Willamette Week, May 11, 2022 - Volume 48, Issue 27 - "Lights, Camera, Revolution"

NEWS: Fear in Old Town. P. 13 OUTDOORS: Mount Hood’s Forest Fight. P. 14 FOOD: Long Live the Smashburger. P. 26

WRITER-DIRECTOR DAWN JONES REDSTONE AT DESERT ISLAND STUDIOS

N O I T U L O V E

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Five filmmakers who are reshaping the cinema of the Pacific Northwest.

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seasideOR.com

seaside is for You’ll have to drag me from the beach kicking and screaming

When you bring kids to Seaside they suddenly forget all about screen time and they want more boogie boarding time. And kite flying time, and sand castle building time, and making up a game involving shells and rocks and digging holes time. Which means more spending time as a family time.

@visitseasideOR

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seasideOR.com

NEWS: Fear in Old Town. P. 13 OUTDOORS: Mount Hood’s Forest Fight. P. 14 FOOD: Long Live the Smashburger. P. 26

“MUCH STUNT AND MUCH ROCK.” P. 31

WRITER-DIRECTOR DAWN JONES REDSTONE AT DESERT ISLAND STUDIOS

, A R E M A C , S T H LI G

WWEEK.COM VOL 48/27 0 5 .1 1 . 2 0 2 2 Willamette Week MAY 11, 2022 wweek.com

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The most inspirational, educational day of the year. Join us.

May 28.

Tickets on sale now at TEDxPortland.com

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FINDINGS CHRIS NESSETH

ONLY AT NEXT ADVENTURE Deals from 5/13-5/26/22

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VOL. 48, ISSUE 27

Ultralite and ultra compact. OFF

Two armed men demanded gift cards from Multnomah County health workers. 13 The forest surrounded Tamanawas Falls wasn’t included in an expansion of Mount Hood wilderness. 14 An upcoming documentary is about hiking as a Black woman with chronic pain. 19

Dawn Jones Redstone left a career in carpentry for the director’s chair. 22

Triangle Productions’ new musical is about real-life sex workers on a barge in 1800s Portland. 25 The owner of Yes Please Smash Burger no longer eats meat. 26

Portland author David H. Wilson Jr. met with descendants of the Northern Paiutes to untangle the tragedy of the Bannock War of 1878. 30

ON THE COVER:

OUR MOST TRAFFICKED STORY ONLINE THIS WEEK:

Film writer and director Dawn Jones Redstone at Desert Island Studios, photo by Jordan Hundelt.

Former freelance reporter arrested on charges of vandalizing temples and setting fire at mosque.

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DIALOGUE HE T T A Y F I T TES TER R A H C D N PORTLA ION MAY COMMISS ARINGS PUBLIC HENOVEMBER E BEFORE THCTION ELE Sign up at www.portland.gov/omf/charterreview-commission CharterReview@portlandoregon.gov

Last week, WW scrutinized the unlikely candidacy of Carrick Flynn for Oregon’s new congressional seat.

Flynn, 35, is mostly unknown to residents of his district—but they’ve been blanketed by TV commercials and mailers for Flynn funded by cryptocurrency billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried. Flynn has introduced himself to few people outside of those ads. WW examined his candidacy, and obtained 25 minutes of his time for an interview. Here’s what our readers had to say: JOE DOWNS, VIA FACEBOOK:

“Yeah, it’s totally normal for a 30-something who has lived here for months of his adult life to helicopter in with millions of dollars. Definitely don’t ask any questions.”

KENDALL HORN, VIA WWEEK.COM: “Reminds me

of Chauncey the Gardener but with less people skills and appeal.”

POPPY ALEXANDER, VIA TWITTER: “Oregonians are

proudly intense about your right to claim Oregon identity (just ask Nick Kristof or read the excellent essay from Leah Sottile on it). This FTX/Sam Bankman-Fried campaign to remotely own a section of the state as a crypto utopia is thus extra, extra weird.”

STEVERINO, VIA WWEEK. COM: “Gee, how terrible he’s

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not on the party list of the government faithful.

“Looking at what D’s have done for Oregon, I think that’s a positive. WTH is so wrong

transparency, for me, clearly makes a candidate unworthy of my vote—and my trust. Over and above a complete lack of experience.”

UHOH HOTDOG, VIA WWEEK. COM: “WW is just mad the guy

about getting someone with new ideas since the old ones are not working real great?”

wouldn’t genuflect to their interview request. Not that WW is even distributed across the district in question. They are saying, without any evidence to back it up, that he will be subservient to his funder.

What a wretched excuse for journalism.”

ELAINE LINDBERG, VIA TWITTER: “I never got past the

EASTSIDEACTIVITIES, VIA WWEEK.COM: “Can you imag-

report that he’s only voted twice in 30 years—no matter where he lived.”

BABA BENJI JI, VIA FACEBOOK: “Flynn does not give

straight answers to any of the questions in this interview.

He’s the kind of Democrat who will help maintain the balance of power in D.C. by losing the election.”

MICHAEL M, VIA WWEEK. COM: “This guy aggressively

avoids the media for months, leaving the public with no choice but to make inferences based on the millions he’s getting from a few individuals from outside Oregon.

“Now he whines about being ‘misunderstood.’

“He has in no way demonstrated he is (1) qualified to serve Oregonians in D.C. or (2) trustworthy. A lack of

Dr. Know

ine using your last question to go on about how self-sacrificial you are instead of how you want to serve the Oregonians of the 6th District? All this money, and he doesn’t seem to have had even the most basic messaging training. Which means he just doesn’t care as much as he insists. ‘I don’t like campaign finance’—that’s like saying, “I don’t like environmental.”

It just doesn’t have even a rhetorical meaning. Taking big money, fine, it’s a long tradition enjoyed by both sides. But to not even dial in a platform? It’s just insulting to his would-be constituents.”

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: PO Box 10770, Portland OR, 97296 Email: mzusman@wweek.com

BY MARTY SMITH @martysmithxxx

I know anti-theft wheel locks on shopping carts are designed to trip at the edge of the lot, but how? And how come half the time the wheels are locked when the cart is quite close to (or even inside) the store, nowhere near the edge of the lot?

—The Squeaky Wheel We’ve come a long way since Elmer Isaacks patented the first shopping cart wheel lock back in 1968. Until then, anyone could make off with a shopping cart at will and abandon it in the nearest park, pond or private yard whenever they got bored. Thank God such things are unheard of in today’s wheel lock-enabled utopia.

Isaacks’ wheel lock enforced the cart perimeter with a row of magnets under the pavement.

When a cart rolled over the line, a magnetic mechanism would push a rod through a hole in the wheel, like a stick through the spokes of a bicycle.

Modern systems are more sophisticated, if less elegant: Today’s perimeter is just a buried wire carrying electric pulses. An induction coil in the wheel picks up these pulses and passes them to an onboard computer, which, sensing its moment, responds by activating an internal,

motor-driven braking system.

These different approaches to the same problem have one thing in common: Both can be defeated by simply keeping the locking wheel a few feet above the perimeter line, usually by doing a quick shopping-cart wheelie as you cross. (Some stores now use two locking wheels on opposite corners, making this exploit impossible without hoisting the entire cart over your head, Hulk style.)

So, if locking wheels are so easy to beat, why bother? Well, they’re still better than nothing; every cart saved is $150 you don’t spend. But it’s also because these systems don’t just fight cart theft, many also fight “pushout theft,” also known as “filling your cart and walking out without paying.”

When a cart enters the store, the lock is armed, and will engage if it goes out the door without first going through a checkout line. It’s a cute system, but you can see how it might get confused and lock up an innocent cart occasionally. Since the average pushout costs $560, it’s worth the trouble to the retailer—especially when that trouble falls mostly on folks like you and me, Squeaky, with our square-wheeled carts.

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

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SUSPECT IN MOSQUE ARSON FORMER JOURNALIST CHARGED WITH BIAS CRIMES: A former freelance journalist has been charged with five felonies and five bias crimes after an alleged spree of vandalism against Portland houses of worship. Michael Bivins, 34, allegedly scrawled “Die Juden” on the wall of Congregation Beth Israel on May 2, set fire to the Muslim Community Center of Portland while people were inside the building May 3, and smashed a window of Black-owned restaurant Everybody Eats on May 1, among several other incidents. Bivins allegedly confessed to a Fox 12 reporter May 4 that he had desecrated the Jewish temple and set fire to the mosque, describing his dislike of religion and Jews in particular. From 2017 to 2019, Bivins was a freelance journalist and videographer who covered street protests for news outlets that included WW. A court document says Bivins has been unemployed and homeless for the past six months, sleeping on the streets and at his mother’s home.

On May 9, a judge set bail at $45,000 and ordered Bivins to remain at least 150 feet away from three houses of worship. His public defender declined to comment.

CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE STARTS UNION DRIVE AT INTEL: In what could become Oregon’s most significant unionization drive in decades, congressional candidate (and Intel engineer) Matt West plans to announce at a March 11 press conference an effort to create a union for Intel’s semiconductor engineers. West has been working with the Communication Workers of America on the effort. “For far too long, Intel has used and abused its workforce,” West said in a statement.

“It’s time to fight back.…We call on President Biden to be true to his word by ensuring that Intel continues to receive federal contracts only if it agrees to this neutrality agreement. Together, we can begin to transform Intel, manufacturing, and American labor relations.” West also called on Intel not to fight the unionization drive. Intel representatives did not respond to requests for comment. West is one of the six leading Democrats seeking to be the party’s nominee for Oregon’s new, 6th Congressional District.

SEX TRADE OPPONENTS EMERGE: On May 5, Aaron Boonshoft, the wealthy Portland investor

seeking to decriminalize sex work in Oregon, withdrew his initiative petition, ending his effort to strike prostitution statutes from state law this year.

A day later, a national anti-sex trafficking group debuted on the Oregon stage, celebrating the campaign’s demise and pledging to oppose similar ballot measures in future. World Without Exploitation is a New York-based nonprofit that has previously opposed efforts to decriminalize sex work in Rhode Island and Vermont. National director Lauren Hersh tells WW her group coordinated with local advocates and the Portland law firm Harrang Long Gary Rudnick PC to challenge the initiative’s draft ballot title with the Oregon secretary of state. That challenge makes clear the group’s objection: The initiative would have legalized the purchase of sex, as well as third-party facilitation.

“We never want to see criminal penalties for people sold in the sex trade,” Hersh says. “But we want to see pimps, brothel owners and sex buyers held responsible for the devastating harm they cause.”

Amy Ruiz, a political strategist assisting the Initiative Petition 51 campaign, says it ran out of time to gather signatures. “While this measure has been withdrawn for 2022,” Ruiz adds, “Mr. Boonshoft remains fully committed to the sex worker-led decriminalization movement.”

COVID SURGES IN PORTLAND REGION: Multnomah County again leads the state in highest number of COVID-19 cases per capita as the state faces an increase in infections. The county saw 297.5 cases per 100,000 people in the week of May 1-7, according to Oregon Health Authority data. That’s the highest rate since the Omicron wave began to abate in early February. In the state’s outbreak report last week, 16 Oregon workplaces had ongoing outbreaks of five or more cases; 12 were in Multnomah County, including four Amazon sites, six New Seasons, North Portland’s Ecliptic Brewing, and Legacy Good Samaritan in Northwest. “We are seeing cases and hospitalizations starting to increase, and that was expected,” said Dr. Paul Cieslak, medical director for communicable diseases and immunizations at OHA, in a May 4 statement. “COVID-19 continues to be transmitted at high levels in Oregon. If you’re in large groups, sooner or later you’ll be exposed.”

Willamette Week MAY 11, 2022 wweek.com

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NEWS

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW THIS WEEK

INBOX

Mailer Awards The most noteworthy arrivals in Portland-area mailboxes.

You’ve got mail—and it’s got plenty to say.

Portland-area voters have been deluged by campaign mailers in the final days leading up to the May 17 primary election. Candidates use the glossy flyers to make their best case. That’s especially important with statewide voter turnout below 10% at press deadline. We leafed through more than 50 pieces of mail this week, and selected the arguments and images that caused us to raise our collective eyebrows.

N I G E L JAQ U I S S , S O P H I E P E E L , R AC H E L M O N A H A N A N D AARON MESH.

Most Ruthless Attack: Challenger Jamie McLeod-Skinner is going hard after incumbent U.S. Rep. Kurt Schrader (D-Ore.) in the Democratic primary for the 5th Congressional District. One mailer shows a grim-faced adolescent girl injecting her bare midriff beside the (accurate) caption: “Congressman Kurt Schrader voted against reducing the price of her insulin.”

Most Unlikely Coalition: In 2019, Schrader vocally opposed the reelection of U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) as House speaker. “Her time has come and gone,” Schrader told WW before the vote. “She’s actually a liability.” Now, Schrader, in the fight of his career with McLeod-Skinner, who is running to his left in a swing district, features Pelosi in a mailer with the tagline “Speaker Nancy Pelosi has a vital message for Oregonians...Kurt Schrader is the only Democrat who can win in November.”

Most Prominent Use of Tents and Children: Daniel Nguyen, a Lake Oswego city councilor and small business owner running in the Democratic primary for Oregon House District 38, used the two most reliable tactics of mailer season: kids and fear. In one mailer, a tarp structure surrounded by junk and shopping carts filled with blankets and boxes is paired with the caption “No one should have to call this a home.” In another, Nguyen surrounds himself with five elementary school-aged children.

Most Negative Local Campaign: Brian Decker is seeking to unseat incumbent Washington County District Attorney Kevin Barton, and both men are campaigning viciously. One Decker flyer writes about Barton: “More gun crimes? More racial discrimination in the DA’s office? More bullying of sexual assault victims and refusing to believe their stories?” paired with a photo of Barton looking stunned. A Barton flyer writes that Decker “has worked to defund the police and abolish Oregon’s prisons.…We’ve seen the results of his failed policies in Portland, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.” The front of the Barton flyer shows an expansive grassy field with the words: “Keep Portland extremists out of Washington County.”

Most Creative Use of Stock Photography: Carrick Flynn, the cryptocurrency-backed Democratic candidate for Oregon’s 6th Congressional District, leads off one mailer with the story of his family being displaced by the 1996 10

Willamette Week MAY 11, 2022 wweek.com

Vernonia flood. “As a child, Carrick Flynn’s family was met with tragedy,” it says. That’s true. But the accompanying photo of swamped homes is a stock image, used on dozens of websites to illustrate flood damage. It’s unclear what floodplain it shows, but it’s not Vernonia.

Most Prominent Disclaimer: A Washington County Democrats mailer offers a slate of candidates the party endorses. But it arrived at a WW staffer’s home with a sticker affixed to the back. “In light of the recent information we have received regarding Kathryn Harrington and John Hutzler,” it reads, “I cannot in good faith come to your

door and ask you to place your vote for them.” Both Harrington, the county chair, and Hutzler, the county auditor, have been accused of bullying employees.

Honorable Mention: Five of the leading Republican candidates for governor—Bud Pierce, Bob Tiernan, Christine Drazan, Stan Pulliam and Kerry McQuisten—allegedly failed to disclose who paid for campaign flyers, according to a complaint filed with the Secretary of State’s Office on April 29. Under a requirement passed by the Legislature in 2019, candidates’ campaigns must disclose their full name and committee ID while PACs must disclose their top donors.

NEWS SAM GEHRKE

DISPUTE

Rolled On ODOT’s investment in an Astoria shipyard has a Portland competitor crying foul.

Frank Manning helps run Diversified Marine, a shipyard in North Portland that repairs tugboats and barges. He might raise his voice at the May 12 meeting of the Oregon Transportation Commission.

Manning wants to block the state’s plan to grant a massive subsidy to a competing shipyard down the Columbia River that has already scored big government subsidies.

The Oregon Department of Transportation is unfairly picking winners and creating losers, Manning says.

“There’s no net benefit to the state here,” he adds.

On May 12, the OTC will dole out $46 million for nonhighway projects, including $14 million to Hyak Tongue Point, a new shipyard in Astoria.

Hyak, a venture owned by shipping magnates Bob Dorn and Gordon Smith (not to be confused with the former U.S. senator), bought North Tongue Point in 2017. Officials then gave the project a five-year property tax break and included it in an Oregon opportunity zone, which could mean no capital gains taxes when the property sells. Hyak then landed $7 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds and $350,000 from the governor’s strategic reserve, and will benefit from a $9 million dredging project by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Manning is raising a stink and says Oregonians should care because ODOT is shirking its responsibility to invest scarce resources in projects that will create new jobs, not cannibalize existing ones.

DOWNRIVER: Local shipyards fear subsidy for Astoria.

Here are the objections of Diversified and JT Marine, another affected shipyard, and ODOT spokesman Don Hamilton’s responses. N I G E L J AQ U I S S .

1. Claim: Hyak’s estimate of the size of the market is wrong.

Manning and JT Marine owner Timo Toristoja say Hyak’s application to ODOT overestimates the potential market. They say they collectively did $16 million in business last year. Hyak says it can do $32 million by itself.

ODOT response: “The Connect Oregon process does not require a formal economic report,” Hamilton says. “The application only requires the applicant to describe the economic benefits to the state. In the case of the Hyak project, the project applicant chose to prepare an economic report, but it was not submitted as part of the application it was received later and therefore was not considered in the state’s economic review.”

2. Claim: ODOT’s investment would harm existing yards without creating new jobs.

Manning says the grant would allow Hyak to crush Diversified and JT Marine, another upriver operator in Rainier, Ore., and Vancouver, Wash.

The $14 million subsidy is nearly as much as Diversified and JT collectively grossed in their shipyards last year, Manning

says.

ODOT response: “There is not a formal process to evaluate each application about the potential impacts the project may or may not have,” Hamilton says. “The application as well as comments through various committees and even from the public hearing have acknowledged that a significant number of shipyards in Oregon and along the West Coast have shut down in recent years, meaning there are less locations today who can do this type of work. The application materials and many reviewers believed that this would mean a strong potential for a market that is underserved.”

3. Claim: The investors are from elsewhere and will buy foreign machinery.

Manning notes that Hyak, which is registered in Delaware, plans to purchase a $10 million ship-lifting device made by an Italian company that has extensive joint operations with a major Russian firm. “They could at least buy American,” Manning says.

ODOT response: “There is no requirement that applicants be from the state of Oregon,” Hamilton says. “Often, specialty equipment, materials and operational systems like software are produced in other countries. In this case, the applicant has stated this is the only manufacturer that meets their specified design and operational criteria, and ODOT can only take the applicants’ information on face value.”

CONTRIBUTIONS OF THE WEEK

Coins Across America Where else Sam Bankman-Fried has scattered his cryptocurrency fortune.

Cryptocurrency billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried’s money is backing Democrats across the country who are facing competitive primary races. Nowhere has his political action committee spent more than in Oregon’s 6th Congressional District, where Bankman-Fried is backing political novice Carrick Flynn (“Bitcoin Republic,” WW, May 4). Elsewhere in the country, the PAC picked an incumbent and, in all cases other than Flynn, candidates with legislative track records.

Perhaps most notably for Oregon voters, Bankman-Fried donated $2 million to a cryptocurrency-backed PAC, which in turn is spending in another Oregon primary through an affiliated PAC. Oregon Labor Commissioner Val Hoyle is the presumed front-runner in the 4th Congressional District and is getting a boost from more than a half-million dollars in independent expenditures from Web3 Forward. Hoyle hasn’t gone on the record about cryptocurrency regulations but is considered a moderate Democrat.

“When our media consultant who tracks TV notified us that the group Web3 Forward had

placed a TV buy, we were trying to figure out who it was supporting,” say Hoyle campaign manager Logan Gilles. “We saw the ad the same time everybody else did.”

WW looked through Federal Election Commission records to see who else is backed by Bankman-Fried. He has contributed $15 million to two super PACS, $13 million of which went to Protect Our Future. He donated another $24,000 directly to candidates and other PACS, FEC records show. R AC H E L M O N A H A N .

WHERE PROTECT OUR FUTURE PAC IS SPENDING MONEY: $10,277,511

Oregon 6th District Status: Open seat Candidate: Carrick Flynn

$1,919,430

Georgia 7th District Status: Two incumbent congresswomen redistricted into a competitive primary Candidate: U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath

$1,010,178 Ohio 11th District Status: U.S. Rep. Shontel Brown, the incumbent, faced a high-profile challenge from a Bernie Sanders backer, making for a rematch of a primary from last year.

Candidate: Brown won with aid from this and other super PACs.

$1,057,382

Texas 30th District Status: Open seat, retiring congresswoman Candidate: Jasmine Crockett, a state representative who has the backing of the retiring incumbent, as well as U.S. Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. She came in first in the primary but faces a runoff.

$982,063

North Carolina 4th District Status: Open seat, retiring congressman Candidate: Valerie Foushee, a state senator. She was called the “favorite of the party establishment” by the Raleigh News & Observer, but it is a competitive primary.

$971,553

Kentucky 3rd District Status: Open seat, retiring congressman Candidate: Morgan McGarvey, minority leader in the state senate and the fundraising leader in his race.

$6 million) that the cryptocurrency-backed super PAC GMI has reported raising in the past six months. The PAC is explicitly seeking to promote policies favorable to cryptocurrency, spending $10 million this primary election season—“crypto community’s campaign arm,” a backer called it in January. It transferred $2 million to affiliated super PAC Web3 Forward.

WHERE WEB3 FORWARD IS SPENDING MONEY: $504,208

Oregon 4th District Status: Open seat, U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio retiring Candidate: Val Hoyle, who serves as Oregon labor commissioner, is considered the front-runner.

$212,787

Pennsylvania, U.S. Senate Status: Open seat, retiring senator Candidate: Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, a progressive, is considered the front-runner.

$1,324,740

Candidate backed by Protect Our Future and Web3 Forward Texas 30th District Status: Open seat, retiring congresswoman Candidate: Jasmine Crockett

Bankman-Fried contributed $2 million (of the Willamette Week MAY 11, 2022 wweek.com

11

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TAKE TWO

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NEWS BLAKE BENARD

TROUBLED TOWN: A consultant identified violence and drug use as security risks in the blocks surrounding the McCoy Building.

Breakdown A consultant’s report shows county health workers in Old Town fear for their safety.

BY S O P H I E P E E L

speel@wweek .com

Multnomah County officials were so alarmed by threats to the safety of health department employees in downtown Portland that they paid a security consultant $8,500 this spring to assess risks at the Gladys McCoy Health Department Headquarters in Old Town.

That report, delivered to the county by Foresight Security Consulting on March 15, was frank. “The density of unsanctioned homeless camping immediately around the McCoy Building represents the most immediate, consistent, and palpable threat to the safety and security of the employees and contractors in the McCoy Building,” the report concluded.

The McCoy Building is a gleaming, nine-story medical center across from Union Station. At full capacity, it contains more than 400 county health workers who work at a pharmacy and three medical clinics, along with administrative workers and mental health care and addiction treatment staff. (It’s operating at around 25% capacity currently.)

Streets around the building are regularly lined with tents. The building sits at the epicenter of a hurting Portland: The area around Union Station, the report says, is rife with drug addiction, homelessness and mental illness.

Unlike the high-rise apartment and office buildings nearby, the McCoy Building is largely there to serve the people living in those tents.

But over the past year, an increasing number of violent and threatening incidents at county health facilities, including McCoy, have left health care workers scared to come to work, ac-

cording to internal county documents obtained

by WW that summarized employee forums on safety held between January and March. A report on those forums says employees, some of them outreach workers in the field, fear their workplaces because of what goes on outside.

“I live alone; no one would know if I didn’t make it back,” one employee told county officials.

One employee recalled debating with his wife whether he should start wearing a bulletproof vest to work. A female employee reported being verbally harassed and having objects thrown at her. Another woman reported being assaulted twice on the same day, including being punched in the face.

Employees have been chased down the street by people with weapons. A man once threatened to kill an employee, accusing him of sleeping with his wife. One manager wrote: “Of my core team, 10 have had orders of protection against others who have been threatening them.”

These workers are not business owners who think tents and trash are cutting into their profits, or homeowners worried about declining property values. They are health workers keenly aware of overlapping systemic failures that land people, many of them county patients, both housed and unhoused, in situations that pose a threat to the workers.

And in documents, many workers say that threat presents them with an ethical quandary: They don’t want to involve law enforcement, fearing that police will make matters worse.

But they also fear for their own lives.

PERVERSE INCENTIVE Last fall, Multnomah County tried to encourage COVID-19 vaccinations with $50 and $100 gift cards distributed at pop-up locations manned by county employees.

A Sept. 3 email from county health department director Ebony Clarke to employees describes what happened next: At two locations, county employees were threatened by armed men.

“Many of you have also had to manage conflict over the

“We don’t want to have our clients become justice-involved, especially our BIPOC clients,” one worker wrote. “We’re very close to our clients. At the same time, our clients who are undergoing meth psychosis have expansive aggressive outbursts—we’ve had our walls broken.”

The fears reported at McCoy Building and other county health clinics aren’t exceptional—in the past year, other county public spaces, such as libraries, have seen an increase in employees’ fear for their safety—but they are perhaps the most potent examples of the dangers public employees face.

The county says it’s taking steps to make McCoy a safer space.

McCoy “is one of a number of clinics, libraries and other county services that has experienced changes in the acuity of people nearby who need behavioral health interventions, changes in neighborhood dynamics, and increases in community violence,” says Julie Sullivan-Springhetti, a county spokeswoman. “We are committed to developing and maintaining safer places for our staff and our clients.”

Jessica Vega Pederson, a county commissioner who’s running for chair, tells WW she supports “lobby security, deescalation training, and working with partners on safety around the area could be most helpful.”

Commissioner Sharon Meieran, who’s also running for chair, tells WW she agrees with employees “that the county is not taking their concerns seriously enough.”

Employees feel the county has done little to make them safer.

“There’s always been problems there since the opening of the building, and it’s gotten increasingly worse,” says Rachel O’Rourke, a union representative for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 88, which represents county employees.

“Why is it taking so long for the county to realize this is dire?”

“I live alone; no one would know if I didn’t make it back.”

The March 15 consultant’s report detailed a number of improvements the county could make. Some were simple, like increasing security guards’ presence around the building.

Others were ambitious, like purchasing the nearby Greyhound terminal, turning it into a four-story parking lot, and then suspending a sky bridge attaching the two buildings. Or sending out patrols on the surrounding streets and bulletproofing the building’s exterior.

Foresight Consulting also sprinkled in a little tension between the county and city: Use Mayor Ted Wheeler’s words to prod the city into action.

incentives and put up with verbal abuse from members of the community/general public,” wrote Clarke, who assured workers the county was beefing up security.

Some patrons sought additional gift cards after having just been given a vaccine shot. When employees refused, patrons occasionally got verbally and sometimes physically aggressive.

“The desperation was understandable,” says union representative Rachel O’Rourke. “It was basically putting a pile of cash with a bunch of county employees, and there was a level of desperation that I don’t think the county planned on or understood.”

The consultant quoted Wheeler saying in March the city would do all it could to transition people off the streets. The consultant wrote the county should “capitalize” on it and “encourage the city of Portland to remove campers from adjacent to the [safe rest village] and Greyhound shelter.”

The city is responsible for conducting sweeps of homeless camps, something the county has no part in. Sweeps are highly contentious, as they create instability for vulnerable people with nowhere to go.

The county tells WW it did not ask the city to sweep the camps. But it did apply opaque film to a portion of the building windows, created a new way of reporting incidents, offered deescalation training and asked the Portland Police Bureau to help curb drug deals around the building. (Police Chief Chuck Lovell, according to the county, told Multnomah County Chair Deborah Kafoury that “there were limits to the bureau’s ability to be proactive.” The county says it’s reviewing the report for further action.

Prior to the report, the county had already taken some steps to improve safety. It offered clinic employees personal safety alarms, offered escorts to and from transportation to the clinic, hired additional security guards, and gave employees parking vouchers for January through March, reasoning that once the days got longer daylight would deter incidents.

The union representing workers in the building, however, says the county has taken few meaningful actions after the report.

Joslyn Baker, Local 88’s president, says the parking passes were a “small concession that was really, really hard to get. And it came after an incident.”

“What’s the tipping point? What is it going to take to activate them?” Baker asks.

Such frustration is not new at the building: Two months ago, WW reported that the building’s HIV clinic was supposed to have a negative air pressure room to protect patrons from the spread of COVID-19, but in fact the clinic had no such room. Despite this, it took the county more than a year to move forward with a plan to install negative pressure rooms.

The county insists it’s taking safety at the McCoy Building seriously.

“After one of the most disruptive social and economic periods in our history, the county is focused on increasing the security of patients and employees across our system,” Sullivan-Springhetti says. “We are committed to developing and maintaining safer places for our staff and our clients.”

But the tenor of employee comments in the county report shared with WW was desperation and frustration: “When the email goes out, and all the way at the bottom it lists options for therapy. That infuriates me,” one person wrote.

“Employees don’t need therapy, they need to feel heard.”

In the wake of the incidents, the union asked the county to halt its incentive program until stricter security protocols were adopted. County Chair Deborah Kafoury said no, according to AFSCME Local 88 then-president Percy Winters in an email to members Sept. 13: “The chair stated she would not end the program at this time.”

The chair defends her approach.

“I was not going to outright stop a program that so obviously would save lives,” Kafoury tells WW. “Instead, I increased security, ensuring our security contractor was at most events, moved teams to safer locations, and shut down any clinic if an incident occurred.” SP. Willamette Week MAY 11, 2022 wweek.com

13

NEWS

Whose Woods Are These?

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A new bill to protect Mount Hood includes substantially fewer protections than environmentalists wanted.

BY N I G E L J AQ U I S S

njaquiss@wweek .com

Steve Pedery and U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) see Mount Hood a little differently.

Pedery, the conservation director of Oregon Wild, had mixed feelings about a December map his team prepared, which detailed the proposed expansion of conservation protections in the 1.1 million-acre Mount Hood National Forest.

The map showed the addition of about 30,000 acres designated “wilderness.” That means the land is off-limits to logging, and it prohibits the use of any mechanized equipment, from road graders to chainsaws to recreational vehicles—including mountain bikes. Pedery and his colleagues had hoped for more.

On May 11, the Blumenauer-penned Mt. Hood and Columbia River Gorge Recreation Enhancement and Conservation Act gets its first hearing. But instead of adding 30,000 acres of new wilderness protection, it would add just 7,500 acres.

That 75% reduction was enough for Oregon Wild, which has 3,500 dues-paying members and a 25,000name email list, to withdraw support and activate its constituents to contact Blumenauer.

“This bill is a fiasco,” Pedery says. “It feels like the kid who showed up for class not having read the book report his parents wrote for him and submitting an entirely different report he wrote on the back of an envelope.”

Wilderness designation is the highest level of protection federal land can have. A 2009 bill protects 127,000 acres in the Mount Hood National Forest with that label. But Oregon contains about half the wilderness that Idaho and Washington have set aside on a percentage basis, and just a third of what California has preserved.

Oregon Wild had hoped a new Mount Hood bill would help change that. The group worked for much of the past decade on a bill it hoped would protect a chunk of the remaining 178,000 acres in the forest it believes qualifies as wilderness.

That didn’t happen. In fact, the proposed wilderness area shrank and excluded two of Oregon Wild’s highest priorities: Tamanawas Falls and Boulder Lake.

That reduction highlights a fundamental conflict over Mount Hood. The urban and suburban hikers Oregon Wild represents make up a substantial segment of voters in Blumenauer’s district.

But Blumenauer’s newly redrawn district shifted to the east, picking up Hood River County and the east side of Mount Hood. Constituents there have different interests from his neighbors in Northeast Portland.

(His spokeswoman, Hillary Barbour, says the boundary change didn’t alter Blumenauer’s priorities.)

Pedery says the draft bill fails to recognize the ex-

SOURCE: OREGON WILD

LIVE performance and signing

DOROTHY

at music millennium

saturday 1pm may 14th

traordinary increase in recreational use of Mount Hood and makes it easier rather than harder for the U.S. Forest Service to sell more timber.

Blumenauer says that’s a misreading of the bill. He says Pedery’s criticism also fails to consider the broad range of interests that have a stake in Mount Hood.

“My record on wilderness areas is pretty strong,” Blumenauer says, “but the bill has to be supportable and something that can be passed.”

Blumenauer says that far from being a capitulation, his bill designates 350,000 more acres as national recreational area and represents a first-in-the-nation effort to allow tribal co-management. The Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs’ reservation lies east of Mount Hood.

Tribal council chairman Jonathan Smith said the bill “ensures that tribal interests and traditional ecological knowledge are integrated into forest management for the benefit of all Oregonians.”

Blumenauer adds that groups whose visions of Mount Hood diverge from Oregon Wild’s, including mountain bikers and agricultural interests, also helped shape the bill. (Nate Kuder, president of the Oregon Mountain Biking Coalition, calls the bill a “transformational model of public land conservation.”)

Blumenauer disputes any assertion he wants to make it easier for the Forest Service to sell timberº.

“The timber industry is not my most enthusiastic support group,” Blumenauer says. “We’ve been dealing with this [wilderness] issue around Mount Hood for years. The easy stuff is gone. What we’ve got left with Mount Hood is where there aren’t many obvious candidates for additional wilderness.”

Blumenauer says in recent months that input from

Warm Springs and others on the east side of Mount Hood helped shape the final bill—and reduced the acreage that could become wilderness.

One of the people pleased with the result is longtime Hood River County Commissioner Les Perkins, who in his day job manages Farmers Irrigation District.

Perkins says the five Hood River irrigation districts have water rights on Mount Hood that preceded the creation of the Forest Service. Floods, fires and other events in the watersheds that supply those districts frequently require mechanical fixes—but they are forbidden in wilderness areas.

“For the past couple of months, Earl Blumenauer and his staff have been very engaged,” Perkins says. “We showed them our [geographic information system] maps of where our infrastructure is located, and they moved their boundaries.”

All constituents recognize the need for more and better-maintained hiking and riding trails, Perkins says, and he thinks Blumenauer’s bill, which proposes funding for such expansions as well as wildfire assessments, can deliver that.

Pedery is unconvinced. He says the additional national recreation area designation is “greenwashing.”

Not only does the bill put the Pacific Crest Trail and other iconic terrain at risk, but it fails to prioritize recreation over timber sales. It proposes expanding justifications for cutting to include improving watersheds, enhancing scenic character, and increasing carbon sequestration. Pedery says it’s impossible to do any of those things by cutting down trees.

“We normally have a good relationship with Blumenauer, but this doesn’t feel like a Blumenauer bill,” Pedery says. “The people we represent in his constituency want more wilderness.”

N O T I C E . R E F L E C T. H E A L .

Willamette Week MAY 11, 2022 wweek.com

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NEWS

WW’S MAY 2022

ENDORSEMENTS Ballots are due by 8 pm Tuesday, May 17.

Here’s who we recommend you vote for.

HOUSE DISTRICT 27 (Beaverton, Cedar Hills)

PORTLAND CITY COUNCIL Position 2

Ken Helm

Dan Ryan

Democrat

HOUSE DISTRICT 28 (Southwest Portland, Washington County)

Patrick Castles

GOVERNOR

Tina Kotek Democrat Christine Drazan Republican OREGON LABOR COMMISSIONER

Christina Stephenson

Nonpartisan

Ron Wyden Democrat Darin Harbick Republican U.S. HOUSE DISTRICT 1

Suzanne Bonamici

Brian Stout

Republican

HOUSE DISTRICT 34 (Washington County) Democrat

HOUSE DISTRICT 35 (Aloha)

Farrah Chaichi

Jamie McLeod-Skinner Democrat Jimmy Crumpacker Republican U.S. HOUSE DISTRICT 6

Andrea Salinas Democrat Ron Noble Republican SENATE DISTRICT 19 (Lake Oswego, West Linn) Republican

Jo Ann Hardesty PORTLAND CITY AUDITOR

Simone Rede METRO COUNCIL PRESIDENT

HOUSE DISTRICT 38 (Lake Oswego)

Lynn Peterson

Daniel Nguyen

METRO COUNCIL District 2 (Lake Oswego, Milwaukie, Oregon City)

Democrat

HOUSE DISTRICT 40 (Oregon City, Gladstone)

Christine Lewis

Charles Gallia Democrat Adam Baker Republican

METRO COUNCIL District 6 (Southeast and Southwest Portland)

HOUSE DISTRICT 41 (Milwaukie)

Mark Gamba Democrat Bob “Elvis” Clark Republican

SENATE DISTRICT 26 (Hood River, The Dalles)

HOUSE DISTRICT 45 (Northeast Portland)

Daniel Bonham

Thuy Tran

Republican

PORTLAND CITY COUNCIL Position 3

Democrat

Democrat

U.S. HOUSE DISTRICT 5

Wendy O’Riley

HOUSE DISTRICT 31 (St. Helens, Scappoose)

Lisa Reynolds

U.S. SENATE

Republican

Democrat

Duncan Hwang MULTNOMAH COUNTY CHAIR

Jessica Vega Pederson MULTNOMAH COUNTY COMMISSIONER District 2 (North and Northeast Portland)

Susheela Jayapal

HOUSE DISTRICT 26 (Sherwood, Wilsonville)

HOUSE DISTRICT 52 (East Multnomah County)

MULTNOMAH COUNTY SHERIFF

Glenn Lancaster

Jeff Helfrich

Nicole Morrissey O’Donnell

Republican

Republican

Willamette Week MAY 11, 2022 wweek.com

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N O I T U L O V E

, A R E M A C , S LI G HT

R 18

Willamette Week MAY 11, 2022 wweek.com

Five filmmakers who are re the cinema of the Pacific N

eshaping Northwest.

J O R D A N H U N D E LT

N

The Adventurer With her documentary Black Girl in the Woods, Kisha Jarrett confronts the vastness of nature and her own chronic pain. ilm is always dead—until it isn’t.

Prestige TV was supposed to make movies superfluous, but the relevance of “cinematic” shows like Game of Thrones has waned. The pandemic was supposed to doom moviegoing, but reopened theaters has given rise to post-COVID hits both obvious (Spider-Man: No Way Home) and obscure (Drive My Car).

And while streaming has been heralded as the future, Netflix’s woes—the company recently announced it had lost 200,000 subscribers and expects to lose 2 million more in the coming months—suggest otherwise.

While movies and movie theaters aren’t going anywhere, the film industry is still experiencing an age of disruption—and the five filmmakers we chose for this week’s cover stories are thriving in it.

When we set out to profile directors who personify the innovative spirit of Oregon independent cinema, our goal was to seek out artists who, in different ways, are creative revolutionaries.

We spoke to people who are telling stories that many audiences—particularly white ones—have never seen before, including what it’s like to be a Black woman hiking with chronic pain (page 19) or a Pakistani couple on a date at a McDonald’s (page 20).

We also interviewed a Portland expatriate who returned in the summer of 2020 to film a guerrilla-style short (page 21), a former carpenter making a feature about motherhood (page 22), and a director whose willingness to wear countless cinematic hats led her to take a job as a script supervisor on a video game movie (page 23).

Some of these filmmakers currently operate in Portland and some of them don’t. All of them have films in the works that were shot in Oregon, but we decided not to limit ourselves to people who live here.

Why? Because the state’s film industry is a vast, treelike enterprise whose branches extend across the nation and around the world. And all of the directors featured in these pages have one thing in common: They’re helping it grow.

—Bennett Campbell Ferguson, Assistant Arts & Culture Editor

BY G R AC E C U L H A N E

Something happened to Kisha Jarrett in Iceland. In 2019, while fulfilling a lifelong dream to visit Reykjavik, the New York filmmaker scaled a glacier. She remembers her guides handing her a pair of clamps for her boots, a harness, and an ice ax, and sending her on her way.

“I got to the top and I felt like the king of the world, champion of all things,” Jarrett remembers.

That feeling was new for a woman who had been diagnosed with lupus in 2016 and struggling with chronic pain from the disease for years. Jarrett, who was living in Portland at the time, returned home from Reykjavik hungry for her next adventure. The experience inspired her documentary Black Girl in the Woods, about her experience hiking as a Black woman with lupus.

“For the most part, people don’t understand what lupus is, or if they do, they don’t understand the level of pain we’re in,” Jarrett says. “People with lupus, we manage pain all the time. We often don’t even tell people we’re in pain until it gets to, like, a 10.”

After spending so much time alienated from her body, Jarrett came home from Iceland ready to seek out new forms of movement, particularly hiking. It was a transformation that had already been in the works when she moved to Portland.

“I bought a Jeep and became the kind of person who goes on waterfall hikes,” she quips. After scaling the glacier, she began hiking more seriously. She adjusted to a more active, outdoorsy lifestyle after years of being shut off from the part of herself that loved to move.

Jarrett grew up in Virginia, where she was a competitive cheerleader and a gymnast, in addition to playing soccer and softball. She approached Black Girl in the Woods eager to be an athlete again.

“I was in so much pain,” she says. “A body that is not in motion does not stay in motion. You start to lose all of that. All of these touchstones I had about myself—I was this athlete—I couldn’t do that stuff anymore. So when I [climbed the glacier] I was like, this is the thing I remember.”

By the summer of 2021, Jarrett had set her sights on a new challenge: the Pacific Northwest Trail, which runs through Montana, Idaho and Washington, straddling the Canadian border.

It’s not to be confused with the Pacific Crest Trail, which runs the length of the West Coast from Canada to Mexico and was the subject of Cheryl Strayed’s 2012 memoir Wild. The 1,200-mile Pacific Northwest Trail is less popular than the PCT, attracting only about 50 thru-hikers per year, compared to the roughly 700 to 800 people who attempt the PCT annually.

Jarrett, a lifelong artist, decided she would turn the experience into a feature-length film. As a Black woman, she had a feeling her story would resonate with viewers who weren’t used to being represented in media about thru-hikers, who bring all of their equipment with them on their backs and complete trails from start to finish, sometimes enduring hundreds or thousands of miles of hiking.

Jarrett wanted to reach people of color who love the outdoors but have shied away from pursuing their passion. “Walking into REI as a person of color is hella intimidating,” she says.

She believes many people of color don’t realize the resources available to them: “Even if someone [at the store] is nice and polite, it’s like, ‘Oh, wait, I can just go up to somebody and they’ll fit me for a pack?’ The intimidation starts outside the store.”

The shape of the documentary shifted completely when Jarrett arrived at the Pacific Northwest Trail.

On her first day of hiking, she tore the tendons in both of her feet. The injuries dashed her hopes for that year—she would have to wear orthopedic boots on both feet for eight weeks and undergo eight more weeks of physical therapy to recover.

The injury also forced Jarrett to reconsider her approach to the documentary altogether. She found herself reflecting on her motives, the ways she might have been forcing herself into a mold better suited for hikers who weren’t dealing with chronic health issues.

“I failed spectacularly, no doubt about it. I absolutely did,” she says, laughing. “But at the same time, it raised this question: Why am I trying to fit myself into this measure of success? I have an autoimmune disease that prevents me from doing things in the same way that other people do them.”

Now, Jarrett is retooling Black Girl in the Woods.

The film will focus more generally on Black hikers and hikers with chronic illness, and she plans to take a broader, more holistic approach to telling their stories.

Jarrett is still hiking, but for now she’s set aside thru-hiking. Instead, she’s making sure the film takes into account the needs of her body. She wants to send the message that success for hikers with chronic illness can be on their own terms, and it might look a little different from success for other hikers.

This summer, Jarrett plans to walk part of the Camino in the U.K. So the journey of Black Girl in the Woods—her journey into nature and back into alignment with her own body—will continue.

“Why does success have to be that you got to the summit?” she asks. “Why can’t success be that you saw the sights, you did the thing?”

Willamette Week MAY 11, 2022 wweek.com

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The Time Traveler Ali Godil re-creates his parents’ date at a McDonald’s in American-istan.

BY C H A N C E S O L E M - P F E I F E R

@chance_ s _ p

Going to McDonald’s on a first date could be many things—an emergency, a joke, a practicality play, a humble suggestion to focus on one’s partner rather than the surroundings.

Yet in filmmaker Ali Godil’s debut, American-istan, the meaning of a Portland McDonald’s to a freshly immigrated Pakistani couple runs deeper still. For decades before the writer-director thought of fictionalizing his parents’ first date beneath the Golden Arches on film, dimensions of class, imperialism and alienation cemented the incident in his mind.

“When I first heard the story, I thought it was interesting because of the layers,” says Godil, whose film plays at the Oregon Short Film Festival on May 28 and the Brooklyn Film Festival on June 3-12 (where it will be available virtually).

In the vibrant, genre-hopping six minutes of American-istan, a young couple—Salim (Ricki Bhullar) and Iman (Esha More)—are practically strangers when they meet near Portland International Airport.

As Godil’s parents did at the time, Iman and Salim have an arranged marriage, and she’s joining her husband in the U.S. The film pivots from period comedy to romantic reverie to intimate human drama, as Salim and Iman navigate their expectations for new love in a strange land. (Spoiler alert: Iman is not expecting McDonald’s.)

Godil’s parents “were really touched” by the film when they attended its premiere at the Hollywood 20

Willamette Week MAY 11, 2022 wweek.com

Theatre on April 1, but their son won’t soon forget the first-date story’s emotional edges.

“My dad, when he tells it, was joking and playing it off,” Godil remembers. “My mom comes in and she’s like, ‘Oh, he tricked me. I got all dressed up and then he took me to McDonald’s.’ She felt betrayed and hurt.”

Both symbolically and stylistically substantive, American-istan is an assured debut. Godil says he’s trying to follow in the footsteps of Indian filmmaking icon Satyajit Ray, not only because they both started their careers in advertising, but because Ray’s Pather Panchali (the groundbreaking social-realist film from 1955) helped inspire American-istan’s observant approach to drama.

Godil also nods to Wong Kar-wai’s In the Mood for Love, mirroring its intense commitment to seduction and color—in this case, golds and red that evoke passion and prosperity (and McDonald’s).

Other influences stem from the director’s moviegoing history with his family—specifically, monthly visits to Cinemagic’s Bollywood screenings during his youth. Godil’s family would often delight in seeing ’90s Bollywood classics like Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge on the heels of family dinner at the Bombay Cricket Club. “We’d make a cultural experience out of it,” he says.

So it was meaningful for Godil to feature versions of his parents idyllically locking eyes across a verdant field, an homage to a classic scene from Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge between Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol.

In American-istan, the dreamy moment occurs with the PDX air traffic tower piercing the background—and arrives between a darkly comedic reference to racist airport security and a poetic verse borrowed from Muhammad Iqbal. Godil says his intuition told him these seemingly disparate pieces would fit.

“You can taste when flavors will work together,” Godil says. “Because of my background in design and film and [photography], I can tell when styles can complement

“They’re eating a German hamburger, listening to Spanish music. Two South Asians in a Japanese car.” each other and not clash.”

Perfecting the flavors of American-istan meant turning back the clock 35 years on Portland. In addition to era-appropriate costumes, music and a yellow Toyota Corolla hatchback, Godil’s crew needed a McDonald’s that time forgot. Thankfully, a Swan Island location had somehow eluded decades of remodeling and had no issue with its parking lot being used as a film set until 1 am.

Three months after shooting, the location closed.

“It was the last stand of this McDonald’s,” Godil says.

“All the other ones would’ve blown the period piece.”

Though he has cinephilic allegiances that range from Andrei Tarkovsky to Wes Anderson, filmmaking is still a relatively new frontier for Godil, who has operated his creative studio House of Gül since 2014 and produced work for Netflix, Facebook and the city of Portland.

He’s currently working on a second film (a feature, he hopes), focused on the experience of Afghan immigrants to the U.S. Inspired in part by stories from his in-laws, that project is still in its “frantic” early stages, but promises to continue parsing and humanizing the distinct perspectives too often shoveled into a generality like “the immigrant experience.”

For Godil, specifics matter. The final scene of American-istan depicts Salim and Iman shaking their hips to ’80s Latin bop on the radio, speculating on the lyrics’ meaning. They don’t know Spanish, but there’s a comfort in so many disparate components arriving in one place—even if that place is a Swan Island McDonald’s.

“They’re eating a German hamburger, listening to Spanish music,” Godil says. “Two South Asians in a Japanese car.”

L I V E AT I M A G O T H E AT R E

17 SE 8TH

BY JERRY MOUAWAD - JUNE 3 TO 18 A STAMPEDE RIFF OFF IONESCO’S ABSURD CLASSIC RHINOCERO

The Visionary Drawing strength from heartbreak, Maria Allred has found her voice.

BY BENNETT CAMPBELL FERGUSON @thobennett

In the summer of 2020, Maria Allred came to Portland to make Sacred Fool, a short film about a former opera singer (Damien Genardi) who becomes homeless in the midst of the pandemic.

In one scene, the singer encounters an old friend who is belting out an aria while riding a Onewheel at a park. At first, they’re delighted to see each other, but when the singer announces, “I’m living in a tent,” the friend coldly says, “All right, let’s…whatever,” refusing to offer help or even compassion.

The most disturbing thing about the scene, however, isn’t the friend’s reaction. It’s that the entire conversation was real.

“The guy, who used to sing opera with Damien in real life, didn’t know that Damien was playing a character,” Allred says. “He wasn’t even trying to hide the fact that he was judgmental. He did show his true colors.”

The scene is a testament to what Allred describes as “process-oriented” filmmaking. “I’m doing this style where you basically treat the art process like, ‘OK, we’re going to go into it and let life morph around us,’” she says. “Your perception is your voice.”

Allred’s voice is unique—too unique for some audiences. After the ruthless critical response to The Texture of Falling, her 2018 feature debut, she shifted from the dreaminess of Texture to the realism of Sacred Fool and Little Nations, her 2019 short following the journey a potentially momentous piece of mail.

Yet while Allred has grown, she remains unapologetically true to herself, both as an artist and as a human being. And when she speaks about the revitalizing power of heartbreak, she could arguably be talking about either film or life.

“A broken heart, if you want it to be, can be like a gateway or a portal into a stronger, more beautiful version of yourself or just another reality,” she says. “The broken heart is underestimated.”

Allred’s evolution over the past four years began with the Texture of Falling premiere, a glamorous and glorious affair. She screened the film at the OMSI’s Empirical Theater, then

showed up at the after party wearing a sparkling silver dress, seemingly unbothered by the film’s snide reviews.

A surreal romance with BDSM, improvisation and major Terrence Malick vibes, The Texture of Falling was always going to be a tough sell. But the reviews stung, not least of all because the film was a highly stylized metaphor for a breakup that Allred was emerging from.

“When someone would call The Texture pretentious, I’d be like, ‘Wow! I don’t know what it means, because I’m totally feeling like my guts are spilling out everywhere here,’” she says. “But in a way, that’s my life.”

Allred, who grew up in the Portland area, sought refuge in Chicago. “When I first found film, it was like a total fucking new love affair,” she says, adding that the response to her debut was a “test of a relationship. But I’m a strong person and I’m in things for the long haul.”

Allred eventually returned to Portland to make Sacred Fool, which is personal in a different way than Texture. When she was a teenager, she ran away from home and spent her days hitchhiking and living in the woods—and while she says any similarity between her experiences and the film is unconscious, she doesn’t deny the connection.

“Yeah, I lived on the road,” she says. “Yeah, I was homeless. Yeah, I ate berries. Yeah, I got food however the heck I did. I think it did influence [the film], absolutely.”

The deeper link Allred shares with the hero of Sacred Fool (which she plans to submit to festivals) is that they both go on a quest to rediscover their craft. It’s a journey of losing your voice, finding it again, and ultimately reveling in it.

For Allred, the reveling has only just begun.

This month, she’s filming The Dreaming, a short.

Soon after, she’ll direct Shimmering, the Being, her second feature.

When WW spoke to Allred, she had recently returned from location scouting in Mexico for Shimmering, which will take her exploration of lost love to interdimensional levels. Her throat, she said, was still clogged with dust and diesel from the trip, but her voice betrayed not an ounce of weariness.

“I made Little Nations, I made Sacred Fool, but I was still kind of licking my wounds while I was making those,” she says. “But then this new wave is coming up, and the wave now feels so much stronger and so much more solid…. As far as me going big, I’ve only been going bigger.”

IMAGOTHEATRE.COM

Don’t miss this sensational, iconic musical hot off its 25th Anniversary!

Performances begin May 21!

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Members of the cast of Rent.

Photo by Alec Lugo.

Willamette Week MAY 11, 2022 wweek.com

21

J O R D A N H U N D E LT

The Craftswoman How a career in carpentry helped lead Dawn Jones Redstone toward cinema.

BY S A R A G I Z A

As a former carpenter, the queer, Mexican American director Dawn Jones Redstone is used to building things from the ground up.

That skill set was put to good use as she navigated the making of her first feature length film, Mother of Color, about a woman who begins receiving messages from the beyond.

Originally from San Antonio, Texas, Jones Redstone has been fascinated with movies since childhood.

“I have always been a cinephile,” she says.

“I grew up watching movies. My dad would bring home stacks of VHS tapes and take us to go see art-house cinema, when no one was taking a 10-year-old to the art house in San Antonio, Texas.”

Despite Jones Redstone’s passion, it wasn’t until much later in life that she pursued it. “I had an inkling and curiosity about it while at the University of Texas,” she says, but she set film aside as she cultivated a career in carpentry.

After buying her first camera and taking her first class on filmmaking in 2003, she participated in her first film festival. “Viewing the world through that kind of way, that you could make something and people will watch it, allowing you to connect with them, was a powerful moment,” she says.

During her carpentry days, Jones Redstone served as a mentor to other women in the industry. While working at Oregon Tradeswomen Inc., she provided job training, covering both tangible aspects of the job, like using tools, as well as discussing topics like believing in yourself and battling discrimination.

Since the work often required these women to do things they didn’t realize they were capable of, Jones Redstone would speak to them about the importance of taking a leap of faith. Eventually, she took her own advice and started a film production company, garnering success with short films that often incorporated the issues that marginalized populations face—sexism, racism and discrimination.

“I always prioritize the telling of the story

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Willamette Week MAY 11, 2022 wweek.com

first, but by the story I choose to tell, and how, is a form of activism,” she says, adding, “There are things about every film I’ve made that are subconscious, that I don’t notice until later that’s about something that happened to me.

I don’t always understand it until after the process of editing.”

Jones Redstone, who is largely self-taught from YouTube videos and stacks of books, isn’t holding back with her feature debut.

Mother of Color, which will have been a three-to-four-year endeavor by the time it’s complete, features special effects and 18 cast members. And it marks the first time that Jones Redstone has taken on the role of writer, director and executive producer.

The film follows the life of Noelia (Ana del Rocío), a community organizer and single mother of two who faces difficult decisions regarding her career and her children. When presented with an opportunity that could change everything, she begins receiving messages from her ancestors, leading to a meditation on the film’s defining themes: child care and disconnection from your own body.

“The first main theme is the way our society devalues caregivers,” Jones Redstone says.

“This is something the pandemic has shined a spotlight on. Child care basically makes all other work possible. You see her over the film and what [Noelia] goes through.”

As for being disconnected from your body, Jones Redstone says: “When we allow ourselves to feel, there is a certain healing that takes place. That’s necessary to find out who we really are. When we are our authentic selves, especially as someone who might’ve been part of a marginalized society, it can change the world.”

Since her first short film, Jones Redstone has prioritized inclusivity. With Mother of Color, which will premiere this fall, she continued that tradition by having mostly women of color on set. After all, choosing who to hire can be an act of healing—another theme that reverberates throughout the story.

“The film ultimately asks us all to consider how we can acknowledge our wounds, but still move forward in our lives,” Jones Redstone says.

In other words, Mother of Color reflects what she tells herself and other filmmakers:”If we want our stories told, we have to tell them ourselves.”

“When we are our authentic selves, especially as someone who might’ve been part of a marginalized society, it can change the world.”

The Shapeshifter Directing is just one of Aileen Sheedy’s many callings.

BY M I C H E L L E K I C H E R E R

Aileen Sheedy has worked on movies about everything from clowns to coming-of-age stories.

Yet in college, she pursued a degree in computer science, after deciding that her dream of being a writer was frivolous and impractical.

But the heart wants what it wants. Today, Sheedy boasts an eclectic filmography, having served as a director, producer, script supervisor (on Sitra Achra, about a cursed video game) and more. It’s all part of her passion not only for film, but the collaborative process.

“Sometimes I arrive with a specific idea in mind, but then someone else has a better one,” she says. “It’s so rewarding when someone gets inspired by something I’ve created.”

Sheedy’s interest in film was piqued by a class at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute that combined music, audio and video. She enjoyed the video side of things so much that she decided to dual major in computer science and the closest thing to film that her engineering school offered: Electronic Media, Arts & Communication.

After her first and last job in computer programming, Sheedy co-founded her production company, Pencil

Ink Productions. Now the sole owner, she specializes in commercial shoots, actor reels and live event documentation—work that she says the detail-oriented world of coding helped prepare her for.

“If you forget a semicolon, it’ll break your whole program,” she says. “With a call sheet you have to make sure everybody knows when they’re showing up, what pages we’re shooting, what props are supposed to be there.…I learned that kind of detailed thinking from coding.”

For Sheedy, being on set feels like home. “It’s a really addicting energy,” she says. That energy has carried her through a decadelong career that has extended into long-form storytelling (she’s the creator of the forthcoming web series The Cloisterham Case Files, based on Charles Dickens’ The Mystery of Edwin Drood).

Other upcoming Sheedy projects include Sonder (an aerial circus short that she produced and directed in collaboration with Cerberus Circus Society), and Freedom, WI (a dark comedy feature film she co-produced with Portland director Molly Preston).

Even with an impressive array of projects ahead of her, Sheedy refuses to get too comfortable. “My advice is to stay humble and always keep learning,” she says.

To this day, she watches how-to videos, reads industry books, and analyzes films. And she encourages people that are breaking into the industry to be open to any job, even if the pay is next to (or actually) nothing.

“In Portland, there are a lot of low-budget, DIY projects with a ‘I’ll help you if you help me’ attitude,” she says. “This type of collaboration feels unique to the film industry, and especially to Portland.”

Willamette Week MAY 11, 2022 wweek.com

23

STREET

RINGMASTERS Photos by Chris Nesseth On Instagram: @ chrisnesseth

Oregon has a long and storied wrestling history.

KPTV began airing Portland Wrestling in 1953, and although the show bounced from time slot to time slot, station to station, it remained popular with fans for decades. WWE Hall of Famer “Rowdy” Roddy Piper called this state home for some 30 years. And Portland Wrestling was even revived twice, in 2000 and 2012. Now, the Colony is the latest home for live, local matches.

At the St. Johns venue, you can watch Pacific Northwest Blue Collar Wrestling’s best leg drops, ankle locks and suplexes every Sunday starting at 5:30 pm.

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GET BUSY

• •••• ••••

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

PHOTO CREDIT

A T R E A LRBO S ER E T •••• A E H T MAY 12 FEATURING

NPR radio show live taping

JON MOOALLEM KEANON LOWE JOHN CRAIGIE MAY 14 iconic singer-songwriter of the 80’s folk scene

JOHN GORKA MAY 21

the 16th annual

DOLLY HOOT

two shows

presented by

Siren Nation

6+9pm

JUN 24

JUNE 18

JUNETEENTH CELEBRATION ALIENS AMONG US: McMenamins’ popular UFO Parade returns to downtown McMinnville this year.

DRINK: McMenamins UFO Festival

Suspect we’re not alone in the universe?

Then join your like-minded, alien-obsessed cohort at McMenamins UFO Festival at Hotel Oregon in McMinnville (and various other locations around town). The celebration returns to its full programming this year for the first time since 2019, with favorite events like the UFO Parade and a speaker lineup that includes bestselling authors, extraterrestrial experts as well as alien abductees. And, of course, there will be plenty of Alienator IPA on tap.

McMenamins Hotel Oregon and the surrounding area, 310 NE Evans St., McMinnville, 503435-3154, mcmenamins.com/hotel-oregon/ mcmenamins-pub-at-hotel-oregon. FridaySaturday, May 13-14. Free-$55.

LISTEN: George & Friends Concert

George Manahan is no longer Portland Opera’s music director, but the company is celebrating his formidable legacy with this concert, which will feature maestro Manahan conducting music from the likes of Carmen and Sweeney Todd. Keller Auditorium, 222 SW Clay St., 503-241-1802, portlandopera.org. 7:30 pm Friday, May 13. $25$250.

 SEE: The Thin Place

The Theatre Company adapted nimbly to the pandemic, pivoting from in-person performances to brilliant short films like Capax Infiniti. Now, the company is staging its first

live show: a production of acclaimed playwright Lucas Hnath’s ghost story The Thin Place. Kex Portland, 100 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., 559-970-9394, thetheatreco.org. 8 pm Sunday-Saturday, May 15-21. $25.

 SEE: Sex on the River

Ever thought to yourself, “Gee, I wish they’d make more musicals set in the 1800s about sex workers on a barge in Portland?” Well, you’re about to get your wish. Triangle Productions is staging the original musical Sex on the River, the story of real-life local madame Nancy Boggs. The Sanctuary, 1785 NE Sandy Blvd., 503-239-5919, trianglepro.org.

7:30 pm Thursday-Saturday, May 12-28. $15-$35.

�

WATCH: Portland Pickles Documentary World Premiere From a stolen mascot costume to a slightly scandalous Instagram post that garnered national attention, the Portland Pickles keep making headlines. The collegiate woodbat squad will likely do so again with the screening of The Pickle and the Deer, a new documentary about their inaugural trip to Mexico to play pro baseball team Venados de Mazatlán. Also featured is the first woman player to join the Pickles, Kelsie Whitmore. Attendees can expect a pickle-heavy food menu, a special pickle beer, and an appearance by Dillon T. Pickle.

McMenamins Kennedy School, 5736 NE 33rd Ave., portlandpicklesbaseball.com/pickleandthedeer. 6:45 pm Thursday, May 12. $5.

JUN 4

a gender bending burlesque cabaret

Eldon “T” Jones + LaRhonda Steele JUN 28

JUL 2

PASCUALA ILABACA Y FAUNA

ACOUSTIC ALCHEMY

JESSE COLIN YOUNG

+ Alisa Amador

Booklover’s JUL 29 Burlesque a midsummer

JUL 15

night’s tease

Highway Troubadour Tour AUG 11

TIM O’BRIEN + JAN FABRICIUS UPCOMING SHOWS

one of Mexico’s funniest

AUG 13

MARIO AGUILAR •••••••••••••

5/11 • CONSIDER THIS WITH LAURA KIPNIS 6/8 • CONSIDER THIS WITH JELLY HELM & NATAKI GARRETT 8/20 • DARRELL SCOTT 9/9 • FANNA FI ALLAH

•••••

albertarosetheatre.com

3000 NE Alberta • 503.764.4131 Willamette Week MAY 11, 2022 wweek.com

25

FOOD & DRINK

Top 5

Hot Plates WHERE TO EAT THIS WEEK.

1. MERCATO AT CAFFE MINGO

807 NW 21st Ave., 503-226-4646, caffemingonw. com. 11 am-9 pm Tuesday-Friday, 2-9 pm Saturday-Sunday.

Mercato’s Jerry Lasagna is named after Mingo chef Jerry Huisinga, who’s been feeding Portland pasta for three decades. This is a petite and classic white lasagna, with a strongly nutmegged béchamel sauce playing the starring role in every bite. The noodles and the pork-and-beef Bolognese add texture as much as flavor, with one cheese, grana Padano, capping it off. Add a salad and some bread and you’ll definitely get two servings from one order.

Editor: Andi Prewitt Contact: aprewitt@wweek.com

Peak Burger

2. THE SPORTS BRA

2512 NE Broadway, 503-327-8401, thesportsbrapdx. com. 11 am-11 pm Wednesday-Sunday.

Billed as the first and only bar whose screens feature only women’s athletics, the Sports Bra is a unique concept that has generated excitement on a national scale. But the pub also promises to distinguish itself by serving food all made from scratch that will please carnivores, vegans, gluten-free patrons, and everyone in between. We’re most excited to try owner-chef Jenny Nguyen’s family recipes for dishes like Mom’s Baby Back Ribs—Vietnamese-style pork caramelized with coconut milk—and Aunt Tina’s Vietna-Wings, fried-and-glazed chicken on a bed of cabbage slaw.

Like bacon, kale salad or putting an egg on it, smashburgers may not be the hot new thing, but they also aren’t going anywhere.

3. PHUKET CAFE

1818 NW 23rd Place, 503-781-2997, phuketcafepdx. com. 5-10 pm Monday-Friday, 10 am-2 pm and 5-10 pm Saturday-Sunday.

Rocketship Earl has catapulted skyward again.

Phuket Cafe, located inside the compact former Ataula space in Northwest Portland, is Akkapong “Earl” Ninsom’s newest restaurant and co-venture with bartender Eric Nelson. After barely a month, waits can run long for Ninsom’s new, twisted take on Thai cuisine, a niche he owns. It’s a challenge to describe the menu, but it reflects the pair’s recent travels in Thailand, and includes everything from oysters on the half shell to bacon bites to paella to a glorious pork chop—a massive 18-ounce Tails & Trotters cut, sliced from the bone for service.

BY JA S O N C O H E N

4. BLUTO’S AARON LEE

2838 SE Belmont St., 971-383-1619, blutospdx.com.

11 am-10 pm daily.

Bluto’s, named after John Belushi’s hard-partying character in Animal House, comes from Lardo and Grassa mastermind Rick Gencarelli and the ChefStable restaurant group. Like Lardo and Grassa, it aims for that fancy, fast-casual niche, with counter service and midrange prices belying some seriously tasty cooking. Bluto’s portion sizes are perfect for sharing, so covering a table in a variety of dishes and allowing the flavors to mingle is the right way to eat here. The zippy citrus and sour labneh in the chicory salad should be eaten in between bites of the savory skewers and hummus scooped up with pita bread.

5. KING TIDE FISH & SHELL

1510 S Harbor Way, 503-295-6166, kingtidefishandshell.com. 7 am-1 pm and 4-9 pm Monday-Thursday, 7 am-1 pm and 4-10 pm Friday, 8 am-1 pm and 4-10 pm Saturday, 8 am-1 pm and 4-9 pm Sunday.

One of Portland’s rare downtown riverfront restaurants has a new chef helming the kitchen. Alexander Diestra is a familiar name to anyone who pays attention to the city’s culinary scene, boasting more than 18 years of experience at places like Saucebox, Clarklewis and Andina. The Peruvian native is now shaking up the menu at King Tide by introducing new items such as bluefin tuna tartare, kanpachi crudo, ono ceviche, Wagyu coulotte and a seafood risotto with prawns and scallops—lively dishes that are a mashup of the flavors of his home country and Japan.

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Willamette Week MAY 11, 2022 wweek.com

@cohenesque

Believe it or not, there was a time when Portland had no smashburgers, or any sort of higher-end, thin-and-crispy, fast food-style burger that was made by a local purveyor.

Boys and girls, the year was 2014. LaMarcus Aldridge was (barely) coexisting with Damian Lillard. John Kitzhaber was (barely) governor of Oregon. And just about the only burger that could conjure up memories of Steak ’n Shake or In-N-Out was served at a place downtown called All-Way, which didn’t even last a year.

Then, in 2016, Don Salamone opened Burger Stevens in Hillsdale.

2017 brought Bless Your Heart Burgers to Pine Street Market, which was also the first place in town to use the Martin’s Potato Rolls made famous (outside of Pennsylvania) by Shake Shack. In 2018, Little Big Burger founder Micah Camden joined the fray with SuperDeluxe.

Now, burgers are everywhere, their growth accelerated by COVID-19 trends: outdoor dining, takeout ordering, low overhead, high concept. Like bacon, kale salad, and putting an egg on it, smashburgers may not be the hot new thing, but they also aren’t going anywhere. And if 2021 was the Year of the Smash Burger, Judith Stokes of Derby and Tai Pfeiffer of Yes Please Smash Burger were both ahead of their time and just a bit late to the party.

Derby’s burger came in at No. 4 in Portland Monthly’s roundup at the end of 2020, but after that list came out, you couldn’t eat it again until early 2022, as the restaurant was then in the process of moving and also had to wait more than six months for its kitchen hood.

Yes Please was a pop-up when it made the The Oregonian’s list of “Portland’s 14 Best Smash Burgers” in March 2021. It opened its cart at Southeast Hawthorne and César E. Chávez boulevards a few months later, and is currently for sale. Ironically, since opening the cart—and after getting COVID—Pfeiffer has stopped eating meat (he went vegan for a while and is now pescatarian), which is part of why he’s putting Yes Please on the market.

“But I’m not under the impression that everybody on this earth is going to stop eating beef in my lifetime,” he says. “I know that this business stands for something that is so important for people who do eat meat.”

“It’s crazy. There’s so many burgers,” says Stokes, who now serves three herself: a smashburger, the Flip Dip (a tamarind-spiced riff on French dip) and the PB & Bulgogi. Derby’s double ($12, with a $6 single available during happy hour) consists of two 3-ounce balls of meat smashed on the flat top in butter, with two slices of American cheese on a brioche bun from Portland French Bakery. It’s topped with shredded lettuce, bread-and-butter house pickles and Derby Sauce—the same mustard aioli you’ll find on the restaurant’s breakfast sandwich, doctored up with ketchup.

At Yes Please, Pfeiffer, who started out doing community and mutual aid cooking after losing his job during the pandemic, ran the Duo breakfast food cart next to Olé Latte and is also one half of

the team behind Chio Pistachio Cream. And now he’s something of a burger missionary. Pfeiffer started Yes Please, in part, because a burger was something he could cook without being guilty of appropriation.

“The hamburger is actually one of the only foods that was invented in America by Americans,” he says.

As the child of a naturopath and a herbalist, Pfeiffer also grew up eating fresh and healthy, and was determined to bring that to his slow fast food. The Yes Please Smash Burger ($10 for a single, $12 for a double, $14 for a triple) is grass-finished (as opposed to “grassfed,” a term that still allows grain consumption). And until recently, Pfeiffer ground the meat himself, using a mixture of brisket and heart. He also eschews seed oils as both toxic and environmentally unsound, using 100% grass-fed beef tallow for his french fries.

You can taste the beefiness in those old-school McDonald’s-like potatoes as well as in the burger, which strikes a perfect balance between Maillard reaction crust and pinkish center. There’s also housemade lacto-fermented pickles, though ketchup is nowhere to be found, both because of the high-fructose corn syrup and because, as Pfeiffer learned from hamburger writer and TV personality George Motz, the condiment didn’t exist when the burger was invented.

Granted, some things can’t be fully healthed-up or de-processed.

Pfeiffer’s Yes Please Sauce includes tomato paste and Crystal Hot Sauce, and the bun is Martin’s. He also makes his own American cheese from real cheddar, which requires a chemical (sodium citrate) but not the dozen-plus ingredients you’ll find in Kraft Singles. It’s also actually a cheese sauce, which gets poured directly on the burger during cooking, resulting in an almost fricolike crusty crispy cheese halo.

It’s a burger that’s as good as it is virtuous, though perhaps a little too good—Yes Please offers more of a special-occasion burger, whereas you might otherwise crave the more classic flavor profile Derby serves, even if that means you’re scarfing down ketchup and corn-fed beef. But really, there’s no right way to do a burger and no optimal style. The best one might just be the best one in your neighborhood, or the one that reminds you of what you grew up with.

“I think that the best part about the American hamburger is that any American can take this concept and their life experience and speak through that vehicle,” says Pfeiffer. “I definitely have a favorite, but I don’t think there is one best way.”

EAT: Derby, 8220 N Denver Ave, 503-719-7976, derbypdx.com. 10 am-2 pm Monday and Wednesday, 10 am-2 pm and 4:30-9 pm Thursday-Friday, 9 am-2 pm and 4:30-9 pm Saturday-Sunday. Yes Please Smash Burger, 3950 SE Hawthorne Blvd., 707-500-2117, yespleasesmashburger.com. Noon-5 pm Wednesday-Sunday (closed May 11-12).

FOOD & DRINK

Top 5

Buzz List WHERE TO DRINK THIS WEEK.

1. SUCKERPUNCH

YES PLEASE COURTESY OF YES PLEASE

1030 SE Belmont St., 503-208-4022, suckerpunch. bar. 6-10 pm Thursday-Saturday, 6-8 pm Sunday.

You will leave Suckerpunch as sober as you were when you walked in, but the thing is, Portland’s first non-alcoholic bar still works its magic: It’s a place where adults can enjoy some complex yet balanced cocktails in a cozy place and catch up with friends.

Andy McMillan, who founded the business because he was desperate for better zero-proof concoctions around town, recently changed the three-item menu, so you’ll find some new options if you’ve already been.

2. FERMENT BREWING

403 Portway Ave., Hood River, 541-436-3499, fermentbrewing.com. Noon-9 pm daily.

There are few places more beautiful in Oregon during spring than Hood River when the fruit trees are in full bloom. Make a day trip to the area before the cotton candy-colored canopy disappears, and while you’re there, visit a stunning human-made attraction: Ferment, a two-story, gleaming glass brewery feet from the Columbia River. The business just released four new seasonal beers: Pink Boots Society fundraiser the Brewster’s Pale, Japanese-style lager Hana Pils, Holy Citra IPA, and White River, a limited-edition, wild-fermented saison. Do not leave without a half-liter bottle of the latter.

3. TOPWIRE HOP PROJECT

SAINT BURGER: Yes Please’s smashburger is made with a cheese sauce poured onto the patty during cooking, resulting in a crispy halo.

8668 Crosby Road NE, Woodburn, 503-765-1645, topwirehp.com. 11 am-8 pm Thursday and Sunday, 11 am-9 pm Friday-Saturday.

The average beer nerd can’t score a badge to the Craft Brewers Conference, the brewing industry’s largest annual gathering. But you can get a taste of some of the same beers that were only available to attendees of this year’s event. TopWire Hop Project—the beer garden that opened in the middle of Crosby Hop Farm in 2020—has announced it will kick off its third season with a selection of special collaboration beers, many that were available only at the 2022 convention in Minneapolis. Even when those kegs have tapped, return for the view of the hop bines, which grow 18 feet tall and surround the space like emerald green curtains.

4. THE EMERALD ROOM

DERBY

5. URDANETA C O U R T E S Y O F U R DA N E TA

COURTESY OF DERBY

2117 NE Oregon St., Suite 202, 971-213-1085, aimsiremerald.com. 4-10 pm Wednesday-Saturday.

Portland’s Aimsir Distilling Company just nabbed three awards from the prestigious San Francisco Spirits Competition, so if you haven’t made your way into the brand’s swanky bar the Emerald Room, now you have as good an excuse as any to book a reservation. Be sure to sample the Aimsir Bourbon, its first whiskey that won double gold, and the Cold Brew Bourbon, which took home silver. The latter can be ordered in a boulevardier starting April 20, National Cold Brew Day.

3033 NE Alberta St., 503-288-1990, urdanetapdx. com. 5-10 pm Tuesday-Thursday and Sunday, 5-11 pm Friday-Saturday.

If you live by the slogan “Rosé all day,” then you’ll want a standing reservation at Urdaneta this spring.

The tapas restaurant just announced its wine of the season is Punctum Petulante Pét Nat—essentially a wilder version of Champagne with a vibrant pink hue, bright berry aroma and red summer fruit notes. Urdaneta’s wine director chose this particular rosé because it pairs perfectly with chef Javier Canteras’ Spanish-inspired dishes, such as burrata drizzled with harissa honey, tortilla de bacalao (confit salt cod), and croquetas de jamon filled with béchamel.

PRIZE WINNER: Derby’s version is topped with shredded lettuce, bread-and-butter pickles, and a mustard aioli doctored with ketchup.

Willamette Week MAY 11, 2022 wweek.com

27

THE BURGER YOUR MOMMA WARNED YOU ABOUT PEANUT BUTTER PICKLE BACON BURGER

Willamette Week Reporting Gets Results.

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Willamette Week MAY 11, 2022 wweek.com

POTLANDER N ATA L I YA VA I T K E V I C H

Wake and Bake Celebrate World Baking Day this month by eating your way through our recommended list of cannabis-infused cakes, cookies and dessert bars.

BY B R I A N N A W H E E L E R

World Baking Day might not have been created by stoners, but if anyone could appreciate such an unnecessary, whimsical holiday, it’s someone who enthusiastically bakes, eats and stockpiles cannabis of the confectionery variety.

World Baking Day lands May 17 and is a holiday that, while yet to be co-opted by stoners, ought to hold a very special place in any edibles enthusiast’s heart. Established in 2012, coincidentally the same year that Colorado and Washington became the first states to legalize recreational cannabis, the occasion exists solely as an excuse for eager amateur bakers to share their goods with loved ones.

With that in mind, we rounded up some of our favorite canna-baked goods, all handmade in Portland. And keep in mind that these psychotropic treats make charming gifts year-round.

Laurie + Mary Jane Almond Cake Bites This tube of five amaretto-perfumed mini cakes is suitable for both high- and low-tolerance users. Each bite contains 10 mg of THC, and the cakes are distinct because they’re made with house-infused cannabis oil/butter rather than a distillate, which delivers a robust, multifaceted high. Laurie + Mary Jane is known for its varied lineup of brownies, truffles and cakes, but the almond bites stand out because of their rich, buttery flavor and swoon-worthy almond scent.

BUY: Weed Land, 4027 N Interstate Ave., 541-904-0000. .

Hapy Kitchen Toffee Crunch Blondie

Hapy Kitchen’s edibles have become ubiquitous in Portland

dispensaries for good reason: The company’s team of artisan confectioners care equally about quality ingredients and potency, which has won them several awards. The Toffee Crunch Blondie is a sugar-butter bomb studded with glittering bits of toffee. When presented on a decorative dish, the treat looks like it came from the glass case of a high-end bakery that just so happened to infuse the dessert bar with 50 mg of THC. BUY: Cured Green, 3715 North Lombard St., #B, 503-206-5430, curedgreen.com.

Elbe’s Edibles Cannabutter CakeBombs Elbe’s dense CakeBombs are a toothsome tribute to both a contemporary cake pop and a rich, velvety truffle. These buttery treats are available in three flavors: berry, chocolate and birthday cake. The 50 mg single cake could easily be shared, but would also satisfy someone seeking a larger dose. Made with premium, full-spectrum, house-infused cannabutter, the bombs have a velvety mouthfeel and would satisfy the most aggressive sweet tooth.

BUY: Potland Delivery, thepotland.co.

Tasty’s Chocolate Crinkle Cannabis Cookie Tasty’s Chocolate Crinkle is a classic, crispy cocoa cookie made with bittersweet dark chocolate and dusted with a generous amount of powdered sugar.

These biscuits have recently been updated not only to meet the new Oregon dosage ceiling of 100 mg of THC, but also feature strain-specific, single-source live resins rather than isolates. There is one cookie per package, and since it tends to shatter when cut, is

probably best consumed by one person rather than shared.

Chocophile varsity potheads will appreciate the high-dose, compact delivery.

BUY: Pacific Green, 710 NE Killingsworth St., 971-242-8535, pacificgreenportland.com.

For those who prefer DIY:

The Art of Weed Butter by Mennlay Golokeh Aggrey If World Baking Day inspires you to tie on an apron and start preheating the oven, consider cracking open this book by cannabis luminary and Broccoli Talk podcast co-host Mennlay Golokeh Aggrey. The Art of Weed Butter (Ulysses Press, 96 pages, $21.95) is an easy-to-follow reference manual, complete with step-by-step instructions on how to create a variety of cannabis infusions as well as a handful of unique recipes.

BUY: microcosm.com

The Cannabis Apothecary by Laurie Wolf Anyone using World Baking Day as an excuse to add to their kitchen canna-libraries would be wise to snatch a copy of cannabis lifestyle guru Laurie Wolf’s book. The Cannabis Apothecary (Black Dog & Leventhal, 256 pages, $35) features everything a novice needs to know about cooking and medicating, but even seasoned cannathusiasts will find value in Wolf’s extensive recipe collection, which includes both savory and sweet baked goods.

BUY: Powell’s City of Books, 1005 W Burnside St., 800-8787323, powells.com.

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BOOKS

MUSIC

Editor: Bennett Campbell Ferguson | Contact: bennett@wweek.com

Shows of the Week

Bury My Heart at Malheur

What to see and what to hear.

BY DANIEL BROMFIELD // @BROMF3

WEDNESDAY, MAY 11: When Sigur Rós came on the scene around the turn of the millennium, fans were just as tongue-tied in describing their sweeping, sumptuous music as their frontman, Jónsi, sounds while singing in his invented language of Vonlenska. Small wonder the Icelandic ensemble soundtracks a moment in The Life Aquatic where the crew of the good ship Belafonte is speechless before the beauty of nature.

They might take your breath away, too. Theater of the Clouds, Moda Center, One Center Court St., 503235-8771, rosequarter.com. 8 pm. $45-$111. All ages.

A Portland author untangles the complex tragedy of a little-known Native tribe in Eastern Oregon.

BY M AT T B U C K I N G H A M

mbuckingham@wweek .com

Historians have devoted countless volumes to the United States’ wars on its Indigenous peoples. But few have touched on the wars waged on the Northern Paiutes who once roamed Eastern Oregon, and perhaps none has examined them from the Paiutes’ point of view—until now.

Portland author David H. Wilson Jr. spent eight years hiking and rafting Oregon’s high desert, meeting with descendants of the Paiutes, and researching primary sources to untangle the causes of a tragedy as infuriating in its own way as the Cherokee Trail of Tears. The result is a chronicle that deserves to be recognized as a definitive work of Native American history: Northern Paiutes of the Malheur: High Desert Reckoning in Oregon Country (Bison Books, 336 pages, $34.95).

Wilson meticulously picks apart the dubious claim, long accepted as fact by eminent historians, that Chief Egan of the Paiutes was the willing leader of the Bannock War of 1878 that raged through Eastern Oregon and Idaho and doomed the Paiutes to years of privation, exile and often death.

The claim that Egan was war chief makes no sense given Paiute history and culture, which Wilson lays out in rich detail: A nomadic people who foraged in small family groups for roots, seeds and berries, the Paiutes had been swept up in the Snake War to defend their homeland 10 years earlier and suffered 20% fatalities before agreeing to settle peaceably at the Malheur Reservation east of Burns. They were by no means eager to go on the warpath again.

The Bannock War stemmed from white encroachment on the Big Camas Prairie in Idaho, a bulb-foraging ground for the Bannocks, another Paiute tribe. Most Bannocks opposed war, but after a shootout seriously wounded two white cattlemen (both survived), their chief, Buffalo Horn, convinced about 200 Bannock warriors they were in for war anyway and might as well make the most of it.

Meanwhile, the Malheur Reservation had its own problems: A benevolent Indian agent, Samuel Parrish, had been replaced by an autocratic one, William Rinehart, who brutalized the Paiutes at a time when Congress was cutting back funding for reservations due to the national depression of 1873-78, reducing food rations to four and a half cents a day per Indian.

When Chief Egan and the Paiutes abandoned the Malheur Reservation, in part to escape starvation, Rinehart diverted attention from his own abuse and mismanagement by spreading word that the Paiutes had left to join the Bannock uprising—with Egan at its head.

Wilson makes a convincing case that, in fact, hostile Bannocks coerced Egan and the Paiutes to take part, holding them hostage and threatening to take away their weapons if they didn’t join the fight. But once the region’s newspapers had a villain to blame for the Bannock War, they could attribute almost any perfidy or atrocity to Chief Egan.

In one Oregonian story, Egan is said to have grabbed a white 30

Willamette Week MAY 11, 2022 wweek.com

DARK TIMES: Northern Paiutes the Malheur chronicles of the Bannock War of 1878.

peace negotiator by the hair, proclaiming, “Me have that in my belt heap soon.” (In fact, Egan and his followers sought peace and helped the white negotiators escape when talks with the Bannocks went awry.)

Eventually, Egan was killed during a retreat by Umatilla warriors allied with the U.S. Army. The defeated Paiutes would be forced to march from Fort Harney at Malheur to the Yakama Reservation in south central Washington, a frozen trail of tears stretching 350 miles through deepening snow.

Sarah Winnemucca, daughter of Paiute Chief Winnemucca of Nevada, embarked on a lecture tour to draw attention to her people’s suffering and persuaded Secretary of the Interior Carl Schurz in Washington, D.C., to write a letter in January 1880 ordering the return of the Paiutes to the Malheur Reservation.

Due to the corrupt opposition of U.S. officials in the West, however, Schurz’s promises were never kept and the Paiutes remained at Yakama until 1882. When they finally returned to Malheur, the reservation had been dissolved. Many would live and scavenge food at the Burns city dump, sometimes wrapped for them by sympathetic local restaurants.

Wilson notes that whites, who viewed the practice of scalping with revulsion, thought nothing of decapitating the bodies of Chief Egan and other Natives and sending their skulls to Washington, D.C., for museum display and analysis to prove their racial inferiority to whites. (Chief Egan’s skull and that of his brother-in-law Charlie were eventually returned to Oregon in 1999 and interred under a stone memorial at the Burns Paiute graveyard.)

The greater irony, Wilson writes, is that white Americans tried to prove their superiority with the skull of a man whose good will was squandered by their own stupidity and shortsightedness: “Egan had supported U.S. interests since his surrender at the end of the Snake War. At every turn he had been guiding the Paiutes on a path of peace and cooperation…until whites’ incompetent and in some cases malicious mismanagement of the Paiutes led to his death.”

GO: David H. Wilson Jr. appears in conversation with Nancy Egan, great-great-great-granddaughter of Paiute Chief Egan, at Powell’s City of Books, 1005 W Burnside St., 503-2284651, powells.com. 7 pm Friday, May 13. Free.

THURSDAY, MAY 12: Fontaines D.C. present an Irish answer to the current wave of talky British post-punk that laments the inexorable and soul-deadening march of modernity (see also: Yard Act, Sleaford Mods, Dry Cleaning, Idles). Though they’ve chosen to make increasingly knotty and difficult records, peaking with this year’s Skinty Fia, they’ve played arenas at home and actually posed a serious threat to Taylor Swift on the U.K. charts with sophomore effort A Hero’s Death in 2020. Revolution Hall, 1300 SE Stark St., 971-808-5094, revolutionhall.com. 8 pm. $27$57. Floor 21+, minor seating in balcony.

THURSDAY, MAY 12: Vieux Farka Touré is the son of Ali Farka Touré, the Malian guitar master and “desert blues” pioneer who initially discouraged his kid from pursuing the same career.

(Speaking as a musician: understandable.) A drought of new releases since 2017 suggested he might’ve finally conceded Pops was right, but his latest album, Les Racines (“The Roots”), is coming next month on World Circuit Records—and along with it a U.S. tour that makes a stop at the Star Theater. Star Theater, 13 NW 6th Ave., 503-284-4700. 9 pm. $15-$20. 21+.

FRIDAY, MAY 13: Mississippi MC Big K.R.I.T. came to fame in the early-’10s blograp era with “Country Shit,” which doubled as a manifesto for his windows-down, sticky-sweet country-rap style. If early tapes like Return to 4Eva channeled Texas acts like UGK, his new Digital Roses Don’t Die looks ahead to Southern rap’s freakier, funkier 2000s moment led

by OutKast. Singing as much as rapping, indulging in stately ballads, he sounds both looser and more ambitious than ever. Roseland Theater, 8 NW 6th Ave., 971-230-0033, roselandpdx.com. 8 pm. $26.50. All ages.

MOVIES

Editor: Bennett Campbell Ferguson Contact: bennett@wweek.com

STREAMING WARS YOUR WEEKLY FILM QUEUE

BY B E N N E T T C A M P B E L L F E R G U S O N @ t h o b e n n e t t

PORTLAND PICK:

COQUETTE PRODUCTIONS; NEVERLAND FILMS

U M B R E L L A E N T E R TA I N M E N T

SCREENER

BLAZE OF HEAVEN: Much stunt, much rock.

Rock On! Extreme stunts and hard rock collide in 1978’s Stunt Rock.

BY C H A N C E S O L E M - P F E I F E R

@chance_ S _ P

WW: Is it true the genre combination of Stunt Rock dawned on you in the shower?

BRIAN TRENCHARD-SMITH: Absolutely! If you’ve always been obsessed with movies, you’re always thinking of new ones. Suddenly, there was a nexus of a multiscreen rock-’n’-roll musical colliding with a series of stunts. And Stunt Rock appeared. Much stunt and much rock. So I got out of the shower, toweled myself off…I did partake of some herbal remedies, and six pages of a treatment flowed, longhand.

How did Grant Page feel about playing himself?

He plays himself all the time! He’s a very engaging personality. I think in two years, for his 85th birthday, he wants to roll another car.

In the film, Grant often expresses his stunt philosophies and lack of fear, but were you ever scared filming him?

SEE IT: Stunt Rock plays at the Hollywood Theatre, 4122 NE Sandy Blvd., 503-493-1128, hollywoodtheatre.org. 7 pm Saturday, May 21. $15.

INDIE PICK:

Mansplaining the Manic Pixie Dream Girl theory doesn’t make you woke, film bros. Released in 2004, Zach Braff ’s Garden State may have a hero (Braff ) who falls for a manic-ish, pixie-ish gal (Natalie Portman), but there’s more emotional truth in one moment of the movie than there is in an encyclopedia of snarky critiques. Plus, Garden State has a secret weapon: Mark (Peter Sarsgaard), a tough stoner whose act of unexpected compassion gently transforms the film. Amazon Prime.

HOLLYWOOD PICK:

The great Justin Lin is no longer directing the next Fast & Furious film (boo!). So why not check out his first entry in the series, 2006’s The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift?

Lucas Black’s lead performance as an American hooligan in Japan is delightfully atrocious, but the action is transcendent—especially a four-car chase that parts a crowd at Tokyo’s bustling Shibuya Crossing like the Red Sea. HBO Max.

INTERNATIONAL PICK:

FUJI TELEVISION

There’s truth in advertising, and then there’s Stunt Rock.

The 1978 genre mashup delivers on its title’s duality with the commitment, glee and subtlety of a flaming semi truck exploding into a tower of guitar amps.

The cult film from prolific Australian filmmaker Brian Trenchard-Smith (The Man From Hong Kong, Dead End Drive-In) splits its runtime between real-life stunt master Grant Page climbing buildings and setting himself ablaze and concert footage of the equally pyromaniacal hard-rock ensemble Sorcery.

This spring, Stunt Rock is landing on cinephilic radars due to Kino Lorber’s new 4K restoration and Blu-ray releases. In turn, Trenchard-Smith—a luminary of the ’70s and ’80s Australian genre film movement known as “Ozploitation” and author of Adventures in the B Movie Trade—will be on hand for a May 21 screening and Q&A at the Hollywood Theatre, along with his wife, Margaret Trenchard-Smith, who stars in the film.

Coincidentally, the director says he all but sealed his eventual relocation from Los Angeles to Scappoose during a previous appearance at the Hollywood in 2015.

WW caught up with Trenchard-Smith to discuss the belated appreciation of Stunt Rock, the “sheer nerve” of Ozploitation filmmakers, and his ambitions to turn Grant Page from stunt man to full-fledged movie star.

I learned to trust his philosophies. There were little accidents but nothing serious. Grant has a scientific approach.

You can see that he has a personality, which I thought was very marketable on the screen.

I saw him as another Australian Errol Flynn. Maybe more on the craggier side but who still exudes a lot of sex appeal to women. Believe me, Grant was a very popular man. Stunt Rock was intended to be his international launch pad.

There’s a line in the movie about how Australian stunt men make up for a lack of resources with “sheer nerve.” Could that apply to the whole Ozploitation film movement?

Absolutely. It took sheer nerve to make Picnic at Hanging Rock and The Devil’s Playground and the more art house-driven movies. And from our point of view, it took nerve to put things on the screen we had not previously been allowed to and, at the same time, develop the technological skill to pull off Hollywood-style action scenes.

Ozploitation was typically Australian: anti-authoritarian, rowdy, boisterous, wide angle. We live in a wide-angle country. It was an interesting, frontier time.

How did a young Phil Hartman wind up in your movie for one scene?

Groundlings. I had to make the film with nonunion actors.

Someone said go to the Groundlings [the Los Angeles improvisational and sketch comedy troupe]. I wish I’d been able to expand these supporting parts, but I had to shoot it in 15 days. What a pity. If only I had known he was going to be a great comic.

How’s it been to see Stunt Rock restored and rediscovered?

It’s not that I think it’s a work of art. I think it’s an eccentric oddity that’s entertaining. People should buy the Blu-ray and play it at parties. Watch what they want and use it as wallpaper. What a filmmaker seeks to do is entertain an audience. If his vision does not completely go out of date generation after generation, his core idea must have enduring resonance.

Al Corley’s 2005 comedy Bigger Than the Sky will resonate with any shy soul who has used acting to blast free of their inhibitions. As an amateur cast as Cyrano, Marcus Thomas bristles with painfully perfect awkwardness, but his character’s self-reinvention (and his combative friendship with a castmate played by John Corbett) rings true.

It’s also a treat to see the Hollywood Theatre on screen, even if the film hilariously confuses Portland’s east and west sides in the opening credits. Apple TV+.

With Japanese cinema god Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Broker headed for Cannes, now is the time to revisit Shoplifters, which may be his masterpiece. Just speaking certain lines from the film—especially “If they loved you, if they really loved you, this is what you do” and “Dad”—is enough to reduce Kore-eda acolytes to ecstatic tears, but it’s no downer. Like the main characters, who leap into the air during a day at the beach, you will take flight as you watch, borne aloft by their love. Amazon Prime/Magnolia Selects, Tubi.

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MOVIES G ET YO U R R E P S I N F I L M P R O P E R T I E S I N T E R N AT I O N A L N .V.

UNITED ARTISTS RELEASING

TOP PICK OF THE WEEK

Sorcerer (1977)

ON THE COUNT OF THREE

MARVELOUS AND THE BLACK HOLE

We’ve seen cinematic juvenile delinquents become writers, math geniuses and karate kids under the wings of kindly older mentors. So why not magicians? That’s the premise of Marvelous and the Black Hole, writer-director Kate Tsang’s debut feature. Raging, vandalizing and self-harming over the untimely death of her mother, 13-year-old Sammy (Miya Cech) is a child protagonist who partakes in cigarettes and violent daydreams. She finds a guide in Margot (Rhea Perlman), a smalltime magician who advises her new protégée to channel “that rage into something less smashy.” Perlman perfectly understands the assignment, showing how Margot meets Sammy at her level with both anger and wit—and, as Sammy’s father, Leonardo Nam captures a widower’s burden with a surprisingly realistic stiff upper lip. Ultimately, the whole enterprise is well-acted and distinct enough that when it climaxes with an obligatory magic show, it’s not an irritating plot panacea. Is the film cute Sundance fare about a teenager breaking from family rules to chart her own course through performance? Sure. But didn’t one of those just win Best Picture?

NR. CHANCE SOLEM-PFEIFER. PAM CUT, May 14.

DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS

Last year, the Marvel Cine-

32

matic Universe birthed the spry battles of Shang-Chi, the cosmic splendor of Eternals, and the sweet melodrama of Spider-Man: No Way Home. It was a hell of a hot streak—and it was too hot to last. All MCU movies are a collection of computerized showdowns and sequel-baiting cameos, but the best films in the series both fulfill and transcend the formula. Despite being directed by the brilliant Sam Raimi (the original Spider-Man trilogy), Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness does the opposite— it’s basically a feature-length commercial for the WandaVision streaming series and countless other properties. The story features Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) defending the universe-hopping America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez) from demonic forces, but their apocalyptic adventures are depressingly irrelevant. Gomez has spunk aplenty, but Cumberbatch coasts through the multiverse with apathy, as if killing time until his next Power of the Dog-caliber role. He looks especially wan next to Elizabeth Olsen, who shreds the screen as Scarlet Witch, a reality warping warrior whose power is only matched by her motherly ferocity. Why wasn’t the entire movie about her? Stephen Strange’s name may be in the title, but a goatee-adorned action figure is no match for a living, breathing, raging woman. The sorcerer never stood a chance. PG-13.

BENNETT CAMPBELL FERGUSON. Academy, Bagdad, Cedar Hills, Cinemagic, City Center, Eastport, Fox Tower, Laurelhurst,

Willamette Week MAY 11, 2022 wweek.com

Living Room, Lloyd Center, Pioneer Place, Roseway, St. Johns, St. Johns Twin, Studio One.

STRAWBERRY MANSION

A high-concept, lo-fi future trip, Strawberry Mansion is set largely in dreams. Those are, after all, the professional purview of James Preble (Kentucker Audley), an auditor in the year 2035 who dresses like Willy Loman and works for a government agency that taxes dreams. When James is called to the titular pink home of an old woman who’s basically pirate-dreaming, he’s whisked into the freeing noncompliance of her reveries, auditing dream after dream. There’s plenty to admire in a shoestring indie film aspiring to the dystopian fantasies of Gondry or Gilliam, and Strawberry Mansion strives to make the most of its lightly surreal funhouse aesthetic: animal masks on human bodies, stop-motion animation, and a dream sequence featuring a figure completely engulfed in moss. But Audley, who also co-directed the film with Albert Birney, is whisperingly dull as a system cog who becomes sentient (à la Jonathan Pryce in Brazil). Despite the implication that dreams are cathartic, ungovernable expressions, Strawberry Mansion never musters the intensity necessary to make them feel worth fighting for.

NR. CHANCE SOLEM-PFEIFER. PAM CUT, May 13.

Alice (1988)

This Czechoslovakian adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s classic Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is a surrealist fantasy-turned-nightmare, telling the story of curious little Alice, the White Rabbit, the Mad Hatter, and more familiar faces using a blend of uncanny stop-motion animation, puppetry and live-action. Clinton, May 12.

Soylent Green (1973)

In the far-off dystopian future of…2022, a detective (Charlton Heston) investigates the death of a businessman, exposing the disturbing truth behind Soylent Green, an artificial food substitute for an infertile, dying world ravaged by pollution and climate change. Unfortunately prescient! Hollywood, May 13.

I’m Gonna Git You Sucka (1988)

Keenen Ivory Wayans’ directorial debut is a blaxploitation parody centered on Jack Spade (Wayans himself), a wannabe hero who vows to take down crime lord Mr. Big (John Vernon) with the help of his childhood idol John Slade (Bernie Casey). Screens in 35 mm as part of the Hollywood’s “Wayans World” series. Hollywood, May 15.

The Magician (1958)

Prolific Swedish auteur Ingmar Bergman directed this genre-bending psychological dramedy about a traveling magician (Max von Sydow) whose allegedly supernatural live shows are challenged by the skeptical population of a small village, resulting in a humorous and horrific battle of wits. Clinton, May 16.

ALSO PLAYING:

5th Avenue: Devdas (2002), May 13-15. Clinton: Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (1970), May 13. Simon, King of the Witches (1971), May 13. Black Sabbath (1963), May 14.

Hollywood: Sun Ra: A Joyful Noise (1980), May 12. Rude Boy (1980), May 15-16. The Decline of Western Civilization (1981), May 15. It’s Alive (1969), May 17.

OUR KEY

: THIS MOVIE IS EXCELLENT, ONE OF THE BEST OF THE YEAR. : THIS MOVIE IS GOOD. WE RECOMMEND YOU WATCH IT. : THIS MOVIE IS ENTERTAINING BUT FLAWED. : THIS MOVIE IS A STEAMING PILE.

UNITED ARTISTS

The premise of standup and sitcom star Jerrod Carmichael’s directorial debut is a tough sell. Two lifelong best friends—Val (Carmichael) and Kevin (Christopher Abbott)—enter a suicide pact and commit to spending their final hours on a banter-driven revenge tour. Playing like a bizarre blend of Promising Young Woman (2020) and Falling Down (1993), On the Count of Three toys direly with the notion that impending death could force eleventh-hour meaning onto two lives. Moreover, it’s a daring experiment in tone: asphalt-black comedy one minute (even though it’s the last day of their lives, Val refuses to support Kevin’s Papa Roach fixation), followed by the unrelenting selfishness of the bullies and abusers who’ve inspired Val and Kevin to pack it in.

Carmichael’s dour acting never quite attests to Val’s deeper despondence, but Abbott’s remarkable performance swallows and synthesizes all the movie’s contradictions. The Possessor star makes Kevin’s manic behavior sympathetic, engrossing and even ironically funny. On the Count of Three’s visual realism is arguably too disturbing given its patently insane and politically incorrect setup, but it never sweats that high-wire oxymoron “suicide comedy.” Instead, it willingly follows its characters into the muck of brotherly love, misery, impulse and idiocy. R. CHANCE SOLEM-PFEIFER. Cinema 21.

Featuring a killer score by Tangerine Dream, William Friedkin’s remake of 1953’s The Wages of Fear follows four outlaws who take on the dangerous task of transporting highly explosive nitroglycerin across the Latin American jungle. This new restoration screens as part of the Hollywood’s Roy Scheider “Into the Scheider-Verse” series. Hollywood, May 11.

JONESIN’

FREE WILL

B Y M AT T J O N E S

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

ASTROLOGY ARIES

(March 21-April 19): "The only way to the truth is through blasphemy," declared Aries author Flannery O'Connor. I appreciate the cheeky sentiment, but I don't believe that *all* truth requires blasphemy. In many cases, rebellion, irreverence, and skepticism may be enough to pry loose hidden and buried information. Outright blasphemy isn't necessary. What does this have to do with you? Well, I'm hoping you will be feisty and audacious in your quest for interesting truths. As you dig, I invite you to be less than perfectly polite. Don't be rude or unkind, of course.

Just be charmingly bold.

TAURUS

(April 20-May 20): "I am so beautiful, sometimes people weep when they see me," declares comedian Margaret Cho. I would love for you to summon her level of self-esteem and bravado in the coming weeks. According to my interpretation of the astrological omens, you now have the right and duty to boost your self-worth.

All of creation is conspiring with you to develop more faith in yourself. And if you do the work to deepen your confidence and self-esteem, there will be an added bonus: a health breakthrough.

As spiritual author Caroline Myss says, "Belief in oneself is required for healing." My prediction: You will rouse an enhanced power to get the soul medicine you need.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): According to the blog-

ACROSS

51. Snowball thrower

20. Cattle farm

1. "People Puzzler" airer

52. Bathrooms in Bath

4. Adult Swim's "Joe _ _ _ Talks With You"

53. Sound from an ocean predator imitating a mouse?

24. "The X-Files" program, for short

8. English university city

57. High-pitched cries of joy during summer?

27. Everest, for one

59. London's national art gallery

32. Sounds of dismay

13. Tab, for example 14. "I'm rippin' up _ _ _ doll ..." (Aerosmith lyric) 15. "Ad _ _ _ per aspera" 16. _ _ _ of the hat

60. "Arrivederci" relative 61. They're all mined

19. Equilateral unit of steam?

62. Actor Sitka (one of two actors who appeared with all six different Stooges on film)

21. Palindromic dental deg.

63. _ _ _ Haute, Indiana

22. How cuneiform characters were often preserved

64. Nair rival, once

17. Really close group of friends?

23. Dollar bill depiction, familiarly 25. Yell after finishing a ride, maybe 26. Reddit Q&A forum 29. To be, to Nero 30. They're on all four Monopoly board edges, for short 31. Territorial land grabber 35. Response to "Are my shoes really that waterlogged?"

39. Fashionable quality 40. NFL Pro Bowl safety Chancellor

65. Punk record label, or a retired ultra-fast aircraft

DOWN

28. "Tokyo Vice" star Elgort 33. Mensa still tests them 34. 1968 CCR hit preceded by the lyric "Baby I love you" 36. Alerts from HQ 37. Winter Olympics groups 38. Exchange blows 41. She was followed by Scholz 42. Carefree reply 43. Turn LEAD into GOLF, maybe?

1. Showed one's ire

44. Tend to your Crockpot stew a few hours later

2. Antique book protector

47. Squat muscles

3. Seaport southeast of Roma

49. Suffix similar to -ish

4. "Crazy" singer Cline

50. "Crazy Rich Asians" director

5. La Salle who returned to "Coming 2 America"

51. "Hey! Over here!"

6. Jar sold near the farfalle 7. Ottoman Empire official

54. Many millennia 55. Like some collectibles

8. Uses high-tech beams

56. Cubism-influenced Swiss artist

9. "Roman J. Israel, _ _ _" (2017 movie)

58. To be, in Tijuana

10. Musical practice pieces

42. Albanian's neighbor

11. Stage offerings

45. OutKast's city, for short

12. Bike seat

46. "Fine, what's the answer?"

13. Expensive eggs

48. "Be right there"

26. Former Bowl of Hawaii

18. _ _ _TV ("Adam Ruins Everything" network)

last week’s answers

ger Artemisiasea, "The grandeur of life is the attempt, not the solution. It's about behaving as beautifully as one can under completely impossible circumstances; making room for what breathes in the presence of the attempt—in the coming-to-be." I invite you to embrace that wisdom in the coming weeks, Gemini. You won't be dealing with impossible circumstances, but you may have to navigate your way through fascinating brainteasers and heart riddles. Whatever your destination might turn out to be, enjoy the ride with all the verve you can summon. At least for now, put aside your longing for particular results and instead simply live your life as if it were a magnificent work of art.

CANCER

(June 21-July 22): It will be in your interest to change more than usual in the coming weeks. I suppose you could wait around passively and scramble to adjust as life flings challenges your way. But the better approach would be to make conscious decisions about how you want to transform. Identify the situations that would most benefit from modification and then initiate the transitions. Rather than depending on fate to provide you with random wake-up calls, choose constructive wake-up calls that are fun and invigorating.

LEO

(July 23-Aug. 22): "If everyone likes you, it probably means you aren't saying much," declared politician Donna Brazile. I suspect you will disprove her theory in the coming weeks. According to my reading of the astrological omens, you will have a lot to say; your communications will be even more interesting than usual. And yet, I also expect you will receive extra respect and appreciation from others. While you may articulate ideas that are challenging to some, you will do so with enough charisma to disarm agitated reactions. A winning combination: expressiveness and approval.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Have you heard of Virgo

adventurer Reinhold Messner? The man is a marvel, and not just because he's a passionate environmental activist. He was the first mountaineer to reach the top of Mt. Everest alone, as well as the first to ascend Everest without supplemental oxygen. No one before him had ever climbed all 14 of the world's peaks higher than 26,000 feet. He has transited Greenland and Antarctica without the aid of dog sleds or snowmobiles. He also completed a solo trip across the Gobi Desert.

I propose we make Messner your inspirational role model for the next four weeks. You may not achieve history-making triumphs like him, but you could surpass what you assumed were your limits. I trust that you will break at least one of your personal records.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): "The world is a very puz©2022 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.

WEEK OF MONTH TK

© 2022 ROB BREZSNY

zling place. If you're not willing to be puzzled, you just become a replica of someone else's mind." Author Noam Chomsky said that. It's useful counsel for you right now. I'll go even further.

I will advise you to relish the healthy pleasures of being both mysterious and mystified. Seek out fertile enigmas and be a fertile enigma yourself.

Explore the rejuvenating wisdom of being indefinable and uncategorizable. Exult in the quizzical joys of Eternal Paradox.

SCORPIO

(Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Have you ever contemplated the beauty of the people and animals you care for and thought, "I would love to give them the strongest blessings I have to give, the smartest love I can express, and the best listening I'm able to provide." If so, Scorpio, the coming days will be an excellent time to do that. You will have an extra capacity to offer exceptional gifts that are useful and inspirational. You will be at the peak of your ability to home in on what your beloveds need.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Sagittarian au-

thor Madeleine L'Engle told us, "The discoveries don't come when you're looking for them. They come when for some reason you've let go conscious control." That approach isn't absolutely true, but it may be useful for you to deploy in the coming weeks. I invite you to relinquish at least a modicum of your conscious control. And if zesty discoveries start flowing in, consider relinquishing even a bit more conscious control.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Is it a legend or a

true story? Scholars disagree about whether Capricorn scientist Isaac Newton really was spurred to formulate the theory of gravity when an apple fell from the tree he was sitting beneath.

This much is certain: Newton lived in the home near the famous apple tree. And that tree is alive today, 380 years after his birth. Ripe apples still fall from it. Is there an equivalent landmark or keystone from your own past, Capricorn—where an important insight arose or pivotal event happened? The coming weeks would be a good time to revisit that power spot, at least in your imagination, in quest of fresh inspiration.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Aquarian poet Jack

Gilbert devoted himself to soulful beauty. I swooned when I first read his line, "We must unlearn the constellations to see the stars." I cried for joy when he said, "We must have the stubbornness to accept our gladness in the ruthless furnace of this world." On the other hand, I suspect Jack may have been overly consumed with his pursuit of lyrical moments. His girlfriend Linda Gregg said, "All Jack ever wanted to know was that he was awake—that the trees in bloom were almond trees—and to walk down the road to get breakfast. He never cared if he was poor or had to sleep on a park bench." I bring this up, dear Aquarius, hoping you will avoid Gilbert's lack of attention to practical matters. In the coming weeks, I invite you to be your extravagant, idiosyncratic, interesting self to the max.

But also be sure to eat healthy food, engage in pleasurable exercise, and get plenty of rejuvenating sleep—preferably in a comfortable bed rather than on a park bench.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): The Uberfacts Twitter

account informs me that if you were to consume the amount of food equivalent to what a hummingbird eats, you would eat 300 hamburgers or 7,800 cabbages per day. To match the amount of exercise a hummingbird gets while burning all those calories, you'd have to do approximately 37 bazillion jumping jacks. You will never do this, of course. But in the coming weeks, you may be more metaphorically hungry than usual. I predict you will be voracious for new information and novel experiences and fresh ideas. Not 300 hamburgers or 7,800 cabbages' worth—but still, a lot. My advice: Have fun being insatiably curious and greedy for stimulation.

Homework: Is there a situation you're being lazy about? Should you be more discerning? https://Newsletter.FreeWillAstrology

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SPOTLIGHT

ARTIST MCKENZIE YOUNG-ROY Instagram: @mckenzieyoungart Website: mckenzieyoungart.com

McKenzie Young-Roy is a freelance illustrator living and working in Portland, OR. She creates work with a focus on empathy, wonder, and mental health advocacy. Her portfolio includes both traditional and digital work, children’s illustration, and branded work for companies and non-profits. She has self-published a children’s book (The Alphabet Book) as well as a zine titled Safe, documenting living with diagnosed OCD. May is Mental Health Awareness month! Each year, McKenzie hosts a mental health drawing challenge that lasts for the entire month of May. Anyone can participate!

Find more info on her Instagram and at mckenzieyoungart.com/mental-health

Be a Willamette Week featured artist! Any art style welcome! Let’s share your art. Contact us at art@wweek.com Willamette Week MAY 11, 2022 wweek.com

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