OUTDOORS: The Coast Hikes Less Traveled

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HIKES OF THE WEEK

Coasting Up

Five lesser known Oregon Coast hikes.

BY MICHELLE HARRIS

As summer approaches, Oregonians are naturally pulled toward the coast. It’s a respite from the 80-plus-degree temps that begin to seep into Portland come June, and it’s also the best time to experience coastal hiking without the constant threat of rain. Of course, many favorite trails tend to get overcrowded this time of year. If you’re looking to maintain social distance even after getting vaccinated, here are some alternative hikes to try next time you venture westward.

Skipanon River Loop

Not far from the Fort Stevens Historical Area in Warrenton, the Skipanon River Loop is an easy, flat stroll that takes you along a quiet river trail with opportunities for bird watching. You can begin at either Skipanon River Park or the Lighthouse Park Trailhead, where you’ll find a small museum and maritime memorial. From the trailhead, follow the trail sign and make a left onto Harbor Drive and then walk under a road bridge to the trail. Walk alongside the Skipanon River on a paved path—there’s a fair amount of bird droppings along this part of the trail, so wear closed-toe shoes. After passing Skipanon River Park, you’ll turn left onto Main Street and walk a few blocks before turning left onto 5th Street, where you’ll reconnect with the trail. From here, it’ll feel oddly like you’re walking through someone’s backyard before reaching the 8th Street Dam. From there, take the Skipanon River Trail Eastern Spur, a peaceful riverside trail with tall grass and wetlands. You’ll likely encounter herons, geese and ducks in the water, so there are plenty of photo opportunities. Once you reach Highway 1, you can make your way back and take a right at 8th Street Dam where you walk along grassy trail to the marina. Walk up to the road bridge and make a left to head back toward the trailhead.

Directions: Drive west on US 26 for about 70 miles before merging onto US 101 north. After 16 miles, turn left onto Harbor Drive, where you’ll drive almost 1.5 miles before turning right on Northeast Skipanon Drive. Make a quick left into the parking lot for Lighthouse Park.

Gnat Creek Hatchery

About 20 miles east of Astoria off Highway 30, “Gnat Creek” doesn’t exactly sound inviting, but it’s an ideal place to stop on your way to the coast. Constructed in 1960, the hatchery was built to raise Chinook salmon and steelhead. It has a show pond along with informational signs, an overlook to a 15-foot waterfall, and a fish feeding station— spring and summer are the best time to see migrating salmon and steelhead. From the hatchery, a few hiking trails wind through Clatsop State Forest, one of which leads to a campground. The area is also open to mountain bikers. The shaded trail system takes you through a lush coastal rain forest of spruce, fern and hemlock. Watch for gnarled roots on the ground—they’re tripping hazards. You’ll pass Barrier Falls, a small waterfall that drops over a basalt shelf. Along the way are more interpretive signs, and you’ll likely notice a number of decaying stumps left over from decades of logging. Continue along the upper valley of Gnat Creek and you’ll eventually reach the Bigfoot Creek junction, where a bench overlooks the creek.

Directions: Follow US 30 west toward St. Helens. Once you pass St. Helens, it’s a little under 50 miles to Gnat Creek Hatchery. When you see the sign on your left, turn into the visitor parking area.

MICHELLE HARRIS

SKIPANON RIVER LOOP

Kilchis Point Reserve

Declared a County Heritage Site, Kilchis Point Reserve is an important historical site owned and managed by the Tillamook County Pioneer Museum. The 200-acre natural area lies along Tillamook Bay and has over 2 miles of dog-friendly trails that weave through wetlands and woodlands. Kilchis Point was home to one of the largest Native American villages on the northern Oregon Coast as well as to Tillamook County’s first pioneer settler. There are three interpretive trails to explore, each highlighting a different part of the site’s history: Flora and Fauna, Native American Heritage, and Pioneer Settlement. An informational kiosk at the trailhead has a map of the trail network. Though the trails measure only 2.2 miles altogether, there are plenty of informational signs along the way. The woods are full of whistling songbirds and other critters—be careful of spider webs. You’ll eventually cross a footbridge over Doty Creek and then follow the trail to Tillamook Bay at Kilchis Point, where you’ll find a boardwalk that leads up to a gazebo viewpoint that stretches across the bay into the hillside. This is an ideal bird-watching spot where you’re likely to see great blue herons, great egrets and gulls.

Directions: Drive 18 miles west on US 26 and veer left into OR 6 west toward Tillamook/Banks. After about 50 miles, turn right onto Wilson River Loop and then make a sharp left onto Latimer Road North. Go about 2 miles and then turn right onto US 101 north. Drive 3 miles before turning left onto Warren Street and then left on Spruce Street. Pull into the parking lot at Kilchis Point Reserve.

FOOD & DRINK

BAR REVIEW

CHRIS NESSETH

DRINK

Holy Goat Social Club, 1501 NE Fremont St., 503-282-0956, holygoatpdx.com. 2-10 pm MondaySaturday.

WALL OF FAME: Holy Goat Social Club is decorated with framed celebrity photos, some of them autographed.

Get Your Goat

Daddy Mojo’s is gone, but not forgotten.

BY MATTHEW SINGER msinger@wweek.com

If the wall of fame at Holy Goat Social Club is to be believed, the tiny bar at the corner of Northeast Fremont Street and 15th Avenue has had more than a few brushes with greatness. Nat King Cole. The Beatles. James Dean. Barack Obama. Uh, Abraham Lincoln. All right, maybe none of those folks have ever stepped foot inside this shoebox-sized neighborhood watering hole. Still, they could be considered “the regulars.” Back when the place used to be called Daddy Mojo’s, owner Vilath Oudomphong decorated practically every square inch with his expansive collection of celebrity memorabilia. When ownership changed hands a few years ago, new proprietor Spyros Kourtessis kept a handful of framed photos—a few of them autographed—and added some of his own, including a small portrait of a goat. Kourtessis bought the bar in 2018, but didn’t get around to doing a full rebrand until late the next year. Then 2020 happened. As such, the replacement vinyl booths barely feel sat in, and the freshly installed bar top is free of scuff marks and water rings. But it’d be inaccurate to describe Holy Goat as a “new” bar. Other than the name change—a reference to a favorite bar in Kourtessis’ hometown of Athens, Greece—the alterations are in line with the photo gallery: an aesthetic streamline, rather than a makeover. But if you ever went to Daddy Mojo’s before—and if you’ve lived in Sabin a while, you’ve popped your head in at least once—you’ll still fi nd what you’re looking for: a drink menu consisting of stiff takes on old classics, soul music on the stereo, and soul food in the kitchen. Before the pandemic, the bar also offered Mojo’s solid low-key breakfast. It should be back soon. If anything, Holy Goat has clarifi ed the bar’s identity. Daddy Mojo’s always seemed a little confused about itself: Was it a cafe? Sports bar? Sushi restaurant? (Don’t worry, the adjoining Mojo’s Sushi is still there, as a separate business.) Now, it’s simply the quiet corner haunt that every neighborhood needs, ideal for an after-work cocktail or quick nightcap. If Barack, Ringo or Abe actually did come through the door, they would probably feel right at home. It’s hard not to.

TOP 5 BUZZ LIST

Where to get drinks this week.

1. TopWire Hop Project

8668 Crosby Road NE, Woodburn, 503-9825166, topwirehop.com. 11 am-8 pm Thursday and Sunday, 11 am-9 pm Friday-Saturday. The state’s most secretive beer garden is hidden among the crops at Crosby Hop Farm in Woodburn. Follow the half-mile gravel road that runs between the bines and you’ll wind up at a 40-foot-long shipping container repurposed as a serving station pouring from 10 rotating taps exclusively featuring batches made with the hops growing around you. This season, that includes a collaborative brewing project with brewer Grains of Wrath that will produce three di erent IPAs using the brewery’s base recipe with rotating hop varieties from Crosby to showcase how the aromatic cones transform the taste of the beer.

2. Portland Cà Phê

2815 SE Holgate Blvd., 503-841-5787, portlandcaphe.com. 8 am-3 pm daily. Admittedly, we’re talking about a buzz of a different kind here. Portland Cà Phê opened less than a month ago, but its signature Vietnamese co ee drinks have already managed to become iconic. You’ve surely seen what’s already become a signature snap of the Southeast Holgate co ee shop on your socials: a perfect purple ube latte held aloft in front of a wall-sized map of Vietnam. It tastes as good as it looks.

3. Produce Row

before the pandemic made them essential. The 44-year-old inner Southeast stalwart’s is 2,500 square feet, and it’s fenced, covered and heated. The Row has always exuded a perfect balance of comfort and chic—famous for its beer-cheese macaroni and cheese, but also willing to play with carrot juice, egg whites and blueberry basil peppercorn shrub as drink ingredients. With such a huge outdoor space, it’s a slam dunk to fi nd a seat for weekend brunches or after-work (from home) drinks.

4. The BeerMongers

1125 SE Division St., 503-234-6012, thebeermongers.com. Noon-9 pm daily. If its Instagram account is to be trusted, the BeerMongers has not closed in over 4,000 days— even after the easy-up erected in the parking lot collapsed during the Great Blizzard of 2021. “Paul’s Patio,” this scru y, 10-tap beer bar’s pivot to keep that streak going through the pandemic, is a no-frills a air, but that didn’t stop it from winning Best Beer Bar at the recent Oregon Beer Awards. It’s a onestop shop for local heroes and out-of-state whales alike, all of which can be plucked from the fridge and consumed on the premises for a $1 corkage fee.

5. Da Hui

6506 SE Foster Road, 503-477-7224, dahui.bar. Noon-11 pm daily. Want to get away? Head to tiki’d-out dive bar Da Hui to get a taste of paradise. Sit at one of its handful of picnic tables or snag a barstool beneath its island-inspired outdoor patio and sip one of its sizable cocktails, like a Lava Flow or Oahu Sunset, both fi lled with fruit juices and silver rum, and pair it with a classic Hawaiian dish such as kalua pork or kalbi ribs. It might not be true paradise but close enough.

204 SE Oak St., 503-232-8355, producerowcafe.com. 4-11 pm weekdays, 11 am-11 pm weekends. Produce Row was doing patios right long

TOP 5 HOT PLATES

Where to get food this week.

1. Ice Queen

1223 SE Stark St., icequeenyouscream.com. 11 am-7 pm FridaySaturday, 11 am-6 pm Sunday. You need only to scroll through Ice Queen’s Instagram feed to understand why there’s always a line outside the Stark Street vegan popsicle stand—you’d be hard-pressed to fi nd cuter frozen treats in Portland, vegan or otherwise. Each popsicle looks so joyful it could gain a following on appearance alone: The pastel-hued She’s in Parties is dotted with sprinkles and contains a hidden slice of birthday cake, and the lip-puckering Lime All Yours comes with a tiny bottle of Tajín chile fl akes.

2. Da Pine Grinds

1208 E Historic Columbia River Highway, Troutdale. 11 am-3 pm Tuesday-Friday. The charmingly retro Sugarpine Drive-in has been one of Portland’s essential summer visits for three years now—and with the recent addition of Hawaiian food cart Da Pine Grinds, the trip has only grown more crucial. Here’s the early recommendation: Grab the ahi shoyu poke, add in a P.O.G.—a frozen mixture of passion fruit, orange, and guava juice—then take your food to an oversized picnic table above the Sandy and, boom, a perfect afternoon. Jojo’s signature Southern fried chicken sandwich was a classic the second the inaugural batch came out of the fryer two years ago: equal parts crispy and juicy; topped with vinegary coleslaw and a not-so-secret sauce of ketchup and Duke’s Mayo; big enough to bulge the eyes without forcing you to unhinge your jaw. A brick-and-mortar is coming to the Pearl in summer proper, but for now, you can get it from a skyblue cart tucked in the back of a parking lot next to John’s Marketplace. Few trips are as essential.

4. Piggins

1239 SW Broadway, 503-2229070, higginsportland.com. 11:30 am-7 pm Wednesday-Sunday. One of downtown’s most popular pandemic pivots appears as though it’s becoming a seasonal tradition. The basilhued, cedar-trimmed food cart has returned to the courtyard of the Oregon Historical Society, acting as an extension of James Beard Award-winning chef Greg Higgins’ kitchen, with a menu that includes classics, like the iconic open-faced brisket pastrami sandwich.

5. Sweet Lorraine’s

1331 N Killingsworth St., sweetlorraineslatkes. squarespace.com. 11:30 am-3:30 pm MondayTuesday, noon-8 pm Thursday-Sunday. It’s Hanukkah year-round at Killingsworth Station—or, at least, a reasonable facsimile of the Lower East Side of New York. The cart pod is where Aaron Tomasko and Rachel Brashear are serving voluptuous potato pancakes, as well as knishes, kugel, kasha varnishkes and East Coast sweets. The crispy, pillowy latkes are fried to order and come with the traditional accompaniment of sour cream and applesauce.

POTLANDER

High Pride Gift Guide

BY BRIANNA WHEELER

The window of late spring, early summer, when rainbow season and Pride season merge, is one of the most magical times in the Pacific Northwest. Celebrating love and equality with hundreds of spiritual cousins under a double-rainbow sun shower is perfectly commonplace during this window—and doing so under the shimmery haze of weed smoke is especially on brand for our emerald oasis.

This year, without the crowded festivals that typically define Pride celebrations, maybe consider an investment in gratitude for our LGBTQIA+ friends and family that maintain the values of radical inclusivity, intersectional equity, and freedom to love that ignited the first Pride, which, lest we forget, was a riot, not a parade.

Besides: If we can’t party ourselves silly, we might as well do some super-gay shopping. So here are a handful of LGBTQIA+-owned, -operated and -founded cannabis and cannabis-adjacent companies to help kick off Pride Month with celebratory gift-giving.

Subscriptions for Full-Spectrum Role Models:

Green Box

When considering gifts for your favorite role models, what’s better than a self-stocking weed stash? Founded by Adrian Wayman, a Black, gay entrepreneur, and his father-in-law, Green Box offers subscriptions to curated cannabis goodie boxes featuring the best of Oregon’s weed, edibles, tinctures and more. Varying subscription levels conform to different budgets and tastes, and the boxes are personalized to suit the recipient. If you want to ensure the perfect cannathusiast present for this year’s Pride, having Adrian curate a cute box for you and your queer paragons is a smart start. Get it from: pdxgreenbox.com

Black Cannabis Magazine

There are plenty of complimentary cannabis rags decorating dispensary counters in Portland, but Black Cannabis Magazine is a bit more exclusive. This magazine is primarily digital, but its inaugural print edition featuring Whoopi Goldberg is more bookshelf worthy than waiting-room chic. The magazine focuses on art, news and culture within the cannabis sphere from a marginalized perspective but is universally readable, and was both Black and LGBTQIA+ founded.

Get it from: blackcannabismagazine.com

Self-Care for Progressive Revolutionaries:

Organic Hemp Teas by The Pot Lab

Founded by Dr. Brandie Cross, The Pot Lab offers a number of organic, therapeutic hemp products formulated over the course of a decade of botanical lab research. Each of The Pot Lab’s Flower Water wellness teas, for example, features therapeutic hemp and botanical blends. These blends are also Indigenous grown and crafted with traditional ecological knowledge as well as a sharp balance of heritage medicine and contemporary tech. When shopping for a progressive someone whose stash would benefit from a bit of thoughtful canna-botanic self-care, consider these exhaustively researched and deliberately devised herbal elixirs that were probably enjoyed by several-many two-spirit ancestors. Get it from: thepotlab.com

Cushy Cones

If there’s a radical unicorn in your cypher who appreciates sparkle-rainbow everything—including weed—Cushy Cones are the rolling papers to make those pre-roll fantasies into realities. Cushy Cones is a manufacturer based in Miami and Portland that produces pre-roll cones and filters with fantastical patterns and color combos. Even its standard hemp paper cones are bedecked with metallic jewel tone filter tips, essentially producing Pride-friendly preroll cones year round. Cushy Cones gets that Pride, like being stoned, is a state of mind, folks. Get it from: cushycones.patternbyetsy.com

For the Grown and Sexy:

Tokeativity x Maia Toys Jessi 420 Mini Bullet Vibe

Sexuality and Pride are part and parcel. What started as a gay liberation movement has evolved into a celebration of life, acceptance and community, but don’t get it twisted: Sexuality is still a cornerstone of the movement. So, if there’s a special stoner vagina owner (or genital nonspecific, sex-positive, vibe aficionado) in your life that deserves a sensual gift this year, consider the Tokeativity x Maia Toys Jessi 420 Mini Bullet, a palm-size vibrator decorated with aqua cannabis leaves against a turquoise shaft. Bonus: This mini vibrator is discreet enough to fit in a pocket but intense enough to make this Pride a particularly memorable one. Get it from: tokeativity.com

Farbod Ceramics Pipe

Each of these pipes is handmade by Farbod Nael, whose ceramic art therapy beginnings have since grown to include an entire line of creative smoke utensils. Many of Nael’s devices are straightforward yet elegant demonstrations of artisan stoneware, but others are cheeky reinterpretations of everyday items, such as an avocado half, a mini cactus or an oversized pill. For gifters looking to support an LGBTQIA+ artisan with a uniquely potheaded point of view, Farbod’s online shop will check those boxes and then some. Get it from: farbodceramics.com

Genderless Skin Care for Antiquated Construct Eradicators:

Brown Sugar Botanicals Skin Salve

More than a therapeutic salve, Brown Sugar Botanicals’ blend of oils and herbs is a perfumed skin softener that’s a more potent skin saturator than any drug store cream. The ingredients list features calendula, borage, lavender and CBD isolate, resulting in a balm that’s as effective at treating soreness as it is at quenching ashy skin. Founded by Chris Wakefield and KaliMa Amilak, Brown Sugar Botanicals is more than a CBD skin care company. Its line features three flagship products: this fragrant, skin-soothing salve; an equally robust sublingual tincture; and a lavender-hemp spliff pack. All come highly rated and reverentially reviewed. Get it from: brownsugarbotanicals.com

Blunt Skincare

This line of CBD skin oils, formulated by Stas Chirkov, uses phytocannabinoids (external cannabinoids) to increase the skin’s ability to fight inflammation and free-radical damage. Each of its three varieties focuses on a different skin type or condition: Isolate for balance, Moon Rock for renewal, and Seed for hydration. The sleek, millennial packaging is as suited to a high femme boudoir vanity as a masculine minimalist bathroom counter, but has a universal appeal that should light up the eyes of any canna-skin care enthusiast, gendered or nah. These oils can be purchased individually or in a gift set featuring all three. Get it from: bluntskincare.com

VIDEO STILL

ON THE ROAD: Rosaleen McDonagh is an activist and playwright who based portions of Pretty Proud Boy on her heritage as an Irish Traveller.

Proud and Pitiable

A young Irishman falls for fascism in Corrib Theatre’s Pretty Proud Boy.

BY BENNETT CAMPBELL FERGUSON

In Pretty Proud Boy, Winnie (Deanna Wells) remembers what it was like seeing her son David (Zak Westfall) in prison. “There he was, sitting in his cell, gaunt as a ghost,” she says. “My boy, my lovely boy. This is the one road that he was supposed to keep off. His eyes, like a baby’s, while trying to be a man.”

The void between boyhood and manhood is at the heart of Pretty Proud Boy, an audio play written by Rosaleen McDonagh and produced by Corrib Theatre. It’s set in Ireland during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the story is largely about the anguish of a mother who both loves her son and is horrified by how far he has journeyed down the road of fascism and how little he has grown up.

Since Pretty Proud Boy lasts about 30 minutes, the details of Winnie’s and David’s lives have to be conveyed swiftly, sometimes with awkwardly blunt dialogue. Yet you can’t stop listening. Pretty Proud Boy is more than a play— it is a requiem that refuses to temper tragic lives with tidy moralizing or hollow optimism.

David is part of the yellow vests movement, an anti-government crusade that started as a protest against French President Emmanuel Macron’s planned fuel price hike and extended across Europe. Both conservatives and liberals have been tied to the demonstrations, which were empowered partly by racism (“Ireland is for the Irish,” David callously claims).

Pretty Proud Boy begins after David has been arrested and released for fighting with a group of Black Lives Matter protesters. At the trailer where David and Winnie live, he learns that she has discovered his gun next to his computer and under his magazines—and that she wants to know why he fell prey to far-right machismo.

McDonagh deftly reveals how entrancing political extremism can be to an alienated young man. We start to see the vulnerability behind David’s bigotry as he describes the moment when he was given his gun. “They gave me a weapon,” he says. “Nobody ever gave me anything.”

David is not entirely exaggerating, since he and Winnie are Irish Travellers. Travellers are an Indigenous ethnic minority known not only for having their own language and a history of living as nomads, but for being discriminated against and overly policed. In fact, anti-Traveller racism is so pervasive in Ireland that the Irish state didn’t recognize Travellers as an ethnic minority until 2017.

Pretty Proud Boy elegantly illustrates how institutional racism pits the marginalized against the marginalized. It doesn’t matter to David that he and the Black Lives Matter protesters he fought with have probably faced some of the same horrors. Blaming people who don’t look like him is a seductively easy answer to his pain. “We’re a white country,” he tells his mother. “The government should be looking after us!”

McDonagh occasionally allows the play to descend into obviousness. “My infiltration into this fascist, racist, fucking homophobic mire was an adrenaline rush,” David tells Winnie. “A sense of purpose took over.” He sounds like a scholar who is studying the yellow vests movement, not someone who is part of it. Letting David be less eloquent might have slowed the story, but it would have allowed for a truer portrait of a deluded soul.

Near the play’s end, Winnie tells us what it has been like watching David’s moral descent. “Then all of a sudden, he changed in himself and towards the family, making us watch ridiculous documentaries about people in America who hated Black people,” she says. “He’d stand up and rant and rave. Not only did we have to listen, but we had to agree with everything he was spouting out.”

It’s a horrifying description. Does it mean that there is no hope left for David? Maybe, maybe not. McDonagh does more than show us someone who is being eaten alive by desperation and hate. She shows us that David’s story exists within the story of the injustices endured by Travellers.

That doesn’t excuse David’s actions, but it doesn’t help us understand him—and understanding may be the only thing that can help a broken man reclaim the boy he once was.

Written by: Daniel Bromfield | @bromf3

Now Hear This

Listening recommendations from the past, present, Portland and the periphery.

SOMETHING OLD

The common narrative is that Wings was the artistically dubious, John Lennon-free juggernaut that kept Paul and Linda McCartney’s pockets loaded in the ’70s. Their 1971 debut, Wild Life, tells a different story: that of the ultimate stoner couple reveling in experimentation and no longer giving a shit about satisfying expectations. If your interest is piqued, here’s a fun game to play as you queue it up: Imagine being a Beatles fan in 1971. You’re pumped beyond reason about Paul’s new band. Then you drop the needle and it’s that.

SOMETHING NEW

Vancouver, B.C.’s Loscil is the preeminent ambient chronicler of the Pacific Northwest, taking inspiration from the geography and natural history of the gloomiest, wettest corner of the country. His new album, Clara, is less interested in place than pure sound, being composed of edits and remixes of a single, three-minute piece of music performed by a Hungarian string orchestra. But its mood should be familiar to anyone who’s ever felt a droplet of cold fog shake loose from a tree and land on their face. Stream on Spotify.

SOMETHING LOCAL

“Anais,” the A-side of local house-show perennials Grolixes’ new single, is the latest in a long tradition of power-pop songs that find rhyming potential in the weird and wonderful names of all the people we’re likely to date. (Yes, they rhyme “Anais” with “on my knees.”) But the real treasure is the B-side, a cover of Wings’ “Let Me In” that’s arguably an improvement on the original. Rather than studio-shined Macca happy-go-luckiness, it sounds like it’s bubbling from the bottom of a lake.

SOMETHING ASKEW

One of the great thrills in experimental music is hearing something that sounds like a blast of inchoate noise and realizing it’s hiding a great pop song. Few records illustrate this thrill like Endless Summer by Austrian guitarist Fennesz. The 2002 album’s eight tracks are based on pure, simple pop progressions, but they’re swathed in so much rust, decay and distortion you might be a little surprised when they get stuck in your head. It’s not just for irony’s sake that this album shares its name with a Beach Boys compilation.

screener

MOVIES Editor: Andi Prewitt / Contact: aprewitt@wweek.com

BENDFILM

GIVING VOICE: A scene from BendFilm’s The Power of Film fundraising short, which features Bend-based nonprofit Saving Grace.

Good Graces

BendFilm is highlighting a nonprofit that supports survivors of violence and sexual abuse during a year when that work became more critical than ever.

BY CHANCE SOLEM-PFEIFER @chance_s_p

“Bend is idyllic, but…” is a tailor-made framing device for social issues in Central Oregon.

Todd Looby, executive director of the BendFilm Festival, views this hook as a means of acknowledging, and then pushing past, the area’s well-earned typecasting as a natural paradise and tourism magnet. Of course, behind the perfect powder and the IPAs, its problems are as real and pressing as those found anywhere else.

“We’re not tone deaf in not knowing the reputation that Bend has in the state, if not the region, as far as being an outdoor mecca,” says Looby, who’s led BendFilm since 2014 and estimates the city’s nonprofit sector is, per capita, as “robust” as anywhere in the world. “Frankly, [we’re] not content to just be here to enjoy the outdoors.”

That mentality is a significant driver of BendFilm’s annual fundraiser, The Power of Film. Each spring, the organization partners with a local nonprofit to create a short film about the selected service’s work and mission. This year, the event’s focus is Saving Grace, a five-cityarea nonprofit supporting survivors of intimate partner violence and sexual assault with shelter, counseling, safe visitation and more. The film premieres June 4 in a streamable program hosted by KTVZ’s Arielle Brumfield that also features a silent auction of several trip packages.

The documentary emphasizes the breadth of Saving Grace’s free and confidential services and how they critically assisted nearly a thousand Central Oregonians in 2020. Although spotlighting survivors without compromising their safety was a filmmaking challenge, Looby says there was an urgency in capturing Saving Grace’s sheltering and support work, particularly as the COVID19 pandemic impacted domestic violence.

“The calls and reported incidents had gone down because people in those situations couldn’t get away to report,” Looby says. “[Saving Grace] knew that quickly.”

While the money raised this month supports BendFilm, Looby doesn’t underestimate what this professional media package has afforded previous nonprofit partners like Oregon Adaptive Sports, Bend Spay + Neuter Program, Healthy Beginnings, and Partners in Care.

“Once they craft the video, they have this thing forever,” he says. “They use it as a centerpiece of their own fundraisers. Anytime they want to introduce a new person to their organization, they’ll use this.”

Moreover, Looby views the creation of a short film, even if largely promotional, as aligning with the artistic mission of BendFilm. After all, awareness isn’t raised as dynamically or permanently in every medium.

“[Saving Grace] deals in subjects no human being jumps to talk about,” Looby says. “It’s not an easy story to tell in a pamphlet. In film, there’s an artful way to tell a hard story that ultimately provides hope.”

Like most Oregon arts organizations during the past 13 months, BendFilm was forced into creative improvisation and online platforming just to stay afloat. Last October’s BendFilm Festival reached 43 states and 37 countries digitally, while BendFilm also launched a virtual cinema, hosted drive-in screenings, and created a pop-up theater on an inflatable screen in the shared alley between the organization’s Tin Pan Theater and the San Simón bar.

As for the Bend film scene’s current temperature, Looby observes residents “itching” for a semblance of normalcy, since limited-capacity screenings at the Tin Pan have begun selling out. While 2021 still carries immense uncertainty, the spontaneity of the former indie filmmaker and his team won’t change all that much, even amid a comeback.

“You’d make all these plans and have to scrap them, but what I love about it, in a weird way, is just having a million plans,” Looby says. “There’s a big demand for what we do. There’s a bunch of different ways to meet that demand, so let’s try them all.”

GET YOUR REPS IN

While local rep theaters are out of commission, we’ll be putting together weekly watchlists of films readily available to stream. It’s officially Pride Month, so we’ve rounded up a plethora of excellent LGBTQ+ films that showcase the community’s wide range of stories and experiences—from 1930s gender-bending nightclub performers to modern-day teen poets.

Totally F***ed Up (1993)

In one of the most underrated cinematic odes to the City of Angels, a group of gay teens navigate their identities and relationships against the backdrop of a quintessentially ’90s L.A. Inspired by Jean-Luc Godard’s Masculin Féminin (1966), director Gregg Araki infuses his subversive coming-of-age drama with neon-lit monologues that wax poetic on youth, love and the underground queer scene. Kanopy.

Pariah (2011)

Recently inducted into the Criterion Collection, Dee Rees’ Pariah follows Alike (Adepero Oduye), a Brooklyn teenager who begins to embrace her lesbian identity and aspirations of becoming a poet despite her mother’s disapproval. Though it may sound like a feel-bad story, it’s ultimately filled with hope, perhaps summed up best in one of Alike’s poems: “I am not running; I am choosing…I am not broken; I am free.” Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Criterion Collection, Google Play, Netflix, Vudu, YouTube.

La Cage Aux Folles (1978)

Remade in 1996 as Mike Nichols’ The Birdcage, this FrenchItalian madcap comedy centers on a gay couple forced to play straight for the night when their son gets engaged to a woman with conservative parents. Fortunately, the pair is well-versed in drag since they own a nightclub, so it only makes sense for the more flamboyant husband to don a wig and try to pass as a woman for the dinner, right? Yup, that’s bound to go smoothly. Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Google Play, Hoopla, Tubi, YouTube.

Victor/Victoria (1982)

Julie Andrews stars as Victoria, a struggling singer in 1934 Paris desperate for a gig—so desperate, she agrees to pretend to be a gay female impersonator by the name of Count Victor in order to secure a performance. Things get complicated when a Chicago gangster (James Garner) sees the act and falls for Victor/Victoria. Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Google Play, HBO, HBO Max, Hulu, Sling TV, Vudu, YouTube.

Tomboy (2011)

This quiet little drama from Céline Sciamma follows a nonbinary 10-year-old who gets a chance to experiment with their gender when their family moves to a new town for the summer. Once known as Laure, they adopt the name “Mickaël,” after a new playmate assumes they are a boy. A must-watch for anyone who loved Sciamma’s masterful Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019). Kanopy.

Profile

This latest entry in the emerging screenlife cinema format, which filters all action through a laptop screen, might seem oddly ambitious given that the microgenre is still hovering perception-wise between the formalist pretensions of feature-length single takes and Blumhouse’s found-footage schlock. Based on a French reporter’s exposé of how extremists recruit young women to join the Islamic State only to sell them into sexual slavery, Profile uses the trappings of a ripped-from-the-headlines story and elevates it into an effective little thriller steeped in modern social media and a catfishing pas de deux. Just as Brian De Palma’s Blow Out (1981) and Body Double (1984) updated Hitchcockian voyeur tropes with advancing technology, Profile director Timur Bekmambetov maintains a fusillade of ADHD diversions to enliven the more mundane aspects of newspaper reporting while preying on the tensions of our Not Safe For Work-braving, right-swiping age. Really, though, he just sets the minimal stage for freelance journalist Amy (Valene Kane) and terrorist-as-21st-century-rock-star Bilel (Shazad Latif) to promote their precisely curated brands. The result is a film that features just enough manipulative carelessness and toxic aggression to remind audiences that some personae are best left virtual. R. JAY HORTON. Bridgeport, Eastport Plaza, Evergreen, Living Room, Regal Movies on TV, Sherwood.

OUR KEY

: THIS MOVIE IS EXCELLENT, ONE OF THE BEST OF THE YEAR.

: THIS MOVIE IS GOOD. WE RECOMMEND YOU WATCH IT. : THIS MOVIE IS ENTERTAINING BUT FLAWED. : THIS MOVIE IS A STEAMING PILE.

ALSO PLAYING

The Killing of Two Lovers

Robert Machoian’s family drama knows it’s freighted with a foreboding title, and violence looms immediately over this story of a freshly separated couple. The longer it takes for that title to come true, the more we nervously rifle through its possible meanings. Even so, The Killing of Two Lovers slips into an inquisitive mode, deeper than pure tension. We witness father and Western Utah day laborer David (Clayne Crawford) make genuine and misguided efforts to resist the deadbeat-dad status that his moving out and family visiting hours suggest. While some of the supporting acting verges on stilted (given the film’s overall earthiness), The Killing of Two Lovers is largely a director’s showcase. Known mostly for short documentaries, Machoian concocts an internal universe of David’s rage through sound design full of slamming doors and endless creaking. And the complex, uncut blocking of a key marital squabble against a high-desert horizon blends stark indie filmmaking with Edward Albee-esque theatrical instincts. The particular shape of this failing marriage confronts the characters’ expectations as much as the audience’s. It’s easy (perhaps sickeningly preferable) to believe David is living out a filmed murder ballad, or elegy for faded youth and manhood. The reality is both simpler and more complicated than all that country poetry. Realities always are. R. CHANCE SOLEMPFEIFER. Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Cinema 21, Google Play, Vudu, YouTube.

Those Who Wish Me Dead

Those Who Wish Me Dead is the kind of movie that makes you feel alive. The suspense that surges through the film is so intense it’s almost as if you’re wincing at the heat of the flames surrounding Hannah (Angelina Jolie), a Montana firefighter defending an orphaned boy named Connor (Finn Little). A nonsensical conspiracy has put Connor in the crosshairs of two assassins (Aidan Gillen and Nicholas Hoult) who are so single-minded that they chase Hannah and Connor into a forest being devoured by a wildfire. Can Jolie triumph over the cruelty of man and nature? Director Taylor Sheridan (who wrote Sicario and Hell or High Water) keeps you guessing by making the action rough and fierce, pummeling his characters with everything from bullets to an improvised blowtorch. Gillen is a laughable villain (Game of Thrones actors don’t belong in Westerns) and the story is annoyingly tidy (why does Hannah have to be motivated by her failure to save a group of boys who were the same age as Connor?), but Those Who Wish Me Dead transcends its artificial trappings. It’s a bracing adaptation of the novel by Michael Koryta—and a reminder that Jolie is an indomitable action star. She is the fire. R. BENNETT CAMPBELL FERGUSON. , Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, City Center, Clackamas Town Center, Cornelius, Dine-In Progress Ridge, Eastport Plaza, HBO Max, Living Room, Lloyd, Pioneer Place, Regal Movies On TV, Sherwood, St. Johns Theater & Pub, Tigard,Vancouver Plaza.

A Quiet Place Part II

Krasinski’s surprise 2018 horror hit could be one of the cinematic summer’s first loud entries, suffocating silence is still the new film’s signature move. In Part II, shotgun-toting mother Evelyn (Emily Blunt) and her two children (Millicent Simmonds and Noah Jupe) continue their monklike eluding of audiophile aliens, while director Krasinski’s confidence with wide-open, Jurassic Park-inspired chases—an actor fleeing some heinous pursuer over their shoulder—carry the taut action. Still present is the Abbott family’s survivalist pride, arguably more cloying here, as flashbacks illustrate how ready the tight-knit family was to stand tall and shut up when disaster first struck. It’s a testament to the quality of actors like Blunt and a new survivor played by Cillian Murphy that anyone would care, what with their emotional range trapped somewhere between determined and very determined. Even if the sequel runs dangerously low on ideas to sustain 90 minutes, it’s hard to be peeved at PG-13 entertainment hoping only to showcase a family conquering fear through sensory puzzles. No need to turn down zero-calorie Spielberg this summer; crank up those theater speakers and be overcome by sounds of nothing. PG-13. CHANCE SOLEM-PFEIFER. Bagdad, Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, Cinema 21, Cinemagic, Dine-In Progress Ridge, Evergreen Parkway, Fox Tower, Living Room, Lloyd Center, Pioneer Place, Regal Movies On TV, St. Johns Theater & Pub, Tigard.

Spiral

The newest chapter in the Book of Saw stars Chris Rock (who also executive produces) as Zeke, a cynical detective on the hunt for the infamous Jigsaw killer. Though the original Jigsaw has been dead for years, a copycat who exclusively targets and tortures dirty cops has sprung up in his place. It gets personal when Zeke’s father (Samuel L. Jackson) goes missing, and he finds himself at the center of the new Jigsaw’s twisted game. Discussing the politics of a Saw movie feels counterproductive (I wanna talk traps!), but when the villain uses a pig puppet to literally say, “I want to reform the police,” one’s hand is forced. Spiral seems to have a noble goal of exposing the force’s corruption and brutality, and in the first half, it even succeeds. But as the plot unravels, so does the movie’s political statement, leading to a disaster of an ending that’s obscenely disturbing—and not even in the gleefully gory way that the franchise admittedly tends to nail. If the traps were more memorable, maybe they could atone, but aside from the agonizing opening scene involving a man’s tongue and a railway train, they’re lacking in the clever creativity that made the series a cultural mainstay. That’s not to say I won’t watch the inevitable sequel, though. R. MIA VICINO. Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, Cinema 99, City Center, Clackamas Town Center, Cornelius, Dine-In Progress Ridge, Eastport Plaza, Evergreen Parkway, Lloyd, On Demand, Pioneer Place, Regal Movies On TV, Tigard, Vancouver, Vancouver Mall.

The Woman in the Window

Dan Mallory is a liar. His deceptions include pretending to have a doctorate from Oxford and falsely claiming that his mother died of cancer, but most people don’t know that. He is better known as A.J. Finn, the author of the bestselling mystery novel The Woman in the Window, which has been transformed into a glossy and frenzied film by director Joe Wright. Amy Adams stars as Anna Fox, an agoraphobe barricaded in a gloomy brownstone in Manhattan. Addled by pills and alcohol, she’s a less than credible witness when she says that she saw a woman (Julianne Moore) stabbed to death across the street, but that doesn’t stop her from spying on Alistair Russell (Gary Oldman), a neighbor who she suspects is a serial killer. The Woman in the Window is modeled on Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window, but Wright doesn’t have Hitchcock’s patience—frantic pacing and a pounding score by Danny Elfman combine to create a film that is exhausting instead of exciting. Wright can be an ingenious director, but the visual flamboyance that he brought to Anna Karenina and Pan— both of which were cinematic carnivals of swirling colors—has all but dried up. Skip The Woman in the Window and wait for the upcoming TV series about Dan Mallory starring Jake Gyllenhaal. R. BENNETT CAMPBELL FERGUSON. Netflix.

Wrath of Man

Whether playing obligatory human among action figures (The Fate of the Furious, The Expendables) or driving his own all-too-literal vehicles as humble functionary pushed too far (The Transporter, The Mechanic), Jason Statham attained a frankly bewildering stardom with weaponized competence. However unlikely the stunts, something about Statham seethes stolid believability, which made him the perfect tent pole for Guy Ritchie’s stylized cockney capers. Transplanting the action to Los Angeles for their latest collaboration, alas, proves disastrous. Shelving the film-school trickery and dumbing down dialogue to grunted tropes, this remake of 2004 French shoot-’em-up Le Convoyeur inexplicably leans into Statham’s dour and dull character named “H.” He’s the new man on the armored car security team whose 24/7 moping and unexplained proficiency in the violent arts betrays a hidden vendetta against the crew of robbers responsible for his son’s death. Separated into four chapters, Wrath of Man shoehorns a heist flick into the traditional revenge yarn, but a shotgun marriage of the genre’s hackneyed plotlines further dims investment in the succession of charmless dolts (hapless guard Josh Hartnett, smooth ringleader Jeffrey Donovan, and loose cannon Scott Eastwood). This may best be understood as Ritchie’s American film, and he doesn’t seem too much like us. R. JAY HORTON. Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, City Center, Clackamas Town Center, Cornelius, Eastport Plaza, Evergreen Parkway, Dine-In Progress Ridge, Living Room, Lloyd Center, Pioneer Place, Regal Movies On TV, Sherwood, Tigard, Vancouver.

COVID art by Mary Geraci, who lives and creates in Portland, OR.

JACK KENT’S

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

IG @sketchypeoplepdx kentcomics.com

ACROSS

1 Org. with an Octagon 4 " ___ bleu!" 9 Peace out 14 What a Cessna can hold 16 Gear part 17 "Follow me" 18 It's a block ... house (and it's mighty mighty ... cold) 19 Concern for the production designer of the show "30 Giant Rock"? 21 Highest-rated 24 "The Book of Mormon" co-creator Parker 25 Says yes to 26 Out ___ limb 27 First name in talks? 28 The Great Gatsby 29 "Plush" rock band, initially 32 Chill-inducing 34 Z, in New Zealand 35 Hanauma Bay site 36 Auto manufacturer's second-place prize? 40 Ethereal 41 Half of a Nickelodeon duo 42 Gets closer 43 A TD earns six 44 Lincoln, familiarly 45 Mid-2000s Sony handheld console, briefly 47 "That's impressive!" 551, at the Forum 49 Just skip it 50 They do copy (abbr.) 51 What beauty may be in, if you're indecisive? 56 Interior design focus 57 Sign starter on some old restaurants, maybe 61 Repair wrongs 62 From Ulaanbaatar, e.g. 63 Like diamonds and gold 64 Actor Charles of "Whose Line ..." and "Nashville" 65 "Without further ___" (or what the theme answers are missing)

DOWN

1 Bars on product labels, briefly 2 Progressive character? 3 Zoom need 4 Furry marine mammal 5 Attract 6 Put in the fridge 7 "Toy Story" composer Newman 8 Microsoft browser 9 Like glue 10 Dances by jumping up and down 11 Goof off 12 "Am ___ late?" 13 "___: Love and Thunder" (2022 movie) 15 Lincoln's loc. 20 They may have forks 21 Shoe reinforcement 22 Kind of musical wonder 23 Potato-peeling tools 28 Rapid transit 29 Brutal 30 Eric's moniker 31 Prize amounts 33 Wall climber 34 Satori-seeking discipline 35 Matador's motivator 37 Trip around the world 38 Spike in filmmaking 39 Hardly remote 44 Bruce Wayne's butler 45 Having a kick 46 Spill absorber 48 "Lorna ___" (1869 novel) 49 Some used cars 51 Ball-shaped cheese 52 Cryptozoology figure 53 MBA course 54 Browser button 55 ___ points (2021 Eurovision ranking for United Kingdom) 58 Actress Vardalos 59 Uncouth fellow 60 "Achtung Baby" coproducer Brian

last week’s answers

ARIES (March 21-April 19)

Aries actor Leonard Nimoy became mega-famous by playing the role of Spock, an alien from the planet Vulcan in the *Star Trek* franchise. He always enjoyed the role, but in 1975 he wrote an autobiography called *I Am Not Spock*. In it, he clarified how different he was from the character he performed. In 1995, Nimoy published a follow-up autobiography, *I Am Spock*, in which he described the ways in which he was similar to the fictional alien. In the spirit of Nimoy's expansive self-definition, Aries, and in accordance with current astrological potentials, I invite you to make it clear to people exactly who you and who you aren't.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20)

The poet Rumi declared, “A lover has four streams inside, of water, wine, honey, and milk.” With that in mind, Taurus, I will recommend that you seek a boost in the honey department. Your passions and feelings have been flowing along fairy well, but lately they've lacked some sweetness. As a result, you're not receiving as much of the sweetness you need from the world around you. So your assignment is to intensify the honey stream within you! Remember the principle, "Like attracts like."

GEMINI (May 21-June20)

I'm glad you're not on the planet Saturn right now. The winds there can blow at 1,000 miles per hour. But I would like you to feel a brisk breeze as you wander around in nature here on Earth. Why? Because according to my interpretation of the current astrological omens, winds will have a cleansing effect on you. They will clear your mind of irrelevant worries and trivial concerns. They'll elevate your thoughts as well as your feelings. Do you know the origin of the English word "inspire"? It's from the Latin word *inspirare*, meaning "blow into, breathed upon by spirit." Its figurative meaning is "to inspire, excite, inflame." The related Latin word *spiritus* refers to "a breathing of the wind" and "breath of a god"—hence "inspiration; breath of life."

CANCER (June 21-July 22)

Cancerian author Franz Kafka put his characters into surreal dilemmas. In his novella *The Metamorphosis*, for example, the hero wakes up one day to find he has transformed into a giant insect. Despite his feral imagination, however, Kafka had a pragmatic relationship with consumerism. "I do not read advertisements," he said. "I would spend all of my time wanting things." In accordance with astrological omens, I invite you to adopt his earthy attitude for the next two weeks. Take a break from wanting things, period. Experiment with feeling free of all the yearnings that constantly demand your attention. Please note: This break in the action won't be forever. It's just a vacation. When you return to wanting things, your priorities will have been realigned and healed, and you'll feel refreshed.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22)

Author Umberto Eco declared that beauty is boring because it "must always follow certain rules." A beautiful nose has to be just the right shape and size, he said, while an "ugly nose" can be ugly in a million different unpredictable ways. I find his definition narrow and boring, and prefer that of philosopher Francis Bacon, who wrote, "There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion." Poet Charles Baudelaire agreed, saying, "That which is not slightly distorted lacks sensible appeal: from which it follows that irregularity—that is to say, the unexpected, surprise and astonishment—is an essential part and characteristic of beauty." Then there's the Japanese concept of wabi-sabi, which reveres beauty that's imperfect, transitory, and incomplete. Beginning now, and for the rest of 2021, Leo, I encourage you to ignore Eco's dull beauty and cultivate your relationship with the more interesting kind.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22)

One of the more evocative passages in J. R. R. Tolkien's novel *The Return of the King* is about the warrior Éowyn. It says, "Then the heart of Éowyn changed, or else at last she understood it. And suddenly her winter passed, and the sun shone on her." I'm predicting a comparable transformation for you in the near future, Virgo. There'll be some fundamental shift in the way your heart comprehends life. When that happens, you will clearly fathom some secrets about your heart that have previously been vague or inaccessible. And then the sun will shine upon you with extra brilliance.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22)

Libran actor and author Carrie Fisher had more than the average number of inner demons. Yet she accomplished a lot, and was nominated for and won many professional awards. Here's the advice she gave: "Stay afraid, but do it anyway. What’s important is the action. You don’t have to wait to be confident." I hope you'll employ that strategy in the coming weeks, dear Libra. The time is favorable for you to work hard on your number one goal no matter what your emotions might be at any particular moment.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21)

Scorpio author Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821–1881) had a gambling addiction for many years. At one point, he lost so much money betting on roulette that he had to take drastic measures. He wrote a novella in record time—just 16 days—so as to raise money to pay his debt. The story was titled *The Gambler*. Its hero was a not-very-successful gambler. Is there a comparable antidote in your future, Scorpio? A gambit that somehow makes use of the problem to generate the cure? I suspect there is.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21)

In her poem "Escape," Michelle Tudor addresses a lover: "Inside of you: a dream raging to be set free." She implies that she would like to be a collaborator who provides assistance and inspiration in liberating her companion's dream. The coming weeks will be an excellent time for you to make a similar offer to an ally you care for—and to ask that ally to do the same for you. And by the way: What is the dream inside you that's raging to be set free? And what's the dream inside your comrade?

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19)

Author Martha Beck has helpful counsel for you to keep returning to during the coming weeks. "It isn’t necessary to know exactly how your ideal life will look," she writes. "You only have to know what feels better and what feels worse. Begin making choices based on what makes you feel freer and happier, rather than on how you think an ideal life should look. It’s the process of feeling our way toward happiness, not the realization of the Platonic ideal, that creates our best lives."

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18)

Aquarian author James Dickey celebrated "the holy secret of flowing." But he added, "You must be made for it." In other words, he implied that the secret of flowing is a luxury only some of us have access to. And because we "must be made for it," he seemed to suggest that being in possession of the secret of flowing is due to luck or genetics or privilege. But I reject that theory. I think anyone can tap into the secret of flowing if they have the desire and intention to do so. Like you! Right now! You're primed to cultivate a robust relationship with the holy flow.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20)

Why do humans enjoy much longer life spans than other higher primates? Here's one reason: grandmothers. Anthropologists propose that earlier in our evolution, families with elder females especially thrived. The grandmothers helped care for children, ensuring greater health for everyone as well as a higher rate of reproduction than grandmother-less broods. Their longevity genes got passed on, creating more grandmothers. Lucky! Having older women around while growing up has been key to the success of many of us. In accordance with astrological omens, I invite you to celebrate and honor the role your own grandmothers and female elders have played in your life. And if you're a grandmother, celebrate and honor yourself!

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