IT: Dan Weber performs at Helium Comedy Club, 1510 SE 9th Ave., portland.heliumcomedy.com. 8 pm Tuesday, Dec. 20. $10. 21+.

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C O U R T E S Y O F J O R D A N D . S C H N I T Z E R A N D H I S F A M I LY F O U N D A T I O N

VISUAL ARTS REVIEW

But Is It Any Good?

THE WARHOL SHOW AT THE PORTLAND ART MUSEUM GIVES US DIFFERENT WAYS OF SEEING AN ARTIST WE THOUGHT WE ALREADY KNEW.

BY JE NN I F E R R A B I N

jrabin@wweek.com

When an artist reaches the level Andy Warhol has, when his work has become cemented in the annals of culture and history, something interesting happens: People stop asking if it’s any good.

The Portland Art Museum’s comprehensive exhibition of Warhol’s work—the largest ever of its kind, with 250 screenprints spanning 35 years of the artist’s career and two floors of the museum—finally gives us a chance to ask that question and to answer it for ourselves.

Alongside the iconic images that made Warhol famous (Mao, Marilyn, Campbell’s) we get to see lesser-known works that we might otherwise never have the opportunity to encounter. The exhibition’s greatest virtue is that it provides new peepholes into the mind of an artist we all thought we had a pretty good handle on.

It is disorienting to stand in front of sweet, childlike lithographs of butterflies and ladybugs from early in Warhol’s career. So, too, does a screenprinted series of line-drawn flowers catch the viewer off guard. The muted pastel tones and simple compositions betray nothing of the artist who ran the Factory.

One entire gallery, with a sign clearly warning of images with sexual content, is devoted to a series of blackand-white, quasi-pornographic depictions of men having sex. Though explicit, they are beautifully composed, and introduce us to Warhol as a gay artist using his gaze in appreciation of the classical male form.

In this way—pingponging from ladybugs to penises to flowers to Mick Jagger—the entire exhibition has a certain whiplash quality to it.

In another gallery, a series of cartoonishly colored

he is capable of substance without always offering it to us.

In a grouping of print advertisements that Warhol created for brands like Volkswagen, Life Savers and Apple, the wall tag quotes him: “I used to work for the magazines and I always thought I was being original, and then they’d never want it. This is when I decided not to be imaginative.”

It’s easy to get into a loop with Warhol: If an image seems meaningless and unimaginative, as many of them do, but the artist meant for it to be meaningless and unimaginative, does that automatically make it successful? Warhol’s place in the pop-art canon would suggest that it does, but I would argue that judgments should be made on a case-by-case basis.

“As reworked film stills, the many sunsets freeze a moment in time, repeating an ephemeral still point until it is beyond recognition as an exceptional event,” reads the wall text commenting on a series of screenprinted sunsets.

The problem with this type of interpretation of the work is that it can be said about almost anything. If you repeat an image hundreds of times of a child being born or of a man landing on the Moon, changing the color each time, it would erase the singularity and the exceptionality of the event. But why is that conceptually important?

On the other hand, repetitive images of an electric-chair chamber do exactly what they are meant to. They remind us how numbing it is to be exposed to so many images of violence in our culture.

“When you see a gruesome picture over and over again, it doesn’t really have an effect,” Warhol said about the series, demonstrating his most purposeful and powerful use of repetition and meaninglessness.

MOVES LIKE JAGGER: Or does it?

It is interesting to note that, with only a few exceptions, the lesser-known works endangered animal prints are aesthetically cringe-worthy in the exhibition carry the most emotional and aesthetic (even taking into account the fact that they were created weight. This gives us a disturbing insight into what we in the ’80s). If someone showed them to you and didn’t value and canonize in our culture. Warhol is famous for tell you who had made them—which is to say, without the shiny, the unimaginative, the meaningless. These valthe glossy cachet of the Warhol name laid over the top of ues continue to play out in the digital age as individuals them—you might think they belonged in the company of live to feed the algorithms of social media, mass-producing mass-produced schlock by Thomas Kinkade or Peter Max. content with quantity reigning over quality.

But across the same gallery hang Warhol’s diamondPerhaps if Warhol were still alive, he would surprise dust portraits of artists Joseph Beuys and Georgia us and go the opposite way, giving us more substance at a O’Keeffe that will stop you in admiration, demanding time when we most need it. your attention. The screenprints, which look like glimmering photo negatives, convey reverence for their sub- SEE IT: Andy Warhol: Prints From the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation is at the jects in a way that none of Warhol’s other work does. This Portland Art Museum, 1219 SW Park Ave., 503-226-2811. is how Warhol keeps us on our toes. He shows us that Through Jan 1.

Fashion & shoe Issue

WILLAMETTE WEEK PORTLAND’S NEWSWEEKLY

It’s a new year and we’re here to cover the latest trends in fashion! From our unique local boutiques, Portland style, streetwear and shoes— Portland houses some of the most unique trends. Don’t miss your chance to feature your fashion brand in this specialized issue!

Publishes: Jan. 25, 2017 52

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WWEEK.COM

VOL 42/13 1 . 27. 2016

BOOKS

REVIEW

Moebius,

THE WORLD OF EDENA Thirty years on, a classic from the visionary who inspired Hayao Miyazaki has been published in English.

In a hallucinatory scene from Moebius’ classic The World of Edena, a naked man battles a dragon inside a g i a n t b l u e c u b e , g et s stabbed through the chest by a tentacle and is hurled into space, where he drifts and bleeds among the stars. It’s an astounding sequence—which makes it doubly hard to believe the work began in 1983 as a promotion for the French car company Citroën.

Now more than 30 years old, Moebius’ legendary psychedelic alien saga hasn’t lost its fevered power to entertain, alarm and inspire awe. The French comic-book writer and artist’s famous fans include Spirited Away’s Hayao Miyazaki, who has attested to Moebius’ “great impact on me,” especially on the early Miyazaki film Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. Moebius, who died in 2012, also helped envision the spacesuits in Alien and the benevolent underwater creature in The Abyss.

But until now, the complete Edena has never been available in English.

Portland-area publisher Dark Horse Comics is offering the first full English translation of the 1985 graphic novel (Dark Horse Books, 344 pages, $49.99) after partnering with Moebius Production in France, a team-up that stems from the late 1980s, when Dark Horse founder Mike Richardson acquired publication rights to Moebius’ The Horny Goof. In 1990, Richardson brought Moebius to Portland for a signing and later formed a friendship with Moebius’ wife, Isabelle Giraud, which led to Dark Horse being allowed to work on The World of Edena.

Edena makes it easy to understand why Moebius remains a subject of passionate veneration. The graphic novel defies the conventions of the sci-fi genre—especially when the story’s protagonists, Stel and Atan, journey to a Garden of Edenlike planet populated by fascists wearing elephant masks, an image eerily relevant to contemporary American politics.

Increasingly bizarre escapades follow, though Moebius miraculously manages to distill the story’s weirdness into a politically resonant fable about totalitarianism, environmental preservation and sex, most pointedly in a jarring scene that features an attempted rape.

When Miyazaki and Moebius spoke in 2005, Miyazaki noted that “the 21st century is a tricky time,” saying artists “need to re-examine many things we’ve taken for granted.”

Seen in that light, The World of Edena looks downright prophetic. BENNETT CAMPBELL FERGUSON. GET IT: The World of Edena was published in October 2016

by Milwaukie’s Dark Horse Books.

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C O U R T E S Y O F L U C A S F I L M LT D .

MOVIES GET YO UR R E PS IN

Die Hard

(1989)

La Notte

(1961)

For the five people on earth who still haven’t watched one of the greatest action movies of all time, now’s your chance to see John McClain (Bruce Willis, with hair) take on the nefarious Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman, RIP) on the big screen. Hollywood Theatre. 9:30 pm Friday, 7 pm Monday, Dec. 16 and 19.

Michelangelo Antonioni’s revered film about modern, upper-middle-class ennui in Milan follows a day in the life of unhappy couple Giovanni (Marcello Mastroianni) and Lidia (Jeanne Moreau) through the streets of the city. If that 18th pair of new shoes still hasn’t made you happy, La Notte might help explain why. NW Film Center’s Whitsell Auditorium. 8 pm Friday, 4:30 and 9 pm Saturday, Dec. 16-17.

Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984)

The Hollywood’s annual screening of one of the most infamous movies of the 1980s. This slasher about a deranged serial killer in a Santa suit was pulled from theaters a week after its release after mass protests and denunciations by critics, including an on-air name-and-shame

by Siskel and Ebert. Hollywood Theatre. 7:30 pm Tuesday, Dec. 20.

The Sound of Music

(1965)

Beloved by audiences and studio executives—for its record-shattering box-office returns—Julie Andrews stars in one of the most famous, most award-winning musicals of all time. Kiggins Theatre. Dec. 16-20.

The Wishing Tree

(1977)

December is shmaltz season for second-run theaters because everyone loves Christmas and everyone loves Christmas movies. But for those who want to use the movies to take a break from all of the holiday nonsense, Georgian director Tengiz Abuladze’s Lenin Prizewinning historical folk drama about the lives of villagers in pre-Soviet Revolution Georgia should certainly do the trick. Church of Film (North Star Ballroom). 8 pm Wednesday, Dec. 14.

ALSO PLAYING: Academy Theater: Elf (2003), Dec. 16-25. Empirical Theater at OMSI: The Polar Express (2004), Dec. 16-18, 20-24 and 26-29. Hollywood Theatre: Leonard Cohen: Live at the Isle of Wight 1970 (2009), 7 pm Friday, Dec. 16; Animated Christmas V, 2 pm Saturday, Dec. 17; Holiday Hecklevision Spectacular, 9:30 pm Saturday, Dec. 17; It’s a Wonderful Life (1946), 6:30 Saturday, 2 pm Sunday, Dec. 17-18; Little Women (1994), 4 pm Saturday-Sunday, Dec. 17-18. Kiggins Theatre: Elf (2003), Dec. 16-20. Laurelhurst: Bad Santa (2003), Dec. 14-15; It’s a Wonderful Life (1946), Dec. 16-22. Mission Theater: National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989), Dec. 16, 18-19 and 21; Elf (2003), Dec. 17-19, 21, 23-24; A Christmas Story (1983), Dec. 17-18, 20.

NO HEROES: Rogue One.

Saving Private Skywalker

ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY IS A GRITTY, COMPELLING BREATH OF FRESH AIR INTO A FRANCHISE THAT COULD’VE SAFELY RESTED ON ITS LAURELS.

BY WALKER MACMURDO

wmacmurdo@wweek.com

Star Wars is as much about cynical cash-ins as lightsabers and droids. Since the early days of the franchise, its producers have treated the rich universe they created as an infinite wellspring of merchandising opportunities, television and video game spinoffs and licensing rights. Half of the eight films in the series are, more or less, children’s movies—a wise choice when every new character means a new action figure and a new T-shirt. In a year when two lackluster Marvel films generated close to $1.8 billion, there’s little reason to attempt to go artsy with a guaranteed blockbuster.

Which is to say, no one would have been surprised if Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, the first of two “anthology” films to exist outside of the series’ main saga, joined the ranks of The Phantom Menace and The Star Wars Holiday Special at the bottom of the sarlacc pit. Instead, the relatively unknown Gareth Edwards, director behind the 2014 American reboot of Godzilla and the 2010 micro-budgeted indie sci-fi Monsters, treats us to the best Star Wars film since The Empire Strikes Back.

Taking place some time after the conclusion of Episode III, Rogue One opens on a triangular spaceship landing outside a farm on a remote planet. Out steps white-cloaked Director of Advanced Weapons Research Orson Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn), a not quite upper manager in the now ascendant Galactic Empire, and

his cadre of black-clad stormtroopers. He’s there to return Galen Erso (Mads Mikkelsen), a senior scientist who defected from working on an Empire superweapon, back into the fold.

But not before killing Galen’s wife and sending his young daughter, Jyn Erso, into hiding, later to be rescued and recruited by anti-Empire extremist—er, terrorist or, uh, freedom fighter—Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker).

Years later, a grown-up Jyn (Felicity Jones) is broken out of an Empire prison convoy by Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), an intelligence officer for the Rebel Alliance, and reprogrammed Imperial droid K-2SO (voiced by Alan Tudyk). Their mission is to find Saw, now holed up on a desert planet, who’s rumored to have received word from Galen about the key to destroying the Empire superweapon by finding its schematics, hidden at an unknown Empire base.

From the film’s first shot and the absence of John Williams’ bombastic score, it is apparent that Rogue One is not going to be a romp through a galaxy of heroic Jedi and villainous Sith. Edwards and cinematographer Greig Fraser paint this universe in swaths of charcoal gray and rust, a fitting palette for a film that is more war movie than sci-fi epic. The film’s battles don’t play out as duels between lightsaberwielding psychic knights, but as gun and grenade skirmishes between rebels and Empire soldiers.

Rogue One is not only surprisingly violent for Star Wars, but surprisingly violent for a

film with a PG-13 rating. A battle between Saw’s insurgents and Empire troops in a crowded market is shocking in its ferocity, closer to Black Hawk Down than Guardians of the Galaxy as a screaming child emerges from the chaos of the ambush, while the film’s colossal third act is a planet-spanning battle worthy of Band of Brothers.

All of which is patiently captured by Fraser, who not only gives Rogue One’s battles much-needed room to breathe, but focuses on the film’s characters in quiet moments, telling more about the ample cast with a sliver of light or lingering gaze than the film could with a page of dialogue.

It helps that the performances in this film are among the best the franchise has seen. This isn’t a film of supermen. It’s one of everyday people trying to justify, morally and practically, their roles in the struggles against an overwhelming, evil adversary. Jones brings a powerful, wounded pragmatism to Jyn, which puts her at odds with Luna’s Cassian, portrayed with the harsh idealism of someone caught in strife since childhood.

As K-2SO, Tudyk is the best comic relief in Star Wars since Chewbacca, delivering matter-of-fact pronouncements about the character’s’ predicament with a mix of deadpan and slapstick that lands almost every time. But most impressive is Mendelsohn’s Director Krennic, who subtly portrays his character not as an arch-evil ubermensch but as a compromised bureaucrat who, although not quite forced into acting above his evil pay grade, is clearly out of his depth when it comes to the true scope of his actions.

Rogue One is the first Star Wars film in over 30 years that is more for adults than children, one about everyday people contextualizing their role in the struggle to make a dark world a better place. It brings a moral depth to the series that allows you to feel a pang of empathy when one of the film’s heroes guns down a squadron of stormtroopers with what looks like a laser assault rifle connected to a Shop-Vac. This is Star Wars at its most human, and its best.

A SEE IT: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is rated PG-13. It opens Friday at Bagdad, Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, City Center, Clackamas, Division, Eastport, Lloyd, Moreland, Oak Grove, Pioneer Place, Roseway, St. Johns Twin Cinema & Pub, Tigard, Vancouver.

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Don’t Blink: Robert Frank Featured in the 39th Portland International Film Festival

MOVIES = WW Pick. Highly recommended.

Editor: WALKER MACMURDO. TO BE CONSIDERED FOR LISTINGS, send screening information at least two weeks in advance to Screen, WW, 2220 NW Quimby St., Portland, OR 97210.

Email: wmacmurdo@wweek.com. Fax: 243-1115.

OPENING THIS WEEK Ayanda

Part of the Clinton’s POWFest series showcasing films directed by women, Ayanda follows a young South African woman’s attempt to save her father’s car repair shop after tragedy strikes. NR. Clinton Street Theater. 7 pm Monday, Dec. 19.

The Brand New Testament

MORE INFO AT NWFILM.ORG

B Belgian filmmaker Jaco Van Dormael (Mr. Nobody, Toto the Hero) depicts God as a bitter, drunken father in this sacrilegious Golden Globe-nominated satire.

God (Benoît Poelvoorde) lives in an apartment in Brussels alongside his wife (Yolande Moreau) and their daughter, Ea (Pili Groyne).

He spends his days typing away at a desktop computer, compiling an ongoing list of sadistically Seinfeld-ian annoyances to force upon humanity (“Law No. 2128: When you immerse a body in a bath, the telephone rings”). God’s cruel tyranny seems endless until Ea, with some help from her older brother, JC (Didier De Neck), sneaks into her father’s office and forwards everyone on Earth their exact date of death. This film focuses on a central narrative, but frequently takes detours by offering character-specific vignettes narrated by Ea, a somewhat omnipotent deity who offers poetic insight into the lives of her new followers. These scenes are compelling, but each new delineation further complicates the main plot and detracts from the overall film. Neither the characters nor their storylines seem fully developed, and the audience will be too busy wondering why Catherine Deneuve is having sex with a gorilla to reconsider their religious misgivings. The Brand New Testament is a fun romp through blasphemy but leaves viewers with more questions than answers—which, in a way, could be considered sort of godly.

NR. CURTIS COOK. Living Room Theaters.

Collateral Beauty

Will Smith stars as an advertising executive who suffers a personal tragedy, prompting his colleagues to hatch a plan to confront his grief.

Look for next week’s review. PG-13.

Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, City Center, Clackamas, Division, Eastport, Lloyd, Oak Grove, Tigard.

Don’t Blink: Robert Frank

A portrait of American photographer and filmmaker Robert Frank, whose 1958 book The Americans is considered a landmark in photography. NW Film Center’s Whitsell Auditorium.

Dec 16-18.

Evolution

B+ French director/co-writer Lucile Hadzihalilovic’s new horror film relies on creeping dread rather than shock value and over-the-top gore. Nicolas (Max Brebant) lives on remote island inhabited only by women and young boys. The boys eat green gruel, take mysterious black medicine, and live under the watchful command of their cold, dead-eyed mothers. After finding a corpse in the ocean, Nicolas begins to rebel against the women and question why all the boys are forcibly hospitalized at puberty. With the guidance of a sympathetic nurse named Stella (Roxane Duran), Nicolas unveils a nightmarish coming-of-age story and discovers the island’s horrifying secrets. Rather than jumping from one high-stakes scene to another, Evolution is deliberate and meticulous in its pacing.

The film offers very little dialogue between characters, conveying terror through an eerie aesthetic, with every scene is carefully crafted to be unsettling. The sinister symbolism embedded in the imagery helps to clearly express the film’s themes of puberty as well as the physical and emotional fears and traumas society requires of boys as they transition into manhood. NR. CURTIS COOK. Cinema 21.

From Coraline to Kubo: A History of Laika’s Films

All of those award-winning animated flicks that Hillsboro’s Laika have produced over the years—Coraline and Kubo and the Two Strings, to name two—were made by hand, a ludicrously labor-intensive process in the age of computers that produces seconds of footage out of hours of work. Tonight, Laika’s Mark Shapiro explains how the studio brings all their creations to life, with a whole mess of the studio’s puppets plus other goodies in tow. Cerimon House. 7 pm Thursday, Dec. 15.

Homegrown DocFest

Portland nonprofit NW Documentary has been teaching the art of documentary filmmaking to people like you and me since 2003. Tonight, you can see films from the next generation of amateur documentarians, where the Clinton will be hosting its thrice-yearly screening of new filmmakers’ works. Clinton Street Theater. 7 pm Friday, Dec. 16.

The Longest Road

Part of the Portland Latin American Film Festival, this new documentary follows Enrique Bunbury, former singer for the Spanish rock band Los Héroes del Silencio, on

his first tour of the United States with his new band and his family.

Hollywood Theatre. 7 pm Thursday, Dec. 12.

Me, Myself and Her

A middle-aged Italian lesbian couple (Margherita Buy and Sabrina Ferilli) falls into trouble when Federica (Buy) meets a man she was once romantically involved with. The film screens as part of the Hollywood’s Queer Commons series. Hollywood Theatre. 7:30 pm Wednesday, Dec. 14.

Seasons

B For thousands of years, nature sustained a harmonious balance wherein the Earth could provide for the needs of all its inhabitants.

Against all odds, humanity found a way to ruin everything. Seasons is the final installment in the series of acclaimed nature documentaries by French filmmakers Jacques Perrin and Jacques Cluzaud (Winged Migration, Oceans). Yet Seasons doesn’t particularly play as a documentary. The film combines brilliant nature footage capturing a vast array of animal interactions with staged performances from actors depicting early man, positing that humanity has no greater importance than nature. This idea is reiterated throughout the film by depicting humans as nature’s background characters. While we see every moment of a wolf pack hunting down a wild boar, and detailed footage of bear cubs learning how to climb, the only evidence of human existence is a fire momentarily seen in the background or an arrow briefly zipping through the air. It’s not until the very end of the film that humanity transitions from featured extra to central antagonist. It’s a unique take on a familiar refrain regarding the importance of environmentalism. Though it is hard not to feel guilty about your carbon footprint after watching hours of beautiful footage featuring all of nature’s majesty. NR. CURTIS COOK. Cinema 21.

Sing

C+ If you’ve been yearning for Seth MacFarlane to play a mouse who sings like Sinatra, this is your movie. Directed by Garth Jennings (Son of Rambow), this kiddie animated comedy aims its gaudy stage lights toward a pack of animals with serious pipes. Leading the chorus is the spry koala bear Buster Moon (Matthew McConaughey), a cashstrapped theater impresario who attempts to revive his flailing career by staging a singing contest. The film’s voice actors imbue the contestants with wit and soul, especially Scarlett Johansson, who turns up as a moody hedgehog, and Taron Egerton, who voices a crooning British gorilla. Yet the film succumbs to too many of the tired trappings of American children’s films, including blah-blah lessons about teamwork and dutifully prolonged fart jokes. This is particularly depressCOURTESY OF IFC MIDNIGHT

DECEMBER 16–18 WHITSELL AUDITORIUM

m ov ie revi ew s & more

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Willamette Week DECEMBER 14, 2016 wweek.com

EVOLUTION

Things to Come B+

In the first moments of Things to Come, Mia Hansen-Løve’s sleepy French drama, Nathalie (Isabelle Huppert), her husband and their two kids visit the seaside grave of a French writer. As the camera pans over the landscape, the French title “L’Avenir,” or “the future,” hovers over the tombstone. Indeed, death is among a number of unsavory “things to come” for Nathalie. Her kids grow up. Around the time that her mother dies, her husband leaves her for another woman. She loses her job as a writer and editor of philosophy textbooks. The life that she’s built over the course of several decades falls apart, but Nathalie emerges with remarkable stoicism to embrace—or at least tolerate—her newfound freedom. She follows her dashing student protegé into the mountains, where he and his friends have established an anarchist commune. The film’s greatest strength is its ability to capture the jaggedness and inconsistency of daily life; one minute she barrels through death and heartache and assorted personal disasters, and the next our camera waits with her patiently through a long car ride or a Christmas roast. Huppert is often spare and restrained in moments of crisis, but during these quiet moments, she lets us into Nathalie’s stormier interior world. PG-13. GRACE CULHANE. Living Room Theaters.

Time and Tide: Portraits of Place

Two short documentaries from Portland filmmakers are connected through concepts of time, place and “looking.” The first is Alain LeTourneau’s Kelley Point, an observational film about the park at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers. The second, Nick Peterson’s Nihon Kyuukei, a look at nine locations across the Kanto prefecture in Japan. NR. NW Film Center’s Whitsell Auditorium. 7 pm Sunday, Dec. 18.

True Believers

The Clinton Street Theater screens a collection of shorts by female-identified Portland filmmakers, including the premiere of Lauren Everett’s Shadow Cast, a documentary about the group that produces the Clinton’s midnight performances. NR. Clinton Street Theater. 7 pm Sunday, Dec. 17.

STILL SHOWING Allied B+

A clumsy, yet irresistible WWII thriller in which a wooden Brad Pitt and a theatrical Marion Cotillard fuck in a sandstorm. R. Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, City Center, Clackamas, Division, Eastport, Fox Tower, Lloyd, Oak Grove, Tigard, Vancouver.

Aquarius

B+ A slice of life drama following Clara (Barbara Colen, Sônia Braga) from a young woman through to old age, Aquarius’ pacing matches that of its senior protagonist: slow, deliberate and confident. Ultimately, we’re watching a woman who’s literally lost parts of her physical self, but refuses to forsake her mind, her soul, or the possessions and places that evoke her memories. NR. Cinema 21.

A

Arrival

Arrival inspires because of sorrowful linguist Louise Banks (Amy Adams), who enters a spaceship hovering above Montana shrouded in grief but still has compassion for both

aliens and humanity. PG-13. Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, Cinemagic, City Center, Clackamas, Division, Eastport, Fox Tower, Hollywood, Lloyd, Oak Grove, St. Johns Twin Cinema & Pub, Tigard, Vancouver.

Bad Santa 2

B- Billy Bob Thornton is still really funny as the alcoholic mall Santa/thief Willie Soke, but Bad Santa 2 drowns out his performance in a tornado of dull dick and fart jokes. R. City Center, Clackamas, Division, Eastport, Lloyd, Oak Grove, Tigard, Vancouver.

A

Captain Fantastic

Viggo Mortensen is mud-splattered, idealistic and good at killing things…again. But this time with six kids in tow. R. Academy, Laurelhurst.

A-

Certain Womem

Drawing on three short stories

by Maile Meloy, Kelly Reichardt’s piercing slice of 21st-century life follows Laura Dern, Michelle Williams, Kristen Stewart and a masterful, relatively unknown Lily Gladstone skillfully embodying weary Montanans. R. Laurelhurst.

Doctor Strange

B+ Thanks to director Scott Derrickson’s confidently superficial storytelling, this film’s imagery has a dizzying power. PG-13. Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, City Center, Clackamas, Division, Eastport, Lloyd, Oak Grove, Pioneer Place, Tigard, Vancouver.

A-

The Eagle Huntress

Set in the wilderness of Mongolia, this astounding documentary follows a 13-year-old Kazakh girl who hunts with the help of a golden eagle. PG-13. Fox Tower.

The Edge of Seventeen

B+ As Nadine, Hailee Steinfeld delivers one winsome tirade after another, she never sells short simple adolescent growing pains. It’s the best combination of well-written ranting and genuine alienation in a high school comedy since Easy A. R. Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, City Center, Clackamas, Eastport, Fox Tower, Tigard.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

C J.K. Rowling’s reboot of the Harry Potter saga is meant to be spirited and suspenseful, but the cast has no chemistry, and the beastinduced mayhem looks tacky. PG-13.

Bagdad, Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, City Center, Clackamas, Division, Eastport, Lloyd, Milwaukie, Moreland, Oak Grove, Pioneer Place, Roseway, St. Johns Twin Cinema & Pub, Tigard, Vancouver.

Hacksaw Ridge C

This would-be epic stares into the maw of World War II through the eyes of combat medic Desmond Doss (Andrew Garfield), who rescued dozens of his comrades at Okinawa—without ever firing a gun. R. Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, City Center, Clackamas, Division, Eastport, Fox Tower, Tigard, Vancouver.

The Handmaiden

B+ Park Chan-wook’s revenge tale is an undeniably lush, meticulously constructed film whose celebration of perversity is among the most artful you’ll see. R. Living Room Theaters.

B+

Hell or High Water

Loved the gunfights and the misanthropic cowboy glamour of No Country for Old Men, but maybe Javier Bardem’s haircut made you uncomfortable? Try Jeff Bridges’ new Western genre vehicle. R. Laurelhurst.

A

Kubo and the Two Strings

Laika’s late-summer bid for animation domination is an original story that feels lived in, a kid-focused fable with real stakes, and it’s a highoctane spectacle full of white-knuckle action and terrifying creatures that’s matched every step of the way by heart. PG. Vancouver.

A-

Loving

The true story of Richard (Joel Edgerton) and Mildred Loving (Ruth Negga), the interracial couple who challenged U.S. miscegenation laws all the way to the Supreme Court, Loving emits slow, relaxed scenes that rely on touch rather than dialogue to illustrate the Lovings’ palpable tenderness.

PG-13. Bridgeport, City Center, Living Room Theaters, Vancouver.

Manchester by the Sea B-

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

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children

Trolls

internet. The plot only becomes more unnecessarily layered from there. Starstudded type casting aside, Office Christmas Party suffers from a story too busy to let these hilarious characters loose. R. LAUREN TERRY. Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, City Center, Clackamas, Division, Eastport, Lloyd, Oak Grove, Pioneer Place, Tigard, Vancouver.

B+ Poppy (Anna Kendrick), the bubbly leader of the troll community, and Branch (Justin Timberlake), a serial pessimist, must save a handful of their goofy friends from ending up as troll soufflé on the dinner table of the Bergens—ugly giants that suffer from depression. Like every contemporary kid’s film, Trolls is rife with enjoyably nauseating life lessons like “no troll left behind,” and that happiness comes from within. PG. Beaverton Wunderland, Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, City Center, Clackamas, Division, Eastport, Lloyd, Oak Grove, Pioneer Place, Vancouver.

Rules Don’t Apply

C At its best, Rules Don’t Apply documents the eccentric behavior of Howard Hughes (Warren Beatty), capturing him repeating himself in a dark room and demanding banana-nut ice cream. But like Hollywood itself, each scene passes by too quickly for the viewer to grasp what’s actually going on. PG-13. Living Room Theaters.

For more Movies listings, visit

PREVIEW C O U R T E S Y O F C I N E M A P R O J E C T. O R G

ing coming from Jennings, whose film adaptation of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is one of the most joyously wacky and philosophically profound comedies of the new millennium, and his choice to include racist caricatures of German and Japanese people in Sing is horrifying. He would have been better off focusing on MacFarlane’s delightfully suave and smarmy Mike, whose climactic performance of “My Way” is so exuberant that it makes you wonder why the movie isn’t called Sing! PG. BENNETT CAMPBELL FERGUSON. Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Eastport, Oak Grove, Vancouver.

B- Tim Burton’s adaptation of Ransom Riggs’ young adult best-seller nearly ignores the dull business of storytelling altogether via expository plot dumps crumpled in between ever more fantastical evocations of ghoulish Victoriana. PG-13. Academy, Avalon, Kennedy School, Valley.

Moana

B+ If you were curious whether Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson could carry a tune, Moana is a ringing affirmative. PG. Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, City Center, Clackamas, Division, Eastport, Lloyd, Milwaukie, Oak Grove, Pioneer Place, St. Johns Pub and Theater, Tigard, Vancouver.

A-

Moonlight

Moonlight follows Chiron, played by three different actors, coming of age over two decades on the rough Liberty City blocks of 1980s Miami.

Every piece of Moonlight is staged in service to a humanist question: What would love mean to a boy who’s been conditioned to hide? R. Cinema 21, City Center, Hollywood, Lloyd.

Miss Sloane

Jessica Chastain stars as badass D.C. lobbyist Elizabeth Sloane, who defends a new gun control bill against political opponents who threaten her career and the people she cares about. Not screened for critics. R. Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, City Center, Clackamas, Division, Eastport, Fox Tower, Oak Grove, Tigard, Vancouver.

No Pay, Nudity

C+ In this quiet, prestige-esque drama, a struggling, aging actor (Gabriel Byrne) learns to find joy in his miserable existence. R. Kiggins, Living Room Theaters.

Nocturnal Animals

Susan Morrow (Amy Adams), the successful owner of an art gallery, receives a disturbing manuscript from her ex-husband (Jake Gyllenhaal) as her second marriage falls apart. R. Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Eastport, Fox Tower, Lloyd, Vancouver.

Office Christmas Party

B- The smartest move in the latest story by Jon Lucas (The Hangover trilogy) is to focus on the innately funny interactions within the insular world of a run-of-the-mill data storage company. Alas, if only the formula could’ve stayed as simple as the cubicled personalities of Zenotech, plus an ultimatum to charm a big client, plus a cocaine-fueled snow machine. Jason Bateman delivers deadpan punch lines as Josh Parker, the CTO of Zenotech Data Systems, enamored with his code-writing colleague, Tracy (Olivia Munn). Their boss, Clay Vanstone, (TJ Miller) a manboy as loyal to his work fam as he is loaded from his trust fund, answers to his ball-busting CEO and sister, Carol (Jennifer Aniston). After sibling rivalry devolves into wrestling in Louboutins and Clay dangling a loogie above his sister’s face, she demands he boost the branch’s profits or lay off half the staff. The annual Christmas party becomes a chance to save the company, and for Josh to finally kiss Tracy. Oh, and Tracy has a little idea that could revolutionize the

come correct: interaction of Formats.

Living Color

The third-to-last screening of Cinema Project’s final season explores relationships between colors—and color’s relationship to moving-image formats.

Cinema Project, Portland’s beloved avant-garde film collective, has been active since 2004, screening 10 to 14 programs of experimental cinema each year in each film’s original format. At the end of February, though, the nonprofit will cease its regular programming.

Board member Mia Ferm, who’s been involved in Cinema Project since 2008 and also serves as education programs manager at NW Film Center, says “it’s no secret that Portland is changing,” noting also that “13½ years is a long time to be doing something that is essentially a volunteer gig.”

Ferm is excited, though, to share Cinema Project’s newest program, Interaction of Formats: Color in Film and Video, which is co-presented

by NW Film Center. This two-night program will feature films that highlight the relativity of color at work in film.

The program’s name and concept are drawn from Interaction of Color, an educational text by German-born American abstract artist Josef Albers in which he places monochromatic papers atop and beside each other in various configurations. This, says Ferm, is to train artists’ eyes to “the very specific gradations between colors” as well as “how colors might look like they’re jumping out or sinking down, depending on what other colors they’re interacting with.”

The piece in this program most directly responsive to Interaction of Color is Color Aid, a short film by Richard Serra, who was a student of Albers’. The film shows Serra with a stack of color cards modeled after Albers’, “and he’s moving them out of the way in a rhythmic and performative dance with his hands and fingers,” says Ferm.

Color Aid is very rarely shown; in fact, Margaret Honda, whose 35 mm feature-length film Color Correction screened Dec. 13, requested a private screening of Color Aid for this reason.

“I’m very happy that I can accommodate her with that,” says Ferm, who, with the help of other Cinema Project members and in particular her colleague Morgen Ruff at NW Film Center, was Interaction of Formats’ primary curator.

“I’ve always had an interest in color-field films,” she says, “not just an interaction of colors or an interaction of moving-image formats, but that interaction between moving image and fine visual arts.”

As Portland prepares to say goodbye to one of its best film assets, screenings like Interaction of Formats are infused with urgency. “A lot of it,” though, Ferm says, “is going to be very quiet.” ISABEL ZACHARIAS.

see it: Interaction of Formats: Color in Film and Video will play at NW Film Center’s Whitsell Auditorium. 7:30pm Thursday, Dec. 15. $9.

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The Great Hash Mystery WHY HAS HASHISH DISAPPEARED FROM OREGON SHELVES?

BY MIKE B IVIN S

This ain’t Amsterdam, Vince. And unlike Amsterdam, if you’re trying to score some old-school hash around these parts, you’re in for a rough time.

That’s because the Portland area seems to be experiencing a sustained hash shortage.

By hash we mean hashish—the classic version, concentrated trichomes, often made from the resin glands that fall off the flower as it’s trimmed and packaged. Hash has literally been around for millennia, and mixed in with your baby boomer parents’ stories of separating bud from seed was probably a story about scoring some hash, doing knife hits, and getting extremely high in the process—much higher than could be achieved with the everyday brick weed of that era.

Since legalization in Oregon, hash has turned into a rather scarce commodity.

Hash is a byproduct of flower, but it’s also a superior product. It’s more portable, lacks a pungent smell that announces itself to people long before it’s within sight, and when smoking hash, you get a smoother hit because you inhale less burnt plant matter but more terpenes.

So I called around to dispensaries in the area, asking if they had any hash in stock. After calling eight different shops, the answer was always a variation of “no.” Only one shop, RKO in Westmoreland, had anything on hand—it had kief, a form of hash that’s like the stuff that collects on the screen in your grinder.

In the past, you could accuse cannabis industry folks of keeping all the good stuff for themselves, since hash is often a byproduct of growing and processing.

But that doesn’t seem to be the case. It appears this hash shortage is more than a localized phenomenon—it’s a side effect of legalization.

Three quick calls to Denver pot shops also came up dry. Three calls north to Seattle were more promising, with one shop having kief, and the other two having hash. However, you better have deep pockets, because this Seattle hash cost up to $45 a gram, roughly double what you’d pay on the street.

On the other hand, California shops all had hash—I called shops in Fresno, San Francisco and Sacramento, which all had hash ready for the next customer. The person on the line in Fresno even tried hard-selling—which gave me the sense that not too many people call about hash and that the store was eager to send some out the door.

The common denominator for Colorado, Washington and Oregon seems to be their recreational weed markets, whereas California is still months or years away from honoring the will of voters.

Why has hash has gone the way of the buffalo? It seems the legal industry has found other, more-profitable uses for its shake.

First is the meteoric rise of dabs.

Because of their potency and the fact that they can be vaporized with tiny handheld devices, dabs are a true advent in the marijuana world, where many smokers want a one-hit-and-quit experience. The trim and low quality buds from grow operations are now being converted into dabbable resin and oil using CO2 and butane.

“You can take some low-quality trim and buds and make decent hash oil,” says Portland Extracts budtender Trey Hanson.

That’s not the case with hash. If you take lowquality cannabis and try to make hash, it “tends to bring out the planty side of it—the stuff you really don’t want,” he says.

Portland Extracts hasn’t had any hash since June, but Hanson notes that the bubble hash from June “sold really well.”

And then there are edibles. Hanson says there’s a “huge” recreational market for edible cannabis and that cannabutter is using up much of the material that would otherwise become hash.

If you don’t feel like searching high and low for hash, you can simply make it yourself, and you don’t even need a license from the state of Oregon, because hash is technically considered a concentrate, not an extract—a critical legal difference.

Just get all the trim you can find, or some buds, or both, and search YouTube for instructional videos. With a little bit of work, you too can feel like you’re back in Amsterdam.

W W S TA F F

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

In 1868, Soup Was Discovered in Portland!

Cat and Girl

BY DR. MITCHELL MILLAR

2220 NW QUIMBY STREET, PORTLAND, OREGON

People have sometimes asked me to pinpoint an exact time and place in history that soup was invented. Sorry, but this is an unanswerable question. Soup has been invented by many different civilizations in all corners of the earth. That said, we can identify an exact moment when soup was invented—or should I say, discovered—in Portland.

As legend goes, sometime in 1868 in what is now Oregon City, Oberon Pinscher III was building a fence along the edge of his newly settled homestead. It was late afternoon and he hadn’t had anything to eat all day, so he was quite hungry. When he finally took a well-deserved break, and just as he was about to take a delicious first bite of one of his favorite snacks, bacon and succotash, a horrible shrieking whinny pierced the air. Oberon rushed across his property in the direction of the commotion. He was startled to find a wild burro mounting his prized mare. So he chased it off, but not before the deed was completed.

Upon returning to his food, which he had set on a tree stump, he realized a brief cloudburst must have occurred while he was tending to his horse, because the bowl was filled to the brim with water. Annoyed, he nearly chucked the sodden food into the woods, but stopped himself and instead carried it home to reheat. As it turned out, he found he rather enjoyed the taste of the pork-tainted rainwater. Soon thereafter, he started imagining what other combinations of food he could leave outside in a bowl in advance of a rainstorm.

Eleven months later, an adorable baby mule was born. Oberon named him Soopy, and soon set him to work plowing fields to grow carrots, celery, potatoes, leeks, herbs and a multitude of other ingredients to try out in his new hybrid rain-food experiments. He lived to a ripe old age, cataloging many soup recipes along the way, forming the basis for many of the soups we still eat today in Portland.

There is another Soopy of note in Portland lore. In the early 20th century, there was a popular restaurant called Soopy’s in downtown Portland. I’m unable to verify whether the restaurant was named after the mule or if it was just an odd coincidence.

To most, Soopy’s was one thing: decent bisques, average chowders, nonplussing porridges—hot and inexpensive. But if you knew your way around Portland’s swinging social scene of the Prohibition era, Soopy’s was something entirely different. Legend has it that to gain access to the speakeasy located beneath Soopy’s, you had to seat yourself at a table by the window and request that the waiter bring you the “bathroom key.”

When he brought the bathroom key, you were supposed to slide it back to him and say, “No, no, the good bathroom key.”

Soopy’s was atypical of most speakeasies in that it didn’t serve the usual cocktails in glasses with ice. It served only alcoholic soups.

Tomato soup and vodka, for example, or limoncello bouillabaisse, or ghoulash fortified with fortified wine. Any kind of alcoholic soup you or old Oberon could ever have imagined.

Soopy’s closed for good in 1931 following a police raid. Many were taken into custody, most notable among them “It” girl Louise Brooks, who made it a point to stop by Soopy’s whenever she came to Portland on vacation.

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46 Potential Snapchat debut of 2017 48 Track on a compilation album, maybe 52 “___ More” (Backstreet Boys song) 53 Broadcast 55 Chronicler of Don Juan 56 Exploiting, in England 57 Orange Free State colonizers 58 Cheapen 59 Chimichanga ingredient 60 Protectors of the orbs?

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Across 1 Divisions of “The Hunger Games” series 10 One-named R&B singer with the hit “1, 2 Step” 15 Unaware 16 Historic account 17 1990 Warrant hit that was overplayed on MTV, but banned

by Canada’s MuchMusic 18 Urban Dictionary fodder

19 Need to unwind 20 So last week 21 Strong quality 22 Home to part of Lake Tahoe, for short 23 Essence from rose petals 24 “Guarding ___” (1994 Nicolas Cage movie) 26 Nearby 28 Put the ___ on (squelch) 31 Bezos or Buffett, e.g.

32 Enjoy Mt. Hood,

say 33 Eerie sign 34 Phone setting 36 Accessories often gifted in June 37 Bait shop purchase 38 1958-61 polit. alliance 39 “Nature ___ a vacuum” 41 Put under a spell 44 “Star Trek: TNG” counselor Deanna 45 South African playwright Fugard

Down 1 Obiter ___ 2 “___ Life: The John Lennon Story” (2000 TV biopic) 3 Mushroom features 4 Like some cranes 5 Bumps an R down to a PG-13, perhaps 6 Peaceful poem 7 Barnyard fowls 8 Troika 9 More questionable, maybe 10 1980s defense secretary Weinberger 11 Tardy 12 Phish lead vocalist Trey 13 Rifle-man?

14 Suspected Soviet spy of the McCarthy

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(1958 Susan Hayward film) 47 “Freek-A-Leek” rapper ___ Pablo 49 Basketball Hallof-Famer Thomas 50 Al ___ (pasta request) 51 Neatens a lawn 54 Transportation to Tel Aviv last week’s answers

©2016 Jonesin’ Crosswords (editor@jonesincrosswords.com) For answers to this puzzle, call: 1-900-226-2800, 99 cents per minute. Must be 18+. Or to bill to your credit card, call: 1-800-655-6548. Reference puzzle #JONZ810.

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Week of December 15

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Buy More For Less 7am/2:30am Everyday ARIES (March 21-April 19) “Living is a form of not being sure, not knowing what next or how,” said dancer Agnes De Mille. “We guess. We may be wrong, but we take leap after leap in the dark.”

As true as her words might be for most of us much of the time, I suspect they don’t apply to you right now. This is one of those rare moments when feeling total certainty is justified. Your vision is extra clear and farseeing. Your good humor and expansive spirit will ensure that you stay humble. As you take leap after leap, you’ll be surrounded by light.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20) “We are torn between nostalgia for the familiar and an urge for the foreign and strange,” wrote author Carson McCullers. Are you ready to give that adage a twist, Taurus? In the coming weeks, I think you should search for foreign and strange qualities in your familiar world.

Such a quest may initially feel odd, but will ultimately be healthy and interesting. It will also be good preparation for the next chapter of your life, when you will saunter out into unknown territory and find ways to feel at home there.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20) “If you don’t use your own imagination, somebody else is going to use it for you,” said writer Ronald Sukenick.

That’s always true, but it will be especially important for you to keep in mind in 2017. You Geminis will have an unparalleled power to enlarge, refine, and tap into your imagination. You’ll be blessed with the motivation and ingenuity to make it work for you in new ways, which could enable you to accomplish marvelous feats of creativity and self-transformation. Now here’s a warning: If you DON’T use your willower to take advantage of these potentials, your imagination will be subject to atrophy and colonization.

CANCER (June 21-July 22) Why are Australian sand wasps so skilled at finding their way back home after being out all day? Here’s their trick: When they first leave the nest each morning, they fly backwards, imprinting on their memory banks the sights they will look for when they return later. Furthermore, their exiting flight path is a slow and systematic zigzag pattern that orients them from multiple directions. I recommend that you draw inspiration from the sand wasps in 2017, Cancerian. One of your important tasks will be to keep finding your way back to your spiritual home, over and over again.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) Vault 21, a restaurant in Dunedin, New Zealand, serves sautéed locusts. For $5, patrons receive a plate of five.

The menu refers to the dish not as “Oily Sizzling Grasshoppers,” but rather as “Sky Prawns.” Satisfied customers know exactly what they’re eating, and some say the taste does indeed resemble prawns. I bring this to your attention, Leo, because it illustrates a talent you will have in abundance during 2017: re-branding. You’ll know how to maximize the attractiveness and desirability of things by presenting them in the best possible light.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) The literal translation of the German word Kummerspeck is “grief bacon.” It refers to the weight gained by people who, while wallowing in self-pity, eat an excess of comfort food. I know more than a few Virgos who have been flirting with this development lately, although the trigger seems to be self-doubt as much as self-pity. In any case, here’s the good news: The trend is about to flip. A flow of agreeable adventures is due to begin soon.

You’ll be prodded by fun challenges and provocative stimuli that will boost your confidence and discourage Kummerspeck.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22) “Since you are like no other being ever created since the beginning of time, you are incomparable,” wrote journalist Brenda Ueland. Pause for a moment and fully take in that fact, Libra. It’s breathtaking and daunting. What a huge responsibility it is to be absolutely unique. In

fact, it’s so monumental that you may still be shy about living up to it. But how about if you make 2017 the year you finally come into your own as the awesomely unprecedented creature that you are? I dare you to more fully acknowledge and express your singular destiny.

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SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21) “To dream . . . to dream has been the business of my life,” wrote author Edgar Allan Poe. I don’t expect you to match his devotion to dreams in 2017, Scorpio, but I do hope you will become more deeply engaged with your waking fantasies and the stories that unfold as you lie sleeping. Why? Because your usual approaches to gathering useful information won’t be sufficient. To be successful, both in the spiritual and worldly senses, you’ll need extra access to perspectives that come from beyond your rational mind. Here’s a good motto for you in 2017: “I am a lavish and practical dreamer.”

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21) Physicist Stephen Hawking is skeptical of the hypothesis that humans may someday be able to travel through time. To jokingly dramatize his belief, he threw a party for time travelers from the future. Sadly, not a single chrononaut showed up to enjoy the champagne and hors d’oeuvres Hawking had prepared. Despite this discouraging evidence, I guarantee that you will have the potential to meet with Future Versions of You on a regular basis during the next nine months. These encounters are likely to be metaphorical or dreamlike rather than literal, but they will provide valuable information as you make decisions that affect your destiny for years to come. The first of these heart-to-hearts should come very soon.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) During these last few weeks, you may have sometimes felt like smashing holes in the wall with your head, or dragging precious keepsakes into the middle of the street and setting them on fire, or delivering boxes full of garbage to people who don’t appreciate you as much as they should. I hope you abstained from doing things like that. Now here are some prescriptions to help you graduate from unproductive impulses: Make or find a symbol of one of your mental blocks, and bash it to pieces with a hammer; clean and polish precious keepsakes, and perform rituals to reinvigorate your love for them; take as many trips to the dump as necessary to remove the congestion, dross, and rot from your environment.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18) Singer-songwriter Tom Waits has a distinctive voice.

One fan described it this way: “Like how you’d sound if you drank a quart of bourbon, smoked a pack of cigarettes and swallowed a pack of razor blades. Late at night. After not sleeping for three days.” Luckily, Waits doesn’t have to actually do any of those self-destructive things to achieve his unique tone. In fact, he’s wealthy from selling his music, and has three kids with a woman to whom he’s been married for 36 years. I foresee a similar potential for you in the coming weeks and months.

You may be able to capitalize on your harmless weirdness . . . to earn rewards by expressing your charming eccentricities . . . to be both strange and popular.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20) Was punk rock born on June 4, 1976? A fledgling band known as the Sex Pistols played that night for a crowd of 40 people at a small venue in Manchester, England.

Among the audience members was Morrissey, who got so inspired that he started his own band, The Smiths.

Also in attendance was a rowdy guy who would soon launch the band Joy Division, despite the fact that he had never played an instrument. The men who would later form the Buzzcocks also saw the performance by Johnny Rotten and his crew. According to music critic David Nolan, these future pioneers came away from the June 4 show with the conclusion, “You don’t have to be a virtuoso or a musical genius to be in a band; anyone can do it.” I see parallels between this seminal event and your life in the coming weeks.

Homework Talk about the pleasures you’d enjoy if you went a week without consuming any media.

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