Willamette Week, September 30, 2020 - Volume 46, Issue 49 - "Qregon"

NEWS A COP WITH NO NAME. P.8

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“IT'S A PIG THAT DOESN'T FIT IN ITS SKIN.” P. 20 WWEEK.COM

VOL 46/49 09.30.2020

QREGON A candidate for Congress is bringing the QAnon conspiracy theory to a baseball stadium near you.

By Tess Riski | Page 11

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FINDINGS TREVOR GAGNIER

Great People.

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WHAT WE LEARNED FROM READING THIS WEEK’S PAPER VOL. 46, ISSUE 49 Big Tobacco has spent no money to fight a hike on cigarette taxes. 6

Micah Camden has opened a fishand-chips window in the building where Luke and Jess used to live.

When a Portland father complained about tear gas seeping into his house, a police officer hit him in the head. 8

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Baerlic’s hidden beer garden announces itself with a 700-square-foot backdrop reading, “SUPER SECRET BEER CLUB.”

The 37,571 jobs created by a transportation measure would be spread over many years. 10

22

Cornbread goes well with pumpkin spice. 26

Jo Rae Perkins received

instructions to run for office while watching television in a hotel room in 2009. 13

One of the season’s most anticipated new books is a “gay slacker dramedy” about the romance between a day care instructor and a line cook. 27

A Newport man believes John F. Kennedy Jr. is alive and attending Trump rallies. 14

The staged version of Magellanica is so long, it requires four intermissions. 27

Aminé rapped about Woodlawn Park while riding in a hot air balloon on TV last week. 18

Young Hearts was the product of its filmmaker “spying on teenagers” wherever she went. 28

There’s a cryptid in Pennsylvania called a squonk that’s described as a “pig that doesn’t fit in its own skin” and is very sad about it. 20

ON THE COVER: 5/31/2020

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The Funnel Cloud of QAnon, Sunlan Lighting illustration by Jack Kent.

Did a Portland woman fake a pregnancy with you?

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OUR MOST TRAFFICKED STORY ONLINE THIS WEEK: In a million-dollar lawsuit, four plaintiffs said Proud Boys hit them with paintballs and sprayed them with bear mace.

“IT'S A PIG THAT DOESN'T FIT IN ITS SKIN.” P. 20

We are a group of 10 victims who have all been stalked and abused by the same person (first initial M.). She has faked 6 pregnancies- that we know of- with 6 different men across the PNW over 2 years. She committed other crimes (stalking, theft, fraud) against women, too. We are building a court case; there are gaps in our timeline and we suspect there are more victims we don't know about. If this story sound familiar, please email PDXVictims@gmail.com

She’s in Portland mostly takes place in California. 29

QREGON

VOL 46/49 09.30.2020

A candidate for Congress is bringing the QAnon conspiracy theory to a baseball stadium near you.

By Tess Riski | Page 11

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On Sept. 26, right-wing groups led by the Proud Boys held a rally in North Portland’s Delta Park, partly in response to the death of a Trump supporter fatally shot by a self-identified anti-fascist in Portland. Dozens of local unions, civil rights groups and elected Democrats released statements denouncing the Proud Boys, while Portland Parks & Recreation denied a permit application for the rally, which estimated 20,000 would attend. In reality, less than 500 rightwing protesters gathered in Delta Park.

The visitors were outnumbered by two counterprotests, where anti-fascists and Black Lives Matter supporters gathered to listen to speeches. Despite past violent confrontations between right-wing and left-wing groups in Portland, the two protests remained separate Saturday— and largely free of incident. Here’s what our readers had to say: @stardust_rouge via Twitter: “Hi, they don’t give a fuck that you’re sternly opposing this. Do something to protect your city.”

ReasonableSkeptic via wweek.com: “They applied for a permit just so they could feign righteous outrage when they didn’t get it. Don’t fall for it.”

Jake Minnie, via wweek.com: “Why do Portland leaders always have this reflexive action against any real and/or perceived (mainly perceived) threat of ‘white supremacists’? Anyone with a brain can clearly see who is causing the damage and violence here in town, but only when the Proud Boys show up do they get on their soapboxes and act tough.” @treeesq via Twitter: “But the Portland police will welcome them with open arms.

Tell us what you intend to do about that, besides writing a letter.”

No matter your goals, we’ve got the solutions you need and you’ve got the power.

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Contact us at 800-542-8818 Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

4 PGE-PlugIn-WillametteWeek.indd Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 30, 2020 wweek.com 1

I’m going to be honest with you, Richard: I wouldn’t have known Doug Baker if he’d come up and bit me on the ass. (Although I’m sure I’d have gotten to know him subsequently.) However, several of our newsroom’s most esteemed centenarians looked up from their walkers, eyes seeming almost to focus, at the mention of his name.

Doug Baker, it turns out, was a columnist for the late, lamented Oregon Journal, back in the 20th century when they wouldn’t give a column to just any asshole off the street.

Unfortunately, while Mr. Baker may have been a fine fellow—the aforementioned centenarians seem to regard him with a reverence they normally reserve for Matlock—he didn’t originate the bon mot you’re giving him credit for.

Don’t feel too bad, though—many of our most well-worn quotations weren’t said by the people they’re credited to (usually Winston Churchill, Mark Twain, Abraham Lincoln, Albert Einstein or Gandhi).

You can combat this tsunami of misattribution—quotations expert Nigel 9/22/20 10:39 AM

@ChristopherGPDX via Twitter: “All the people in downtown Portland during the car parade weren’t anywhere near where the rally was supposed to go, yet people still got maced and shot at by paintball guns in downtown. ‘Just ignore them’ is an insane thing to say about these groups.”

Andrew Kaiser via Facebook: “I feel so torn about what to do with these clowns. On one hand, we do need to say loud and proud that their ideology is not who we are. On the other, their only goal is to be physical trolls, stir up trouble, and then to clutch their pearls as victims when people shout back at them. If they show up at a park to ‘protest’ (what exactly they are protesting, who the hell knows…) and there was nobody there to listen, they would get bored and go home.

Yelling at liberals in the streets is how they feel empowered. It’s how they feel like they are fighting for something. It makes them feel like brave soldiers when they aren’t.”

Mary Kolb via Facebook: “Wait, I thought the disputed permit said 10,000? Did like 9,700 of them cancel?” @nfleck3 via Twitter: “If sports can’t be played at Delta [Park], these groups shouldn’t be allowed to gather there either.”

Cindy Weaver Schaufenbuel via Facebook: “Well done, everybody, keeping it mostly peaceful. Except for the attacks on journalists, of course.”

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR must include the author’s street address and phone number for verification. Letters must be 250 or fewer words.

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

Email: mzusman@wweek.com

BY MART Y SMITH @martysmithxxx

I assume you have heard of Doug Baker. Your recent column on cops and bagpipes reminded me of something Baker once said: “A gentleman is a man who knows how to play the bagpipes, but does not play them.”

—Richard C.

portlandgeneral.com

Amy Shipman via Facebook: “If they come, please, please ignore them. They want attention. They want conflict. Please don’t give them the satisfaction.”

Rees has christened it “Churchillian drift”—by fact-checking your ripostes at QuoteInvestigator.com, a resource nearly as invaluable as Snopes.com for those who tend to begin their (who am I kidding, our) sentences with the word “actually.”

QI is how I learned that a version of the zinger above first appeared (as “my idea of a gentleman is he who can play a cornet and won’t”) in a Kansas newspaper in 1917, well before Baker’s midcentury heyday. Since then the gag has been variously attributed to Twain, Oscar Wilde, Will Rogers and, probably at least once, to Churchill.

In 1965, it even appeared (unattributed) on the front page of Portland’s other daily, The Oregonian, as “Today’s Chuckle,” a daily 25-word “column” created in 1948 by journalist Tom Collins. (Imagine an early, text-based version of The Family Circus.)

Incidentally, “Today’s Chuckle”—a daily dad joke that probably shared material with Laffy Taffy riddles—was at one point the most widely syndicated front-page feature in the world. It was such a valuable franchise that when Collins died, he passed it down to his son Harlan, who creates it to this very day. I guess I’m in the wrong line of work. Oh, wait.

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

MURMURS ALEX WITTWER

CHILD FIND

Public schools will ensure that all students with disabilities who are eligible for kindergarten through 21 years of age, residing within their attendance area, have available to them a free and appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment. The rights of children with disabilities and their parents will be protected in accordance with state and federal laws.

School districts must locate and identify individuals who have disabilities from birth to age 21. If you, or someone you know, have a child with a disability who may be in need of special education and related services, you can initiate a referral through your local schools. The following is a list of Multnomah County School Districts: Centennial School District Corbett School District David Douglas School District Gresham-Barlow School District Parkrose School District Portland Public Schools Reynolds School District Riverdale School District Multnomah Early Childhood Program

(503) 760-7990 (503) 261-4200 (503) 261-8209 (503) 261-4650 (503) 408-2100 (503) 916-2000 (503) 661-7200 (503) 262-4840 (503) 262-4100

OFFICERS KICK A SMOKE CANISTER ON SEPT. 26

HARDESTY BACKS EUDALY: In a surprising and potentially consequential choice, City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty has endorsed incumbent Commissioner Chloe Eudaly, who faces a stiff challenge from academic Mingus Mapps in November. Earlier this summer, Eudaly and Hardesty clashed over cuts to the police budget, as Eudaly pushed for a bigger cuts than Hardesty considered warranted. That led Hardesty to blast Eudaly for “performative allyship�—that is, showing off her support for people of color when it’s convenient—and imperiled the endorsement she’d given Eudaly in the primary. “Commissioner Eudaly and I haven’t always agreed on every policy position. However, our values are closely aligned, and we have agreed on much more than we have disagreed on,�

Hardesty said in a statement. “After consulting my Rise Together team and deep consideration of the issues Portland is facing, I am proud to endorse Commissioner Eudaly for a second term. Chloe has been a passionate and effective advocate for renters and affordable housing.

She passed a first-of-its-kind tenant relocation ordinance and sped up our public transit through the creation of the Rose Lanes. As we look to the future, Portland will need more advocates for those on the margins. For these reasons, I am looking forward to continuing to work together.�

GOV. BROWN ISSUES COVID COMMUTATIONS: Gov. Kate Brown announced Tuesday that she had commuted the sentences of 66 incarcerated adults due to the threat of COVID-19. The Oregon Department of Corrections determined that none of the 66 presents an “unacceptable public safety risk.� Of the 66 released, 10 are considered particularly medically vulnerable to the virus, and 56 are within two months of their release date. In June, Brown released 57 inmates determined to be medically vulnerable. The new announcement brings the total number of sentences commuted to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 to 123. Prison rights advocates have called Brown’s release of prisoners paltry and said it is not enough to significantly stem the spread of COVID-19 in Oregon prisons. So far, nine adults in custody have died after testing

positive for the coronavirus, according to corrections data. At least 972 inmates and 258 staff have tested positive for the virus.

LOCKED UP: Donald A. Beckwith, once featured in a WW cover story on juvenile justice (“Spare the Jail, Spoil the Child?� May 7, 2014), was charged Sept. 15 with second-degree murder in the fatal shooting of LaSalle Jamal Shakier in North Portland on Sept. 9. Beckwith, 31, says he will plead self-defense. Beckwith, who was 24 and serving a sentence for a juvenile conviction when WW published its story, had petitioned then-Gov. John Kitzhaber for clemency after a series of juvenile convictions, including one for a drug house break-in in which he was shot. “I’ve had time to prioritize my life and get a handle on my anger,� Beckwith told Kitzhaber in a letter at the time. Kitzhaber did not grant clemency and Beckwith served his time, leaving Oregon State Penitentiary on Aug. 12, 2016.

BROADWAY CORRIDOR ADVANCES: The Portland City Council marked a major step forward last week in the yearslong process to redevelop the site of the main U.S. Post Office in inner Northwest Portland and surrounding blocks into the 34-acre Broadway Corridor project. Mayor Ted Wheeler called the development and community benefit agreements, signed with Continuum Partners of Denver and the advocacy group Healthy Communities Coalition, a “once-in-a-generation opportunity.� One sour note: Disability Rights Oregon attorney Matt Serres blasted the deal in a letter to the council. “For persons with disabilities, the Broadway Corridor CBA perpetuates a long history of ignoring their needs,� Serres wrote. “It affords no promise of shared prosperity for workers with disabilities or disability-owned businesses and only shallow commitments for tenants with disabilities seeking accessible dwelling units.� Wheeler says city officials will meet with DRO soon. “I am focused on three main priorities for the Broadway Corridor: good jobs, affordable housing and great public spaces,�

Wheeler adds. “I remain committed to ensuring that all three of these priorities address the needs of people with disabilities.�

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IMAGES

CONTRIBUTION OF THE WEEK

A House Divided

ALEX WITTWER

NEWS

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW THIS WEEK

Police kept protesters apart.

Nothing can bring them together.

On Sept. 26, Gov. Kate Brown marshaled a coordinated response of several Oregon law enforcement agencies to keep dueling groups of protesters apart. It worked: Several hundred visiting Proud Boys gathered on sodden soccer fields in North Portland, then left town without incident.

Scenes from the day show little common ground.

In Delta Park, the Proud Boys—a far-right men’s group—strolled with cold Coors Lights in their hands, bear mace on their belts and loaded rifles slung across their chests. They sang along to Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the U.S.A.” Amid the XXL-sized American flags, the implication was clear: This is what it means to be a patriot, and other viewpoints aren’t just wrong but un-American. “As a Black man, a person of intelligence, Black Lives Matter

is not a movement for Black people,” said one participant, James Sullivan, in a speech. “It is a Marxist movement.”

Hours later, Black protesters and their allies, who had started the day in different parts of town, convened at Irving Park. Some feared the Proud Boys would confront them there. (They didn’t—police directed them north on Interstate 5 out of the city.) Others came prepared to defend themselves. With rifles slung on their shoulders and handguns on their hips, members of a Black community group arrived at Irving Park decked out in body armor and tactical gear. “We’re not here to protest or counterprotest,” said a man who identified himself as Ogun.

“We’re here for the safety of our people. That’s it.”

PIERCE SINGGIH.

Smoked

TAXING WORK: Cigarettes are a common vice among protesters and press at Portland demonstrations.

CHRIS NESSETH

ALEX WITTWER

A tobacco tax and three other Oregon ballot measures are vastly outraising their foes.

ALEX WITTWER

Last year, Oregon lawmakers referred a $2-a-pack increase in Oregon’s cigarette tax to the November 2020 ballot—and backers of the tax hike started amassing a war chest to fight off the deep-pocketed tobacco industry. Yes for a Healthy Future remains the statewide campaign with the most money.

Big Tobacco? It never showed up.

No committee was formed to oppose Measure 108. No one has spent money to defeat it. With five weeks left until Election Day, it appears the biggest tax increase in Oregon history to the price of a pack of smokes will sail to victory without a fight.

That’s part of a pattern for this November.

The four statewide measures all have a lopsided advantage in fundraising over their foes—if opponents exist at all. The result: Oregon could see a range of dramatic changes to its political and legal framework, not to mention more than $100 million in annual revenues from taxing smokers. RACHEL MONAHAN.

CHRIS NESSETH

CHRIS NESSETH

BALLOT MEASURE 107 Would amend the Oregon Constitution to allow a cap on campaign contributions. Referred by the Legislature.

Contributions raised to support: $118,332.57 Contributions raised to oppose: $0 Biggest donor: Gov. Kate Brown’s political action committee has provided $19,833 in in-kind payments for the salary of “yes” campaign staffers.

Any hurdles left? More than 8 in 10 Oregonians favor the measure, according to the summary of a July poll of 600 likely voters by the D.C.-based firm GBAO, provided to WW by the campaign. “I think we’re going to win,” says Jason Kafoury, an advocate with the group Honest Elections. “The biggest hurdle is winning with such a large, commanding number that it sends a message to the Legislature and to the corporate powers that don’t want campaign finance reform that they need to stand down on this issue.” The next fight will be over what the caps are.

BALLOT MEASURE 108 Would increase the tax on tobacco and vaping products.

Referred by the Legislature.

Contributions raised to support: $13 million Contributions raised to oppose: $0. Notably, the tobacco industry failed to provide an argument against in the Voters’ Pamphlet.

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Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 30, 2020 wweek. com

NEWS Biggest donor: Providence Health & Services gave the “yes” campaign nearly $3.3 million last November.

Any hurdles left? “Big Tobacco has the same research we do: Oregonians overwhelmingly support Measure 108 (nearly 70% of Oregonians say they’ll vote yes),” says Yes for a Healthy Future spokeswoman Stephanie Vandehey. “That said, they have deep pockets and can come in at any moment.”

ONE QUESTION

Which State Agency Gets Audited First?

Both SOS candidates want to know where the unemployment checks are.

Which agency would you audit first and why? What’s your second priority?

BLACK AND WHITE IN OREGON

Who Lives With Only One Parent?

Single-parent families are more likely to face poverty, and they’re more likely to be Black.

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced parents to find creative ways to teach and entertain their children full time while staying afloat financially. But for single parents who have to pull twice the weight, this burden is intensified.

A single-parent household often means a single income. That increases the chances such a household will face poverty, according to a 2019 report compiled by Multnomah County. Across the county, 33% of single-parent households are in poverty— the highest rate among all demographics.

The kids most likely to live in single-parent homes? Black children.

A 2014 Multnomah County report card on racial and ethnic disparities, the most recent data available, shows that 71.2% of Black children in the county live in single-parent homes. That’s more than double the percentage of white children: 27.3%.

The poverty seen more often in single-parent households has long-term effects on health and can even reduce life expectancy. The report card argues that government policies haven’t provided sufficient support for such families, especially among populations of color.

LaRisha Baker, director of the county’s Maternal Child Family Health programs, says there may be a correlation between single-parent households and poverty, but the disproportion is rooted in the nation’s history.

“It’s not Black people as a community, it’s due to government policies that have hurt families and their ability to stay together, including racial discriminatory incarceration, mandatory minimum sentencing laws, and family separation due to slavery,” Baker says. “That still impacts us today.”

LATISHA JENSEN.

State Sen. Shemia Fagan (D-East Portland) “As secretary of state, I’ll audit the Oregon Employment Department to find out what went wrong for the thousands of Oregonians who were pushed to the edge waiting on their checks, and make sure this never happens again.”

Second priority? “Our emergency response. Which I would have answered the same back in August before these wildfires. But now these wildfires need to be included. As I am sure that you have read, there are reports of people in Southern Oregon literally not even receiving the warning. They didn’t go from a Level 1 to a Level 2 to a Level 3 evacuation; they went from zero to Level 3 evacuation. And we need to audit our emergency response. We need to have a much more efficient system for folks in rural communities facing wildfire to have somewhere to take their livestock. So I think our entire emergency management response with respect to COVID and wildfires needs to be reviewed. Lives and people’s most precious belongings are at stake.”

C O U R T E S T Y O F K I M T H AT C H E R

The two leading candidates for Oregon secretary of state represent starkly different political perspectives. State Sen. Shemia Fagan is voting for Joe Biden for president, and Sen. Kim Thatcher recently spoke at a rally for President Donald Trump.

But both agree on the state agency that needs an audit most.

Besides running state elections, Oregon’s secretary of state has the crucial duty of ferreting out the flawed performance of various state agencies.

We asked the candidates:

MICK HANGLAND-SKILL

BALLOT MEASURE 109 Would legalize psilocybin therapy in treatment settings. Referred by initiative petition.

Contributions raised to support: More than $1.8 million (including for the initiative petition process) Contributions raised to oppose: $0.

Biggest donor: More than $1 million from New Approach PAC, a D.C.-based political action committee that has worked to legalize cannabis.

Any hurdles left? ”Education is the key to our success this November,” says Sam Chapman, campaign manager for Yes on 109. The measure can pass, he adds, if enough voters learn “what psilocybin is, what the studies show, and who stands to benefit from having access to a regulated program with strict controls within a therapeutic context.”

BALLOT MEASURE 110 Would decriminalize hard drugs and direct funds for addiction treatment. Referred by initiative petition.

Contributions raised to support: More than $3 million (including for signature gathering) Contributions raised to oppose: $40,300, including $25,000 in the form of a loan from Portland criminal defense lawyer James O’Rourke Biggest donors: $2.7 million from the Drug Policy Action, the advocacy arm of a New York-based foundation devoted to legalizing drugs and fighting addiction, and $1 million from the Open Society Policy Center, the group funded by billionaire George Soros.

Any hurdles left? The billions spent on the war on drugs, says Yes on 110 campaign manager Peter Zuckerman. “The war on drugs has created stereotypes and misinformation about people who are addicted to drugs and people who use drugs and made it easy to make it afraid of people who use drugs. Our biggest obstacle is the stigma.” But there are notable opponents, including the nonprofit group Oregon Recovers, which has accused the campaign of attempting to dismantle the existing system for addiction treatment before creating a new one.

State Sen. Kim Thatcher (R-Keizer) “If the state of Oregon was one agency, I would be tempted to do an audit on that agency, specifically related to how it’s responded to the COVID crisis. Most importantly, under that umbrella would be the Employment Department over the failure to promptly deliver unemployment benefits to tens of thousands of Oregonians in need over the past several months. As the longest-serving member of the Joint Audits Committee, I’ve called for the comprehensive audit of the Employment Department that was delayed last year and is finally underway.”

Second priority? “It would be the Oregon Department of Forestry. My time on the Senate Wildfire Reduction and Recovery Committee taught me this agency has significant financial and management issues, many pointed out in a 2016 audit. If ODF could find a better way to collect tens of millions of dollars owed by the federal government for fighting wildfires, perhaps more resources could be spent preventing these fires and nipping them in the bud.”

Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 30, 2020 wweek. com

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NEWS ALEX WITTWER

PAINED PARENT: Elijah Warren says he and his son are still processing his injury (shown below). “You can tell [my son’s] traumatized from the situation.” Warren says. “He knew I was going outside, and I come back bloody.”

Who Hit Elijah Warren?

An East Portland dad says a police officer gave him a concussion near his house. The city won’t release the cop’s name.

BY L AT I SH A J E NSE N

ljensen@wweek.com

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Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 30, 2020 wweek.com

C O U R T E S Y O F E L I J A H WA R R E N

On Sept. 5, the 100th consecutive night of Portland protests against police brutality, a Black single father landed in the hospital. He says the cause was an unprovoked blow to the head by a Portland police officer.

That evening, Elijah Warren, 36, walked from his home on Southeast 115th Avenue and Washington Street to an intersection two blocks away to talk to police about the tear gas wafting into his house.

Around 10 pm, he says he approached a group of around five officers standing on the corner of Southeast Stark Street and 117th Avenue, directly across from Ventura Park, where protesters had already been forcefully dispersed by police.

He says he began a civil conversation with one of them, telling him how the gas had seeped into his home and burned the eyes of his teenage son and the family dog. The officer was listening to him talk when Warren says another officer hit him behind his ear with a baton.

“I didn’t even know it was a police officer,” Warren says. “My first reaction was to put my hands up to defend myself, and then it ended up being a police officer.”

Warren says police were yelling among themselves in the moments after the officer struck him, pulling away the officer and telling him that Warren was a homeowner.

“Like, what do you mean: It’s wrong because I am a homeowner?” Warren says. “But with protesters it would’ve been OK?” His sister, Elisha Warren, says she was standing directly beside her brother and witnessed it happen.

“He hit him so fast, I couldn’t even tell that it was a baton. I thought he punched my brother in the ear,” she says. “They had no reason to hit Elijah.”

Warren says he plans to sue the city. But he still doesn’t know the name of the officer who struck him. The officer had covered his nametag. All Warren saw was the cop’s helmet number, which he says was 67.

Warren’s injury, first reported earlier this month by KOIN-TV, displays a bleak paradox: After nearly four months of protests aimed at greater police accountability, some citizens say the Portland Police Bureau is less accountable to the public than ever.

Shortly after protests of George Floyd’s killing began in May, Portland police officers began taping over their badges to hide their names, saying they feared protesters would “dox” them—that is, reveal their names, home addresses and other personal information online to threaten their

safety. As WW reported this summer, when lawyer Alan Kessler asked the Police Bureau for names associated with badge numbers, the bureau refused to release them—and the Multnomah County district attorney said police didn’t have to furnish the names.

The covering of badges is taking place even as Portland protests increasingly shift from downtown courthouses into residential neighborhoods. Some observers say that means people who live in those neighborhoods get different access to justice, depending on whether a protest is occurring nearby.

City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty says she recently learned that officers were covering their names while at protests but not anywhere else in town.

“If you’re in Southwest Portland and a police officer treats you disrespectfully or uses excessive force, you would be able to look at the badge and see the name, write it down and file a complaint,” she says. “When they bring out riot police, that’s when they decide that they don’t have to tell you who they are.”

The Police Bureau says it’s providing the public with sufficient information by requiring officers to display badge numbers. “This is to provide a way for the public to still identify officers for a complaint or commendation and a process to limit the doxxing of officers,” said PPB public information officer Derek Carmon in a response to WW’s questions.

City policy says citizens have the right to know the names of officers. But it’s not clear if any elected official has the will to enforce that policy.

WW asked Mayor Ted Wheeler’s office whether citizens who feel they have been brutalized by police were entitled to the officer’s badge number.

Spokesman Tim Becker said yes. “It’s bureau policy that identification be made available, and the mayor expects that employees are honoring this policy,” Becker said.

So WW sent an email to the Police Bureau with questions regarding the identity of the officer who allegedly struck Warren. WW asked about this incident specifically and whether the officer had been taken off street duty. Carmon said the bureau could not release any information about the incident—because it’s part of an open investigation. (PPB’s standards and practices division referred Warren’s allegation to Independent Police Review on Sept. 8, after a story aired on KOIN-TV.) But the bureau could identify the officer if it chose to do so. The investigatory exemption to Oregon’s Public Records Law is “conditional,” meaning the bureau could release the

information if it wanted to. “The record of an arrest or the report of a crime shall be disclosed unless and only for so long as there is a clear need to delay disclosure in the course of a specific investigation, including the need to protect the complaining party or the victim,” the law says.

Independent Police Review director Ross Caldwell confirmed an open investigation into Warren’s case was pending and that the agency had been successful in identifying officers using helmet numbers before. He adds that Portland police officers did not cover their badge numbers before the death of George Floyd.

“As far as having permission to [cover nametags], I’ve never heard of that happening before,” Caldwell said.

Hardesty says Warren’s story illustrates the need for a police accountability initiative she guided to the November ballot.

Hardesty’s ballot measure, which would create an independent community police oversight board, would allow the board to receive complaints and give it the authority to compel testimony and conduct investigations with civilian investigators. It’s not clear whether that would provide more leverage to compel the Police Bureau to release officers’ names.

“What happens now under IPR is, police investigate police,” Hardesty says. “The system I’m building is a system that requires community to hold police accountable for inappropriate behaviors.”

Wheeler’s spokesman Jim Middaugh says the mayor supports the reforms on the November ballot, but he wouldn’t compel police to release a name amid an open investigation.

“The mayor agrees that police officers need to be readily identifiable for accountability purposes, but at the same time many of our officers have been doxxed or been threatened or had their kids threatened,” says Middaugh.

“I think his instinct would be to not be releasing names until we can reform the system. I don’t think anybody would like it if the mayor made a statement after watching a single video and it turned out that that person who should’ve been held accountable wasn’t as a result of his public comment.”

W a r r e n ’s s t o r y appears to have substantial corroboration.

Laura Creamer, a neighbor of Warren’s, says she saw him right after the incident happened.

“Around 11:30 pm, I looked out the window and I saw a man walking toward my house waving at me.

I open the door and it’s Elijah,” Creamer says. “He’s bleeding from the ear and obviously really upset. He tells me immediately that he was hit by a cop.”

WW viewed video taken by a bystander that shows a chaotic scene along Southeast Stark Street. It appears to show an officer striking Warren behind the ear.

Once Warren made it back to his house, his brother-inlaw drove him to Kaiser Permanente Sunnyside hospital, where Warren was diagnosed with a concussion, according to medical forms reviewed by WW. His medical bills were $1,700.

Warren had only attended two protests prior to Sept.

5. But now he plans to attend many more because of what happened to him and his family. He joined demonstrators on Saturday, Sept. 26, near the bureau’s North Precinct, openly carrying an AR pistol as an example for other Black Portlanders. He says the assault changed him.

“It brought race right back into the forefront of my heart,” Warren says. “This is why they’re out there marching—because of what they just did to me, an innocent Black man.”

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9

NEWS REID KILLE

GRAVY TRAIN: Oregon’s booming construction industry never shut down for COVID-19, but backers of Metro’s transportation measure tout job creation.

Next Stop: Jobs!

The job creation claims for Metro’s $4 billion transportation measure are misleading.

BY N I G E L JAQU I SS

njaquiss@wweek.com

The Let’s Get Moving campaign, which backs Metro’s $4 billion transportation measure, claims in the Voters’ Pamphlet the measure “will create more than 37,500 family-wage jobs.”

With unemployment still near record highs because of the COVID-19 pandemic, that sounds pretty good— it’s more workers than the region’s two largest private employers, Intel and Nike, have on their Oregon payrolls, combined.

But Tim Duy, a professor of economics at the University of Oregon, says such claims disserve voters. “If they say they are creating 37,500 jobs, that’s an exaggeration and it would be misleading,” Duy says.

That is exactly what the campaign is saying—not only in the Voters’ Pamphlet but in various messages on its website and in a slick video ad, which says the measure would “create nearly 37,000 living-wage jobs.”

The bond measure, the largest local measure in Oregon history, would pay for a massive package of transportation improvements, including a new MAX line to Bridgeport Village in Tigard and construction projects in 17 transportation corridors throughout the tricounty region. Metro also believes it can qualify for nearly $3 billion in various matching funds, bringing the total to about $7 billion.

The agency worked for nearly two years prior to the pandemic to formulate the package. Now, despite the shifts in work patterns and commuting and the economic uncertainty brought on by COVID-19, Metro has plowed ahead, making job creation during the recession a major selling point.

The idea: Voters might not want to ride the MAX to Bridgeport Village, but they understand the value of jobs.

And Duy says the campaign’s presentation is in keeping with a typical economic development program. “You always present the biggest number you can,” he says.

“That’s why they are going to put that number forward.”

Not surprisingly, trade unions are on board.

“These construction jobs, where our workers get their hands dirty and go from project to project where their skills are needed, these are the jobs that are often hardest hit during an economic downturn,” said Matt Swanson, 10

Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 30, 2020 wweek.com

political director for the Pacific Northwest Regional Council of Carpenters.

But the issue, Duy and others say, is how you define jobs.

Do you count them for as long as a worker is employed (as state economists do), or do you count them anew each year for a cumulative total (as the campaign does)?

The campaign’s numbers are based on a two-page analysis produced by the consulting firm ECONorthwest. That analysis includes an important caveat that doesn’t make it into campaign literature. “ T h e p r o p o s e d p r o j e c t s w o u l d t ot a l 37, 5 7 1 [full-year-equivalent jobs],” the analysis says. “These FYEs will be spread over several years. To understand the annual average, one would need to divide the FYEs by the number of years of the project.”

In other words, the actual number of jobs created next year or the year after would be a small fraction of 37,571, because the projects would be spread out over many years.

The campaign never points that out.

Mike Wilkerson, the economist at ECONorthwest who crunched the numbers for Metro, says the regional agency simply asked his firm to calculate a total jobs number, not an average. Metro did not provide ECONorthwest with a schedule of when the projects might start and finish.

“It’s important for the public to understand that these jobs aren’t all going to happen in a year,” Wilkerson says.

Job creation is a matter of intense study and scrutiny, especially when governments pitch expensive spending proposals.

If you keep your job next year, your boss won’t be credited with creating a new job. But that’s how some officials count the effects of their proposals. When state officials pitched the controversial $3.6 billion Columbia River Crossing project a decade ago, they said the project would create 20,000 jobs. They neglected to mention the jobs would be spread over 10 years.

Amy Vander Vliet, a state employment economist responsible for the tricounty region, says official employment statistics count jobs by tracking how many people are currently employed—not a cumulative total of how many have been or will be employed.

“The way they are measuring jobs is different from

the way we would measure them,” Vander Vliet says. “It’s apples to oranges.”

Duy is also skeptical of the campaign’s claims that all of the jobs created would pay a “family” or “living” wage.

ECONorthwest broke down its job creation estimates into two categories: construction jobs, of which it expects to see 16,452 paying an average of $98,103 a year. Most of the jobs created, however—21,118 of them—would be what ECONorthwest calls “secondary jobs” in retail, hospitality and other sectors where construction workers spend their money.

Duy disagrees that such jobs would pay even a “living” wage.

The campaign referred wage questions to ECONorthwest’s Wilkerson, who says the secondary jobs pay far less than construction work.

“Those are generally middle-wage and lower-wage jobs,” Wilkerson says.

Opponents of the measure say the job figures should also factor in how many jobs might be lost because of the payroll tax to fund the measure—up to 0.75% on companies that employ 25 or more workers.

“The Metro wage tax will kill jobs, not create them,” says Jeff Reading, a spokesman for the “no” campaign.

“Metro’s estimate fails to consider the lost jobs due to higher labor costs and the jobs lost from the 150 businesses that will be destroyed to build the light rail line.”

Peter Hulseman, a senior economist at Portland State’s Northwest Economic Research Center, says studies have shown payroll taxes do cost jobs.

“A payroll tax is definitely going to dampen employment,” Hulseman says. “You can’t make something more expensive without people using less of it. There will definitely be fewer jobs.”

The campaign referred questions about the tax’s effects on job numbers to ECONorthwest, which agreed that the payroll tax would cost some jobs.

Duy says the campaign should focus on the transportation benefits its projects might bring rather than presenting a specious jobs argument. “Metro’s vision for transportation should be the selling point,” Duy says. “The whole job thing is largely secondary.”

C O U R T E S Y O F J O R A E P E R K I N S F O R S E N AT E

Q QREGON

A candidate for Congress is bringing the QAnon conspiracy theory to a baseball stadium near you.

BY TESS R I SKI

te ss@wweek.com

On a Sunday evening in mid-September, the air outside Volcanoes Stadium in Keizer, Ore., tasted like charcoal.

The minor league baseball stadium sits along Interstate 5, just 30 miles from the Beachie Creek wildfire, which three days earlier had wiped out much of the town of Detroit, population 200. Smoke still hung heavy in the air. As 20 or so cars arrived at the outdoor stadium’s parking lot, the Air Quality Index had climbed to 590—nearly double what the Environmental Protection Agency deems “hazardous.”

Yet almost 50 Oregonians turned out—to hear from speakers who promised to reveal who started the fires and what secrets the smoke was hiding.

Adjacent to the stadium stands a warehouse with batting cage netting draped from the ceiling and artificial turf on the floor. Inside, guests with $20 tickets arrived from Baker City, Tillamook and Crook County.

One of the early speakers was Captain Roy Davis, an author and self-described “digital soldier” who lives on a boat in Florida and has authored two books: QAnon and the Great Awakening and White Hats, Swamp Creatures and QAnon: A Who’s Who of Spygate. He whipped up the crowd with the current vocabulary of conspiracy.

“Everything that we’re seeing right now,” Davis told the crowd, “from impeachment, virus masks, riots, wildfires: It’s all part of the cover-up to keep guilty people’s crimes from coming to the public.”

Officially, the gathering was billed as a fundraiser for a U.S. Senate candidate named Jo Rae Perkins. But it was also a highly unusual gathering for supporters of a growing conspiracy movement called QAnon, which the FBI has designated a domestic terrorist threat. The event page advertised three featured speakers—all major figures in the online forums where QAnon concocts intricate stories about how President Donald Trump is defeating child sex traffickers.

Perkins isn’t completely unknown to Oregon voters; she’s lost three congressional races since 2014. But this May, she received national media attention after she won the Republican nomination to challenge incumbent Democratic U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley.

On primary night, Perkins posted a video to Twitter pledging support to QAnon. After that, nearly every major American media outlet wanted a piece of Perkins.

Perkins doesn’t have a good chance of winning in November. (Among other things, Oregon’s Democratic voter registration outnumbers Republicans by 280,000.)

But she’s been successful in a different way.

Her candidacy is empowering a group of far-right conspiracy theorists who have, until now, mingled primarily in online message boards like 4chan, 8chan and 8kun. She’s one of 22 congressional candidates on the November ballot, according to a Media Matters report, who have publicly supported a movement that espouses, among other baseless theories, that John F. Kennedy Jr. is still alive and attending Trump rallies and that Hillary Clinton ran a child sex-trafficking ring out of the basement of a pizza parlor in Washington, D.C. That Perkins can mix this kind of rhetoric into a congressional campaign is a reflection of Oregon’s failing Republican Party—one that is unable to put up a serious challenger to Merkley and other Democratic incumbents. A weakened GOP allowed QAnon inside the party tent. Sweeping its adherents back out may prove difficult.

It’s not easy to see inside the Perkins campaign. She’s declined several interview requests from WW dating back to May, and she barred the media from her Keizer fundraiser.

WW paid $40 for two tickets and attended the event anyway.

CONT. on page 12

Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 30, 2020 wweek.com

11

JACK KENT

Inside, we found Perkins and three prominent activists of QAnon saying Oregon has become ground zero for a Democratic takeover of America.

“What’s the one state that President Trump mentions every time?” Perkins asked.

“He mentions Oregon. We are on the map. We might only have seven electoral votes. Let me tell you why Oregon is so important: antifa.”

The crowd knew exactly what she was talking about. They nodded their heads.

They’d seen it on the internet.

The 50 or so people sat inches apart from one another in red plastic folding chairs. None wore masks. Nearly all were white. One young couple, toting an infant, sported matching football jerseys with the phrase “Team Q” on the back and the number 17. Q is the 17th letter of the alphabet. (For more on what QAnon espouses, see “The Funnel Cloud” on page 15.)

One group kibitzed that the man standing in front of the main entrance with a pistol on his hip was there “in case antifa showed up.”

They appeared to be joking.

Some 90 minutes later, a QAnon activist named Scott Kesterton wasn’t joking when he said: “Portland isn’t just weird. Portland is an epicenter for corruption, for drugs, for sex trafficking. [Perkins] understands that Portland is a corrupt cesspool.”

For more than a year, anyone attending a conservative rally in Oregon—against a cap on carbon emissions, or a requirement to wear masks—could find a handful of people at the edges of the event carrying signs with cryptic messages featuring the letter Q. Take Beverly Jenkins. On May 30, she attended the Hermiston Freedom Rally, a protest of COVID -19 stay-home orders.

She stood by herself, a petite woman in red, white and blue checkered pants, carrying a posterboard cutout of a giant letter Q with the phrase “Where we go 1, we go all.”

12

Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 30, 2020 wweek.com

Jenkins, 57, says she has followed QAnon since 2017, when an anonymous poster known as “Q” published a theory to 4chan predicting the imminent arrest of Hillary Clinton. While her dismay toward the establishment has been growing over the years, a turning point for her was in March, when she was laid off from her waitressing job in LaGrande after Gov. Kate Brown ordered all restaurants and bars closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

She says the virus is fake and that she gets much of her information from a website called Q Alerts.

“ALL QANON IS, THEY POINT YOU IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION AND YOU HAVE TO RESEARCH. A PERSON’S MORE APT TO BELIEVE THINGS WHEN YOU RESEARCH.” —BEVERLY JENKINS “All QAnon is, they point you in the right direction and you have to research,” Jenkins says. “A person’s more apt to believe things when you research.”

Jenkins believes the wildfires devastating the state were a coordinated effort by antifa and the Black Lives Matter movement, and that Brown and Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler were in on it, too.

And Gov. Brown? “She’s a flipping corrupt lady. She wasn’t voted in. Oregon was primarily Republican until they passed mail-in voting. [The Democrats] cheat like hell. Do I have proof of it? No. But this is my theory and I believe in it.”

E L L E N B I S H O P, WA L L O WA C O U N T Y C H I E F TA N

SHE PERSISTED: Since 2014, Jo Rae Perkins has run unsuccessfully in three congressional races.

Jo Rae Perkins took the stage in Keizer, wearing a royal blue campaign shirt with yellow font that read “Vote Jo Rae Perkins U.S. Senate,” matching royal blue stretch pants and bright yellow heels—which, incidentally, matched her bright yellow Corvette parked in front of the stadium.

Her hair, as always, was ruby red.

Perkins is charming and bubbly, a mother of two and a grandmother of 14. One supporter described her as “a breath of fresh air.” She cracks self-deprecating jokes and tells funny stories that wander off leisurely before meandering back to the topic at hand. She’s nearly always grinning.

Perkins told her supporters she isn’t as clumsy as she might appear in the media. In fact, Perkins said, she knows exactly what she’s doing.

“As long as they think that I’m nuts, and as long as they think that I’m crazy, I’m a tinfoil hat and I’m really stupid, they’re not going to spend money on me. And that’s a good thing,” Perkins told the crowd in Keizer on Sept. 13. “This seat is very winnable, and the more that Merkley talks, the better it is for us.”

It can be difficult to tell how committed to QAnon Perkins is, exactly. That’s because, when it serves her, Perkins distances herself from the rhetoric of 4chan and Pizzagate, dismissing it as a silly distraction.

“NBC called me and said they wanted to talk to me about ‘The Q,’” Perkins told the crowd.

“And I said no. I said, ‘I want to discuss the issues, because we have more important things going on in our state and in our country.’”

Instead, she recounted why she decided to run for office in 2009. She was on a business trip.

In her hotel room, she was watching a television program showing U.S. senators being sworn into office and had a moment of clarity.

“I looked at the TV and I said, ‘What an incredible honor, to be sworn in as a U.S. senator,’” Perkins told the crowd in Keizer. Her throat caught for a moment as she started to

tear up. “And friends, I audibly heard a ‘whoosh’ come into the hotel room and, I can tell you, it was not the heater. And it comes from the ceiling. And I audibly heard, ‘Plan on making a run to go to Washington, D.C., U.S. Congress, five-tosix-year time frame.’

“Clearly, we’re well beyond five [to] six years,” Perkins continued. “But God didn’t say quit.”

Perkins’ political career began began in 1994 when she ran unsuccessfully for the Albany, Ore., city council. Sixteen years later in 2010, she ran unsuccessfully for Albany mayor. At 64, she has run in—and lost—three federal races since 2014, once for the Senate and twice for Oregon’s 4th Congressional District.

Perkins is a graduate of Oregon State University and a real estate agent. She once had a financial planner license, but it was permanently revoked in 2010, according to the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards.

It’s unclear how, exactly, Perkins first became involved in QAnon. In her prior bids for office, she did not embrace the conspiracy theory. Her social media shows interest in Q starting in November 2019, when she tweeted out a link to a book, Revolution Q, along with the comment, “This looks like a very interesting book.”

On the evening of the May primaries, after declaring victory, she posted a now-deleted video to her Twitter account. (She later expressed regret for deleting the video and blames her campaign for telling her to do it.)

“Hi, my name is Jo Rae Perkins, candidate for the U.S. Senate in Oregon,” Perkins says in the video, while seated in front of a bookcase.

“Where we go one, we go all. I stand with President Trump. I stand with Q and the team. Thank you, anons, thank you, patriots. Together, we can save our republic.”

For about a week, Perkins was a national story. Her brief fame has not translated to successful fundraising.

So far, she’s raised nearly $37,000 in contributions to her 2020 campaign, according to Federal Election Commission filings. (Nearly $12,000 of that came from Perkins or her husband.) Merkley has $9.4 million.

“HI, MY NAME IS JO RAE PERKINS, CANDIDATE FOR THE U.S. SENATE IN OREGON. WHERE WE GO ONE, WE GO ALL. I STAND WITH PRESIDENT TRUMP. I STAND WITH Q AND THE TEAM. THANK YOU, ANONS, THANK YOU, PATRIOTS. TOGETHER, WE CAN SAVE OUR REPUBLIC.” —JO RAE PERKINS Most of her donations are small, including 41 contributions for $17—the magic number for Q supporters. (On her campaign site, Perkins specifically offers a donation option for $17.)

Perkins’ largest contribution comes from a Corvallis man and former police officer named Kevin Conzo, the author of Thin Blue Crimes, a novel about the murder of a police officer’s son.

Conzo gave Perkins $2,700 in June 2019.

Reached by phone, Conzo told WW that he’s not a partisan donor and that he’s also given money to a Democratic candidate in a different Oregon race. “I’m lukewarm towards Jo Rae. I’m going to be voting for her. But am I going to be running down the street with a Jo Rae sign? Probably not,” Conzo said. “I don’t follow QAnon, to be honest.”

Conzo was also surprised to learn he is Perkins’ largest donor.

“It is what it is, I guess,” Conzo said. “Crap.”

Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 30, 2020 wweek.com

13

JACK KENT

Others are more enthusiastic.

Robert Sisson traveled over 40 miles from Portland to hear Shady Grooove speak at Perkins’ event.

Sisson, a Newport resident who declined to share his age and profession, said he is a QAnon supporter and believes, among other things, that there’s a Jewish mafia (of which Jeffrey Epstein was a front man), that John F. Kennedy Jr. might still be alive, and that Hunter Biden was involved in a money transfer to fund human sex trafficking.

And to Sisson, Shady Grooove is an ally.

Grooove says he is from Albany, originally from North Carolina. He has a brown, frizzy ponytail, an endearing lisp and a slight Southern accent. His real identity is unknown.

What matters to Sisson and others is that Grooove co-hosts a YouTube conspiracy channel called IntheMatrixxx. The channel has almost 75,000 subscribers and broadcasts livestreams with guests who discuss various conspiracy theories.

(Perkins is a regular.)

While Perkins shrugged off QAnon in her speech, her invitation to have Grooove talk spoke volumes.

Grooove wasted no time telling the audience that QAnon

was a nameless, faceless organization that would protect its “digital soldiers” as civil unrest escalated after Election Day. “I would be willing to go anywhere Donald Trump sent me because I believe this man is fighting for us,” Grooove said. “I’m here to tell you this and I want to prepare you for it. It’s not going to end on Nov. 3. It’s going to continue. How long this continues? It’s up to us.”

Sisson is a big fan of Grooove, enough to drive an hour south from Portland in the direction of a wildfire. He says he first heard of Perkins when she was interviewed on Grooove’s YouTube channel.

“I think she’s already had a lasting impact,” Sisson says.

“She’s a person of conviction. I can enthusiastically get behind her.”

For him, the Perkins event was a remarkable experience considering the fact that Q is “mainly the internet thing.” He said that, for the first time, he was in a room full of people who agreed with him.

“It was refreshing. I’ve never experienced that in my lifetime,” he said. “I’m sure that event was the only event like that in Oregon.”

CONT. on page 16

14

Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 30, 2020 wweek.com

THE FUNNEL CLOUD

JACK KENT

It’s easy to laugh off the beliefs of people like Jo Rae Perkins and Beverly Jenkins as ridiculous. But for a growing number of Oregonians, the traumatic trifecta of 2020—virus, protests and wildfires—confirms their long-held belief that Democrats are engaged in a sinister plot.

“That psychological appeal of conspiracy theories is very powerful for people who are economically dislocated and socially dislocated,” says Randy Blazak, a professor at Portland State University and an expert on extremism. “The added problem with COVID is now people have way too much time on their hands.”

The belief system known as QAnon first began in October 2017 when an anonymous user now known as “Q” posted on 4chan predicting the imminent arrest of Hillary Clinton.

Clinton was, of course, never arrested. But many who follow Q, known as “anons,” believe she was.

And after that initial posting, Q continued with more “Q drops,” including the theory that Democrats were running a child sex-trafficking ring in the basement of a Washington, D.C., pizza parlor, the theory known as “Pizzagate.”

Its followers believe Q is one or a few military insiders who have proof that corrupt leaders worldwide are part of a treasonous cabal. The eventual destruction of that cabal is imminent, thanks to President Trump.

But it also requires the support of dedicated patriots who can follow Q’s clues—Trump can’t do it without their help.

“People will call it the echo chamber, but echoes fade. This is just getting magnified and going louder and louder,” Blazak says. “Ticking time bombs are a recurring theme in these groups, that you have to act and you have to act now.”

QAnon doesn’t have a political platform—its adherents don’t all ascribe to the same views on, say, tax policy or same-sex marriage. Instead, Q followers believe in something completely off the grid of traditional politics: Almost everyone in power—particularly, but not exclusively, Democrats—are involved in a cover-up of sex trafficking and corruption. That rot infects the highest levels of government and the richest people in the world, like George Soros and Jeffrey Epstein. In fact, to many Q supporters, Epstein wasn’t an outlier—he was one of hundreds of similar abusers of power worldwide.

Such a belief may sound like a bizarre new phenomenon, but it’s already seeped into the 2020 election cycle. Media Matters reports that at least 75 Republican congressional candidates expressed support for QAnon, 22 of whom made it onto the November ballot.

“QAnon’s reach has broadened significantly in 2020,” says Lindsay Schubiner, a program director at Western States Center, which tracks right-wing extremism. “There’s a lot of overlap between QAnon and other far-right and alt-right movements, but it certainly has uniquely identifiable origins and slogans and other signifiers.”

Blazak says similar paranoia about federal bureaucracy has roots dating back to the John Birch Society in the 1960s. But the election of President Barack Obama—the nation’s first Black president—fueled rapid growth among far-right conspiracy theorists.

Blazak describes conspiracy theories as a “funnel” that gets darker and more radical as you delve deeper. “It becomes really soaked in conspiracy theories about shadow governments. The granddaddy of all is the anti-Semitic theory of a Jewish cabal. If you follow those folks down the rabbit hole, it gets really dark.”

And at rock bottom? Blazak says, “You get to violent revolution.”

For people like Jenkins, though, any attempt to discredit Q only intensifies her belief that it’s real. The derision she receives? That’s part of the cover-up.

“They like to say it’s a cult. It’s not a cult,” says Jenkins, who brought a homemade letter Q to a May rally in Hermiston. “They have tried to debunk it but they can’t. It’s a worldwide event—this whole plan to take down these corrupt people who’ve been running this world.” TESS RISKI. Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 30, 2020 wweek.com

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AARON WESSLING

WORLDS COLLIDE: QAnon supporters were sprinkled throughout the crowd at a Reopen Oregon rally in Salem on May 2, 2020.

WAKE-UP CALL: A young woman holds a QAnon sign that reads “The Great Q Awakening” during the May 2 rally.

R I C K B E A S L E Y, L I N C O L N C I T Y H O M E P A G E . C O M

FIRE STARTER: Amy Ryan Courser, who is challenging incumbent U.S. Rep Kurt Schrader on the November ballot, implied at the Keizer rally that she believes antifa started Oregon’s wildfires.

16

Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 30, 2020 wweek.com

That Jo Rae Perkins is a nominee for a U.S. Senate seat suggests that something isn’t working in Oregon’s Republican Party. It has tried and failed a half-dozen times in the past two decades to rebrand itself and find a path to statewide victory. Twice since 2018, the party has tried to recall Gov. Brown and failed to gather enough signatures.

There isn’t a healthy moderate wing of the party to fight against the extremism of Perkins and others. Today, all that’s left is the base, alienated and angry.

Oregon GOP consultant Jim Pasero says Oregon Republicans feel defeated and that more serious candidates don’t run because campaigning is an immense amount of work likely to end in defeat.

“We’re a one-party state,” Pasero says. “There really isn’t a Republican Party right now. We hope that there will be.”

Others, however, are joining Perkins. Another congressional candidate on the November ballot, Amy Ryan Courser, spoke at Perkins’ event. Courser, who is challenging incumbent Congressman Kurt Schrader, repeated the falsehood that antifa might be responsible for setting wildfires across the state.

“You cannot tell me that we have over 100 straight nights of rioting, looting and anarchy, and all of the sudden our entire state is under fire?” Courser told the crowd.

“You don’t think there’s a connection there? I believe there is and I am going to fight for Oregon.”

One longtime former lawmaker is comfortable enough with Q that he served as emcee for Perkins’ Keizer event.

“I would say I’m a curious watcher” of QAnon, says former state Rep. Jeff Kropf (R-Sublimity), who served for eight years in the Oregon House, between 1999 and 2007.

“There is a real deep state, in my opinion, and I think it benefits the deep state for this idea that the QAnon movement would just be discredited as a bunch of crazy people.”

Kropf said he’s been friends with Perkins since the ’90s. He’s unsure whether Perkins’ strategy of publicly embracing Q will help or hinder her campaign.

“It’s a very unconventional method to get elected to the U.S. Senate, let’s put it that way,” Kropf says. “But the reality is, Trump has thrown out the book on traditional politics for getting elected.”

One notable aspect of the Keizer fundraiser was just how normal it felt. More normal, in fact, than much of what’s happened this year.

Atop the green turf in the warehouse, people of all ages, including families, mingled and ate Papa John’s pizza.

Country music played quietly on the speakers.

For a moment, it felt like an oasis from the hazardous air—and turbulent world—outside those walls. It seemed

DRAMA IN REAL LIFE: A woman attending the May 2 Reopen Oregon rally holds a sign that says “Q Sent Me.”

for a second as though COVID-19 didn’t exist, and that the wildfires that destroyed entire forests were just a nightmare—the kind you wake up from, heart pounding and awash with relief, realizing it was all just a bad dream.

But as the hours crept on, the smoke inevitably seeped in through two sets of open doors, and the air inside eventually tasted like that outside. Some people coughed.

Another VIP of the Q movement who Perkins invited was Scott Kesterson, whose Twitter profile says he is an award-winning videographer from Eugene who has become a prominent QAnon activist. Kesterson couldn’t make it to the event in person. So he prerecorded a 20-minute speech that was played aloud on a boombox sitting on a stool with a microphone placed in front of it.

Kesterson also said antifa started the fires—so Republicans would be driven out of their homes and unable to vote in November. “We’re seeing tactics that antifa has used to burn and intimidate spread across the state and literally set fire to one of our greatest natural resources: our forests.”

The crowd of 50 Oregonians nodded their heads as Kesterson’s speech played. Some got up to get more pizza and soda.

“None of this was by accident. It was intended to create an unfair playing field to try to steal the election,” Kesterson said. “Those that are in power want to do nothing more than to destroy [Oregon].”

This is what Jo Rae Perkins has achieved. Come November, whether Donald Trump wins or loses, many conservative Oregonians—particularly her supporters—will be convinced that Democrats tried to steal the election and that they were willing to destroy entire towns with fires, orchestrate months of civil unrest and introduce a fake virus just to do it.

“They’re not gonna shut me up,” said Shady Grooove.

“They’re not gonna shut any of you up. And they’re not gonna shut Jo Rae Perkins up.”

STREET

BIPOC MAKERS POP UP MARKET Photos by ANNIE SCHUTZ On Instagram: @annieshutz

Every Sunday in September, creative crafters have gathered at the Easton Broad event space on Northeast Broadway to show and sell their wares. Here’s what it looked like on Sept. 27.

Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 30, 2020 wweek.com

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STARTERS

T H E M OST I M P O RTA N T T H I N G S T H AT H A P P E N E D I N P O RT L A N D C U LT U R E T H I S W E E K , G R A PH E D .

RIDICULOUS

CHRIS HORNBECKER

Aminé raps about growing up in Woodlawn Park while riding in a hot air balloon above California on Jimmy Kimmel Live.

Pink Martini’s former finance manager is suing the veteran Portland lounge-pop act for $30,000 in allegedly unpaid wages.

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Unfold is now even more accessible with equity pricing!

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Portland is hosting the next season of Top Chef.

About damn time.

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

H O U S E C R E AT I V E S E R V I C E S , K R I S T I E B A X T E R

Vitaly Paley’s Imperial, a pillar of Portland’s dining scene, closes permanently.

A new report shows Oregon’s leisure and hospitality sector has shed 53,000 jobs in 2020 so far, far more than any other industry.

Our classes are now all online, plus Park Pop-ups!

unfoldportland.com Single classes are $5 - 15 Unlimited memberships range from $25 - 120/month Not your typical yoga studio, we feature: Gentle, Yin, Restorative, Strength, Flow & Chair Yoga, plus Meditation!

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Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 30, 2020 wweek.com

Oregon Congressman Earl Blumenauer’s federal relief bill for independent restaurants may receive a House vote as early as this week.

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VOL 46/46 09.09.2020

A pandemic has crippled Portland's biggest arts season.

But that hasn't stopped local artists from creating.

Page 11

PROTESTS

The Worst-Case Scenario Is Here. P. 9

BOOZE

Will Oregon Hike Wine Taxes? P. 10

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VOL 46/44 08.26.2020

FALL ARTS ISSUE

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By Nigel Jaquiss | Page 13

WWEEK.COM

PORTLAND’S NEWSWEEKLY

By Aaron Mesh | Page 12

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VOL 46/47 09.16.2020

WILLAMETTE WEEK

A cadre of helmeted guerrilla filmmakers is coming to you live from Portland’s flaming streets.

Portland voters are fed up with Ted Wheeler. But are they ready for

WWEEK.COM

VOL 46/48 09.23.2020

WILLAMETTE WEEK PORTLAND’S NEWSWEEKLY

“SHOCKINGLY, STILL SINGLE AND WAY TOO BORED.� P. 21

WILLAMETTE WEEK PORTLAND’S NEWSWEEKLY

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NEWS: REMEMBER TERESSA RAIFORD’S NAME. P. 9 RESTAURANTS: WHO’LL STOP THE RAIN? P. 21 CANNABIS: WHAT WE LOST IN THE FIRES. P. 25

FULL ISSUES A LWAYS AVA I L A B L E ONLINE

Artist, musician and model Tazha Williams at BLM Art Therapy

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VOL 46/43 08.19.2020

Now more than ever, we’re grateful to Damian Lillard.

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Distant Summer

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In a nation succumbing to COVID-19, where does Oregon stand?

These 9 charts will show you.

VOL 46/38 07.15.2020

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"THEY ARE KILLING US. AND Y'ALL MISS A PARADE?" Seven queer black Portlanders speak out on what Pride means to them.

Page 12

WWEEK.COM

VOL 46/34 06.17.2020

Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 30, 2020 wweek.com

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GET...OUTSIDE?

WHAT TO DO—AND WHAT OTHERS ARE DOING—AS PORTLAND REOPENS.

media in 2019 when he hid cutouts around town and created a citywide scavenger hunt—doesn’t just want to entertain. As a former preschool teacher, education is always part of the deal: By focusing on regional creatures, he hopes to give young’uns a sneaky geography lesson.

But really, his main objective is to keep the spirit of monster season alive in a year when trick-or-treating might have to be canceled. MATTHEW SINGER. COURTESY OF MIKE BENNETT

WW: Why cryptids?

Mike Bennett: I’ve always been into cryptozoology. I grew up with Gremlins and these kid-friendly horror films, and I think that pulls you into it.

ABCDOMG: The first two entries in Mike Bennett’s alphabetical “Crypto Zoo.”

Tales of the Cryptids Halloween might be canceled this year. Don’t tell that to Mike Bennett.

Mike Bennett refuses to let Halloween die.

Earlier in quarantine, the Portland artist gave bored families a reason to go outside when he built a zoo on his front yard in the Alberta Arts District. It didn’t contain any real animals, but rather 26 plywood cutouts, illustrated in his signature cartoon style, one for each letter of the alphabet. He called it A to Zoo, and followed it up with a similar display, this one focused on dinosaurs.

Now, he’s going in a more seasonally appropriate direction: With the Crypto Zoo, Bennett will roll out one new folkloric beast every day for the next month, ranging from Bigfoot to the jackalope to the Frogman of Loveland, Ohio.

But Bennett—who first went viral on Portland social

M O N I C A R OY B A L

Domain Event How a Portland company is making the internet more hospitable for the queer community—or trying to.

The internet just got gayer.

After a yearslong process, the domain extension “.gay” is available for registration, thanks to the efforts of Portland-based internet registry Top Level Design.

What does that mean, exactly?

“It’s a domain, just like .com or .edu or .org, but way 20

Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 30, 2020 wweek.com

What are some of your favorites?

I was a big sucker for jackalopes as a kid. My favorite, though, is probably the Frogman of Loveland, Ohio.

There are dozens of stories out there, but the one I read a lot is, someone was out driving late at night and their headlights caught the reflection of some eyes in the water. The image that’s shared a lot looks like a bipedal frog person, but I guess, as with a lot of cryptids, this image is a weird angle of a huge iguana that got out of someone’s house and happened to be in some shallow water. Letter S is actually “squonk.” It’s from the Northern Pennsylvania area. It’s a pig that doesn’t fit in its own skin and it’s very sad about that. It cries all the time and you can hear it in the woods of Pennsylvania, but if you spot it, it will turn itself into tears, soak itself into the ground and reappear somewhere else.

Do you really believe in any of these?

One of them in the alphabet is the thylacine, which is the Tasmanian tiger, which did exist. It went extinct in 1936.

My partner and I managed to go to Australia—she’s a synchronized swimmer and got to compete in Melbourne.

While we were there, we went to Tasmania and started asking people for their thoughts on the thylacine: “Does it still exist?” And we had one person tell us they don’t think it’s around anymore. Everyone else firmly believes this amazing creature is still in the untouched parts of this island. And I’m on their side. I think it’s still out there.

See a full video interview at week.com/distant-voices.

more fabulous,” says Logan Lynn, the company’s PR director.

More directly, it allows greater online visibility for LGBTQ+ organizations, brands and individuals—early adopters include George Takei, Grindr and, naturally, the writer Roxane Gay—while also providing better safeguards against harassment. The .gay rights protections policy gives users a clear guide on making sites queer-friendly, while outlining behavior that gets would-be trolls banned from misusing the extension.

“Because we’re going to be able to prove it’s actually possible that the internet doesn’t have to be a garbage fire for LGBTQ+ people for business to be good,” Lynn says, “we’re going to be able to apply pressure to the rest of the domain industry to make change.”

But Lynn adds that it’s also about bolstering the community. Top Level Design pledges to give 20% of all new .gay domain registry fees to two LGBTQ+ organizations, currently GLAAD and CenterLink. Nearly $75,000 has been raised, including $40,000 from registered trademark holders’ early access in February 2020.

Also, anyone making queer resources available online can apply for a free domain.

Lynn recognizes terms like “gay,” “queer,” and “LGBTQ+” have evolved since the .gay project first began over a decade ago. He hopes the dialogue generates other queer-friendly URLs. “Whether you see .gay representing you or not, we’re committed to .gay’s existence benefiting you,” Lynn said, “We’re very into the idea that choice is good, and the more online spaces the better, the more LGBTQ+ domains the better.” ANDREW JANKOWSKI.

“You Just Realize You’ve Got to Evolve” An ode to Glenda Goldwater.

BY DA N IEL FO R B ES ddanforbes@aol.com

In September, Glenda Goldwater—art lover, Hillsboro Hops fan, late-stage tattoo aficionado and Old Portland icon— died at age 87. In the wake of her passing, reporter Daniel Forbes spent hours on the phone with several friends who knew her well, and composed a researched poem in her honor.

An excerpt appears below; read the full version at wweek.com.

The tale of a woman beyond time’s reach Who rode your basic MLS degree to a stretch in Europe Slinging books for the U.S. Army, white gloves required out in public Though she didn’t have to salute, for that might have broken poor Glenda’s arm.

The Army OK, sorta, replete with rules—and soldiers!

Best of all, Germany’s close to France, her true love.

A racial justice pioneer back in ’59, Glenda’s beau a Black soldier.

And so off to a Saturday-night movie on a Cold War Army base The couple to hold hands in the dark like anyone else Greeted by an uproar and lucky there wasn’t a fight Date thus too much and you’d get transferred—happened to a friend Going to the movies with a Black man in 1959, folks still lynched for less Glenda got dressed down by her boss come Monday It smarted still, sixty years on.

Germany not France—and a few too many Germans She wrangled a transfer to Verdun and oh what jakes Including her beloved bright red Citroën Deux Chevaux Two glorious years consuming everything French But, by 1964, an expatriate Glenda was not Becoming a San Francisco Library Big Cheese Organizing Bloomsday readings of Ulysses And helming the Sunset branch, an Italianate palazzo built fancy with Carnegie money, archways abounding.

One hopes Life owes us all one great love.

Enter a tall, funny, good-looking older guy Dr. Alan Goldwater, a shrink, who bestowed a topsy-turvy name that Lefty Glenda Todd embraced.

The sort of man who made friends with librarians’ husbands, A fellow enthusiast of everything on tap: art, travel, theater, fine dining.

Many happy years till Parkinson’s dire call, Glenda inconsolable.

After 35 years, Frisco lost its sheen.

A big fish casting her shadow here, Portlanders claim her as our own.

But, two marriages and a bountiful career, She arrived here a grieving widow age 65, her prior life rich She still so marvelous kinda blew our minds, Chronos skewed.

Just another girl at the gallery, glass in hand, age 84.

Why not an old-lady fashion model?

A tough cookie staring down Time, giving Age the slip Ask the pair of muggers she pepper-sprayed.

But the Plague unmoored her, as it has us all No art shows or theater? No symphony?

No chatting with young admirers on the bus?

What, quarantine Glenda? Might as well cancel Christmas!

And so, having gone there and back again, This adroit orchestrator of Life took her leave.

Daniel Forbes is the author of Derail This Train Wreck from Fomite Press.

FEATURE

MICHAEL BAHN

FOOD & DRINK

TOP 5

HOT PLATES Where to get food this week.

Galactic Grapes 5800 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., 213-246-7993, instagram.com/galacticgrapespdx.

One of the only places in the country where you can purchase a candy-encrusted grape is a splatter-painted food truck in Northeast Portland. Galactic Grapes co-owners Vicky Carmichael and Andre Montgomery call the titular product “the fruit of the future,” but the individual elements are straight out of the ’80s: Smashed Lemonheads and Fun Dip powder congeal into puckery geodes to make “Blue Raspberry Lemonade,” while “Poppin’ Skittle-Berry” uses Pop Rocks. Biting into any of them quenches like chugging an artificial sports drink—crisp, juicy, electrolyte-forward.

REEL ‘EM IN: At Rock Paper Fish, the fish is double-battered, double-fried, dipped in apple juice, and seasoned with Old Bay.

Gone Fishing Micah Camden trades ramen for seafood and reels in a RingSide veteran to help.

BY JAS ON C OH EN

@cohenesque

EAT: 2605 SE Burnside St., rockpaperfishandchips.com. 11 am-9 pm Wednesday-Sunday. Delivery and takeout only.

2500 SE Clinton St., 971-339-2822, lamoulepdx.com.

4-9 pm Wednesday-Sunday.

Going from Paris to Portland may seem an odd career move for a chef. But for John Denison, it made perfect sense. Having started his career at St. Jack before bouncing around some of Europe’s finest kitchens, he’s back at Aaron Barnett’s other French-inspired restaurant, moving the menu in an even more Gallic direction. Denison’s tour de force?

An ultra-rustic pâté en croûte, a mixture of ground pork and other ingredients cloaked in pastry, baked, then chilled and sliced for service. For all its seeming simplicity, it is a threeto four-day production.

Dimo’s Apizza 701 E Burnside St., 503-327-8968, dimosapizza.com.

4-9 pm Wednesday-Sunday.

The menu at Dimo’s Apizza is loaded with variations of the New Haven-style pies chef Doug Miriello grew up eating in Connecticut. But his new spot—locatedt in the old Burnside Brewing space—is aiming for a place in Portland’s sandwich pantheon, too. The most recent addition to the menu is maybe the most impressive. It’s called The Beast: whole top sirloin seasoned like brisket, cave-aged Gruyère and slathered-on aioli.

You can barely close the damn thing, which is how you know it’s good.

Charlie’s Hot Chicken Instagram.com/charlieshotchicken. 11 am-8 pm Tuesday-Sunday. Available through Postmates and Uber Eats.

Speaking of Doug Miriello, he’s also partnered with ChefStable Catering to bring Portland yet another option for chicken—one he swears stands out from the others thanks to a double-brine method and a seven-herb spice blend that remains a secret recipe. The catch? It’s delivery only. But with winter weather about to hamper al fresco dining season, that gives it an even better chance to thrive.

TREVOR GAGNIER

Rock Paper Fish is yet another fast-casual Micah Camden restaurant, and yet another quick pandemic pivot. Open since mid-August, it’s a pickup- and delivery-only seafood window, operating out of what used to be Boxer Ramen in the Burnside 26 building—aka the place where “Luke and Jess” lived.

But its story started at a steakhouse.

Camden, whose food-biz portfolio includes co-founding Little Big Burger and Blue Star Donuts as well as the more recent SuperDeluxe and Little Chickpea, has been a regular at the family-run West Burnside classic RingSide Steakhouse for 16 years, during which time he’s gotten to know third-generation owner Craig Peterson. And when Camden and Portland-bred NFL star Ndamukong Suh opened Baes Fried Chicken downtown, Peterson fell hard for Baes’ bird.

“I noticed he was there like three times in a week,” said Camden. “I was like, ‘Dude, you’re gonna get a heart attack if you just keep eating fried chicken.’”

Before the pandemic, the two men used to dream up restaurant concepts, some more viable the others. The term “millennial steakhouse” may have come up. But now, Camden was just trying to figure out what to do with his existing spaces. For a time, Baes was the only one of his restaurants that stayed open. Most have since returned.

But Boxer Ramen’s short-term future didn’t look so good.

“Boxer Ramen has always been one of my favorite restaurants,” Camden said. “I have five locations. But nobody in the world orders ramen to go.”

That’s especially true in the summer. So Boxer’s Sellwood location became another Baes, while Camden asked Peterson to join him and Suh on something fishy. Peterson had already done seafood with RingSide’s Fish House at Fox Tower, which closed in 2018, while Camden knew a lot about fast-casual hits and misses. Given the scale of RingSide’s operation, Peterson could get some wholesale deals on Pacific Northwest proteins, while Camden’s contacts at the delivery apps—Rock Paper Fish’s website only links to Caviar and Door Dash—suggested there was a hole in the market for fish and chips, which were doing surprisingly well in Seattle.

The seafood may be mostly local or regional, but the style is New England, not only for a different kind of taste experience, but for better takeout and delivery. Beer-battered fish and hips is perfect at the pub or in a cone while walking down the street, but doesn’t travel well once boxed and steamy. “It sogs out,” says Camden.

The key to Baes’ chicken is that it holds up well on delivery, so Rock Paper Fish uses a similar double-battered, double-fried approach. The fish is also dipped in apple juice, and seasoned with Old Bay. “We had to work our recipes to make it to where it would be able to withstand travel,” says Camden. “With that double frying, you’re wicking a lot of that moisture out of there.”

The Pacific halibut and chips ($16) holds up as advertised. A half-hour after pickup, the chips—thick and reminiscent of Belgian frites—could have used a few minutes of refresh in the oven, but the halibut was still impeccable, with a craggy crunch, tender inside, and minimal separation between fish and batter. You get two healthy pieces of halibut and a generous pile of chips (you’ll have leftovers), plus herby tartar sauce, ketchup and the obligatory lemon.

Keeping with the “like Maine, but Oregon” theme, there’s a Dungeness crab and Bay shrimp roll ($15, with chips) instead of lobster roll, while the New England clam chowder ($6 for a cup, $10 for a bowl) also comes as “poutine” over chips. Vegetarians can get the artichoke “crab” cakes” (two for $6): super-crispy fritters made from artichoke hearts, hearts of palm, zucchini and chickpeas seasoned with Old Bay—perfect as a sauce-delivery vehicle. In addition to tartar, ketchup and spicy remoulade, there’s cocktail, cranberry chile and truffle aioli (50 cents each for extra).

In addition to the halibut, there’s Atlantic cod and chips ($14), which Camden originally told Eater PDX he wouldn’t serve, opting for albacore instead. Then the emails and Instagram messages starting pouring in.

“It was like 50 a week,” Camden says. “‘Can you do cod?

Can you do cod? Can you do cod?’”

This did not come as a surprise to Peterson.

“I told him to serve cod right off the bat,” he says. “I had a fish house—I know what kind of fish and chips they want!

They want cod. And personally I like cod over halibut.”

La Moule

Rough Draft Burger Shop Inside Uptown Beer Co. at 6620 SW Scholls Ferry Road, rdburgershop.com. 4-9 pm Wednesday-Thursday, noon-9 pm Friday-Saturday.

Rough Draft’s idea of the perfect burger is fatty, simple and crispy-smashed—just meat, cheese and condiments. There are no tomatoes or lettuce, only raw onion, pickle slices and “RD Sauce.” The dark horse menu item, though? Vegetables. There’s one plate that’s sort of good for you—a daily selection of crudites with ranch ($4)—and another that does not feel virtuous at all but at least delivers cruciferous vitamins and fiber: fried broccoli with hot cheese, pickled peppers, scallion and crispy jalapeños.

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FOOD & DRINK TOP 5

TREVOR GAGNIER

PATIO REVIEW

BUZZ LIST

Where to drink outside this week.

CHRISTINE ARMBRUSTER

Stem Wine Bar SHHHHH: Baerlic’s “secret” patio is not all that well-hidden.

Secret Garden The first rule of Baerlic’s hidden drinking patio is, please talk about Baerlic’s hidden drinking patio.

BY A N DI PR E W I TT

aprewitt@wweek.com

Brewers, as the old joke goes, are actually glorified janitors.

About 95% of the process of making a good batch of beer involves cleaning. But there are even more roles wrapped up in the job: It’s part chemist, part chef and even part celebrity.

Up until recently, though, landscape architect was typically not on the list of responsibilities. But as the pandemic keeps tossing curveballs, brewers—like bar and restaurant owners—continue to adapt.

Baerlic Brewing was among that inspired group of entrepreneurs that looked at the cracked, gray parking lot behind its building and somehow saw a socially distanced party. Although it took several days of cleanup and construction, the crew managed to turn the 6,000-square-foot space into the Bavarian-inspired drinking lawn the owners envisioned—despite the fact that the only original vegetation were weeds filling in the cracks in the pavement.

“We really wanted to create a beer garden,” says Baerlic’s co-founder, Ben Parsons, “so we had to bring in the green.”

The verdant accent they were searching for came in the form of a 700-square-foot faux foliage backdrop affixed with the words “Super Secret Beer Club.” The pine- and chartreuse-hued teardrop leaves were scored online and carpet one entire side of the patio.

From a distance, the shrub—meant to conceal a decidedly less attractive chain-link fence—looks like the real deal. It’s only when you get up close and rub one of the leaves between your thumb and forefinger that the toughness of the plastic gives away its identity as a counterfeit.

You’ll still use the big green wall as the setting for a selfie shoot, and if you happen to snag a table next to the artificial topiary, it’s easy to imagine you’re drinking in an opulent estate’s hedge maze.

The only circuitous routes you actually navigate lead to and from the ordering counter and are marked by rope.

From the rolled-up garage door, a service table decorated in potted plants and a hand sanitizer pump are where you can purchase classics like Baerlic’s pre-Prohibition lager Dad Beer or, while in season, a fresh hop version of the IPA Punk Rock Time. That space, now equipped with a cooler 22

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filled with cans to go and wallpapered in empty Weyermann Malt bags, is a new addition to the brewery, meant to house new tanks and cold storage. Parsons acquired the extra room during what initially seemed to be unfortunate timing, but he later discovered that it put Baerlic in position to launch the patio.

“We signed the lease in a whopping 10 days or so before getting shut down,” he says. “So we are literally in the middle of an expansion that we’ll turn back on at some point, hopefully. For now, it’s a bar.”

From that bar, you walk your pint to one of the 16 picnic tables borrowed from the brewery’s Barely Pod location on Northeast Halsey Street. String lights continue to suggest a garden setting, and a soundtrack that’s heavy on instrumental funk lends a laid-back vibe.

Once seated and sipping, consider yourself a member of that Super Secret Beer Club that Baerlic shouts about on the foliage. And it’s OK to share those selfies on social media—unlike another well-known club, this one encourages you to talk about it.

PATIO SPECS Number of tables: 16 Space between tables: At least 8 feet Additional safety measures: “Red Light” and “Green Light” laminated cards at each table so customers know what has been sanitized and where to sit; contactless ordering, with a 20% automatic gratuity added to all orders to avoid the need to touch a screen for tipping; roped lanes to and from the service stand with floor markers; compostable cups.

Peak hours: 3-7 pm

GO: Baerlic Brewing Super Secret Beer Club, 1020 SE Grant St., 503-477-9418, baerlicbrewing.com. 2-8 pm daily.

3920 N Mississippi Ave., 503-477-7164, stemwinebarpdx.com. 5 pm-close Monday-Friday, noon-close Saturday-Sunday.

Businesses that opened just weeks before the mandated coronavirus closures in mid-March have had a tough go— just ask 45 North. Five weeks after opening, the North Portland wine bar shuttered. It’s back open now, but dealing with yet another obstacle: rebranding. Now known as Stem, the bar offers a wide global selection, spanning from the Willamette Valley to South Africa, with private tasting appointments available through its website.

Migration Rooftop 817 SW 17th Ave. 9th floor, 971-291-0258, migrationbrewing.com. 1-10 pm Thursday-Sunday.

In the Before Times, Migration’s sun-drenched front patio was one of Portland’s great summer evening beer drinking spots. That’s continued to be true in Phase 1, but apparently it wasn’t enough: The ascendant brewery has gone and launched a rooftop taproom at downtown’s freshly opened Canvas building. It boasts a panoramic view few others can claim, which includes the Providence Park Jumbotron, and the brewery already has some grand plans once games resume with fans in the stands: “I might have to put a tifo up,” says co-owner Colin Rath.

Wilder 5501 NE 30th Ave., 971-350-8702, wilderpdx.com.

4 pm-close Wednesday-Saturday.

Simple yet artistic cocktails can be found at this charming corner spot, from the Tamarind Fuego Serrano to the rum-based Immortal Hour, with lime, cinnamon and bitters.

While far too small to accommodate safely distanced indoor imbibing, the bar has filled the street with picnic tables. And with only a month left on those temporary outdoor dining permits—and even fewer dry days—now is the time to go.

Lady of the Mountain 100 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., 971-345-2992, kexhotels.com/eat-drink/ rooftop. 5-10 pm Wednesday-Sunday; last reservations taken at 8:30 pm.

Brunch 10 am-1 pm Saturday-Sunday.

Icelandic boutique hotel Kex is one of those rare gems in the city with a rooftop oasis. At four stories up, Lady of the Mountain feels a bit like being nestled in a fjord made of glass and concrete. The list of wine, beer and cocktails is long, but to make things easy, just order the Pimm’s Cup: It’s like an adult snow cone, made with cucumber-infused gin, and it’s the most refreshing thing you could possibly order on a Portland rooftop in an Indian summer.

Gin Alley 3348 SE Belmont St. 4-10 Wednesday-Saturday.

Opening behind still-shuttered pseudo-speakeasy Circa 33 off Southeast Belmont, Gin Alley is, well, an outdoor gin bar located in an alley. The brainchild of veteran bar manager John Paul Longenecker, the drinks include a martini with locally sourced herbs, a strawberry-and-pepper gin fizz and, perhaps most tantalizing, a hazelnut mai tai.

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FLASHBACK

THIS WEEK IN '04

Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 30, 2020 wweek.com

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POTLANDER

The Chill of Fall Five cannabis strains ideal for autumn.

BY BR I A NNA W H EELER

After a summer spent in flames both figurative and literal, autumn is finally here. Leaves are falling, the sky is moistening, and sunlight has finally cut her hours back to part time.

Anyone lamenting a lost summer has probably had their seasonal disappointment extinguished under the foam of a pumpkin spice latte, and like mulched leaves under a downpour, the rest of us fall fanatics can finally soak in all the trappings of the best season in the Northwest.

Though everyone’s fall to-do list varies, much of the autumn experience in this part of the country is universal.

Harvest season is cresting to its peak, matched in immediacy by an increasingly dystopian future. What better way to plunge into fall 2020 than getting high and pulling the dehumidifier out from the back of the closet?

These strains were curated with the intent to find that necessary balance between fundamental seasonal duties and just making it through another week of white supremacy in its death throes. Please enjoy the season— and the weed—responsibly.

Best Strain for Pulling Your Winter Gear Out of Storage: Orange Crush I’ve been looking forward to sweater-scarf-glove weather since July, and I know I am not alone. Let’s commiserate with Orange Crush, the perfect strain for simultaneously luxuriating in a pile of warm autumn wear while organizing away the threads of an emotionally suffocating summer. Orange Crush is a sativa-bent hybrid with a perfume that is mostly overripe nectarine with a shade of resinous pine. The terpene profile is limonene-dominant, with myrcene and humulene playing supportive roles. The resulting high is mildly euphoric and sensually calm in smaller amounts, but taking down a gram in one sitting may result in a more intense euphoria. A whole blunt to the face is likely to necessitate a solo dance party in addition to an hour or two of nostalgic organizing.

Get it from: Nectar, 4125 N Mississippi Ave., 503-206-4818, nectar.store.

Best Strain for Pumpkin Spicing It Up: Cornbread Best Strain for Raking the Leaves: Critical Jack This is the strain for meditating while you carve spirals through a perpetual carpet of loose foliage once a week.

Raindrops on fallen leaves might sell a lot of paintings on the coast, but slipping on them shits in real life is not delightful, so thank you, stoner yard care enthusiasts, for your commitment to your lawns and adjacent sidewalks. Critical Jack is a hybrid of Jack Herer and Critical Plus, and a great strain for an afternoon of losing yourself in a low-stakes physical activity. It offers a contemplative head high and a tempered body buzz that blossoms into peaceful, focused introspection when steeped in busywork. The body high is gently euphoric, with just a hint of effervescent edge. The terp profile is heavily dominated by terpinolene, so expect a rounded, fruity funk in the nose and a mildly sweet, herbaceous exhale.

Get it from: Gram Central Station, 6430 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., 503-284-6714.

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In Portland proper, there are actual pumpkins spilling out of front porches in almost every neighborhood—so many, in fact, that indulging in “the spice” feels more like a Northwest rite of seasonal passage than a trendy corporate gimmick. Either way, it’ll taste better if you’re stoned on Cornbread. Cornbread is a heavier indica with a positive reputation for chronic pain relief and certain notoriety for leaving smokers with ravenous munchies.

A phenotype of Bubba Kush, this strain can be similarly tranquilizing. The head high is velvety and insulating— Cornbread is often used to treat insomnia—and the body high is just as languid. It’s a great strain to smoke before indulging in an end-of-day pile of seasonal baked goods and drifting off to sleep with pumpkin spice coffee cake crumbles all over your face.

Get it from: AmeriCanna, 8654 NE Sandy Blvd., 971-254-4581, americannarx.com.

Best Strain for Social Distancing in a Corn Maze: SFV OG Getting silly stoned and wandering around a manicured cornfield once a year is an autumn gift every stoner should give themselves. Corn-mazing is also one of the few organized community events we can safely participate in, and despite its charming wholesomeness, it is still a thrill. San Fernando Valley OG Kush is exactly the type of balanced hybrid that plays well with activities that require a modicum of stamina and lucidity. The head high is bliss on the cusp of romance, especially in the midst of mildly exhilarating physical exertion, while the body high is a familiar balance of rubbery relaxation and bouncy ebullience.

Get it from: The Canna Shoppe 6316 NE Halsey St., 503-660-5209, the-canna-shoppe.business.site.

Best Strain for Dropping Off Food and Supplies to Your Houseless Neighbors: G13 Depending on how relatable this article is, you have a house, plenty of warm clothes, and enough of a disposable budget to go HAM on some pumpkin spice scones baskets. In nearly every neighborhood of Portland, however, community members will struggle through this season with far less. But what if we all got stoned to the bone, grabbed our few extra coats, beanies and blankets, and reached out to our nearest houseless neighbor, encampment or nonprofit, like JOIN , p:ear or Rose Haven, for example, and just asked what folks needed and then offered them what we could? Consider first toking some G13, a strain that vacillates between talkative and quietly relaxing. Often used as a stress reliever and to treat chronic pain, G13 is also a warm, giggly strain that uplifts moods and inspires creativity, humor and empathy. The terpene profile is monopolized by myrcene and limonene, so expect a peppery, citrusy nose and a clean, lemony exhale.

Get it from: Broadway Cannabis Market, 427 NW Broadway, 503-212-0608 broadway-cannabis.com.

Editor: Andi Prewitt | Contact: aprewitt@wweek.com R U SS E L L J. YO U N G

PERFORMANCE

BOOKS

Written by: Scout Brobst Contact: sbrobst@wweek.com

FIVE UPCOMING BOOKS YOU SHOULD BE EXCITED ABOUT She Come by It Natural, Sarah Smarsh (Oct. 13) Sarah Smarsh’s debut, Heartland, came out at just the right time. In 2018, city dwellers had an appetite for rural tell-alls, and Smarsh’s working-class background in Kingman County, Kansas, was her story to tell. Her second release is someone else’s story, but it is no less compelling: She Come by It Natural is a living elegy for Dolly Parton, the woman she represents and the lines she straddles at the intersection of class, gender and image. Throughout the book, Parton and Smarsh are in unspoken dialogue with one another, sharing common language and struggle through the beauty of country music.

COLD AS ICE: The cast of Magellanica, seen here in a 2018 stage performance, has re-created the play as an audio drama.

1986: An Antarctic Odyssey Magellanica is a masterful audio drama about life on the southernmost continent.

BY BE N NETT C AM PBELL FE RGUS O N

Near the end of E.M. Lewis’ five-act epic Magellanica, Lars Brotten (Eric Pargac) wonders what kind of story he is living through. Is it a mystery? A thriller? A ghost story? He’s indecisive, so maybe it’s best to simply say that Magellanica is about eight people who go to Antarctica—and that it is a masterpiece.

Magellanica’s 2018 world premiere at Artists Repertory Theatre echoed through the Portland theater community like a thunderclap. The beautiful bonds between the play’s characters weren’t the only connections created— when a production is so long that it requires four intermissions, the anonymity of your fellow audience members evaporates. They become your partners on a journey of being overwhelmed by a great and lengthy story.

That feeling is re-created in Artist Rep’s magnificent new Magellanica audio drama. If you missed the play in 2018, now is your chance to submerge yourself in its wonders—and if you’ve seen it, it’s time you heard it. Nothing can replace the visual and emotional power of Magellanica in a theater, but the transformation of Lewis’ creation into a rush of voices and sounds yields a transcendent, unexpectedly intimate listening experience.

While some of the dialogue was adapted for the new format, the narrative remains the same. In 1986, a team of scientists—Lars, Morgan Halsted (Sara Hennessy), Vadik Chapayev (Michael Mendelson), Todor Kozlek (Allen Nause), May Zhou (Barbie Wu) and William Huffington (Joshua J. Weinstein)—is flown to an Antarctic research station run by Adam Burrell (Vin Shambry), a captain from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and his sidekick, Freddie de la Rosa (John San Nicolas).

The scientists’ myriad missions range from studying the southern lights to examining the hole in the ozone layer, but Lewis is most interested in the group’s resemblance to a miniature United Nations. The characters hail from Britain, Bulgaria, Norway, the Soviet Union and the United States—and, in the play, divisions based on borders are no match for the friendships that isolation forces them to forge. Even Morgan and Vadik, who are divided by the Iron Curtain, come to respect each other’s doggedness.

It’s a testament to the actors that the sound of these relationships is just as moving as the sight of them. The

entire original cast returned for the audio drama, and the act of solely listening reshapes your perception of their performances in intriguing ways. Wu’s perkiness, for instance, seems even more intense than it did onstage, but so does her silence after May endures a cataclysmic loss.

Even when she doesn’t speak, you feel the force of her presence.

Magellanica also has an indispensable ninth cast member—sound designer Rodolfo Ortega. From the crackling static of a communications device to the eerie wail of the wind, he makes you believe you are alongside these women and men, savoring the same joys and enduring the same hardships they are.

That sense of identification amplifies the play’s prophetic vibe. Trapped in a building they rarely leave for fear of death, the characters can’t help but resemble a family quarantined together during COVID-19. Their frustration with and need for one another are all too familiar, just like their struggle to cope with both the terrors of the moment and the traumas of the past (the specters of Morgan’s dead husband and Adam’s service in the Vietnam War haunt the play).

Yet to describe Magellanica as being accidentally about the pandemic is to diminish Lewis’ brilliance. She has written a tale for 2018, 2020 and every year after. Survival never goes out of style, especially in a play that fearlessly confronts death even as it embraces life.

In Magellanica, life is many things. It’s May comforting Todor with ginger candies as he recovers from elevation sickness. It’s William coming out to Lars. It’s Morgan and Vadik venturing outside so they can collect data that could save countless people from the effects of climate change.

It’s the team putting on a talent show after one of their number has died, refusing to deny their grief but also refusing to let it break them.

Life is also Morgan telling May, “Everybody’s lonely sometimes.” She’s right, but for a few precious hours, the Magellanica audio drama eclipsed some of the loneliness that I’ve felt during the pandemic. I hope it will for you, too.

SEE IT: Parts 1 and 2 of Magellanica are available now at artistsrep.org. Parts 3 and 4 debut Oct. 5. Part 5 will be released Oct. 12. You can stream the production through June 30, 2021. $5-$60.

Negotiations, Destiny O. Birdsong (Oct. 13) Released by Portland publisher Tin House, Destiny O. Birdsong’s debut collection of poems writes of a nation bowing under the weight of its shortcomings.

Negotiations is made rich by its natural complexity, with few stones left unturned—poems address silencing, fetishization, tokenism and cultural appropriation with fierce honesty, the sum of which amount to an artfully written love letter to Black women in America. In Birdsong’s debut, every angle of the self is worthy of recognition.

The Redshirt, Corey Sobel (Oct. 13) It is all too easy to watch college sports and fail to acknowledge there are humans behind the trophies and padding and Jumbotron pixels. Corey Sobel, a former Division 1 football player, slices this world open in The Redshirt, a fictional account of what happens when players are treated like property and crooked versions of masculinity run amok. Sobel writes about King College, an imaginary low-level D1 program in the Deep South, but swapping in UVA or Duke—Sobel’s alma mater—is no big stretch.

Tiny Nightmares, Lincoln Michel and Nadxieli Nieto (Oct. 13) Whether or not we are granted any semblance of a Halloween remains to be seen, but the pumpkins are out at the grocery store and that’s all that really matters. Edited by two authors who have dubbed this their “Frankenbaby,” Tiny Nightmares gives readers a collection of bite-sized horror stories by a sprawling cast of new and veteran writers.

In the book, no monster is too outlandish or too real—there is horror in vampires who mend their own broken hearts, just as there is horror in global warming and online radicalization.

Memorial, Bryan Washington (Oct. 27) Readers who loved Bryan Washington’s 2019 collection of short stories, Lot, have been waiting with bated breath for his debut novel, slated for release at the end of the month.

Memorial is a love story that is equal parts sweet and aching—a “gay slacker dramedy” meant to make you feel better after reading it, not worse. A day care instructor and a line cook live in Houston’s increasingly gentrified 3rd Ward, muddling through the awkwardness and confusion of life at the crossroads of identity.

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MOVIES

Editor: Andi Prewitt / Contact: aprewitt@wweek.com NW FILM CENTER

SCREENER

GET YO UR REPS I N While local rep theaters are out of commission, we’ll be putting together weekly watchlists of films readily available to stream. For the month of October, we highlight all of the best horror for your Halloween movie marathons. This week’s theme is creature features, celebrating beloved monsters ranging from aliens to werewolves to the scariest of them all: the Eraserhead baby.

The Brood (1979)

YOUNG HEARTS RUN FREE: The timeless difficulty of almostnot-quite adulthood drives the tension in this new film.

Teenagers in Love This coming-of-age tale by Portland-raised sibling directors is distinctly Gen Z.

BY C H A N C E SOL EM - PFE I FE R

@chance_s_p

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SEE IT: Young Hearts screens at the Cinema Unbound Drive-In at Zidell Yards, 3121 SW Moody Ave., on Thursday, Oct. 1. 7 pm. $35-$55.

Alien (1979) While on a routine cargo mission, the crew of a commercial spaceship (Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, John Hurt, among others) stops to investigate a distress signal. Rookie mistake! Chest-bursting aliens, frantic crawling through air ducts, and general terror quickly ensues in this seminal sci-fi horror film by Ridley Scott. Amazon Prime, Cinemax, Google Play, HBO Max, Hulu, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube.

The Host (2006) After a slew of toxic waste is dumped in South Korea’s Han River, a large amphibious creature begins to mutate. It emerges six years later, wreaking deadly havoc and kidnapping the young daughter of a snack shop owner (Song Kang-ho), inciting him to embark on a rescue mission. Directed by the great Bong Joon-ho of 2019’s Oscar-sweeping Parasite. Amazon Prime, Google Play, Hulu, iTunes Kanopy, Sling TV, Tubi, Vudu, YouTube.

S C R E E N R A N T. C O M

Good luck naming high school movies that aren’t in some way about rebellion. Frederick Wiseman’s vérité triumph High School? Maybe Air Bud 2: Golden Receiver? It’s a short list.

So how does one create teenage conflict when the wouldbe authority figures are open-minded Southeast Portland parents? The characters in the new Portland coming-of-age indie Young Hearts have the same question.

“They’re trying so hard to be progressive that there’s nothing to rebel against,” explains freshman Harper (Anjini Taneja Azhar) to sophomore Tilly (Quinn Liebling), her love who just yesterday was merely her brother’s best friend.

Even though they filmed in their hometown, sibling directors Sarah and Zachary Ray Sherman, who attended La Salle Catholic College Preparatory in the early 2000s, can’t personally relate to that high school experience. On the contrary, Young Hearts was a product of recent observation.

“So much of this was born out of my spying on teenagers everywhere I went,” says Sarah, who directed much of the movie on her own Southeast Portland street, with some exteriors at Franklin High School.

That anecdotal research impacts the way teenagers communicate in Young Hearts, which played at the Portland International Film Festival back in March as Thunderbolt in Mine Eye before its renaming for distribution.

By any name, the film is distinctly Gen Z. Nobody in Can’t Hardly Wait (1998) asks a crush about their political convictions as an ice breaker.

“I remember a time when I had my toddler at this park and this group of teenagers was having a conversation about abortion rights,” Sarah says. “That was not a conversation I was having at this age. When I was a teen, there was such a bubble between us and adults. I feel like it’s different now.”

Ironically, though, the timeless, ineffable difficulty of almost-not-quite adulthood still drives the tension in Young Hearts. A burgeoning sexual relationship between Harper and Tilly (ages 14 and 15) is incredibly normalized and non-exploitative by any Hollywood standard but still collides with the truth of being too young.

“Some people involved [in the movie] were like, ‘Is this too much?’,” Sarah says, noting the plethora of high school

movies that depict sex between older high schoolers.

“Teenagers have sex earlier than that too. Not all, but they do. And it doesn’t have to be this dirty, shameful thing that results in pregnancy.”

Leading off the Zidell Yards reprise of the Portland International Film Festival on Oct. 1, Young Hearts is slated for national and international release on Feb. 14.

According to Zach, a Los Angeles actor and DIY director, its acquisition out of Slamdance Film Festival by Blue Fox Entertainment owes much to Mark and Jay Duplass serving as executive producers.

“We’re just so lucky they’re able to funnel and fast track us into the system,” he says. “I think it’s unheard of that you shoot a movie for under 40K and still hit these mainstream channels.”

The Duplasses primarily responded to the authenticity of his sister’s script, Zach says, as Young Hearts won a 2018 contest to be shepherded by the Safety Not Guaranteed (2012) and Skeleton Twins (2014) producers.

Authenticity in Young Hearts boils down not just to what’s said, but the credible trouble the kids have saying it. The characters feel 15 because Liebling actually was, while Taneja Azhar played 14 at 18. Zach encountered both performers while acting with them on the Oregon-shot Netflix series Everything Sucks!, and their facility with adolescent ticks is undeniable. Saying goodbye is an odyssey, walking together an unsteady waltz, and both constantly prod “What?” at the other’s unspoken thoughts.

“The biggest thing for me was rhythm and timing.

And more awkward! More discomfort!” says Sarah with a laugh, adding that the raw ohs and ums eventually came off as overwhelmingly real in one editing round.

As far as the Shermans’ sibling dynamics during their two weeks of onset co-directing, Zach calls it a blur, with an instinctual, all-consuming approach that would hopefully make the Duplasses proud.

“There were a few laughable moments where we’d yell cut, Zach would go up to one actor, I’d go up to the other one, and we’d tell them conflicting things,” Sarah recalls.

“And then they’re like, ‘Wait, what?’ And I’m like, ‘Goddammit, Zach.’”

Body horror master David Cronenberg directs this psychological parable of divorce, centered on a man embroiled in a custody battle with his ex-wife, who’s receiving a controversial therapy in a mental institution. When a string of brutal murders occurs, he begins to suspect she’s behind them—it all leads up to one of the most horrifying creature reveals in cinema history.

Amazon Prime, Criterion Channel, HBO Max, iTunes.

Eraserhead (1977) In this experimental fever nightmare by David Lynch, an unhappy man (Jack Nance) living in a desolate industrial apartment struggles to care for his sick, deformed baby-creature-thing. Lynch’s debut feature functions as both a metaphor for the fear of domestic life and an unforgettable showcase of revolting yet arresting imagery. Amazon Prime, Criterion Channel, Google Play, HBO Max, iTunes, Kanopy, Vudu, YouTube.

Ginger Snaps (2000) The iron bond between Brigitte and Ginger, two death-obsessed teenage sisters, is tested when the latter is attacked by a werewolf, causing her to slowly transform. Now, it’s up to Brigitte to clean up Ginger’s amassing bloody messes, all while desperately seeking a cure for her lycanthropy. Amazon Prime, Crackle, Google Play, Shudder, Sling TV, Tubi, Vudu, YouTube.

MOVIES JANUS FILMS

TOP PICK OF THE WEEK

Beau Travail With Criterion Collection’s new 4K restoration of French auteur Claire Denis’ 1999 tour de force, her already stunning imagery is enhanced to reach its full potential. Set in a French Foreign Legion camp in Djibouti, the verdant greens of soldiers’ uniforms and the vibrant blues of the Indian Ocean contrast even more brilliantly against the igneous heat of the African sun. Loosely based on Herman Melville’s novella Billy Budd, Sailor, this blistering drama focuses on former Legion officer Galoup as he reminisces about his career leading the troops. Specifically, he recalls the time a younger, stronger and more charismatic man joined the squad, consuming him with jealousy, implied to stem from his own repressed sexuality.

Unafraid to probe the pressures and pitfalls of masculinity, Beau Travail, which translates as “Good Work,” argues that intensive athleticism can be both elegant and brutal.

Abstract images of shirtless men relentlessly performing training rituals are rhythmic and hypnotic, yet devoid of glamorization—Denis opts to cultivate an authentic atmosphere rather than the typical propagandistic action that dominates domestic military movies. It’s why she remains one of the best working directors.

NR. MIA VICINO. Cinema 21’s Virtual Theater.

OUR KEY

: T H I S M O V I E I S E XC E L L E N T, O N E O F T H E B E S T O F T H E Y E A R.

BEAU TRAVAIL

: T H I S M O V I E I S G O O D. W E R E C O M M E N D YO U WATC H I T. : T H I S M O V I E I S E N T E R TA I N I N G B U T F L AW E D. : T H I S M O V I E I S A P I E C E O F S H I T.

ALSO PLAYING Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets While most Oregonians haven’t set foot in their local for months, we’ve all passed that one obscure watering hole and thought, “Has this place been open the whole time?” Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets is an ode to just that kind of dive. Experimental filmmakers Bill and Turner Ross train their lenses on Las Vegas’ Roaring ’20s on its final day in business, and we meet the affable barkeeps, trauma-soaked vets, wayward youngsters and shaggy loners toasting farewell to their only sense of community, no matter that it feeds on their marginalization and addiction. The weeping, the slurred professions of love, the gallows humor, the last dances—it’s as profoundly affecting as it is authentically scuzzy, but there’s a trick afoot. The amateur performers are clearly operating from some vague script, even if they are completely plastered. The sad-bastard country soundtrack is a little too on pitch and, in fact, the interior of the bar is not even in Vegas. Winner of the True/False Film Festival’s True Vision Award, Bloody Nose waltzes at the forefront of creative cinematic nonfiction. And this premise blurs the line between fact and fiction perfectly. After all, there is no stark reality for the spiraling barfly. The tears look damn real, and they flow like swill. NR. CHANCE SOLEM-PFEIFER. On Demand.

The Personal History of David Copperfield Bonk! Bonk! Bonk! Bonk! In a single scene from The Personal History of David Copperfield, David (Dev Patel) bangs his noggin four times, channeling the deliciously manic energy that director Armando Iannucci (The Death of Stalin) brings to this adaptation of Charles Dickens’ novel. Tales of orphans looking for love and profit are ripe for slick sentiment, but Iannucci amplifies the story’s comedic absurdities without sacrificing its emotional force. At 119 minutes, the film is too trim—an extra half-hour would have allowed Iannucci to more credibly chronicle David’s transformation from a child laborer in a bottling factory into a gangly yet graceful gentleman. Yet there’s no resisting the cast (especially Peter Capaldi as the merry charlatan Mr. Micawber and Ben Whishaw as the pious swindler Uriah Heep), and while Iannucci revels in the story’s goofier episodes—including the theft of a concertina from a pawnshop— he captures David’s growth with moving sincerity. “Don’t worry,” David tells his younger self in a fantasy scene. “You’ll make it through.” At a moment when too many of us are wondering if we’ll make it, that message of resilience is at once inspiring and comforting. PG. BENNETT CAMPBELL FERGUSON. Virtual Cinema.

The Glorias A bus. Black and white. The only color is the yellow of the road. The only passengers are four women of different ages. These are the titular Glorias, liminal representations of legendary feminist Gloria

Steinem. Two of them are Academy Award winners Julianne Moore and Alicia Vikander, the latter portraying Steinem from ages 20 to 40, the former from 40 onward. Using the bus as a narrative framing device, this biopic chronicles her journey from troubled childhood to underappreciated journalist to political activist to co-founder of the groundbreaking Ms. magazine. Julie Taymor’s direction is at its most compelling when indulging in whimsical fantasy sequences reminiscent of her Beatles musical Across the Universe (2007). Her huge swings don’t always hit as intended, but they at least differentiate it from the boiler-plate biopics that inexplicably dominate the cinema landscape.

It’s exactly these sporadic, creative risks that make the frequent expository dialogue and bloated storyline that much more exasperating.

There’s an engaging film buried in the 139-minute runtime, and it’s a treat when it occasionally rears its head, be it in the form of co-stars Bette Midler and Janelle Monáe or the crucial amplification of intersectional feminism. Though this road trip is undeniably necessary, it’s a bit of a slog nonetheless. R. MIA VICINO. Amazon Prime, On Digital.

LX 2048 The image of the lone figure wandering a deserted metropolis is as old as our modern idea of the apocalypse. Yet you could have approximated such iconography in many West Coast cities last week. That’s to say, the criteria for credible near-term science fiction sharpens quickly, and indie auteur Guy Moshe is a mostly believable architect in LX 2048. Twentyeight years from now, the sun sears skin on contact, humans cling to the indoors and their VR, antidepressants are basically mandatory, and insurance companies offer

cloned replacements of deceased loved ones. But Adam Bird (James D’Arcy) resists it all—a real 1999 man, who likes to drive to the office, brew coffee and thumb his guitar. What’s missing here is not imagination but a more nuanced observation of human relationships as a mystery unfolds. Adam’s marriage to Reena (Anna Brewster) is hyperbolically vindictive mostly to move plot, a blur of suggested world-building by way of accusatory monologues about Adam being a loser and a dinosaur. The expository cheapness stands in stark contrast to patient, demonstrable moments of futuristic alienation—particular kids’ devotion to VR. Ultimately, all movies are better with Delroy Lindo bit parts, but LX 2048 still feels like the one before Moshe’s breakout. NR. CHANCE SOLEM-PFEIFER. On Demand.

She’s in Portland First-time director Marc Carlini makes his debut with this meandering film about meandering people.

Low-key indie She’s in Portland has some touching moments in its story of two friends at a crossroads, but it feels like an initial draft whose script could have used some cuts, particularly in the road-trip sections. When former college buddies Wes (Tommy Dewey) and Luke (François Arnaud) reunite in Los Angeles, they have a lot of catching up to do—26 hours of catching up. That’s how long it takes to drive from L.A. to Portland, where they hope to find Wes’ college crush. Along the way, they stop by UC Santa Barbara, Big Sur and San Francisco for high jinks that don’t add much to the plot, except that all of this time gives Wes and Luke the chance to prattle on about their midlife crises. This is the kind of film where rich, handsome white guys complain about life, sex and marriage for two hours, then realize

they have everything they ever wanted at home. It babbles along, never achieving any emotional highs or lows, soaking up the California coast and late-afternoon sunshine until all the contrived issues are sorted out and everyone gets their way. Well, everyone except the audience. R. ASHER LUBERTO. Amazon Prime, Google Play.

Spiral The potential for a retro paranoia thriller presents itself early in this new Shudder Original. Circa 1995, partners Malik and Aaron move to the country with Aaron’s teenage daughter and immediately encounter the leering microaggressions of their white Midwestern neighbors. The setup is interesting enough. Kayla is warming up to her dad’s partner while Malik ghostwrites the biography of a slowly revealed homophobe. From there, action and social commentary alike are lost in the execution. Spiral can’t decide whether it’s driven by trauma, schizophrenia, blood sacrifice, sexual entrapment, hauntings, immortal killers, conspiracies or just bad ol’-fashioned Newt Gingrich xenophobia. With choppy scenes that seldom last longer than two minutes before cutting to black, it’s both much too easy (another screeching jump scare) and too hard (is any of this really happening?) to figure out what’s going on.

The drama hangs on Malik playing detective, yet Spiral seems determined to strip him of not just reliability, but coherence. Certainly, the time is ripe for horror films about covertly embedded American hatred. But whether shooting for an M. Night voilà, a Peele puzzle box, or a bludgeoning Craven allegory, canny choices catalyze the blend of politics and terror. Pick something, not everything. NR. CHANCE SOLEM-PFEIFER. Shudder.

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ART AND COMICS!

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“Ghostwriter II” Walnut Ink & mixed media “Electric Vampire” watercolor/ink

These are works that will be in the upcoming show At Sidestreet Arts. All are based on drawings done in sketchbooks. These pieces are for sale BEGINNING on SEPT 30th Through Nov 1st at Sidestreetarts.com. See more art at Bridgettspicer.com

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Jack draws exactly what he sees n’ hears from the streets.

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Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 30, 2020 wweek.com

JONESIN’

Week of October 8

©2020 Rob Brezsny

by Matt Jones

"Eeeeeevil"--what can I say, it's #666. [#666, Mar. 2014]

ARIES (March 21-April 19)

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22)

"A person’s best ally is someone who takes care of herself," says actress Susan Clark. I heartily agree.

The people with whom you can cultivate the most resilient bonds and most interesting synergy are those who have a high degree of self-sufficiency—those who take rigorous responsibility for themselves and treat themselves with tender compassion. In the coming weeks, Aries, I think it's especially important for you to emphasize relationships with allies who fit that description. Bonus! Their exemplary self-care will influence you to vigorously attend to your own selfcare.

Libran author Ursula K. Le Guin said that we don't just naturally know how to create our destinies. It takes research and hard work. "All of us have to learn how to invent our lives, make them up, imagine them," she wrote. "We need to be taught these skills; we need guides to show us how. If we don't, our lives get made up for us by other people." I bring this to your attention, Libra, because the coming weeks will be an excellent time to upgrade and refine your mastery of these essential powers. What can you do to enhance your capacity to invent your life? Which teachers and information sources might be helpful?

TAURUS (April 20-May 20)

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21)

According to my reading of the astrological potentials, the coming weeks will be an excellent time for you to take a *vacation in reverse*. What's that? It's when you devote yourself to renewing and reinvigorating your relationship with the work you love. You intensify your excitement for the vocation or job or long-term quest that teaches you important life lessons. You apply yourself with sublime enthusiasm to honing the discipline you need to fulfill the assignments you came to earth to accomplish.

GEMINI (May 21-June20) "If you are not having fun you are doing something wrong," said comedian Groucho Marx. He was exaggerating so as to drive home his humorous point, but his idea contains some truth—and will be especially applicable to you in the immediate future. According to my analysis of the astrological omens, you have a temporary exemption from feeling frantically dour and unpleasantly dutiful. As crazy as the world is right now, you have a cosmic mandate to enjoy more playtime and amusement than usual. The rest of us are depending on you to provide us with doses of casual cheer.

ACROSS 1 _ _ _ Bator (Mongolia's capital)

53 Folks who Owen Meany films, say 54 Pang or misgiving

5 Part of a war plane

56 Military turndown

11 Italian or Swiss summit

59 Big poet for java

14 Fantasy sports option

60 Location of what you'll ditch from all long solutions (and from Across and Down listings) for this all to work

15 Qatar's leaned 16 _ _ _ Paulo (Brazil's most populous city) 17 Bathrooms brimming with lawn clippings?

19 Fashion world star Anna 20 Words prior to "touche" or "tureen" 21 Obvious disdain 23 Wheat bread Pitt took in 2020

66 Yahoo's was in 1996, for short 67 Start to unite?

68 Pinocchio, notoriously

31 Latvian-born artist Marek 32 Mila's "That '70s Show" costar (now husband) 33 Code and sea-lemon, for two 35 Transylvanian count, informally 38 Bubbling, in a way 40 Pro tour sport 41 Unworldly sort 42 Things worn to go downhill fast 46 Fined without fault

DOWN

47 Hour for a British cuppa, traditionally

1 It usually starts with "wee wee wee"

48 Gaucho's grasslands

2 Hawaii's Mauna _ _ _

49 How you might wax nostalgic

29 Country musician Axetone

3 Off-road transport, for short

50 Works of art on walls

30 Just _ _ _, skip and jump away

4 "Ixnay" (or a conundrum in a tube?)

55 Meanly, in nouns (abbr.)

31 Scandinavian fans of Wiggum's kid (in Simpsonsiana)?

5 POTUS known for his feat

34 Quantity of bricks?

7 Road tripe quorum

35 Two from Tijuana

8 "I dunno," in day books

36 Stir (up)

9 _ _ _ for "igloo"

37 British artist William with a 1745 portrait of him and his pug dog

10 Mama of 1960s pop

26 Appomattox initials

6 Jason's mythical craft

53 Auction node 57 City full of fjords 58 Prompt jaws to drop 61 UFC fighting classification, for short

"The messiah will come when we don't need him any more," said author Franz Kafka. In that spirit, and in alignment with current astrological omens, I will tell you that the precise help you wish you could attract into your life will show up as soon as you make initial efforts to provide that help to yourself. Here are some additional nuances: The gift or blessing you think you need most will be offered to you by fate once you begin giving that gift or blessing to yourself. A rescuer will arrive not too long after you take steps to rescue yourself. You'll finally figure out how to make practical use of a key lesson as you're teaching that lesson to someone you care for.

39 Hands out

65 Cook bacon, in a way

43 Bangkok bankroll

13 Toepieces of discussion

61 Abbr. after a telephone number

44 Utmost ordinal

18 "_ _ _ Gang" (film shorts with kid "Rascals")

last week’s answers

23 "Right hand on holy book" situation

50 1052, to Tacitus

24 "Buzz off, fly!"

51 Last half of a tiny food contaminant (first half is, um, you know ...)

25 Capitol Hill gp.

52 "Two Virgins" musician Yoko

"If something comes to life in others because of you, then you have made an approach to immortality," wrote author Norman Cousins. Whether or not you believe the "immortality" part of his formulation, I'm sure you understand how fabulous it is when you help activate beauty and vitality in someone. You may even feel that inspiring people to unleash their dormant potential is one of the most noble pleasures possible.

I bring these thoughts to your attention, Leo, because I suspect that you now have exceptional power to perform services like these for your allies, friends, and loved ones. I dare you to make it one of your top priorities.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22)

12 Hill who sang "Doo Wop (That Tee-heeing)"

46 Thousand-dollar bills that fly and roost?

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22)

63 Quick shot of brandy

11 Part of ASAP

22 Potful at cook-offs

"Leave the door open for the unknown, the door into the dark," writes Cancerian author Rebecca Solnit, adding, "That’s where the most important things come from." I think this is good advice for you in the coming weeks. What exactly does it mean? How and why should you do what she advises? My first suggestion is to reframe your conception of the unknown and the dark. Imagine them as the source of everything new; as the place from which the future comes; as the origin of creative changes. Then instruct your imagination to be adventurous as it explores brewing possibilities in the dark and the unknown.

62 Holm of filmdom 64 Williams with a "Mortal City" album

45 Wood that flavors bourbon

CANCER (June 21-July 22)

In 1984, hip hop group Run-DMC was the first to achieve a gold record in their genre, meaning they sold more than 500,000 albums. Their next album sold over a million. They were pioneers. In 1986, legendary producer Rick Rubin encouraged them to do a remake of "Walk This Way," a song by the hard rock band Aerosomith. The members of Run-DMC didn't want to do it; they felt the tune was in a genre too unlike their own. But Rubin eventually convinced them, and the cross-pollination was phenomenally successful.

The Run-DMC-meets-Aerosmith collaboration launched a new genre that sold very well. The song was later voted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. In this spirit, and in accordance with current cosmic rhythms, I urge you to try a bold hybrid or two yourself, Scorpio: blends of elements or influences that may seem a bit improbable. They could ultimately yield big dividends.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21) You Sagittarians periodically go through phases when you specialize in stirring up fresh intuitions.

I mean, you're always one of the zodiac's Intuition Champions, but during these special times, your flow becomes an overflow. You have a knack for seeking and finding visions of the interesting future; you get excited by possibilities that are on the frontiers of your confidence. From what I can tell, your life in recent weeks has been bringing you these delights—and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Take maximum advantage. Aggressively gather in the gifts being offered by your inner teacher.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) Calling on my expert knowledge of healing language and imaginative psychology, I have formulated a mantra for you to use in the next six weeks. I suggest you say it five times after you wake up, and again at midday, and before dinner, and before sleep. It should help keep you intimately aligned with the dynamic groove that the cosmos will be conspiring to provide for you.

For best results, picture yourself as glowing inside with the qualities named in the mantra. Here it is: *StrongBrightFree ClearBoldBrisk DeepNimbleKind AdroitSteadyWarm*.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18) The Grammy Museum in Los Angeles features displays that extol the musicians who've won Grammy Awards over the years. A few years ago, a distinctly unfamous musician named Paz Dylan made professionallooking fake posters touting his own magnificent accomplishments, and managed to sneakily hang them on the museum walls. They remained there for a month before anyone noticed. I'm going to encourage you to engage in similar gamesmanship in the coming weeks, Aquarius. It'll be a favorable time to use ingenuity and unconventional approaches to boost your confidence and enhance your reputation.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20) "Relationships never stop being a work in progress," writes author Nora Roberts. That's bad news and good news. It's bad news because even for the most loving bond, you must tirelessly persist in the challenging task of reinventing the ways the two of you fit together.

It's good news because few activities can make you more emotionally intelligent and soulfully wise than continually reinventing the ways the two of you fit together. I bring these thoughts to your attention because the coming weeks will be a fertile time for such daunting and rewarding work.

27 Took a jump

HOMEWORK: What's the most interesting and transformative action you could take right now? Testify at FreeWillAstrology.com.

28 Bad guys pursuing peace, man

Check out Rob Brezsny’s Expanded Weekly Audio Horoscopes & Daily Text Message Horoscopes

©2020 / 2014Jonesin’ Crosswords (editor@jonesincrosswords.com) For answers to this puzzle, call: 1-900-226-2800, 99 cents per minute. Must be 18+. Or to bill to your credit card, call: 1-800-655-6548. Reference puzzle #JNZ990.

freewillastrology.com The audio horoscopes are also available by phone at

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