Willamette Week, September 29, 2021 - Volume 47, Issue 48 - "What Makes Us Weird"

NEWS: Psychosis at Breakfast. P. 8 DRINK: Hop Capital’s Satellite Bar. P. 20 WEED: Coffee and Cannabis Pairings. P. 28 WILLAMETTE WEEK PORTLAND’S NEWSWEEKLY

“HITTING A DEER TO SALVAGE IT REMAINS UNLAWFUL.” P. 6 WWEEK.COM

VOL 47/48 09.29.2021

maps of Portland’s cultural oddities show how we’re different from SEATTLE and SAN FRANCISCO.

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WHAT MAKES US

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HANAN MARGOLES

FINDINGS

Ellio漀 , Powell , Baden & Baker Insurance Presents the 14th

Oregon Music Hall of Fame Induction Cermony & Concert A Beneǻt for Music Education

PERFORMANCE, PAGE 25

WHAT WE LEARNED FROM READING THIS WEEK’S PAPER VOL. 47, ISSUE 48 October is Oregon’s deadliest month for deer on the highways. 6 Women in Old Town are exhibiting signs of psychosis at an unprecedented rate. 8 Mingus Mapps thinks artificial intelligence can ease the 911 call backlog. 9 San Francisco home prices are twice as high as Portland’s. 12 The No. 1 import landing at Sea-Tac is airplane engines. 13 Amazon is far more popular than Portland among Oregonians. 16

In an unexpected role reversal, Portland teens took to the streets, warning, “If you don’t act like adults, we will.” 17 The new Tualatin Valley Ale Trail beer crawl comes with a 22-brewery passport, but no cool swag. 18

houseless and marginalized young people to make films. 19

In 2015, the Yakima Valley edged out Germany as the world’s top hops grower. 20 On Fridays, Street Disco pops up in the kitchen at Southeast Foster’s 5 and Dime. 21 Baby Dee has been known to busk in Central Park, wearing a bear suit . 25 A new local film pushes back against “model minority” Asian stereotypes. 25

EDITORIAL

News Editor Aaron Mesh Arts & Culture Editor Suzette Smith Assistant A&C Editor Andi Prewitt Staff Writers Nigel Jaquiss, Rachel Monahan, Sophie Peel, Tess Riski News Intern Tori Lieberman Copy Editor Matt Buckingham

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OUR MOST TRAFFICKED STORY ONLINE THIS WEEK: A nightclub shooting in downtown Bend killed a new resident of Oregon.

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Performances by:

Portland luminary Todd Haynes directed an unconventional rock doc about the Velvet Underground. 26

Needlepoints of interest in 1987 Portland, map by Stephanie Sun from Upper Left Cities by Hunter Shobe and David Banis.

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3

DIALOGUE

Last week, WW examined the six-year saga of the Joyce Hotel (“Extended Stay,” Sept. 22, 2021). In 2016, city officials purchased one of the few remaining single-room occupancy hotels in downtown Portland, pledging to preserve its rooms as low-income housing.

Six years later, renovations have yet to begin. When work is completed in 2023, the building will offer 66 refurbished studio apartments, after nearly seven years and the expenditure of $25.1 million. That equates to $398,000 per unit, or $1,198 per square foot. Here’s what our readers had to say: Kurt Chapman, via wweek.com: “The subtext should read, ‘Portland officials had to ensure that the homeless industrial complex got their mammoth share up front.’ How Portland voters keep falling for this crap is beyond most sane folks.”

Paul, via wweek.com: “Foolish beyond any imaginable level of incompetence. $1,198 per square foot?

High-end luxury homes can be built for $300 to $600 a square foot. We would be better off just buying out entire neighborhoods in expensive parts of town and giving that to the homeless.”

Masen, via Twitter: “City purchased in 2016, construction scheduled to begin in December 2021, tenants expected to be able to move in January 2023.

‘What’s missing at the city and the county is any sense of urgency’ is the line that sums up this whole article.”

Belynda Shannon, via wweek.com: “This is less an effect of the city’s shortcomings than it is from the total domination of big money over land and housing.

If previous ownership of the hotel had maintained and updated it, the cost of renovation would be much less. If historic structures were not usually at the mercy of any developer with enough money and the lust to make more by erecting the crap we now see all over the city, there wouldn’t be any need of the regulations for historic preservation. If the real estate

Dr. Know

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Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 29, 2021 wweek.com

R.O.W.L.F., via wweek.com: “The result of treating housing as an investment commodity rather than a human right.”

Roger Neilson, via wweek.com: “Look at who Portlanders elect to office. In their minds, everyone is entitled to a roof over their head, free use of mass transit, etc. Expect to see tolling on the freeway soon to pay for a cap to reunite a neighborhood which no longer exists. This list could go on for a few paragraphs. Portlanders who object have two options: Vote them out, or move. Washington, Clackamas, Yamhill and Clark [counties] have all seen an influx of people who object to their tax dollars being used for these purposes.”

Nicole Anne Francis, via Facebook: “I lived in the Joyce during the height of my drug addiction and homelessness; next month I celebrate 11 years clean.

I am so deeply grateful it’s being saved and it will continue its purpose. I’ve watched all the SROs that saved my life, saved me from assault and the cold slowly disappear. If it takes a hundred years, I’m glad it’s going to be saved and its purpose preserved. We do not know whose life it will save next. Since no one in this comment section has ever spent a single night there, I thought I should chime in.”

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

In your recent column about leaf blowers, I was disappointed that you did not mention the pollution from those infernal machines. The emissions from half an hour of leaf blowing are equivalent to driving a car at 30 mph for 440 miles. —Tom M.

Where do you read Willamette Week?

industry’s money didn’t buy political protection, they could be taxed at a level proportionate to their profit and destructiveness and the city could have just paid for the development outright instead of all the financing machinations required to pay obeisance to the rule of Capital. But yeah, let’s just bitch and moan about bureaucrats. And I’m sure that [reporter Nigel] Jaquiss’ former career in finance doesn’t bias his coverage in the least.”

I don’t want to stereotype people who send angry letters about lawn care to their local newspaper, Tom, but I can’t say I’m surprised to find some overlap with people who think it’s normal to drive 440 miles straight at 30 miles an hour. You make a good point, but I’m afraid you’re going to have to do that road trip to Sun Valley without me.

Leaf blowers that use two-stroke engines are the worst offenders. These engines are lightweight, powerful, durable and cheap—and, like all fun things, extravagantly toxic. They don’t use much fuel, so their climate impact is minimal, but a third of the fuel they do use is vented, unburned, into the atmosphere, along with various other smog-creating, acid rain-causing chemicals. By some estimates, one leaf blower can release as much of this type of pollution as 300 fullsized cars. Pretty bad!

Of course, this is a lucky break for people who

already hate leaf blowers. It’s not every day you can claim to be saving the world from a (legitimate!) threat that you really only started hating because you found it personally annoying. It’s like finding out that Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, in addition to being terrible, also causes HPV. Even more conveniently, the most-polluting type of leaf blower turns out also to be the loudest. Bring on the righteous fury!

Compared to this, electric leaf blowers are practically environmentally friendly. (As environmentally friendly as a plastic consumer appliance made to human vanity can be, anyway.) They’re not quite as handy—the user is reliant on a cord of finite length or a battery pack of limited duration, for example—but considering the alternative, those modest limitations shouldn’t be a deal breaker for the average homeowner.

In fact, PGE is sponsoring a trade-in of gas-powered tools for (credit toward the purchase of ) electric ones at the upcoming Fall Home and Garden Show.

Sure, it’s mostly a ploy to sell tools (and electricity), but at least you can blow away leaves and liberal guilt at the same time.

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SHERIFF CANDIDATE SAYS REESE BLOCKED PATH TO TRAINING ACADEMY: Capt. Derrick Peterson of the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office, who announced his bid to succeed outgoing Sheriff Mike Reese on Sept. 10, does not have a law enforcement certification, WW has learned.

Peterson says that’s because Reese quashed his chance to earn that certification. Peterson is certified in corrections and has spent the past three decades working at the two county jails. It is somewhat rare for sheriff’s office staff to be dual certified, but the law enforcement component is significant: State rules dictate a sheriff must earn law enforcement certification through the Department of Public Safety Standards & Training within one year of taking office. In fact, failing to obtain his law enforcement certification in time was why Sheriff Bob Skipper resigned in 2009.

Peterson, who is Black, says former Sheriff Dan Staton personally selected him to pursue his dual certification, which requires nearly four months at the training academy. Shortly after Staton resigned and appointed Reese sheriff in 2016, Peterson alleges, chief of corrections Mike Shults called Peterson. “The essence of the conversation was that if I chose to go to the academy, he would demote me to lieutenant and put me on the graveyard [shift],” Peterson says. “He said Sheriff Reese saw that I was on the list to go to the academy and was asking why.” Reese says that’s not true: “I never had a conversation with Mike Shults about Derrick Peterson attending the DPSST police academy or being demoted if he ever attended the police academy.”

PRISON STAFFING SHORTAGES PROMPT TRANSFER OF 100 WOMEN: Staff at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility in Wilsonville began transferring approximately 100 women in custody to a nearby facility on Sept. 27 to alleviate ongoing staffing shortages. “Staffing has become such an issue that security staff are required to work two mandatory overtime shifts per week,” says Oregon Department of Corrections spokeswoman Jennifer Black. “A small number of staff have turned in their resignations due to the mandated overtime hours having a negative impact on their personal lives.” Black says the prison is operating at 65% capacity, with 52 vacant security positions. As of July, Coffee Creek housed 816 women in custody—the lowest population of women prisoners in Oregon since 2013. The 100 or so women will be transferred from Coffee Creek’s minimum security facility to its medium security facility located a few hundred feet away.

Black says the move is temporary until staffing issues are resolved. She says prisons are facing

the same labor shortage as other Oregon employers. “We are facing staffing shortages at several of our institutions,” Black says. “DOC employees are working hard to recruit and hire new staff for open positions across the state.”

VOTE LOOMS ON DOWNTOWN SECURITY CONTRACT: After hours of contentious public testimony last week, the Portland City Council is scheduled to vote Sept. 29 on a five-year, $33 million contract with Downtown Clean & Safe, which provides private security and sanitation services to 213 downtown blocks. As WW reported earlier this year (“Cleaning Bill,” Feb. 17, 2021), the revenue the district collects from downtown businesses also provides significant financial support to the Portland Business Alliance. Critics dislike that relationship: Advocates object to the fact that some Clean & Safe guards are armed, and some business owners in the district feel they don’t get enough value for the tax assessment they pay. City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty agrees with critics and pushed to extend the current contract for a year to furnish time to make further changes. As WW went to press Tuesday, talks were underway at City Hall to see whether a compromise between the new, five-year deal and a one-year extension could be reached. “Let’s not rush this agreement through,” Hardesty wrote on Twitter. “Trust and transparency are keys to effective community safety.”

NO CHARGES FOR OFFICER IN DELGADO SHOOTING: The first fatal shooting by a Portland police officer since mass protests began last year will not result in criminal charges. On Sept. 24, the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office announced a grand jury had declined to indict Officer Zachary DeLong in the killing of Robert Delgado this April in Lents Park. After responding to call about a man quick-drawing a handgun in the park, DeLong shot Delgado from about 90 feet away, police said, while the officer took cover behind a tree. After the fatal shot, police determined the gun Delgado carried was actually a replica. The shooting death spurred citywide conversations about funding for Portland Street Response, which sends trained mental health professionals and paramedics instead of police to certain types of crisis calls and welfare checks.

Delgado’s son Skyler Delgado said in a statement that the city’s mental health system was a factor in his father’s death. “We do not want any other family to go through what we have gone through,” Delgado said. “If Portland had a functional mental health system, my father would be alive today.”

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5

NEWS

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW THIS WEEK

CLOCKED

LINEUP

Goat in the Headlights Roadkill season is upon us. Oregon is a particularly dangerous state.

Hunzeker Watch The investigation into a police leak closed. Then police opened it again.

208 DAYS:

That’s how long it’s been since the Portland Police Bureau opened an internal affairs investigation into the leak of information that wrongly implicated Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty in a March 3 hit-and-run. It has released no results of its inquiry. In July, the bureau informed Hardesty that it had completed its investigation—only to reopen it shortly after she informed the city of her intent to sue. WW reported the closure and reopening of the investigation last week on wwweek.com.

197 DAYS:

That’s how long ago Officer Brian Hunzeker resigned from his role as president of the Portland Police Association due to what the union described as a “serious, isolated mistake related to the Police Bureau’s investigation into the alleged hit-and-run by Commissioner Hardesty.” We still don’t know what he did.

The mayor’s office says it doesn’t know what he did. Hunzeker has been on paid administrative leave since May 27.

As the days grow shorter, Oregon deer are beginning their seasonal migration. That makes October and November peak months for collisions between vehicles and wildlife.

Nearly 6,000 vehicles in Oregon crashed into wild animals last year. Oregon experiences a higher rate of animal-vehicle collisions than any other West Coast state, according to one insurance industry report. “Oregon is working to reduce the risk of wildlife-vehicle collisions,” says Michelle Wheat of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. ODFW is mapping migrations to determine where they intersect with busy roads.

Most of those collisions killed the animal and took a chunk out of the car, according to a recent report from the Oregon Legislative Policy and Research Office. The average insurance cost from such collisions: $4,135.

There are certain hot spots on the 79,045 miles of roads that crisscross the state: near Roseburg and Klamath Falls and where Highways 20 and 97 meet in northern Deschutes County. As the state’s population increases and development encroaches on wilderness areas, collisions are becoming more common.

One bright spot: Over the past decade, the Oregon Department of Transportation has installed three underpasses so animals can safely cross Highway 97 in Central Oregon. Those installations have led to a reduction in collisions of up to 95% in affected areas. DMV will soon offer a specialty wildlife license plate to help pay for improvements.

By far the most common victims in animal crashes: deer.

But more exotic species such as eagles, mountain goats, and even bighorn sheep also get hit. (One change: A law allowing Oregonians to salvage roadkill for their dinner tables went into effect in 2019. But ODFW warns, “Intentionally hitting a deer or elk in order to salvage it remains unlawful.”)

Here’s a bestiary of the animals that got hit last year.

NIGEL JAQUISS.

WVC Count 2020

Total Count 2016-2020

Antelope

5

47

Bald Eagle

2

12

Bear

31

233

Big Horn Sheep

2

4

Cougar

11

63

Deer

5,573

29,885

Elk

263

1,455

Golden Eagle

1

5

Hawk

12

42

Mountain Goat

2

8

Owl

22

95

Wild Game - Small

73

511

Total Count

5,997

32,360

WHERE WE’RE AT

MURDERLANDIA

196 DAYS:

That’s how long it’s been since the city signed a contract with an outside investigative firm to probe the leak.

TESS RISKI.

6

Animal Type

Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 29, 2021 wweek.com

BY TO RI LI E BE RMA N

New FBI figures show Portland is way above average in its increased rate of homicides.

tori@wweek.com

All through the rainy weekend, a pile of flowers grew outside Silver Dollar Pizza. Mourners left bouquets on the Northwest Glisan Street sidewalk, along the plywood covering the glass that shattered when a gunman fired into the bar, killing 34-year-old Jacob KnightVasquez.

It was the latest of 66 homicides Portland has already witnessed in 2021.

Those deaths are part of a national trend—and are also surpassing it.

On Sept. 17, the FBI released its 2020 crime statistics report. One of the most closely watched numbers in the report is the homicide rate. Last year, homicides surged compared to recent years.

The United States saw about 21,500

homicides in 2020, 4,901 more than 2019. It’s the largest jump in homicides since the FBI started recording national data in 1960.

The new numbers represent a 30% increase nationally. But Portland showed a far greater increase. In 2019, there were 29 homicides and 53 in 2020, an 83% increase.

Although Portlanders have pondered whether a reduction in police and the elimination of the Gun Violence Reduction Team played a role in the rise in murders, the trend is up nearly everywhere (see chart below).

One bright spot: Robberies declined nationally (by 9.3%) while Portland robberies declined 17.8%.

2020 number of homicides

Increase from 2019

Milwaukee

191

96.9%

Portland

53

82.8%

Seattle

52

73.3%

Salt Lake

17

54.5%

Denver

97

44.8%

Austin

44

33.3%

YOUR BACKSTAGE PASS TO THE WWEEK NEWSROOM Join the Dive podcast every Saturday as we quickly cover the week’s headlines, and then dive deeper into the big stories of the week. Host Hank Sanders sits down with the paper’s staff as well as the biggest names in Portland to discuss the city and the events that change lives.

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7

NEWS BRIAN BURK

And some providers say the problem seems worse among women.

It’s not easy to pin down exactly why, but increased reliance on hard drugs like methamphetamine and opioids as coping mechanisms is likely part of it, says Erin Porter of the Oregon Idaho High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area: “With the housing crisis and COVID-19, use of illegal substances has increased drastically.” She says a primary reason homeless people use meth is to stay awake in case someone tries to commit a crime against them.

Multnomah County health officials say that 106 fatal meth overdoses occurred between January and June this year, compared to 82 in the same time frame last NO LUCK: A homeless woman rests year. However, an increase in in an Old Town parking lot. fentanyl-laced pills contributed to that spike. (WW previously examined the rise in meth-induced psychosis last year: “Over-Amped,” Feb. 26, 2020).

Though county officials say it’s unclear whether meth use increased in the past year, it’s been “incredibly cheap and strong” for the past few years, says Kelsi Junge, a supervisor with the county’s harm reduction program.

Increasingly compounding traumas contribute to mental distress too, says Liz Starke, development director at Rose Haven, another homeless services nonprofit, in the Alphabet District. Such traumas include inescapable heat waves and don’t want to call police on homeless peosocial services closing their indoor spaces ple in distress, but they’re also not trained due to the pandemic. to soothe the conflicts themselves.

“Degradation on mental health has So half a dozen service providers in Old been really visible,” she says. And being a Town are asking for money to hire help. woman on the streets, Starke says, adds Kerman’s idea: a mobile team of peer another layer of potential violence and support specialists trained to deescalate vulnerability. crises and rotate between providers Coon and other providers hesitate to throughout the day. “If we don’t address call 911 on people experiencing mental this, it’s only going to worsen,” Kerman health crises. warns. “I don’t want to be melodramatic “That’s the last thing I want to do. I’m and say it threatens our ability to serve, not trying to add anxiety to the situation but it can certainly change the landscape by bringing police,” Coon says. “We also in ways we don’t want to imagine.” don’t want to be labeled a snitch on the streets.”

A lot of dollars are aimed at the homeless Coon says she sometimes calls the crisis. county’s mental health line, but adds it Multnomah County is flush with cash takes hours for help to arrive: “By the time thanks to federal bailout money and a $2.4 they come, the person has completely billion homeless services measure Metro moved on.” voters passed last year, $52 million of The plan has parallels to Portland which is available to the county in the first Street Response, a city program that takes year. The money is mostly going toward mental health and homelessness calls in permanent supportive housing, with the Lents neighborhood but has yet to be smaller portions going to emergency and expanded citywide. alternative shelters and behavioral health Darlene Urban Garrett, a board memservices. ber of the Downtown Neighborhood And the city of Portland has pledged to Association, says she supports the idea use around $20 million of its available fedof mobile crisis teams, but wants such eral relief dollars for six “safe rest villages” services made available on a larger scale, this year. especially if they’re publicly funded.

Kerman and his Old Town colleagues “If they’re going after more public want some of that money to confront dollars to make this happen, then I’d immediate needs. like to see more coordination,” Urban They say the spike in psychotic behavGarrett says. “But to have something ior threatens their ability to provide created for Blanchet House and not have services. Kerman says Blanchet House it be able to be utilized by everyone else, considers temporarily halting serving that’s what bothers me. Because we’re all one of its three daily meals at least four sitting in silos.” or five times a week because of someone’s Service providers, chronically hurtbehavior.

Meal, Interrupted Homeless services providers say women are having psychotic episodes in Old Town at an unprecedented rate.

BY S OPHI E P E E L

speel@wweek.com

Scott Kerman was helping serve breakfast last week to homeless Portlanders at Blanchet House in Old Town, where he serves as executive director.

A woman lingered at the coffee window, talking to herself and ignoring volunteers. A man behind her in line shouted at her to move and, Kerman says, “she just snapped.”

She rushed toward the man aggressively, cursing and yelling. Kerman ran out from behind the plastic partition, bringing the man a cup of coffee.

That defused the encounter. But conflict is increasing at Blanchet.

No one at the nonprofit is equipped to deescalate such situations, except its one peer support specialist. And one is not enough, Kerman says.

“I need more of this person,” says Kerman, whose team serves 1,500 meals a day to the homeless. “We need this person at all of our meals, six days a week.”

That person is Jenn Coon, who used to be homeless herself. She says the number of people visibly experiencing symptoms of psychosis during mealtimes around Blanchet House has grown. And the increase is steepest among women.

“There’s more women that are hearing voices, having psychotic moments, and having extreme anxiety,” Coon says.

“There are times when I feel pretty helpless. A woman came up to me the other day and said, ‘My mom told me to punch you in the fucking face.’”

Old Town hosts the greatest concentration of homeless Portlanders in the city.

Kerman and other providers say women are having psychotic episodes in Old Town at an unprecedented rate. The nonprofits 8

Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 29, 2021 wweek.com

ing for cash, want public help because their resources and staffing are already stretched thin.

Kerman has broached the idea with half a dozen homeless outreach agencies and nonprofits downtown, including Rose Haven, Sisters of the Road, the Portland Rescue Mission and the Maybell Center, because neither Blanchet House nor other providers have the cash on hand to fund it.

And he’s approached an operation with social and financial clout: Central City Concern, by far the biggest social services provider in Old Town.

Juliana Wallace, Central City’s senior director of mental health, says there’s a deep gap in options for handling mental health crises downtown, and the approach would be peer to peer, not authority to peer.

“It would be pre-crisis work. The time you spend engaging, listening to people, hearing, supporting them, and looking for signs that they’re having a difficult time— that’s part of the gap,” says Wallace. “[The idea] is that we support people before they become so escalated that we’re in the normal city response of do we call Project Respond or 911 or the police?”

Wallace says funding would most likely be a mix of public and private dollars.

Seraphie Allen, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler’s housing adviser, says city commissioners’ offices discussed adding crisis workers during preparation of the city budget in the spring. But she says the offices agreed the issue was the county’s responsibility.

S o W h e e l e r ’s o f f i c e i n f o r m a l l y shopped the idea with the county to fund crisis workers for Old Town. No dice.

“We proposed that, and it didn’t happen,” Allen says.

No written plan or request was ever formally made.

Multnomah County Chair Deborah Kafoury says the county is making other significant investments to address the problem: $2.5 million toward creating three more street outreach teams and expanding existing ones, as well as beefing up behavioral health staff at shelters.

But Kerman and other providers want to strategically place specialists where mental health crises happen and escalate—he compares it to placing fire extinguishers in buildings.

“We know that the community wants additional services, and we welcome a conversation with Scott and his partners about what that might look like,” Kafoury says.

Meanwhile, the behavioral health workforce has experienced a mass exodus since the pandemic started, making it more difficult to hire staff to fill such positions.

Kerman says he’s heard Old Town referred to as an “open-air psychiatric ward.”

“In a lot of ways, that’s not an unfair characterization,” he says, adding that homeless people who can camp in places other than Old Town do. “Who’s left are kind of the most fragile, the most chronically homeless, the most addicted or struggling with severe mental [illness].”

NEWS K AT I E R E A H L

Man vs. Machine Commissioner Mingus Mapps wants a robot answering the least dire calls to the police.

BY S OP H I E P E E L

and

T ESS RI S K I

503-243-2122

In August, call takers at Portland’s emergency dispatch headquarters answered 41% of 911 calls within 20 seconds. The national standard? 95%.

City Commissioner Mingus Mapps believes the answer to speeding up response times lies in directing the least urgent calls to a robot like the one who tells you when your Walgreens prescription is ready.

“We know we’re underwater with our call taking,” says Mapps, who oversees the city’s Bureau of Emergency Communications. “The one thing we can do right away in a cost-efficient manner is to activate software that will help us pick up these phone calls in a timely fashion. We know the software we’re going to use, and we’re in the process of plugging it into our system now.”

If all goes as planned, the city will implement within 75 days an artificial intelligence program to manage non-emergency calls. That way, BOEC’s human operators can respond more quickly to emergency calls—which are quite literally matters of life or death, especially in a year of skyrocketing shootings and a record 66 homicides.

Mapps, who often extols the need for data-driven approaches to public safety, is proposing a wholesale reform of the first interaction Portlanders have with law enforcement when they call the city’s non-emergency line. It’s an ambitious proposal. It risks pushback from union members whose jobs could be replaced by machines, and still faces several key questions about its mechanics.

Some mental health professionals fear that machines are incapable of the nuance required to answer certain calls.

“Artificial intelligence is as good as saying, ‘The library is on 10th and Yamhill,’” says Jason Renaud, a board member at the Mental Health Association of Portland.

“But what happens when you say, ‘What would I find in the library?’ or, ‘Will I find the answer to my questions that I can’t easily define for you?’

“Putting a person in a psychiatric crisis into a telephone tree is again avoiding the problem of helping people,” he adds.

“Computers don’t help people. People help people.”

In fiscal year 2020-21, BOEC received over 662,000 emergency calls and about 380,500 non-emergency calls. The target for next fiscal year is to reduce both categories of calls to 600,000 and 320,000, respectively. Meanwhile, BOEC’s call volume in the past decade has increased by over 30%.

Mapps’ team has proposed lightening the load with two separate types of software. The first is a $40,000 program called Automated Abandoned Callback, an add-on feature to the city’s telephone carrier, Lumen. As the name suggests, the program automatically calls back people who have hung up after dialing 911.

About 20% of 911 calls in Portland are abandoned, BOEC says. In August 2021 alone, BOEC call takers had to return more than 12,200 abandoned calls. “This process takes a significant amount of time, delays emergency response, and takes call takers out of the 911 call answering role,” BOEC’s fall budget submission reads.

Mapps’ second proposal is a tad more complex: a $75,000 contract for Versaterm’s Case Service software program.

That name may sound familiar: Since at least 2015, the Portland Police Bureau has contracted with Versaterm to manage its records. It’s also the same company that manages BOEC’s computer-aided dispatch system. The Oregonian reported in 2019 that Versaterm’s records management system was plagued by glitches and delays.

“We’re kind of a canary in a coal mine here."

—Commissioner Mingus Mapps With the software, an automated voice asks callers to the non-emergency number whether they want to stay on the line for a dispatcher or get transferred to the software.

If they choose the latter, they’re given three options: They can submit information about an incident online, through an app, or verbally over the phone. The virtual officer, named “Cayce,” gathers basic information: date, time and location of the incident and a description of what took place—akin to filling in the blanks of a police report.

Someone in the police department then reviews that report and follows up.

But it’s not clear who will do that.

Mapps’ team does not know how many Police Bureau staffers are needed to review the automated reports, or if the bureau has the resources to staff those positions in the first place.

Deputy Chief Mike Frome says the bureau has not yet discussed who would be assigned to review the reports from Versaterm, or whether the bureau has the staffing to do so. “PPB welcomes using technology to help streamline the process

up as necessary. Finally, the bureau would complete each report in its records management software.

In other words, implementation could actually add jobs at the Police Bureau.

One more reason for c o n c e r n : Ve r sa t e r m prefers to keep its operations away from public scrutiny.

In 2016, the Canadian ARTIFICIAL FLAVORS: McDonald’s customers company sued one of are familiar with automated customer its clients, the Seattle service. Soon, callers to the city dispatch desk could have a similar experience.

Po l i c e D e p a r t m e n t , because a reporter from Pennsylvania and improve customer service outcomes,” had requested copies of Versaterm’s user Frome says. manuals from Seattle police. Versaterm It is also unclear whether the city’s sought an injunction to block release of police union, the Portland Police Assothe manuals, claiming it would expose ciation, will take umbrage at machines “trade secrets” and “critical intellectual replacing work duties of its union memproperty.” bers. (In addition to police officers, PPA “If Versaterm’s competitors got their has represented BOEC employees since hands on these manuals, it would have 2019, after it “raided the shop” from the devastating effects on Versaterm’s core American Federation of State, County and business,” the company asserted. VerMunicipal Employees.) saterm said release of the manuals posed PPA executive director Daryl Turner such a dire threat to its business model, it did not respond to WW’s questions about had to sue. “It literally has no choice: The the union’s stance on automated call metaphorical wrecking ball is about to hit response. But if past is prologue, this could the building.” be a sticking point.

A federal judge dismissed the case in The union has, for instance, repeatedly December 2017 after SPD did not respond stymied expansion and implementation to Versaterm’s claims. of Portland Street Response, arguing Mapps says Versaterm is not the the program is subject to collective barend-all-be-all solution: The long-term gaining because it threatens to take jobs plan is to divorce non-emergency calls away from police officers. It should not from BOEC completely. A year from be a surprise, then, if the union files an now, Mapps wants an already-existunfair labor practice complaint should the ing non-emergency number in PortPortland City Council approve Mapps’ fall land—311—to absorb all non-emergency budget proposal. calls.

The commissioner’s team is aware of The 311 program is run by the city’s this possibility.

Office of Management and Finance. It “As for PPA, we expect BOEC’s distakes about 2,550 calls a week, from callers patchers to be on board because they who dial the line directly as well as some want a reduced workload,” says Shannon rerouted by BOEC, says OMF spokeswomCarney, Mapps’ senior policy adviser. an Heather Hafer.

“However, as the software is implemented, And the office is growing. Hafer says it would not be unexpected to receive a the 311 unit is hiring five new call takers demand to bargain from PPA because the and plans to hire seven more in 2022-23, new technology may impact workload for as well as extend its operating hours from police officers.”

8 am-5 pm to 7 am-8 pm weekdays and That said, implementation of Vereventually weekends. saterm’s software could benefit the police “We’re kind of a canary in a coal mine union. Reports generated by the softhere,” Mapps says. “I can tell you that we ware—whether online, by smartphone don’t have the resources and the public app or over the phone—would be forsafety to address the demands and chalwarded to the Police Bureau, which must lenges out there, and that’s something I’m review each incident report and follow sharply focused on right now.”

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PORTLAND IS HAVING A MIDLIFE CRISIS.

WHAT MAKES US

WEIRD

maps of Portland’s cultural oddities show how we’re different from SEATTLE and SAN FRANCISCO.

For much of the past decade, this city enjoyed an image with a skyward trajectory: attractive, clever, basking in the spotlight as national media spoke of our promising future.

Then, suddenly, we melted down on the national stage. And after a year of flaming dumpsters, sidewalk shantytowns and unsolved murders, Portland became a punch line.

Be honest: How often in 2021 have you responded to an aunt from back home, a college buddy, or a business acquaintance who asks about Portland with “It’s not really that bad”? As a new civic slogan, it leaves something to be desired.

Amid this disorientation, you know what might help? A book of maps.

Two Portland State University professors, Hunter Shobe and David Banis, have written a sequel to their regional bestseller Portlandness: A Cultural Atlas, which compiled defining characteristics of the Rose City using cartography. Their new book also uses maps, comparing PDX to Seattle and San Francisco, the crunchy, evergreen North-Left Coast of America.

Or, to use the title the authors chose, Upper Left Cities (Sasquatch Books, 224 pages, $30).

It’s a somewhat eccentric compilation of everything from which city has the most alleys (Seattle), the most ramen shops (San Francisco) and the most Russian speakers (Portland). Some maps—like the one at left, showing shops selling analog goods in 1987—are especially playful. The measurements range from the whimsical (there’s a chapter on lost amusement parks) to the technical (where the cheapest gasoline in each city is found) to the current: Two pages consider where in each city the most people contracted COVID-19.

The comparisons are often enlightening. It’s one thing to hear that homelessness is a scourge of the whole West Coast and quite another to see maps of where Seattle and San Francisco’s largest camps have grown. Indeed, one of the themes of the book is that Portland is really part of a single Pacific Northwest city that votes, eats and plays in much the same way.

“All the Northern Calfornians moving up to the Northwest—I think they feel comfortable here,” Banis says. “The voting patterns might be identical. [Portland] feels like a small version of San Francisco in a lot of ways.”

In the following pages, we’ve mostly chosen maps that show how Portland differs from its neighbors.

The PSU geographers found big differences in housing costs, weed shops, and what kind of air freight arrives at the cities’ airports.

The portrait that emerges suggests that Portland is, more than anything, young.

Not just by median age—although we are the most youthful city of the three, in part because millennials in Seattle and San Francisco are even more averse to breeding. Portland is different from its siblings because it’s a city where (some) newcomers can still afford to live, an economy that isn’t as strapped to large corporate engines, and a population that is less inclined to follow the rules.

In other words, we’re a city in crisis partly because we can still argue about who we should be.

For decades, Portlanders have resented being compared to Seattle and San Francisco. But while the measurement isn’t always flattering, it is a little freeing. Of all the Upper Left Cities, Portland is the least successful, the least steady. That means we’re the place with the most possibility to change.

—Aaron Mesh, WW News Editor Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 29, 2021 wweek.com

11

W H AT M A K E S U S W E I R D

Houses are much cheaper in Portland than in Seattle or San Francisco.

Portland’s housing crunch looks both better and worse after glimpsing skyrocketing real estate prices in its sibling cities. Better, because a standard home selling for a quarter-million dollars in any inner Southeast Portland neighborhood is a bargain compared to the median-priced home in several San Francisco neighborhoods selling for upward of $2 million. Worse, because people living in San Francisco can also recognize a bargain when they see it.

“It doesn’t take looking at this for long,” Shobe and Banis write, “to understand why so many people from 12

Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 29, 2021 wweek.com

San Francisco have decided, after years of making San Francisco money but paying San Francisco prices, to relocate to Portland or Seattle.”

Another tension underlies fear of the marauding California homebuyer: Both Seattleites and Bay Area denizens are, on average, better educated than Portlanders. Sixty percent of Seattle residents have a bachelor’s degree or higher, while in Portland that figure is 49%. “In these places where you have the most affluence,” Shobe tells WW, “you also have the highest rate of education.”

We have far more weed shops.

Starting to feel that bad old little brother complex? Relax. We have far more cannabis dispensaries than San Francisco or Seattle, and they’re distributed far more broadly across the city. “When we saw the maps, we almost couldn’t believe it ourselves,” Shobe says. “It seemed like there was double, or something like that.”

Shobe credits the blooming of weed outlets to Oregon’s libertarian streak—he sees it as a similar phenomenon to the liberal siting of strip clubs across Portland neighborhoods.

Beau Whitney, a Portland cannabis economist, says Oregon was indeed more loose in handing out pot shop licenses than Washington and California, which strictly regulated the recreational cannabis market. “In Oregon, there were no caps in retail licenses,” Whitney says, “as long as they weren’t near schools or day cares and the like.”

The drawback: More shops means lower sales figures at each dispensary, and that’s squeezing a lot of entrepreneurs out of business despite hearty demand for bud.

“ They are bigger economies.”

—Tim Duy

Portland sees far less goods landing at the airport.

In 2018, $1.98 billion in trade passed through Portland International Airport. That sounds like a lot, until you measure it against the value of goods imported and exported through San Francisco ($66.4 billion) and Seattle-Tacoma international airports.

How to explain this lag? (After all, we have the best airport in the country—it even has a Mo’s Chowder!) Take a closer look at the kinds of goods being imported. In San Francisco, the top import is computer chips, destined for iPhones.

In Seattle, it’s airplane engines and engine parts—linked to Boeing.

University of Oregon economics professor Tim Duy isn’t surprised by the finding. “Your imports are going to reflect whatever your local economy is doing,” Duy says. “They are bigger economies.”

If it’s any comfort, Portland’s actual port does twice the business of San Francisco’s, thanks to its status as the Pacific Coast’s top exporter of automobiles.

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W H AT M A K E S U S W E I R D

Portland’s George Floyd protests were longer and more intense.

The effects of 100 consecutive nights of street confrontations between police and protesters on Portland’s civic psyche were immense—and, at times, overstated for political effect (see “Bad Reputation,” page 16). But it’s clarifying to realize how much more stamina and energy the uprising had here, compared to cities where voters also went for Biden at a 10-to-1 clip.

Long after San Francisco demonstrations petered out and Seattle’s were largely cordoned within the Capitol Hill area, Portland marchers besieged police precincts and braved tear gas across the city. Progressive political consultant Gregory McKelvey says Portland protests gained momentum from trauma. “Portlanders who have not experienced the flash bangs, tear gas, pepper spray, and beating really do not understand the toll it takes on someone,” McKelvey told WW earlier this year. “Imagine watching someone beat your best friend, or gas your children, or arrest your grandmother. That would make anyone angry.”

Some of what happened can be traced to then-President Donald Trump seeking a show of force in Portland to bolster his reelection campaign. But Shobe noticed another factor: People with the motivation to confront cops can still afford to live in Portland, but were largely priced out of the Bay Area. “Somebody who has activist ideals,” he says, “I think that people who fit that description might have an easier time paying their bills in Portland.”

We share a sad history of shuttered jazz clubs.

One small but tangible way to measure the racism perpetuated by this city? Look at the lost jazz clubs that once flourished on North Williams Avenue. The closure of such clubs is a kind of shorthand for the destruction of the neighborhood that contained them: Albina, the center of Black Portland, was torn apart when transportation officials carved Interstate 5 down its center.

It is a shameful chapter in Portland’s history. Yet Seattle and San Francisco have similar stories—and streets that are shorthand for a vanished jazz era. (It’s Jackson Street in Seattle, Filmore Street in San Francisco.)

“In each city, you have this area that becomes really vibrant in one of the cores of African American life,” Shobe says. “And then we see this national block-busting situation, the renewal where you call something blighted that’s actually very alive.”

The tribute Upper Left Cities pays to these clubs is one of the most creative maps in the book. Banis maps the three streets where jazz reigned by drawing them as sheet music, with each vanished club’s location marked by a musical note. Banis says it’s possible to play the composition. “It sounded alright,” he says.

“ The renewal where you call something blighted that’s actually very alive.”

—Hunter Shobe 14

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“Imagine watching someone beat your best friend, or gas your children, or arrest your grandmother. That would make anyone angry.”

—Gregory McKelvy

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W H AT M A K E S U S W E I R D AARON WESSLING

SCARY COSTUME: Oregonians’ perception of Portland is based in part on fears about leftist protesters.

BAD REPUTATION

The chaotic image of Portland peddled on Fox News has prevailed—more than you might think.

BY R AC H E L M O NAH AN

E

rmonahan@wweek.com

xactly one year ago, shortly before he lost reelection, then-President Donald Trump warned Americans that Democrats would make the nation look like Portland. “The entire city is ablaze all the time,” he lied.

At the time, Portlanders responded on social media with bucolic images of bungalows. But the chaotic, troubled image of the city has prevailed here at home, too.

In polling last month, Portland firm DHM Research found that just 45% of Oregonians statewide have a positive impression of Portland. That’s in contrast to megacorporation Amazon, which boasts 70% positive impressions. Outside the Willamette Valley and Portland metro area, just 35% of Oregonians view the City of Roses positively.

Within the metro area, it’s better—53%—but that means barely half of the people living in or near Portland actually like Portland.

“There’s been a concerted effort on the right to make Portland a poster child for everything that they hate, and that continues to play out,” says political consultant Jake Weigler. “Look back to the racial justice uprisings of last summer. For one part of Oregon, they were framed in terms of the history of racial inequity and the need for police accountability, and for the others they were described as anarchy and lawlessness.”

Multiple public opinion professionals 16

Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 29, 2021 wweek.com

point to the protests, a rise in murders, and the increase of homelessness and trash downtown during the pandemic as factors that shaped national and state perceptions.

Travel Portland, the city agency that tracks Portland’s rise and fall in the popular imagination, admits the past two years have been less than positive for the city’s image.

“Travel Portland doesn’t release [results of] consumer sentiment surveys, but we do know there has been a lot of negative news coverage of the livability issues we’ve been facing for two years,” says Marcus Hibdon, the agency’s spokesman. “It’s highly likely that most consumers in the United States have seen some negative message about Portland in the last 18 months. It’s primarily been coverage of the protests, rising crime rates, and other issues involving the Police Bureau.”

The idea that Portland is a capital of combative liberals is hardly new. We live in a town that once became famous as “Little Beirut” because it was such hostile territory for visiting Republican presidents.

But it may now be a place that’s difficult for Democratic leaders to visit.

This summer, when 96 Multnomah County residents died in 116-degree temperatures, becoming arguably the city’s first victims of climate change, President Joe Biden did not appear. He later visited the hurricane damage in Louisiana and in New York—both of which experienced far fewer deaths than Portland endured from

“ It’s highly likely that most consumers in the United States have seen some negative message about Portland in the last 18 months. It’s primarily been coverage of the protests, rising crime rates, and other issues involving the Police Bureau.” extreme weather—to make the case for climate infrastructure. Heat doesn’t come with the TV-ready backdrop of hurricane damage, and it’s not clear that any Oregon politicians would be persuaded by a presidential visit to vote for his spending bill.

Political consultant Kevin Looper of People for Portland, which advocates more police, more funding for Portland Street Response, more shelters and a requirement that homeless people use shelters, says he doesn’t know why Biden didn’t appear. But he did hear from the campaign last year.

“I was informed in real time that the Biden campaign saw Portland as a clear negative for Democrats in their polling, which is why it was raised in the presidential debate by Trump,” he says. “That was tied to the national perception of Portland as a symbol of out of control protests.

Since then, we’ve added unprecedented homelessness, uncontrolled trash and an epidemic of murder to our national image.”

Portland may also become a problem for Democrats closer to home.

John Horvick of DHM says he added the Portland question to the poll last month because he was seeing Oregon Republicans take aim at the city in their campaign launches.

“I think they’re going to run against the governor. Even though she’s not running for election, they’ll still run against her,” he says.

(Brown now has record-high unfavorables: 58%.) Since Brown is a Portlander, that pairs neatly with another message: “They’re running against Portland and they’re running against crime.”

Portland is a downer for Democrats, others agree. And the most prominent candidate officially in the governor’s race—House Speaker Tina Kotek—represents North Portland in the Oregon Legislature.

“Oregonians strongly believe the state is headed in the wrong direction, and polling shows that is largely driven by negative perceptions of what’s happening in Portland,” says Looper, a longtime Democratic operative who recently split with some of his progressive clients.

“Insider candidates running for governor will all have to explain why they haven’t done more to change that.”

STREET

GLOBAL YOUTH CLIMATE STRIKE Photos by Mick Hangland-Skill On Instagram: @mick.jpg

Thousands of students walked out of class Friday, Sept. 24, to rally for stronger environmental measures. They expressed alarm that the climate crisis would harshly affect their futures and called on politicians and other authority figures to “act like adults.” Organized by Fridays for the Future as part of a Global Youth Climate Strike, the youths gathered at the Oregon Convention Center before marching en masse to Portland City Hall.

Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 29, 2021 wweek.com

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STARTERS

• •••• ••••

A T R E A LRBO S ER E T A •••• E H T

THE MOST IMPORTANT PORTLAND CULTURE STORIES OF THE WEEK—GRAPHED.

RIDICULOUS

TOO SLIM & THE TAILDRAGGERS

Mike Bennett’s Crypto-Zoo gallery of painted-plywood opens in an old St. Johns bank.

“The Remedy” album release

The OLCC fines a California winery $50,000 for misrepresenting its grapes as Oregon pinot noir.

SEPT 30

RUTHIE FOSTER + Mary Flower OCT 3

genius AmericanaSEPT 30 songwriter

OCT 8

OCT 9

JOHN PRINE’S

50th birthday party

75th birthday tribute OCT 14

Glenn Hughes Don Jamieson + The Black Moods

NPR radio show

TOM SCHARPLING MOHANAD ELSHIEKY KAVEH AKBAR

Portland Book Festival announces it will have in-person and remote events in November.

ANDREW KOCZIAN

of Deep Purple + special guests

with

OCT 17

OCT 15 OCT 16

LOVE, DEAN album release

gory live comedy theatre

+ Liz Vice

Metro has spent only 2% of its enormous 2019 nature bond, and a third of that was on admin costs.

Oregon City Brewing ranks seventh in the nation at the U.S. Beer Championship.

OCT 22

OCT 21

with members of The NowHere Band + CSN guitarist Jeff Pevar

the gothic edition

UPCOMING SHOWS

•••••••••••••

10/23 10/24 10/29 11/3 •

• ALASDAIR FRASER AND NATALIE HAAS • SMOOTH OPERATOR – SADE TRIBUTE • SALOON ENSEMBLE HALLOWEEN PARTY LED KAAPANA – SLACK KEY GUITAR GRAND MASTER

•••••

albertarosetheatre.com

3000 NE Alberta • 503.764.4131 18

JAMES REXROAD

JUDY BLUE EYES

Crosby, Stills & Nash Tribute

Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 29, 2021 wweek.com

J U S T I N K AT I B A K

OCT 12 featuring

A tech-savvy Portlander makes an online map of the city’s pro-vaxx bars.

Mount Hood National Forest ends its burn ban, thanks to rain and cooler fall temperatures.

SERIOUS

AWFUL

SOUVENIRS

TONY STARLIGHT

AWESOME

with special guest Gary Ogan

The new Tualatin Valley Ale Trail beer crawl comes with a 22-brewery passport but no cool swag.

JOAN GREENE

stand-up comedy

P O R T L A N D B O O K F E S T I VA L

PETE CORREALE

Paul Thomas Anderson’s new film trailer plays at a small selection of movie houses—and one of them is the Hollywood Theatre.

Portland Parks & Rec is giving away free trees.

Mind the stampede.

IN THE DARRELL SCOTT FLESH

BRIAN BURK

P O R T L A N D PA R K S & R E C R E AT I O N

award-winning acoustic blues

ROCKY BURNSIDE

+ Tevis Hodge Jr.

OCT 2

ANDREA JOHNSON

MIKE BENNETT

blues rock guitarist

SEPT 29

READ MORE ABOUT THESE STO R I E S AT WW E E K .CO M .

GET BUSY

STUFF TO DO IN PORTLAND THIS WEEK, INDOORS AND OUT.

R YA N L A B R I E R E

SEE | Alex Falcone One of Portland’s favorite comedians, Alex Falcone returns for one night only to record his first comedy album. Though he hails from Reno, Nev., Falcone cut his comedy teeth on Portland’s scene for many years, earning coveted gigs like a recurring nerd role on Portlandia and the title of Portland’s Funniest Person, in 2019. He recently appeared on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, where he politely slew the audience with his signature brand of grateful wife guy humor. Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi Ave., 503288-3895, mississippistudios.com. 7:30 pm Saturday, Oct. 2. $15.

☛ DO | Seltzerland

Two years after hardcore White Claw fans declared we were living in the “Summer of Seltzer,” the controversial fizzy beverage is still going strong.

This new event aims to keep the season alive even though we’ve now slipped into the fall of 2021.

But time doesn’t matter when you exist in Seltzerland, which sounds like a destination where the swimming pools are sloshing with the fruit-tinged drink, faucets flow with White Claw, and most of the men are likely to be named Chad.

In reality, the traveling festival—which has already boozed up destinations like Atlanta, Austin and Chicago—will take over a Portland golf course, delivering samples of spiked pineapple-mango juice, carbonated lemonade and dozens of other flavors to eager drinkers. Yes, there will be ’Grammable backgrounds, swag bags and perhaps even the questionable revival of the Four Loko brand. Consider this as much of a warning to stay away as an invitation.

Colwood Golf Center, 7313 NE Columbia Blvd., seltzerland.com. 11 am Saturday, Oct. 2. $39-$59. 21+.

SEE | Mo Mandel

You’ve likely enjoyed this comic numerous times on Conan and Chelsea Lately, or perhaps you more recently became a fan while watching the new Discovery program Small Town Throwdown, where he immerses himself in communities that get slapped with unfortunate superlatives like “drunkest” or “most boring.” But what you probably didn’t know is that Mo Mandel has been living among us for the past 18 months. That’s right—the L.A. comedian was forced to quarantine in Portland once the pandemic lockdown went into effect, which was right before his wife-to-be, a local urologist, was supposed to relocate. Mandel’s outsider observations about making a home here during a global health emergency should be worth the price of admission alone. Bossanova Ballroom, 722 E Burnside St., 503-206-7630, bossanovaballroom.com. 8 pm Tuesday, Oct. 5. $15-$18.

SEE | Outside the Frame: Riders in the Storm JACK KENT

Last year—when it felt like hunkering down was the easiest thing to do in the face of a pandemic, historic wildfires and political turmoil—a group of persistent youths ventured out to document the world around them. You can now watch the results of their hard work at this gala screening hosted by Outside the Frame, a Portland nonprofit that trains houseless and marginalized young people to make films. Each one focuses on a socially relevant theme—from racial justice to mental well-being to the health care system. Hollywood Theatre, 4122 NE Sandy Blvd., 503-662-8344, outsidetheframe.org. 7 pm Thursday, Sept. 30. Tickets available on a sliding scale.

☛ DO | Harvest Festival In this year’s Fall Arts Guide, we wrote about FRQNCY, a new streaming app from the founders of Pickathon that simultaneously transmits live shows to viewers and remote audience applause to performers. The app has been tested in the field in Brooklyn, but now it debuts in Portland—although virtual ticketholders can tune in from all over. The two-day Harvest Festival, at Topaz Farm on Sauvie Island, offers two performances each evening: Rose City Band and Antibalas on Thursday, Bill Callahan and Bedouine on Friday. Topaz Farm, 17100 NW Sauvie Island Road, topazfarm.com/live-music. 5 pm ThursdayFriday, Sept. 30-Oct. 1. $49.50-$90.

�VIRTUAL |

YO U T U B E

Ben Hodgson & Laura Moulton Told in disjointed but addictive bite-size recollections, Loaners: The Making of a Street Library explores the founding of Street Books: a portable bicycle library that lends books to houseless Portlanders. The co-memoir is many things: a collection of diary-style accounts of how one of the library’s regulars, Ben Hodgson, survived sleeping on the street and a guide for how Laura Moulton founded the nonprofit library service in 2011. In addition, it’s another tremendous work from Perfect Day Publishing—a local press that publishes infrequently but always makes something worth your time.

Register for the Zoom event at powells.com. 5 pm Tuesday, Oct. 5. Free.

Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 29, 2021 wweek.com

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FOOD & DRINK

BAR REVIEW

COURTESY NG I TA L B R E W I OF HOP CAP

Hopping Around Yakima, Wash.’s Hop Capital Brewing serves frolicking, fruit-tinged experiments at Johns Landing.

BY A N D I P R EWI TT

aprewitt@wweek.com

T

he pandemic pivot became an awkward, ever-shifting dance virtually everybody in the hospitality industry found themselves performing. Restaurant operators were quick to change menus to transport-friendly fare. Miles of city sidewalk became al fresco oases virtually overnight.

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Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 29, 2021 wweek.com

But perhaps none was as substantial as what Hop Capital Brewing pulled off when—in the middle of a global health crisis—it opened a Portland taproom more than three hours away from its headquarters.

Following a year when restaurateurs endured many stops and gos—most would consider a mild case of budgetary whiplash a success—you might rightfully wonder why anyone would choose to launch a bar.

For Hop Capital co-owner Johnathon Thomas, the motivation was simple: He needed a reliable beer outlet to help keep his Yakima, Wash., brewery afloat.

“The biggest thing was changes in distribution,” he explains. “As restrictions started lifting, our distributors focused on their top brands, and since we weren’t one of those, we’re not getting all of our tap handles back. So I needed another opportunity to drive sales.”

The resulting Johns Landing outpost, open since January, introduced local drinkers to a lineup of beers that land somewhere in the middle of the city’s world-class and well-established scene.

That assessment may not get your typical “I’ve been to every Portland brewery” fanboy or bottle-exchange buff to make a beeline down Macadam, but really that might not matter. The taproom’s mix of thoughtfully made classics and frolicking, fruit-tinged experiments has forged a hyperlocal bond, creating another much-needed pub for the South Waterfront neighborhood that somehow still seems to have the fewest number of bars per capita in a city swimming in booze.

Located nearly 200 miles northeast of the Rose City, the original Hop Capital Brewing takes its name from its verdant surroundings. The Yakima Valley is the world’s leading producer of the aromatic green cones that lend flavor and scent to beer, edging out Germany as top grower in 2015, according to the Hop Growers of America.

Founded in 2007, Hop Capital was previously known as Yakima Craft Brewing, and at the time, it was the sole brewery amid acres of bines and the farming towns that rose up around the industry.

Thomas and his wife, Aimee Quast— both Portlanders—purchased the entire operation from her family four years ago, renaming and rebuilding a business that was on the verge of bankruptcy. “ I t w a s b a s i c a l l y st a r t i n g f r o m scratch,” Thomas says. “So [we] took over a huge problem, started turning it around, and then COVID hit.”

But even in those few years before the world turned upside down, the couple

managed to build a 6,000-square-foot Yakima taproom and ramp up production from 400 barrels a year to 1,900 on a 20-barrel system. They were even about to take over a lease in downtown Portland in March 2020, though that deal quickly fell apart once the first lockdown began.

Now that Hop Capital has settled in Johns Landing, you can’t help but size up the beers and compare them to those crafted by the city ’s many decorated producers. The Wizrd IPA, for instance, doesn’t match the sharp assertiveness of Von Ebert’s Volatile Substance or the wonderfully refreshing bite of a Breakside IPA—at least not right now.

But it does flood the tongue with classic pine notes, making each sip a blink’s journey to the breezy, forest-covered flanks of Mount Hood.

There are some misses among the recent offerings. Love the Beer Not the Label, a watermelon and Concord grape sour, was slightly more pleasant than taking a spoonful of flavored cough syrup. The fact that it poured as gray as wrung-out mop water—apparently the result of an unsuccessful experiment in glitter beer—didn’t help. The Zero to Hero Hazy IPA was also underwhelming, lacking the style’s signature citrus and spirit.

But Polish-born, Oregon State University-educated head brewer Ambrose Kucharski is clearly having fun amid the hop flowers up north. His Donut Peach Raspberry Sour sounds as giddy as a Katy Perry costume and drinks just as tart and punchy. And the SupercalifragilisticHopsialidocious—a milkshake IPA that may set a record for the longest beer name to fit on a tap board—smells like a cotton candy stand. Lactic acid provided the

It was basically starting from scratch.

TOP 5

TOP 5

BUZZ LIST

HOT PLATES

Where to drink this week.

Where to eat this week.

1. Smith Teamaker For now, take your pint to the curbside picnic porch or the rear terrace, which resembles a romantic alley cafe adorned with string lights.

Once Hop Capital’s fresh hop beer arrives in October—an all-El Dorado collaboration with Russia’s Panzer B r e w e r y—y o u s h o u l d b e a b l e t o close your eyes, sip and become fully immersed in the earth’s largest hop yards.

DRINK: Hop Capital Brewing, 6500 S Virginia Ave., 503-206-4042, hopcapitalbrewing.com. 5-9 pm WednesdayThursday, 5-10 pm Friday-Saturday, 11 am-7 pm Sunday.

1. Apizza Scholls SHAUN DALEY

batch with the thick, smooth mouthfeel of a dessert beverage, but the sugary sweetness is cut short just in time by a bitter, back-end fade.

Customers who arrive expecting to be transported to the emerald fields of Yakima may be disappointed initially.

The taphouse and its sprawling open kitchen are still outfitted with the previous tenant’s furniture: metal bistro sets and long wooden plank tables under a somber black ceiling. However, Thomas says he just purchased all of the amenities for an upcoming makeover that should create a modern, upscale look.

500 NW 23rd Ave.,503-206-745, smithtea.com.

9 am-6 pm daily.

Located on Northwest 23rd Avenue, the firstever Smith Teamaker cafe is a quiet space on the busy boutique street. The cafe serves 30 kinds of hot tea, but the curious come in for colorful lattes and aromatic tea mocktails. The Golden Light Latte is a major favorite and can be served iced or hot. It’s made by pulling Smith Golden Light tea—with turmeric, sarsaparilla root, and black pepper—through an espresso (or “teapresso”) machine, then adding maple syrup and dousing the blend with oat milk. The result is a beautiful, complex, sweet and softly spiced drink that goes mind-bendingly well with one of the pastry case’s sea salt-sprinkled miso-peanut butter cookies.

2. Nalu

HENRY CROMETT

C O U R T E S Y O F H O P C A P I TA L B R E W I N G

722 N Sumner St., 503-519-3415, nalukava.com.

5-11 pm Thursday-Sunday.

Up a steep flight of stairs, through an alley behind North Portland’s Cherry Sprout Produce, you’ll find an intimate, homespun tea room. The interior sports a few tables and a canopied pillowed nook, but the second-story patio is the real draw. Nalu makes its kava tea using real roots. “Squeezing the roots,” owner Holland Mulder says. “It’s a beautiful process.” The kava tea is especially important to Mulder, and it’s the main drink she wanted to serve when she opened the small secret tea bar in March 2018.

3. 5 and Dime

6535 SE Foster Road, 503-894-9318, instagram. com/5anddimepdx. 3 pm-2 am daily.

While you won’t find shelves stocked with cheap talcum powder and undergarments, the year-old bar along the Foster-Powell corridor reflects the prices and spirit of a 20th century trinket emporium. The room intermingles sophistication with subversion, mixing jade shelving stocked with leather-bound books with a neon ombré portrait of Rasheed Wallace.

Of course, for now, you’ll ideally want to take advantage of the outdoor seating and the bar’s well-balanced cocktails. 5 and Dime’s kitchen situation is complicated—there’s a Street Disco pop-up on Fridays—but there’s always pizza at Atlas, next door.

4. Dots

2521 SE Clinton St., 503-235-0203, dotscafeportland.com. 4-10 pm daily.

Dots feels like a ’50s diner on the tail end of evolving into a dark and moody lounge, and all of its character comes across in the most comfortable way possible. That barely lit ambience has made it a neighborhood favorite for decades, but the novelty of drinking at Dots in the broad daylight on its expanded sidewalk seating cannot be missed.

5. Mad Hanna RIGHT UP YOUR ALLEY: Hop Capital’s snug back terrace is probably the best seat (not) in the house.

6129 NE Fremont St., 503-288-2944, madhanna. com. 11 am-2:30 pm daily.

Mad Hanna is not for the surly at heart. “Have a Drink, Meet a Friend” is the unofficial motto— that’s what’s painted into the Oregon Trailthemed mural out back, at least. It has a backyard you’ll swear you visited for a barbecue your first summer in town, which is perfect for this season of distance.

4741 SE Hawthorne Blvd., 503-233-1286, apizzascholls.com. 4-8 pm daily.

You could consider Apizza Scholls ground zero for Portland’s rise to prominence as a pizza town. The classic among classics—the one to make sure to scratch off a bucket list of Portland dinners—is the Sausage & Mama, named after the Mama Lil’s Kick Butt pickled goathorn peppers spread across the dough along with sausage served crumble style. It is a wondrous combination.

2. Ken’s Artisan Pizza

304 SE 28th Ave., 503-517-9951, kensartisan. com. 5-9 pm Tuesday-Thursday, 5-10 pm FridaySaturday, 4:30-9 pm Sunday.

Another contender for Portland pizza dominance, Ken’s Artisan serves super-thin-crust pizzas from an 800-degree Le Panyol woodfired stone oven. Toppings are minimal, in the best way, and the pizzas are best when piled with arugula and paired with a bottle of one of the many stellar wines on offer.

3. Ranch PDX

1760 NE Dekum St., 971-288-5187; 916 NW 21st Ave., 971-202-7324; 2239 SE 11th Ave., 503-2658118; ranchpdx.com.

Whether or not you believe ranch belongs on pizza, this joint’s Sicilian-style deep dish evolved from being served from a food cart to brick-and-mortars as a direct result of instant popularity. You’re welcome to enjoy an entire pie, which includes the sausage-based cult favorite No. 4 or the aptly named Meat Tornado, but the density of the crust is all but guaranteed to put even the most hardened pizza addict in a coma by the end of just one slice.

4. Cicoria

3377 SE Division St., 971-269-0457, cicoriapdx. com. 4-9 pm Tuesday-Sunday.

Against all odds, chef Joshua McFadden and baker Daniel Green opened a Midwest-inspired “tavern-style” pizza parlor—inside the former Roman Candle space—during the early days of the pandemic. And it thrived. Cicoria brings quality ingredients to a style of pizza originally meant to be washed down with Schlitz. The flour is freshly milled and regional, the crust is 50% whole wheat, and while it’s crispier than Neapolitan or a foldable New York slice, it’s neither buttery nor greasy like Chicago thin crust.

5. Jerry’s Pizza

At Bear Paw Inn, 3237 SE Milwaukie Ave., jerryspizzapdx.com. 4-9 pm Monday-Thursday, preorder only.

It’s easier to get ahold of Jerry’s Pizza these days than it used to be. That doesn’t mean it’s raining pies, though. Now operating out of the tiny kitchen at the Bear Paw Inn, it’s still a one-man operation. Don’t expect to roll up and order at the bar: Jerry’s holds a ticketed sale once a week. The draw for many of his customers is the taste of home, but even those who didn’t eat Chicago pizza growing up still find something nostalgic about the thin crust, slightly sweet sauce, salty pepperoni, and fennel-tinged sausage.

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Editor: Andi Prewitt | Contact: aprewitt@wweek.com HANAN MARGOLES

Testament of Love Jia Ren: A Self Portrait offers six perspectives on the Chinese American experience.

IN MOTION: Rebby Yuer Foster featured their mother (pictured) in a short film focused on movement as ritual.

BY BE N N E T T C A M P B E LL FE RGUS O N

There is a moment in Rebby Yuer Foster’s short film Jia Ren: A Self Portrait when their mother, Xiaofeng Foster, uses tai chi to create a metaphor that captures one of the most important ideas in the film. “[Tai chi] might appear to be round and soft, but really it has that inner force in it,” Foster says. “And I think that really signifies Chinese culture—that maybe we appear to be complacent and low-key and calm and more gentle and all that, but I think that inside we’re pretty strong.”

Jia Ren, presented by Shaking the Tree Theatre, is a testament to that strength. By fusing frank interviews with richly textured images captured by cinematographer Bridge Donnelly, the film takes us on a singular journey through the experience of being Chinese in America.

“Every little thing in my life that has either forced me to tap more into my white side or has been a moment of realization about my Chinese side—all of these events have led up to this film,” says Foster, whose father is white.

“I did want to feature people who I think are very cool and who are Asian and who are empowered and embracing their own Chinese-ness or Asian-ness.”

The story of Jia Ren begins with Our Lady of Lunar

Written by: Daniel Bromfield | @bromf3

Now Hear This

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

SOMETHING OLD The 1992 educational video The Gay Man’s Guide to Safer Sex was revolutionary in its day for such frank discussion of the AIDS pandemic, even if the X-rated documentary had more things besides “education” on its mind. Likewise, the soundtrack by Coil has more things on its mind than blending into the background. Released in full in 2019, the sixtrack album is one of the legendary post-industrial band’s best recordings, bookended by two versions of the lush, Robert Johnson-sampling title cut and filled with some of their most mind-twisting music.

SOMETHING NEW No Live ’til Leather ’98 is allegedly a rare archival recording of an unknown punk band called Leather Rats playing a show in Japan in 1998—never mind the fact that it sounds more like dub reggae overlaid with dark-Elvis vocals. Even if the incongruously huge swells of crowd noise weren’t a giveaway, it’d be obvious that this was just a bedroom producer with a taste for mythology and misdirection. But it’s one of the canniest genre fusions of the year, a combination so seamless yet so counterintuitive it’ll make a lot of punk bands wonder why they didn’t think of it first.

SOMETHING LOCAL Movie Star, the new album from Eugene fourpiece Laundry, is a song cycle set in neon capitalist hell. The band’s three singers are an implicit rebuke to the exceptionalism and hero worship suggested in the album title, but instead of crowing at us about how we’re all slaves to the system, they portray themselves as victims of the grind who find that making art is the best way to stick together. Plenty of psychrock bands poke fun at advertising, capitalism and celebrity culture. Few do it with such a light touch, or over such likable music.

SEE IT: Jia Ren: A Self Portrait streams at shaking-the-tree. com/23478-20154-jia-ren. Donations encouraged.

HANAN MARGOLES

We as Asian people are cool and empowered in our own identities.

Reflection, a film Foster made for Refuge, an installation at Shaking the Tree that centered on 11 goddesses who delivered wisdom and warnings to a pandemic-ravaged world.

“Mine was a four-minute film where I interviewed my friends on what makes them feel grounded and centered and empowered,” Foster says. “And then I expanded on that idea, but I wanted it to be more focused on my own empowerment, and therefore that led to me wanting to interview only Chinese people, interview my mom, and have somebody interview me.”

While Foster prepared a series of questions for the interviewees—including whether they felt they or their parents played into the racist myth that Asians are the “model minority”—they wanted the interviews to include more than words.

“I know before I shot the film, I was like, ‘I want to shoot people who are doing things that are movement-based or moving in a way that feels liberating and empowering to them,’” Foster says. “And then each person chose their own thing. Lisa shaved their head, Tim was spray painting a skateboard, and my mom wanted to do tai chi.”

Directing Jia Ren gave Foster a chance to meditate on the sensation of feeling like an outsider in both China and America—something they say was particularly acute during a trip they took to China around 2017.

“I think being there alone and only partially speaking the language and being looked at by everybody there, either in an oversexualized or very alienating way, was so wild,” Foster says. “I was like, ‘Damn, I feel so comfortable here, but nobody will acknowledge that.’”

For Jia Ren, Foster’s mother discussed similar feelings of displacement. “She said she does think that she plays into the model-minority myth and that she doesn’t feel as strong in America as she did in China,” Foster says. “And she was bringing up all of these things she would do that I guess were kind of rebellious, like not wearing her uniform to school.”

One of the most wrenching scenes features Foster’s mother crying while talking about her struggle to emotionally connect with other people in America. “I think that’s partially why I haven’t shown my mom this film yet—it feels very vulnerable for me and for her,” Foster says. “There were other people who cried during their interviews, but I purposely only chose to put in my mom— and, I guess, me at the end—crying.”

At times, Jia Ren feels like a requiem for the lives lost to anti-Asian hate crimes during the pandemic. Yet it is also a cinematic love letter from Foster to their mother and everyone else who was involved in the project.

“I think that in most Western media I see, East Asian people are represented by two stereotypes—the very uncool Asian person and the Asian person who is cool, but not because they are embracing their own Asian culture,” Foster says. “We as Asian people are cool and empowered in our own identities. We don’t have to cater ourselves to the white gaze or whatever mainstream culture is telling us to be like.”

SOMETHING ASKEW Baby Dee is one of the most idiosyncratic artists working in the American folk underground right now, and it’s not just because she’s been known to busk in Central Park in a bear suit. Her tremulous voice seems drawn from musical theater, her arrangements from archaic European art songs, and her attitude from punk rock.

Love’s Small Song is the best showcase for how lovely her singing and harp playing can be, but if you want to hear her go absolutely buck, check out Regifted Light, produced by her equal in goofiness Andrew W.K.

Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 29, 2021 wweek.com

25

MOVIES

SCREENER

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

Here are 13 movies we can’t wait to see in theaters this autumn.

BY C H A N C E S O L E M - P F EI FER

N

Licorice Pizza, Nov. 26

Paul Thomas Anderson tops the list of acclaimed directors releasing films this fall, and the rollout to this ’70s show-biz exploration (Boogie Days?) has unfolded only via 35 mm trailers in movie houses like Portland’s Hollywood Theatre.

Two things we know for certain: Bradley Cooper plays hairdresser-turned-mogul Jon Peters, and PTA doesn’t miss.

@chance_s_p

ot to cry over bumped release dates, but it’s been two full years since you needed both hands to count the potentially superb entries in an upcoming film season. That changes this autumn, in a movie world far from “normal” but either imperiled or emboldened enough to finally drop the goods: from long-awaited science fiction epics, to shocking Palme d’Or winners, to more titles by topflight filmmakers than two months can hold.

With Thanksgiving as the cutoff, let’s examine the promising slate ahead. Line up with vaxx proof handy and fingers crossed.

Awards Front-Runners Spencer, Nov. 5 E c h o i n g Ja c k i e ( 2 01 7 ) , Pablo Lorraín and his heart-crushingly intimate camera turn toward Lady Di, with Kristen Stewart donning her hats, dodging the paparazzi and dealing with bad in-laws.

The Long-Held Heavyweights No Time to Die, Oct. 8 No blockbuster took more COVID19 lumps than Daniel Craig ’s (allegedly) final Bond turn, which slid all the way from April 2020. The 25th Bond outing appears to be a 2-hour, 45-minute maximal ode to all the muscular, Batman-level darkness Craig brought to 007.

Dune, Oct. 22

Early reviews signal Denis Villeneuve remains perhaps blockbuster movies’ finest visualist. But it’s a huge question whether Herbert heads or Dune newbs will be satisfied and/ or hooked by what’s clearly Part 1.

Eternals, Nov. 5

Fresh off her Best Director Oscar, Chloé Zhao spearheads a new Marvel chapter. In keeping with The Rider and Nomadland, will these MCU demigods muse silently on the frail, pastoral American existence before third-act punching?

The Auteur Parade The French Dispatch, Oct. 22 This one goes out to our patient indie theaters in need of a reliable crowd. Wes Anderson returns with another mid-20th century European charcuterie board of a movie, starring 30 actors you like playing journalists. (Would you believe Bill Murray is in it???)

Last Night in Soho, Oct. 29 Always chasing a crowd-pleasing intersection of his own film and music obsessions, Edgar Wright follows Baby Driver with the transportive horror tale of a young fashion student (Thomasin McKenzie) communing through time with a 1966 nightclub singer (Anya Taylor-Joy).

Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 29, 2021 wweek.com

The Power of the Dog, Nov. 17

Jane Campion’s new Netflix film belongs in the auteur category, if it weren’t already garnering such Oscar buzz. It may be a career peak for the perennially undervalued kiwi director of The Piano. Benedict Cumberbatch and Kirsten Dunst star as Montana ranchers with Jonny Greenwood scoring.

King Richard, Nov. 19

Hints of a long-awaited Will Smith Oscar run hang in the air as the 53-year-old star plays Richard Williams—the at once inspirational and flawed father of tennis legends Serena and Venus.

Indies Not to Miss

When a group of isolated researchers in Antarctica become terrorized by a shape-shifting parasitic creature, they soon learn that any one of them could be the titular Thing.

Though John Carpenter’s paranoid sci-fi-horror film wasn’t received well at the time of release, it’s now rightfully appreciated for the masterpiece it is. The gruesome practical effects! The dog actors! The Ennio Morricone score!

Academy, Sept. 29-30.

An American Werewolf in London (1981) In John Landis’ horror comedy, a pair of American college students (David Naughton and Griffin Dunne) backpacking through England are attacked by what seems to be a werewolf, though none of the locals will admit the beast exists.

Now, the surviving student is haunted by visions, fearing he’ll turn into a werewolf under the next full moon. Notable for winning the first Oscar for Best Makeup. Clinton, Oct. 1.

A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014) Set in the fictional Iranian ghost town of “Bad City,” a lonesome vampire (Sheila Vand) skateboards around the streets, listening to music and feeding off the depraved denizens.

Shot in gorgeous black-and-white, Ana Lily Amirpour’s haunting film is considered to be the first-ever Iranian vampire Western. Clinton, Oct. 2.

Horror of Dracula (1958)

Titane, Oct .1 From newly minted provocateur Julia Ducournau, this successor to 2016’s Raw follows a disturbed woman who (*checks notes*) becomes pregnant via intercourse with a car.

The trailer for the Palme d’Or winner is a pulsating blur of humping, dancing, stabbing and (one surmises) sexy cars. In other words, why we go to the movies.

Bergman Island, Oct. 15

Writer-director Mia Hansen-Love strands married film directors (Vicky Krieps and Tim Roth) on Ingmar Bergman’s favorite haunt, Fårö Island, and watches their artistic identities clash, connect and careen. HBO’s Scenes From a Marriage remake has Bergman competition!

The Velvet Underground, Oct. 15 Heralded for its heretofore unseen footage, this music doc is the latest from Portland (and international) luminary Todd Haynes.

Considering Haynes’ wholly original treatment of music lore in I’m Not There and Velvet Goldmine, expect an unconventional rock doc befitting of the Velvets’ own taste.

MUBI

Halloween Kills, Oct. 15 Titled seemingly just for SEO, this fourth branch of Michael Myers’ story tree extends. Jamie Lee Curtis is still Laurie Strode, and she’s still battling her not-brother to the not-death. There’s only one crucial question: Will Michael, at long last, kill?

26

The Thing (1982) IMDB

Films to Fall For

GET YO UR REPS I N

Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing star as, respectively, Count Dracula and Doctor Van Helsing in the first entry of the gothic Hammer horror film series. Lee’s subversively sensual depiction of the iconic vampire paved the way for even more seductive creatures of the night, such as the Pacific Northwest’s beloved Edward Cullen. Hollywood, Oct. 4.

The Babadook (2014) An effective and unforgettable metaphor for grief, Jennifer Kent’s acclaimed psychological horror movie follows a widowed mother and her troubled young son. After a creepy pop-up book about a humanoid creature called “The Babadook” mysteriously manifests in their home, the boy becomes convinced the monster is real. No spoilers, but…he is. Clinton, Oct. 4.

ALSO PLAYING: Academy: Cape Fear (1962), Sept. 29-30. Clinton: Another Afghanistan (2003), Sept. 29. The Seventh Curse (1986), Sept. 30. Frankenhooker (1990), Oct. 1. Hollywood: Steamboat Bill Jr. (1928), Sept. 29. Space Mutiny (1988), Oct. 5.

MOVIES NOW PLAYING

TOP PICK OF THE WEEK

CODA

S U N D A N C E F I L M F E S T I VA L

Near the climax of CODA, audiences experience a much-foreshadowed concert from the perspective of a singer’s deaf family.

It’s not just sound’s absence that seals the Apple TV+ film’s best scene; it’s how the camera registers Frank and Jackie Rossi gauging the crowd’s reaction to their daughter Ruby (Emilia Jones) belting.

That’s the moment you know why CODA (or Child of Deaf Adults) won Sundance’s Grand Jury Prize and why, despite playing on a clear inspirational formula and remaking a 2014 French film, it’s a smart and heartfelt portrayal of deafness in mainstream American movies.

For one, there’s Ruby’s complex role as the only hearing member and de facto translator of her gruff yet charming New England fishing family. Playing her parents and brother, deaf actors Marlee Matlin (Oscar winner from Children of a Lesser God), Troy Kotsur and Daniel Durant are grounded and multidimensional, signing with Ruby in rage, mockery, hubris and shame. While some of the supporting performances pale—Ruby’s fastidious choir teacher is more irritating than aspirational and her love interest a classic doesn’t-deserve-her wet blanket—try not to be moved by this loving, needy, overwhelmed and surprisingly horny family confronting change. The formula works for a reason.

PG-13. CHANCE SOLEM-PFEIFER. Apple TV+.

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. : 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. : THIS MOVIE IS A STEAMING PILE.

ALSO PLAYING Big House Big House answers the question none of us were asking: What if mumblecore met The Real World? The film opens on half-sisters Claire (Ellie Reed) and Ali (Paige Collins) arriving at their father’s vacation house. It’s Claire’s birthday weekend, and they’ve brought their boyfriends along to celebrate. As the couples unpack, we learn more about this odd, tikithemed pad where the ladies have set up shop. They’re staying at their father’s “honey house,” the tropical beach abode where he once took his mistresses. Even juicier, we discover that history is repeating itself: Claire has a fiancé, but she’s left him at home while she cozies up with the nerdy, endearing co-worker she’s taken as a lover. Big House was shot in just two days with improv-heavy dialogue, and you can hear it in the mumblecore-style exchanges. Often shot at close—even claustrophobic— range, with audio that lingers even after the scenes change, the movie has a hazy, confined quality. It’s a tone that fits with the broader questions about monogamy and transparency that writer-director Jack Lawrence Mayer is raising through the sisters’ romantic arcs. The script is witty, and the acting is natural and often resonant, particularly Michael Molina’s turn as Claire’s awkward, unappreciated lover String. The finale does take a turn for the Real Housewives, but after shaking the proverbial soda can for 90 minutes, the explosion feels earned. NR. GRACE CULHANE. Amazon, Apple TV, Google Play, Vimeo, Vudu, YouTube.

Blue Bayou In a sublime scene in Blue

Bayou, Antonio (Justin Chon) lets his friend Parker (Linh Dan Pham) ride on the back of his motorcycle without a helmet. Parker has terminal cancer, and as they ride through the night, the wind blows off her wig, leaving her head bare. It’s a moment of both freedom and vulnerability— two forces that define Antonio’s existence. He’s a Korean immigrant who was legally adopted and raised in the Louisiana bayou, but is now being threatened with deportation because of a cruel technicality that could tear him away from his wife, Kathy (Alicia Vikander), and his stepdaughter Jessie (Sydney Kowalske). To watch Blue Bayou, which Chon wrote and directed, is to understand everything about the lives of its characters—the food they eat, the vehicles they drive, the emotions that ripple through their souls. Thousands of real-life international adoptees have suffered the same fate as Antonio, but the film conveys the horror of that reality through the beauty of its intimacy.

How could anyone who has watched Antonio and Jessie running together at blissfully breakneck speeds believe they should be parted? Nothing in Blue Bayou—not family, not friendship, not work—lasts forever, but the film reminds you that the things that are finite are the things most worth fighting for. R. BENNETT CAMPBELL FERGUSON. Bridgeport, City Center, Clackamas Town Center, Eastport Plaza, Fox Tower.

The Alpinist This compelling profile of climber Marc-André Leclerc comprises a mountain of existential contradictions. Leclerc’s winningest attribute is his indifference to attention while The Alpinist pours it on. And against all odds, this is a gripping adventure documentary despite Leclerc defining his improvised solo climbs as completely solo, i.e., largely unfilmed. What’s more,

can documentarians really tell an ethical nonfiction story in a retrospective present tense when the shallowest Google of the subject’s name transforms the story? In any case, The Alpinist is wise to invest so deeply in Leclerc that he can’t resist its affection and insights. The almost shamanistic British Columbian is depicted as a climber’s climber, practicing the purest expression of human movement and risk. Granted, some voice-over flourishes by directors Peter Mortimer and Nick Rosen land as both pretentious and naive: “It’s hard to reconcile the ideals of his ascents with the tragic consequences.” Counterpoint—no it’s not.

Maximal life and instant death dwell together in each of Leclerc’s fearless steps. And though audiences who like to stay on the ground and, let’s say, watch a lot of movies may deem The Alpinist in the shadow of Free Solo, climber Alex Honnold is here too, repeatedly testifying to Leclerc’s mixed-method supremacy on snow, ice, rock and in the undiluted philosophy of climbing itself.

PG-13. CHANCE SOLEM-PFEIFER. Bridgeport, City Center, Clackamas Town Center, Fox Tower, Movies on TV, Vancouver Mall.

screen, and somehow, this latest iteration of a pointedly two-dimensional martial artist avatar reaches undeserved depths. Credit goes to the bulletproof MCU template, of course. But shove the equally athletic and comedic newcomer Simu Liu (as Shang-Chi) between the looming presence of legend Tony Leung Chiu-wai (playing Shang-Chi’s father) and comic relief Awkwafina (as Shang-Chi’s confidant/karaoke buddy), and you’ve got the makings of an excellent cast that propels the film to another level. True believers should be more than satisfied with the punch-’em-up choreography effortlessly pivoting from balletic bouts to Wick-ian technique to fated CGI spectacle. Somehow, still, director Destin Daniel Cretton (Just Mercy, Short Term 12) finds space to let blossom a genuinely touching emotive backstory for our immortal archvillain and a (however fleeting) fresh perspective on a martial arts master. PG-13. JAY HORTON. Bagdad, Cedar Hills, Dine-In Progress Ridge, Evergreen Parkway, Fox Tower, Living Room, Lloyd Center, Movies on TV, Pioneer Place, St. Johns Theater & Pub, Studio One, Tigard, Wunderland Beaverton.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

Dear Evan Hansen

In the 1970s, when a floppy-haired Bruce Lee lookalike named Shang-Chi first graced the cover of his own Marvel title, comic book crusaders seemed destined to follow radio cowboys and dime novel detectives into the dustbin of cultural oblivion. The struggling publisher responded by feverishly refashioning the heroes of trending genres (horror, blaxploitation, space opera) in the Mighty Marvel Manner, typically disappointing fans all around.

But Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu, forged an odd yet successful kinship with bloodless ultraviolence, pulp grandiosity and an inane origin story endlessly explained. ShangChi and the Legend of the Ten Rings completes the circle, bringing the dispossessed son of an alien-bracelet-empowered warlord to the big

Is Evan Hansen a teen tormented by anxiety, isolation and depression? Or a con artist masquerading as the best friend of a boy who killed himself? The answer is simple—he’s both. Humans crave characters who are easy to adore or despise, but when Dear Evan Hansen debuted on Broadway in 2016, it defied that dichotomy, becoming a blockbuster musical and winning six Tony Awards. The movie mines the play’s ambiguous magic by bringing back original star Ben Platt as Evan, who is so lonely that he invents a history of bromance between him and his dead classmate Connor (Colton Ryan).

Connor’s parents (Amy Adams and Danny Pino) accept Evan as a surrogate son, but he’s haunted by guilt—and the truth that his deception may be all that’s keeping him from ending his own life. Dear Evan Hansen diehards will be delighted by the film’s heart-expanding per-

formances of songs like “You Will Be Found,” but not by the ending, which radically revises the story so Evan can atone for his lies. In the play, the greatest act of penitence wasn’t apologizing. It was living honorably in the wake of your mistakes, an idea the film fails to understand. The result? An adaptation with the shape of Dear Evan Hansen, but not enough of its sad, strange and beautiful soul. PG-13.

BENNETT CAMPBELL FERGUSON. Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, City Center, Clackamas Town Center, Cornelius, Dine-In Progress Ridge, Eastport Plaza, Evergreen, Fox Tower, Lloyd Center, Movies on TV, Pioneer Place, Sherwood, Studio One, Tigard.

The Eyes of Tammy Faye In the most absurdly erotic scene in The Eyes of Tammy Faye, Jim Bakker (Andrew Garfield) tells his future wife Tammy Faye (Jessica Chastain) how he found God. He claims that after running over a little boy and rupturing his lung, he vowed to devote his life to the Lord if the child lived. When the story is finished, Tammy Faye is so enraptured that she practically orgasms, proving that religion is an aphrodisiac for the pair—at least until they get lost in greed and the film develops a case of the biopic blahs. During the ’70s and ’80s, the Bakkers ruled PTL, a televangelist empire that created a Christian water park, concealed Jim’s infidelity, and swindled its followers out of millions. Their marriage was an epic saga of capitalism, faith and sex, so it’s no surprise that The Eyes of Tammy Faye tries to cram in decades of gaudy details. By trying to show us everything, the film risks saying nothing, but it’s somewhat salvaged by Chastain’s eerie sincerity and Garfield’s trademark smirk, which gives new life to the old joke that PTL stood for “pass the loot.” PG-13. BENNETT CAMPBELL FERGUSON. Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, Clackamas Town Center, Dine-In Progress Ridge, Division, Eastport, Evergreen, Fox, Living Room, Stark.

Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 29, 2021 wweek.com

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POTLANDER

Bean and Bud BFFs Local Portland coffee roasts that pair well with sunrise cannabis strains.

BY BRIA N N A W H E E L E R

M

ost wake-and-bake enthusiasts already know: Not only does cannabis provide a rose-colored lens through which to view your morning, it also goes really well with coffee.

Like, really well.

That’s because, like cannabis, coffee is rich in terpenes that can enrich and/or mitigate a proper morning buzz. Furthermore, coffee tempers our endocannabinoid receptors in ways that might keep that morning high from spinning into a heavy-lidded magic carpet ride.

There’s a grass-demitasse combo for nearly every waking, baking, coffee-partaking stoner out there, and with International Coffee Day arriving on Oct. 1, now’s a great time to explore some primo pairings.

WW examined a handful of the highest-rated strains for greeting the dawn and cross-referenced their terpene profiles against the tasting notes of a few of the city’s most beloved neighborhood roasts.

The Bud: Agent Orange The Brew: Never Coffee Flowers Blend (honey, stone fruit, date tasting notes)

The Bud: Golden Pineapple The Brew: Upper Left Dark Roast Blend

Agent Orange is an uplifting hybrid with a bright, citrusy nose and a tangy-sweet exhale. This cultivar’s dominant terpene is myrcene: a zesty, grassy essence also found in lemongrass. That zest could lend some balance to the heavier sweetness of Flowers Blend’s top notes, and the strain’s lower-THC varietals would make the pairing even more manageably vibrant.

Bred from a cross of Orange Skunk, Jack’s Cleaner, and Space Queen, Agent Orange boasts effects that are reportedly bright and effervescent in the body and uplifting to the brink of euphoric in the head. Users celebrate this strain for its efficacy in treating depression, stress and PTSD with a manageable buzz. For types for whom every side of the bed is the wrong side, this might be the strain-brew combo to buff away the morning grumps .

(pineapple, graham cracker tasting notes)

Get it from: Gnome Grown, 5012 NE 28th Ave., 971-346-2098, gnomegrownorganics.com.

Get it from: Cannabliss, 1917 SE 7th Ave., 503-719-4338, cannablissandco.com.

The Bud: Dread Bread The Brew: Coava Sumatra Cindaku Roast

The Bud: Lumpy Space Princess The Brew: Heart Roasters Kenya Ichuga AA

Bred from a cross of Do-Si-Dos and Lava Cake, Peanut Butter Souffle is a punchy hybrid with a smooth, nutty mouthfeel and a perfume that does indeed suggest a stiff whiff of Skippy. With or without coffee, users report dynamic, eye-opening sativa effects that are great for supporting energetic mornings, especially for those who wake and bake to jump into a daybreak workout.

So, if your ideal morning is a powerfully spaced-out stationary bike ride or creative cardio yoga, this might be the strain-brew blend for you. Bonus: Water Avenue donates $4 from every bag of Dollar For blend directly to Dollar For, a nonprofit that advocates for families with overwhelming medical expenses.

Depending on whom you ask and the varietals available, Dread Bread is either vibrating with the most energetic sativa genetics or a rare, balanced hybrid whose effects span a far wider spectrum. Either way, the profile is generally reported to be warm, herbal and sweet, with complex top notes of citrus and tropical fruit. Users report effects like increased focus, pleasant tingling, and an uplifting mood boost. Devotees also reportedly love this strain with their morning coffee.

Dread Bread’s predominant terpene is earthy, fruity terpinolene, and the profile is supported by brisk pinene and herbal myrcene. Altogether, when sipped in tandem with Coava’s Sumatra Cindaku, the intermingling complexities make for an ideal morning mouthfeel.

Get it from: Kaleafa, 11821 NE Glisan St., 503-902-4265, kaleafa.com.

Get it from: Satchel, 6900 N Interstate Ave., 503-206-4725, satchelpdx.com.

Lumpy Space Princess is a Black Banana-Pink Lemonade cross that reportedly delivers bouncy, elastic, perspicacious highs that feel well suited for morning smolder sessions. The perfume is citrus sour with suggestions of melty, overripe banana—a combo that might lend itself to the sweetly sheer top notes of Heart’s Kenya Ichuga AA. Despite its buzzy heritage, users report that Lumpy Space Princess’ effects are manageably uplifting and pair well with their morning coffee. One of the most noted effects was feeling chatty, which suggests this might be a premium strain for both extroverts and introverts who need a bit of social fuel. For public-facing workers who struggle through interactions, this might be the pairing to make challenging interactions a bit more comfortable.

The Bud: Peanut Butter Souffle The Brew: Water Avenue Dollar For Blend

(milk chocolate, navel orange, and hazelnut tasting notes)

28

Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 29, 2021 wweek.com

(lemon, fig, brown sugar tasting notes)

For the creative morning stoner, consider a bowl of Golden Pineapple to accompany Upper Left’s thoughtfully bold, dark roast blend. This cultivar has a reputation for both bolstering creative energy and gently smothering inhibitions, which seems ideal for folks who wake up fully charged then get stoned to organize their thoughts and intentions for the day.

Golden Pineapple was produced by crossing the buzzy hybrids Golden Goat and Pineapple Kush. The resulting flowers have a rich pineapple perfume with a commensurately funky-sweet exhale. For artistic types who puff in the morning to activate their talent, then sip a fresh pot to put creative plans into action, the delicate similarities in the flavor profiles of this cultivar and roast might add a bit of inspiration to that routine.

(strawberry, nectarine, sugarcane tasting notes)

Get it from: Weedland, 4027 N Interstate Ave., 541-904-0000.

JONESIN’

by Matt Jones

"I'm Gonna Have Some Words"--themeless time again!

Week of October 7

©2021 Rob Brezsny

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Aries poet

Anna Kamieńska said her soul didn't emanate light.

It was filled with "bright darkness." I suspect that description may apply to you in the coming weeks.

Bright darkness will be one of your primary qualities.

And that's a good thing! You may not be a beacon of shiny cheer, but you will illuminate the shadows and secrets. You will bring deeper awareness to hidden agendas and sins of omission. You will see, and help others to see, what has been missing in situations that lack transparency. Congratulations in advance!

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): "There is something truly restorative, finally comforting, in coming to the end of an illusion—a false hope." So declared author Sue Miller, and now I'm sharing it with you, Taurus—just in time for the end of at least one of your illusions. (Could be two, even three.) I hope your misconceptions or misaligned fantasies will serve you well as they decay and dissolve. I trust they will be excellent fertilizer, helping you grow inspired visions that guide your future success. My prediction: You will soon know more about what isn't real, which will boost your ability to evaluate what is real.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Afghan-

American novelist Khaled Hosseini writes, "People mostly have it backward. They think they live by what they want. But really what guides them is what they're afraid of—what they don't want." Is that true for you, Gemini? The coming weeks will be an excellent time to meditate on that question. And if you find you're motivated to live your life more out of fear than out of love, I urge you to take strenuous action to change that situation! Make sure love is at least 51 percent and fear no more than 49 percent. I believe you can do much better than that, though. Aim for 75 percent love!

CANCER ACROSS 1 Trees lining the new Malahat Skywalk on Vancouver Island, B.C. (a spiral ramp tower with optional slide to the bottom) 10 Surname in a nursery rhyme with platter licking 15 To the point 16 "It's _ _ _ of passage" 17 2010 statute nickname whose real initials are hidden in the name 18 Sounds in certain specialty cafÈs 19 One with interior motives?

20 Realm of influence

stepped down from the L.A. Times in 2020 46 Notable feature of "Careless Whisper" 47 "Fame" singer/actress Cara 48 Brit who imparts vitality (though the battery brand's spelled with a Z) 49 Observes Ramadan, in a way 50 State where the soft drink Mountain Dew was first formulated 51 What some collars ward off

21 Employs a hive mentality?

52 Participants in the Singing Revolution (1987-1991)

22 "La fÈe _ _ _" (fanciful term for absinthe, based on the color)

DOWN

23 Sticks it out 24 Run, as a forklift 26 Maneuvers famously pulled off by rapper Lil Uzi Vert 29 You might use one to play Breakout

13 Nervously excited 14 SAT takers, e.g. (and not... body parts) 25 Legendary footballer 26 Go (through), as evidence 27 Nice private discussion?

28 Actress Dolenz 29 Note that sounds like B double flat 30 Residents of one of the Lesser Sunda Islands in Southeast Asia 31 Loser of a mythological footrace 32 Optimistic quality 33 Fluid, as a dancer's motion 35 CNN senior political analyst David who advised four administrations

1 Like eels and flukes, biologically

36 Saint Francis's home

2 Brazilian gymnast Andrade, gold medalist in the vault in Tokyo

38 Title name on the 1982 album "Too-Rye-Ay"

3 Modified leaves on flower stems

37 Peak near Olympus

39 Sports recap feature 42 Geese on the Big Island

4 Maximal

43 In regard to, old-style

33 Second, for instance

5 "Toddlers & _ _ _"

34 Word that ends many yoga classes

6 Cooper title character

44 Movie aired when there's often nothing on?

35 Puzzle magazine with a "Pencilwise" section 40 Grey Goose rival, familiarly 41 _ _ _ tetrameter (poetic verse used in works like "'Twas the Night Before Christmas", using an unstressed/unstressed/ stressed pattern) 45 Film critic Kenneth who

7 Former Pacific defense gp.

8 "The Smartest Guys in the Room" subject 9 Site that bills itself as "The world's best music blog" 10 Hindu scripture that contains melodies and chants 11 Demonstrate deservingness in advance 12 1959 western with Dean Martin and Ricky Nelson

last week’s answers

(June

21-July

22):

"Sometimes dreams are wiser than waking." Oglala Lakota medicine man Black Elk said that, and now I'm passing it on to you. It's not always the case that dreams are wiser than waking, of course, but I suspect they will be for you in the coming weeks. The adventures you experience while you're sleeping could provide crucial clues to inform your waking-life decisions. They should help you tune into resources and influences that will guide you during the coming months. And now I will make a bold prediction: that your dreams will change your brain chemistry in ways that enable you to see truths that until now have been invisible or unavailable. (PS: I encourage you to also be alert for intriguing insights and fantasies that well up when you're tired or lounging around.)

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):

"Don't hope more than you're willing to work," advises author Rita Mae Brown. So let me ask you, Leo: How hard are you willing to work to make your dreams come true, create your ideal life, and become the person you'd love to be? When you answer that question honestly, you'll know exactly how much hope you have earned the right to foster. I'm pleased to inform you that the coming weeks will be a favorable time to upgrade your commitment to the work and therefore deepen your right to hope.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):

"To be truly visionary, we have to root our imagination in our concrete reality while simultaneously imagining possibilities beyond that reality." This shrewd advice comes from author bell hooks (who doesn't capitalize her name). I think it should be at the heart of your process in the coming days. Why? Because you now have an extraordinary potential to dream up creative innovations that acknowledge your limitations but also transcend those limitations. You have extra power available to harness your fantasies and instigate practical changes.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):

"Some people are crazy drunk on rotgut sobriety," wrote aphorist Daniel Liebert. I trust you're not one of them.

But if you are, I beg you to change your habits during the next three weeks. According to my reading of the astrological omens, you have a heavenly mandate

to seek more than the usual amounts of whimsical ebullience, sweet diversions, uplifting obsessions, and holy amusements. Your health and success in the coming months require you to enjoy a period of concentrated joy and fun now. Be imaginative and innovative in your quest for zest.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Scottish Poet Laureate Jackie Kay, born under the sign of Scorpio, writes, "It used to be that privacy came naturally to everybody and that we understood implicitly what kind of things a person might like to keep private. Now somebody has torn up the rule book on privacy and there's a kind of free fall and free for all and few people naturally know how to guard this precious thing, privacy." The coming weeks will be a good time for you to investigate this subject, Scorpio— to take it more seriously than you have before. In the process, I hope you will identify what's truly important for you to keep confidential and protected, and then initiate the necessary adjustments. (PS: Please feel no guilt or embarrassment about your desire to have secrets!)

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):

"All our Western thought is founded on this repulsive pretense that pain is the proper price of any good thing," wrote feisty author Rebecca West (1892–1983).

I am very happy to report that your current torrent of good things will NOT require you to pay the price of pain. On the contrary, I expect that your phase of grace and luck will teach you how to cultivate even more grace and luck; it will inspire you to be generous in ways that bring generosity coming back your way. As articulated by ancient Chinese philosopher Sun Tzu, here's the operative principle: "Opportunities multiply as they are seized."

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):

"If you don't ask, the answer is always no," declares author Nora Roberts. In that spirit and in accordance with astrological omens, I urge you to be bold and lucid about asking for what you want in the coming weeks. In addition, I encourage you to ask many probing questions so as to ferret out the best ways to get what you want. If you are skilled in carrying out this strategy, you will be a winsome blend of receptivity and aggressiveness, innocent humility and understated confidence. And that will be crucial in your campaign to get exactly what you want.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): "Few persons enjoy real liberty," wrote poet Alfred de Musset. "We are all slaves to ideas or habits." That's the bad news. The good news is that October is Supercharge Your Freedom Month for you Aquarians. I invite you to use all your ingenuity to deepen, augment, and refine your drive for liberation. What could you do to escape the numbness of the routine? How might you diminish the hold of limiting beliefs and inhibiting patterns?

What shrunken expectations are impinging on your motivational verve? Life is blessing you with the opportunity to celebrate and cultivate what novelist Tim Tharp calls "the spectacular now." Be a cheerful, magnanimous freedom fighter.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): The brilliant Piscean composer Frédéric Chopin (1810– 1849) wrote, "I wish I could throw off the thoughts that poison my happiness, but I take a kind of pleasure in indulging them." What?! That's crazy! If he had been brave enough and willful enough to stop taking pleasure in indulging his toxic thoughts, they might have lost their power to demoralize him. With this in mind, I'm asking you to investigate whether you, like Chopin, ever get a bit of secret excitement from undermining your own joy and success. The coming weeks will be a favorable time to dissolve that bad habit.

HOMEWORK: Hold your own hand and tell yourself what you will do to end a nagging discomfort in your life. https:// Newsletter.FreeWillAstrology.com.

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

©2021 Jonesin’ Crosswords (editor@jonesincrosswords.com) For answers to this puzzle, call: 1-900-226-2800, 99 cents per minute. Must be 18+. Or to bill to your credit card, call: 1-800-655-6548. Reference puzzle #JNZ990.

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

1-877-873-4888 or 1-900-950-7700 Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 29, 2021 wweek.com

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SPOTLIGHT ARTIST ADAM WADE

Instagram: @adstractions

COMiCS!

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Be a Willamette Week featured artist!

Any art style is welcome!

Let’s share your art!

Contact us at art@wweek.com.

COMiCS! JACK KENT’S

Jack draws exactly what he sees n’ hears from the streets. insta @sketchypeoplepdx kentcomics.com

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