BEST
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BEST OF PORTLAND PAGE 15
NEWS:
WWEEK.COM VOL 48/36 0 7.1 3 . 2 0 2 2
Portlanders Are Smoking Less Weed. P. 12
BOOKS:
Chelsea Bieker’s True Grit. P. 56
MOVIES:
Will Drive-Ins Strike Back? P. 58
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FINDINGS AARON LEE
BEIRUT BITES, PAGE 52
WHAT WE LEARNED FROM READING THIS WEEK’S PAPER VOL. 48, ISSUE 36 on time in May. 9
Just 88.5% of TriMet buses ran
Brad Avakian goes through 300 deer antlers each summer. 29
Getting booked on a felony bias crime won’t land you a night in jail. 10
Indeed, both a lawyer and a cat are hosts of the True Crime Cat Lawyer podcast. 31
The price of cannabis flower is as low as it’s been since April 2019. 12
Worker’s Tap is home to the city’s best activist library. 35
The longtime proprietor of Foxy Coffee turned his cafe into a woodshop. 16
tends to be kids’ favorite Oculus Go program. 35
DC Ringz fulfilled a request for a ring that doubles as a cigar cutter. 17
A Predicament of Pangolins
Beirut Bites’ signature menu item is Lebanese street pizza. 53
There’s a phone number you can call for impartial advice on your online dating profile. 19
Better Edibles’ CannaCrispy is about as close as you can get to a Rice Krispies Treat that’ll get you high. 55
The Oregon Zoo’s polar bears were the first to have blood drawn without anesthesia. 21
Chelsea Bieker uses walks and playlists to trick her brain into entering a subconscious state. 56
If the wind is right, the Woodlawn neighborhood smells like
ON THE COVER:
OUR MOST TRAFFICKED STORY ONLINE THIS WEEK:
Best of Portland 2022: The Big Float, launched in 2011, bids farewell to the Willamette River.
The Homeland Security secretary who sent federal agents to Portland to quell “lawlessness” held office unlawfully.
Masthead Mark Zusman
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DIALOGUE Last week’s cover story (“Ripped City,” WW, July 6) pondered the latest chapter in Portland’s civic dysfunction: a looming fight over how to fix its paralyzed government. For years, elected officials, including Mayor Ted Wheeler and City Commissioner Mingus Mapps, promised charter reform would unlock City Hall’s potential. A commission of volunteers have proposed an ambitious overhaul—with several proposals that Wheeler says he doesn’t understand and Mapps says he can’t support. It’s poised to be the latest fight between progressives and centrists over who holds power. Here’s what our readers had to say:
SUFFER247, VIA WWEEK. COM: “Of course those with
something to lose will oppose this. As long as the change advocates continually frame the opposition in that manner, voters should overwhelmingly approve this. This is Portland’s last shot before it implodes completely. At some point, the number of people leaving will outnumber the people coming in, and Portland becomes the Detroit of the West Coast. “Portland cannot continue forward in its current form, it’s just that simple. If this fails, we’ll be making plans to move, sooner rather than later.”
MARJORIE J. SIMPSON, IN REPLY: “So you think that an
election two years from now with 12 new City Council members, a new mayor, and a newly hired city manager (hired by
the current inept City Council) will miraculously turn this ship around? The commissioner system of governance is certainly flawed, but we at least know the pros and cons. “The currently proposed multimember districts with ranked-choice voting is purely a creation of the current ideologically driven charter committee members. Why do you think that a system that even Eugene decided not to adopt would somehow do a great job in Portland? I mean, our record of experimenting with new and novel ways of doing things hasn’t worked out too well over the last decade or so, right?” IAIN MCKENZIE, VIA TWITTER: “The incredibly frustrating
thing about this is that the City Council has the power to refer charter amendments to the
Dr. Know
voters. Wheeler/Mapps seem annoyed that they appointed people to an independent commission, who then exercised their independence.” CH, VIA WWEEK.COM: “No
one on the Charter Commission should be allowed to run for council for at least 10 years in the event these changes are made.”
DUBIOUS, VIA WWEEK.COM:
“There’s so much twisted logic here. Just because someone doesn’t support this entire package of reforms doesn’t mean they’re opposed to the values underlying the recommendations. Just because they don’t want to do five things at once doesn’t mean they are opposed to change or that they endorse the old guard. By sending a mixed bag of reforms, they have doomed the effort.”
TONY JORDAN, VIA TWITTER: “Opposition to this is
cynical and transparent. “The few people in power now don’t want to dilute their power or their ability to threaten chaos or stalemate if their patrons aren’t kept happy.”
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’m a recent transplant from Chicago. What’s the deal in Portland with the random unpaved sections of road? It’ll be fine; then suddenly, for a block or two, it’s unpaved. Is this the result of some long-standing Hatfield-McCoy feud between a property owner and the city? —Ramzy Don’t tell anyone, but we actually had to rip up 60-plus miles of perfectly good road to build those “unimproved” blocks. It’s all part of the plan to make Portland seem like a dump so folks from larger, better-developed cities won’t want to live here—you know, like all those out-of-work crisis actors we pay to camp on the streets and pretend they’re homeless. But seriously, Ramzy, your guess about a feud between the city and property owners isn’t too far off. It’s not exactly a shooting war, but it’s certainly an example of competition between public and private interests, and I daresay there are some homeowners who find it egregiously unfair. At first blush, it does sound like an unbelievable ripoff: Those “Roadway Not Improved” blocks are, by statute, not the city’s problem.
Not only will the city not improve them, it won’t even pay to maintain them in their current state of shittiness. Maintenance is the responsibility of the adjacent property owners, and the only way to turn these sad chunks of possum habitat into actual streets is for those property owners to pay, out of their own pockets, to have them graded, paved and brought up to the same standards as regular city streets. Then, and only then, will the city take over. What’s the justification for this uncharacteristic hardassery? Well, remember, Portland’s neighborhoods weren’t built by city government; most started out as housing tracts on unincorporated land. Part of the process of turning near-worthless pasture land into high-dollar real estate is building streets, which the developer pays for as part of their investment. If the city ends up annexing the neighborhood, they’ll take over the streets—as long as they’re up to code. However, if that long-ago developer’s plans included some rights of way that in real life they never got around to improving beyond oxcartpath standards, you’ll probably still need an ox to traverse them today. The folks who wrote Portland’s city ordinances decided that fixing developers’ oversights shouldn’t be the taxpayers’ problem—and besides, someday those abandoned cart paths may be good for scaring off carpetbaggers (or at least oxen). Questions? Send them to dr.know@wweek.com.
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Willamette Week JULY 13, 2022 wweek.com
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MURMURS WW ARCHIVE
MARK O. HATFIELD RACIAL DISPARITIES PERSIST IN PORTLAND TRAFFIC STOPS: A report released earlier this week by the Portland Police Bureau shows little progress in reducing racial disparities in traffic stops, despite a highly publicized effort by Mayor Ted Wheeler and Police Chief Chuck Lovell to no longer pull over motorists for minor infractions like broken tail lights. As WW previously reported (“Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop,” June 22), the discontinuation of low-level stops contributed to a 90% drop in all traffic stops in two years. But this week’s report shows the percentage of drivers pulled over who were Black actually increased from 17% in 2020 to 18% in 2021. Meanwhile, the percentage of stopped drivers who were white dropped, from 65% to 64%. (That’s far lower than their share of the population: More than 75% of Portlanders are white.) The trend has worsened in 2022: The number of drivers stopped who were white dropped to 63% in the first quarter of the year. The mayor’s office did not respond to a request for comment. SALEM APPOINTMENT IS ALL IN THE FAMILY: Republican political consultant Reagan Knopp tweeted July 11 that he was “excited to be joining” the Senate minority office as chief of staff in August. In that position, he would work under his father, Senate Minority Leader Tim Knopp (R-Bend). Although Oregon’s government ethics law allows lawmakers to hire family members to serve as “personal legislative staff ” (and many do), the law, ORS 244.179, also says “a public official acting in an official capacity may not directly supervise a person who is a relative.” Reagan Knopp would work for the caucus rather than in his father’s legislative office. The Knopps could not be reached for comment, but Senate GOP spokesman Ryan Iverson says Tim Knopp has consulted the Legislative Counsel’s Office for an opinion on the matter. “Reagan would not start until Aug. 1,” Iverson says. “So we have time to look into it.” LANDLORDS BLAME GOVERNMENT FOR LEGIONNAIRES’ OUTBREAK: Two local companies—Income Property Management and North6
Willamette Week JULY 13, 2022 wweek.com
west Housing Alternatives—face a pair of lawsuits after Legionnaires’ disease broke out at a North Portland apartment building they run for low-income seniors. But those companies are shifting blame for the outbreak, which sickened 14 people at Rosemont Court last year, to Multnomah County and the city of Portland. In a March legal filing in Multnomah County Circuit Court, the landlords called in the county and city as third-party defendants, saying the outbreak and its management were the responsibility of those governments. Michael Fuller, attorney for one of the plaintiffs, says that’s a deflection: “If you can prove you were working as an agent for the government, and they had a certain level of control over how you did their job, then the government is liable for any damages.” Both cases are expected to go to trial. In court filings dated in May, both the city and county deny responsibility. HISTORICAL SOCIETY RELEASES HATFIELD TAPES: July 11 would have been the 100th birthday of former Oregon Gov. and U.S. Sen. Mark Hatfield (R-Ore.). Before he died at age 89 in 2011, Hatfield, who served in the Senate for 30 years and chaired the Senate Appropriations Committee, sat for about 50 hours of interviews with the Oregon Historical Society. The senior statesman stipulated, however, that OHS could not release tapes and transcripts of the interviews until his 100th birthday. A quick review of the tapes: Hatfield talks in depth about political contemporaries and rivals, including the late U.S. Sen. Wayne Morse (D-Ore.) and the late Gov. Tom McCall, and describes his affection for and consternation with President Bill Clinton and the time President Richard Nixon considered making Hatfield his running mate. Of the darker moments in Hatfield’s career, which included a car accident that left a young girl dead and his dealings with Greek arms dealer Basil Tsakos, which led to Tsakos’ secret indictment on bribery charges, Hatfield’s approach in the interviews was the less said, the better. The interviews are now available at OHS.org.
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Willamette Week JULY 13, 2022 wweek.com 7/6/22 1:54 AM7
SAM GEHRKE
NEWS
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW THIS WEEK
REAL ESTATE
Wilted Rose Moda Center is getting old— and its assessed property tax value shows it. BY N I G E L J AQ U I S S
njaquiss@wweek .com
There’s been a lot of Blazer news lately: better-than-normal offseason deals, headed by the acquisitions of Jerami Grant and Gary Payton II. A promising draft pick in Shaedon Sharpe (oops, injured already). The contract extension of franchise cornerstone Damian Lillard, making him the highest-paid man in basketball. And, of course, there’s the game of cat and mouse between Blazers chairwoman Jody Allen, who swore last week the team isn’t for sale, and Nike co-founder Phil Knight, whose reported $2 billion bid suggests that it is. Two indisputable facts: The Blazers’ ground lease with the city of Portland expires in 2025; and its home gym, Moda Center, completed in 1995, is one of the oldest arenas in the NBA. Those two data points raise questions about the arena’s fate, especially since there are rumblings that, should Knight acquire the team, he envisions a serious upgrade of the Rose Quarter. Blazer fans and elected officials, including Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler and U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), have made it clear they want to do whatever it takes to keep the Blazers here. But a review of property tax records shows the franchise is already getting something of a sweet deal from a property tax assessment that values Moda Center at far below its construction cost and even further below its replacement cost. Here are three key numbers:
$262 MILLION
That’s what Moda Center cost to build when then-owner Paul Allen completed construction in 1995. The city of Portland contributed $34.5 million, while lenders and Allen ponied up the balance.
HAPPIER DAYS: The Blazers hope a return to the playoffs looms.
$600 MILLION
That’s a conservative estimate, based on the NBA’s newest arenas, of what it would cost to construct a new home for the Blazers. In 2016, the Sacramento Kings built a new arena for $557 million. The city of Sacramento chipped in $255 million of that amount. In 2018, the Milwaukee Bucks opened Fiserv Forum at a cost $524 million, $250 million of which was public money. The Golden State Warriors completed Chase Center in 2019 for $1.4 billion. The Warriors’ owners financed the facility privately. That’s a departure from most arena projects, which rely on public subsidy. A 2018 University of West Virginia study found that 129 professional sports arenas built over the past 50 years in North America got an average subsidy of 65%.
$82 MILLION
That’s the current assessed value of the 11 tax lots that constitute the Blazers’ holdings at 1 Center Court. The franchise’s property tax bill last year? $1.52 million. That’s a lot—but a pittance compared to what the taxes would be if the property were valued at cost or replacement value. Oregon tax authorities instruct assessors that there are three ways to value real property: cost of construction, the income a property generates, or based on comparable sales. But arriving at an assessed value is more art than science. The Blazers sued in tax court in 2005, seeking to lower the value of their real estate. The case dragged on through 2009, and although the case file is sealed, the verdict slashed the assessed value by more than
CORRESPONDENCE
Let’s Split Voters have a chance in November to overhaul how the city is governed—but will have to sift through competing arguments when deciding how to vote. BY S O P H I E P E E L
speel@wweek .com
Date: July 8, 2022 From: Portland Business Alliance To: Portland elections officer Louise Hansen and City Auditor Mary Hull Caballero The Request: The PBA, the local chamber of commerce, asked Hansen and Hull Caballero to reject the wording of the question that will appear on Portlanders’ November ballots in 8
Willamette Week JULY 13, 2022 wweek.com
which they’ll choose whether to overhaul the city’s government and elections. WW obtained the letter and first reported it on wweek.com. On Tuesday afternoon, Hull Caballero declined to do so, saying she does not review measures referred by the Charter Commission: “Code affords special consideration to a Charter Commission when a supermajority of its members refers measures to the ballot.” It was the first attempt by the PBA to force the hand of city officials to split a reform of city
50%, from $139 million in 2008 to $66 million. Multnomah County assessor Mike Vaughn says NBA arenas across the country are often valued far below construction or replacement cost because they are usually wrapped up in complex agreements with teams and other assets; because arenas rarely change hands; and because NBA franchises are controlled by highly sophisticated owners whose attorneys and accountants are hard to beat. (The Blazers did not respond to a request for comment.) Vaughn says assessors and owners regularly disagree on the value of arenas—and the owners usually win, often by arguing that revenues directly attributable to arenas, such as tickets, concessions, parking, etc., do not justify the value of construction. (Television broadcast money and appreciation in the value of franchises, which are two of the real moneymakers for owners, are beyond the reach of property tax assessors.) Vaughn’s office was able to bump up Moda Center’s assessed value slightly after a 2015 review. But Jody Wiser of the watchdog group Tax Fairness Oregon notes that owners of homes the same age as Moda Center typically pay taxes on an assessed value at least as big as the cost of construction. That’s proportionally much more than the Blazers are paying. In other words, the Blazers are getting a hometown discount— and Knight or whoever builds the team’s next arena will likely seek equally favorable terms. Wiser acknowledges comparing an NBA arena to a home is not apples to apples, but still, she says, “It doesn’t seem fair.”
government into three separate ballot questions. At issue for the PBA, among other opposition that’s formed, is the bundling of three major reforms proposed by the Portland Charter Commission into one ballot question, leaving Portlanders with an all-or-nothing choice whether to change how Portland is governed. The Rationale: The PBA argued that Hansen struck down a similar ballot initiative in 2020 because she deemed it violated a rule that a ballot measure can only pose a single question to voters. So why not do the same to this one? In December 2020, Hansen wrote to a petitioner that the “Portland Council Reformation” initiative as written violated the state’s single-subject law and that “not all the amendments are connected by a single unifying purpose.” (That initiative had significant overlap with the current ballot measure, including district-based elections, ranked-choice voting, and increasing the size of the Portland City Council.) “A city elections officer has authority—indeed
a constitutional duty—to conduct preelection review of proposed measures to ensure they comply with constitutional procedural requirements and to reject those that do not comply,” PBA’s attorneys wrote. Why It Matters: As WW reported in last week’s cover story (“Ripped City,” July 6), critics such as City Commissioner Mingus Mapps have complained the city’s Charter Commission has packed too many concepts into its proposed reforms. (Mapps likes moving to a city administrator but doesn’t want to switch to ranked-choice voting or increase the number of city commissioners.) Several groups are preparing to oppose the package, and an allor-nothing fight appears unavoidable—unless the PBA can successfully separate the ideas into three measures. Two weeks ago, charter commissioners assured City Council members that the ballot measure they proposed would meet legal muster and have a clear, unifying purpose. In March, the City Attorney’s Office also said the measure would withstand any legal challenges.
TRENDING
ELECTION 2022
Too Late TriMet’s driver shortage is making it less likely your bus arrives on time. 2,000
THE NUMBER OF BUS AND MAX DRIVERS HAS FALLEN DRAMATICALLY. Source: TriMet
1,621 1,476
1,339
1,312
1,000
Feb. 2020
Feb. 2021
Feb. 2022
May 2022
TRIMET’S LABOR SHORTAGE HAS LED TO CANCELLATIONS AND LATE BUSES. 100%
Source: TriMet
94.16%
92.97% 88.70%
Massaging the Message Three clues to where the candidates for Oregon governor stand on abortion rights. The U.S. Supreme Court decision last month to overturn the federal right to abortion set off a scramble among the leading candidates for Oregon governor on how they would address the suddenly top-of-mind issue. At least for now, abortion is a hotly contested question, but it remains unclear how important that issue will be to voters by the time ballots are cast in November. As recently as January, a DHM Research poll found abortion to be the least selected of the issues that pollsters asked Oregonians to rank as the top issue affecting their choice of a governor. For Democratic nominee Tina Kotek, who’s used to the challenge of defending the record of the current governor and party in power, the abortion issue is refreshingly simple: She’ll increase any abortion protection she can. But for her two opponents—Republican nominee Christine Drazan and unaffiliated candidate Betsy Johnson—it’s more complicated, as they try to appeal to voters on both sides of the issue. In fact, it’s difficult to say exactly how they would govern on the question. Here are three clues:
1. JOHNSON SAYS SHE HAS A STRONG DEMOCRATIC RECORD ON ABORTION— POSSIBLY BETTER THAN KOTEK’S.
50%
March-May 2020
BY N I G E L J AQ U I S S
March-May 2021
njaquiss@wweek .com
On July 8, TriMet hit transit riders with bad news: It will reduce service on 10 bus lines, canceling lines in Cedar Mill and South Beaverton. The transit agency is still reeling from the initial shock of the COVID-19 pandemic, which it got whacked by the health risks of congregating in enclosed public spaces and by commuters working from home. Bus ridership plummeted 69% between February and April 2020. Passenger numbers took a long time to recover, which led to driver resignations and retirements. Now, with ridership up—70% higher in May 2022 than it was in May 2020—TriMet doesn’t have enough employees behind the wheel. The agency is dealing with a critical driver shortage—what it calls “the largest operator shortage in agency history.” TriMet spokeswoman Tia York notes that staffing went from its highest level ever, just before the pandemic, to its lowest. The result? Delays.
March-May 2022
In May 2022, the latest month for which TriMet has data, just 88.5% of buses ran on time, which means they were no more than a minute early or five minutes late. That on-time performance has trended downward with staffing. Sarah Iannarone, executive director of the Street Trust, says the pandemic has added to pressure on transit from hostile corporations and indifferent transportation officials. “This systemic abandonment of transit as a priority is a hidden tax on our region’s working families and on our future,” Iannarone says. The agency is opening its wallet to address its labor shortage, bumping up starting pay 18%, from $21.36 to $25.24 an hour, and offering signing bonuses of $7,500 for new hires. “We are beginning to see hiring efforts pay off and training classes fill up,” TriMet’s York says. “However, with classes being limited in size and lasting a full seven weeks, the hiring process can take quite some time.”
“I was on a Planned Parenthood board in Oregon before Tina was even an Oregonian,” Johnson said in a statement. “I left the RepubTINA KOTEK lican Party over their extreme position on women and gay rights.” Kotek says there’s reason to doubt both her opponents on abortion. “There is only one candidate who voters can trust to fight for reproductive freedom—Tina,” says Kotek spokeswoman Katie Wertheimer. “That’s why she is the only candidate endorsed by Planned Parenthood PAC of Oregon and Pro-Choice Oregon.”
2. A PROMINENT JOHNSON SUPPORTER SAYS SHE AND DRAZAN ARE “VIRTUALLY IDENTICAL” ON ABORTION.
In a video released June 30, former Republican candidate for governor Bridget Barton, now leading a group called “Republicans for Betsy,” BETSY JOHNSON defended her support for a pro-choice Johnson. She assured Republicans worried about Johnson’s pro-choice record: “Drazan and Johnson are virtually
identical on this issue. They’re both fine with the status quo.” A Johnson campaign consultant liked Barton’s video on Twitter, but a spokeswoman for the campaign, Jennifer Sitton, says the two women see Johnson’s stance differently: “Betsy and Bridget both are capable of thinking and speaking for themselves. It is not necessary for us all to agree on everything except who should be the next governor.” Drazan’s campaign argues there’s a sharp contrast. “Betsy Johnson is a proud former Planned Parenthood board member,” says Drazan campaign manager Trey Rosser. “Christine is pro-life, Betsy is not. We are focused on the issues impacting Oregonians— crime, inflation, homelessness—not on social media videos made by a failed, disgruntled politician.”
3. IT’S NOT CLEAR YET WHAT ABORTION POLICIES DRAZAN (OR JOHNSON) WOULD SET.
Asked whether she would support legislation to ban abortions late in pregnancy, Drazan wouldn’t say. “Christine will not comment CHRISTINE DRAZAN on legislation that has not reached her desk nor even been drafted yet,” says Drazan spokesman John Burke. “As it relates to the third trimester, Christine sides with the vast majority of Oregonians who support common-sense protections for life in the final stages of a pregnancy.” Drazan’s campaign also says she’s not willing to pledge a veto for abortion funding, an idea high on the Oregon Right to Life wish list. “State budgets are incredibly complex, and she is committed to examining every budget that reaches her desk to ensure taxpayer dollars are being used to serve Oregonians and not simply advancing a political agenda,” Burke says. Similarly, Johnson’s campaign would not say whether there was legislation that Johnson hoped to sign if elected but that Drazan would veto: “The point is, we need to keep Drazan from being governor, so we don’t have to pass legislation to protect a woman’s right to choose against an antagonistic governor.” Kotek’s campaign was more clear on her policy priorities for abortion, including changes to the state constitution to protect abortion rights; accountability for insurers violating the Reproductive Health Equity Act; providing greater access to care, possibly by increasing the Reproductive Health Equity Fund. R AC H E L M O N A H A N . Willamette Week JULY 13, 2022 wweek.com
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BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WALKWAY: A Japanese American family was attacked on the Eastbank Esplanade over the July 4 holiday weekend.
Walk This Way The release of a hate crime suspect raises difficult questions for the Multnomah County criminal justice system. BY L U C A S M A N F I E L D
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At around 8 pm on July 2, a man walked out of the Multnomah County Courthouse in downtown Portland. Hours earlier, he had allegedly assaulted a Japanese American family while yelling racist slurs. His release back onto the streets started a citywide argument that has ensnared Mayor Ted Wheeler and Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt. The mayor has demanded a “top-to-bottom review of the criminal justice system,” even as Schmidt is trying to scotch the perception he’s soft on crime. A closer look at what happened shows that officials are balancing a desire to prevent and punish hate crimes with their aim to reduce the number of people the county incarcerates. It’s forcing the criminal justice system in Portland to confront some uncomfortable questions. We tried to answer some of them. So what exactly happened that afternoon? A family on vacation from California was biking along the Eastbank Esplanade on July 2 when a man walked up to them, asked if they were Japanese, and began punching the father in the head. The father later told
a judge he was punched over 50 times. Although he declined medical treatment at first, he was eventually admitted to a hospital where he was diagnosed with a head injury. His 5-year-old daughter was also punched in the head, but because she was wearing a bike helmet, she wasn’t injured. Did police catch the attacker? Bystanders pointed police to Dylan Kesterson, 34, who was found walking away from the scene. Kesterson was brought to the Multnomah County Courthouse, where he was interviewed, told to call into a court hearing the following week, and then released. Wait, what? You’re telling me a judge let a man accused of a violent hate crime back on the street? No, Kesterson never saw a judge that weekend. The decision to place Kesterson under supervision rather than in jail was made by a “release assistance officer,” an employee of the court, who interviewed Kesterson immediately following his arrest. Kesterson told the officer that night that he was unemployed and living in a park downtown, according to court records. The officer made the decision to release Kesterson based on the charges police booked him on. Although
glitterfox the cops had booked Kesterson on a first-degree bias crime, Oregon’s most serious hate crime, he was not charged with assault that afternoon. Wow, why’d the cops go so easy on him? Police didn’t have all the evidence at the time they booked Kesterson. It wasn’t until the following day that the father sent officers a screenshot of his hospital records showing a diagnosis of “post-traumatic headaches” and a mild concussion. Sgt. Kevin Allen, spokesman for the Portland Police Bureau, defends the charges chosen by the arresting officers. “We don’t have any role in pretrial custody decisions, nor is it our place to consider that when we are filling out arrest reports,” he tells WW. “I take issue with the notion that the charges were ‘light.’ Bias crime is a Class C felony”—which means it can get you five years in prison. What it doesn’t get you is a night behind bars. The court’s release guidelines list charges that trigger an immediate night in jail. A first-degree bias crime isn’t one of them—unless the suspect has a prior conviction. Those guidelines sound like a relic of a less-enlightened era. Actually, they were updated the day before the attack. Multnomah County’s guidelines for when to hold defendants prior to their first court appearance are based on a statewide order issued by Oregon Chief Justice Martha Walters. It says, in general, a defendant charged with a “non-domestic” Class C felony involving violence against a person should be immediately released under supervision. But that statewide order allowed counties to “identify person-specific overriding circumstances.” In the case of a first-degree bias crime, Multnomah County Presiding Judge Judith Matarazzo ordered that a prior conviction for a bias crime, use of a weapon, or assault would constitute such a circumstance. These guidelines were rewritten as a result of 2021 bail reform legislation and went into effect July 1. Whose idea was that? The legislation, Senate Bill 48, was introduced by Gov. Kate Brown. (Her office did not respond to a request for comment.) But similar guidelines were in place in Multnomah County long before—SB 48 just spread them statewide. Grant Hartley, who heads the Multnomah County office of Metropolitan Public Defender, says such guidelines are necessary to protect a cornerstone of the American judicial system: the presumption of innocence. “We can’t just lock people up based on a police report and allegations without sussing out what happened,” he says. He cite statistics published by Portland State University in 2019 that show defendants who are jailed prior to trial are twice as likely to eventually be sentenced to prison, when controlling for case history, offense severity, and other factors. “What pretrial detention does is create a pipeline to prison,” Hartley says. Lawmakers and judges were right to base the standard for who should stay in jail on the subject’s criminal history, he adds. “You don’t have much else to rely on.” That doesn’t satisfy longtime prosecutors who have watched with dismay as Oregon lawmakers have worked to reduce the number of people the state incarcerates. “An anti-punitive notion has taken over the criminal justice system,” former Multnomah County chief deputy district attorney Norm Frink says. “There’s nobody anymore who’s standing up and saying, hey, this is ridiculous.” It sounds like hate crimes should be considered a more serious offense. Well, Oregon overhauled its hate crime laws in 2019.
“Allowing a person to walk out after they’ve traumatized an entire community defeats the purpose of the law in the first place.”
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Among the reforms: promoting a crime involving a single assailant, like this one, from a misdemeanor to a felony. State Rep. Janelle Bynum (D-Happy Valley), a legislator who helped pass that 2019 law, thinks it didn’t go far enough. “The legislation is still insufficient,” she says, noting that it focuses on violence and property damage. There’s another type of harm, she adds: psychological harm, which can afflict an entire community, not just the victim. “It’s like psychological warfare. It makes you feel unsafe,” she says. Prosecutors in Kesterson’s case, relying on existing law, focused on the physical toll of the attack. Three days after his arrest, prosecutors added assault charges and filed a motion with the judge, asserting that Kesterson had committed a “violent felony” and was eligible for pretrial detainment. Three freaking days? Kesterson was arrested on a Saturday, when the courthouse is closed. Prosecutors didn’t review his file until the next business day, Tuesday, after the July 4 holiday. This is how the system works, says Elisabeth Shepard, a spokeswoman for the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office. “Our attorneys frequently work weekends,” Shepard said in a statement. But that doesn’t help if no judges are on duty. “We cannot issue charges when the courthouse is not operating,” she wrote. How do we fix this? Two options: Judge Matarazzo could issue new guidelines, or the state Legislature could pass new legislation. Conversations to strengthen the state’s bias crime statute are already happening at the Capitol. Randy Blazak, vice chair of the steering committee overseeing implementation of the 2019 hate crime law, said he was aware of at least one proposal: modeling new bias crime legislation on existing domestic violence laws, which severely limit pretrial release for such crimes. “Allowing a person to walk out after they’ve traumatized an entire community defeats the purpose of the law in the first place,” Blazak says. But Bynum cautions that change happens faster at the local level. “The Legislature is a much slower, more deliberative body,” she says. Still, changing the county guidelines could prove just as difficult. Matarazzo didn’t answer when asked by WW through her spokesperson if she planned to revisit them. Instead, she issued a statement deflecting responsibility. The county’s Chief Criminal Judge Cheryl Albrecht noted that the district attorney’s office had “specifically requested we add enhanced protections for bias crime, and our group adopted those terms with consensus.” (The DA’s office declined to comment on the agreement.) So, this guy is still on the streets? No, when Kesterson failed to show up in court last Wednesday, the judge issued a warrant and the cops distributed his mug shot. Kesterson was found that afternoon by an off-duty cop downtown, near the park he had originally listed as his last known address. After 94 hours of freedom, he is now in jail.
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Burned Out Demand for cannabis in Oregon falls to a three-year low. BY S O P H I E P E E L
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At least one Oregon product has proved immune to inflation: weed. In fact, the price of cannabis flower is as low as it’s been since April 2019. It’s retailing at $4.29 a gram, according to an Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission database. The reason for the bargain shopping might give you déjà vu: Oregon has an oversupply of weed and too little demand. That’s a phenomenon that has occurred here before—most dramatically in 2018, when growers oversaturated the market and found themselves sitting on worthless cannabis harvests (“Too Much Weed,” WW, April 18, 2018). But even then, sales were brisk. What’s driving the low prices this time is a different phenomenon: Portlanders’ appetite for cannabis has plummeted. In July 2020, Portland residents bought $21 million worth of flower, the most weed ever purchased in a single month. This June, sales fell to $11.5 million—the lowest since June 2019. “No one’s selling anything, which means no one’s buying anything,” says Bret Born, owner of Northeast Portland cannabis shop Ascend. “Vendors and shops are saying that this isn’t a gangbuster summer. Leading into the fall and winter, we could really be looking at tough times.”
Since the launch of Oregon’s legal recreational cannabis market in 2016, sales have increased steadily. But they skyrocketed in 2020, when many Oregonians found themselves working from home and receiving a couple of healthy stimulus checks. In five months, sales increased by 79%. On average, weed shops were making $48,000 a month in Multnomah County in July 2020, the OLCC says. Onlookers dubbed it “the pandemic bump,” and state economists warned it was unlikely to last. It didn’t. Last month, cannabis retail shops across Multnomah County made the lowest monthly profit they have since early 2019, averaging just $27,000. So why are Portlanders smoking less weed? Anecdotally, those in and around the industry think a big part of it has to do with Portlanders returning to office cubicles or jobs they lost during the pandemic. Beau Whitney, who runs the research firm Whitney Economics and publishes reports on the hemp and cannabis industries, says many Oregonians are finding they can no longer “work from stoned.” And as inflation soars for everything else, consumers get more cautious about their extracurricular spending. “We’re pretty far away from stimulus payments with COVID-19, and inflation has crept up. I feel like, for a lot of people, cannabis dollars are discretionary dollars,” says Mason Walker, co-owner and CEO of East Fork Cultivars in Takilma, Ore. “People are tightening their belts a little bit.”
HENRY CROMETT
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PLENTY LEFT OVER: Once again, Oregon’s weed supply outstrips consumer demand.
He says his farm projected it would sell 50 to 60 pounds of cannabis to retailers in June. Instead, it sold only 30 pounds. “I think everyone in the industry is feeling the slump right now and trying to figure out if it’s a temporary or permanent thing,” Walker says. Cannabis entrepreneurs have proven nimble in the face of previous obstacles. When farmers grew a huge overabundance of weed in 2018, they sent it to processors to make oils and extracts. When a spate of armed robberies at weed retailers in the Portland area in 2020 and 2021 left one budtender dead and hundreds of others traumatized, retailers boarded up their windows, installed security cameras, and hired security guards. But there’s one challenge that’s hard to overcome just by sheer force of will: consumer unenthusiasm. For one, weed can’t be sold out of state. That means retailers, producers and growers are confined to customers within Oregon. And if those customers are no longer the stoners they were two years ago, shops have little recourse. The Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission, which oversees weed production and sales in the state, takes a slightly less dismal view. TJ Sheehy, director of analytics and research for the OLCC, says that if you take out the anomaly years of 2020 and 2021, 2022 is actually in line with the consumption trends we were seeing in 2019. (Similarly, retail alcohol sales are down in Oregon, but bars and restaurants are buying more.) “We had a big pandemic bump, but that has proved ephemeral. Now we’re back to normal,” Sheehy says. “But because we had that COVID-19 bump, businesses were responding to that when making their planting decisions, so that exacerbated the higher-supply issue.” In short: Farmers didn’t learn their lesson in 2018 and once again overplanted.
“I think everyone in the industry is feeling the slump right now and trying to figure out if it’s a temporary or permanent thing.” The customer shortage hasn’t yet caused cannabis retailers to shutter, according to OLCC officials who track licenses. But Whitney expects that to happen soon: He estimates the annual revenue a weed shop needs to turn a profit is $2 million, and few are doing such brisk sales. A recent move by the Oregon Legislature directed the OLCC to pause processing all new cannabis license applications in hopes the market would even out. The moratorium, retroactive to all applications filed as of Jan. 1 of this year, is set to expire in March 2024. “It gave the OLCC the discretion to enact a moratorium on all action types based on market demand,” says cannabis lawyer Kevin Jacoby, “in the hopes it would put some upward pressure on wholesale prices. It didn’t at all.” In June 2020, Oregon had 671 cannabis retailers statewide. In 2021, that number jumped to 756. In 2022: 794. That number will jump one more time— likely by around 100, according to Sheehy, before the number stagnates. More retailers entering the market might make for an even thinner demand at each shop. “Right now, it’s kind of a somber outlook for weed,” Whitney says. If there’s a silver lining for cannabis farmers: At least they’re not in the hemp-growing business. That industry has cratered to a remarkable degree, Whitney notes. In 2019, a pound of hemp biomass sold for $43. In late 2021, it cost $1.50. And licensed acreage in Oregon dropped from 64,000 acres to 7,000.
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BEST OF PORTLAND O
ver the past couple years, Portland went and got itself a reputation. TV talking heads use our home as shorthand for dysfunction and dumpster fires. Oregon politicians try to win votes in the suburbs by badmouthing the “city of roaches.” Our own leaders talk about Portland as if it’s, at best, a problem and, at worst, a lost cause. We’ve been a punchline and a punching bag. That’s the trouble with being interesting: A lot of people think they know you. Consider this issue a statement of defiance: The people who talk shit about Portland don’t know this city. They don’t love this city. And they don’t deserve this city. Portland is more than a headline. More than a dysfunctional
City Hall. More than its inability to build enough housing and shelter quickly enough. It’s also werewolf videos, virtual reality and spectacular sweater collections. It’s deer-antler furniture, poetry hotlines and public pianos. Our annual Best of Portland Issue is intended as a guide to some of our city’s surprises. Like the pair of polar bears moonlighting as scientific researchers (page 21). Or the architects who specialize in treehouses (page 37). Or the smell of fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies that fills a neighborhood when the wind is right (page 25). This issue also includes our annual readers’ poll about the reliable favorites that define daily routines in their town (page 39), and we’re gratified by the thousands of you who voted. As our staff ventured into the city, we were struck once again
by how much has changed. There are neighborhoods in Portland so transformed by the one-two punch of pandemic closures and new construction that you often feel as if you’ve ventured into a new city. Not all of these changes have been for the better. But some are for the best. This city is more equitable, more diverse and challenging us to think about whom it serves. Portland can make even its biggest fans uncomfortable—in ways that compel its residents to grow. It isn’t always a city that works. But it’s a city that fights. The following pages tour a Portland and its people you may not know yet. We think that’s the city worth fighting for. —Bennett Campbell Ferguson, Assistant Arts & Culture Editor CONTINUED ON PAGE 16 Willamette Week JULY 13, 2022 wweek.com
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DARLING WOODWORKS
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year lease downtown, Foxy was reborn as Farling Coffee, with a limited menu and hours, as well as space to showcase Darling Woodworks. “There’s days I sell $6 worth of coffee the whole day,” Francis says. “But I haven’t given up on Portland yet. I think Portland eventually will come back.” J A S O N C O H E N .
Best Mourning
Josiah Francis’ version of making lemons out of lemonade was starting a handcrafted furniture business inside his failing cafe. The longtime proprietor of Foxy Coffee, which has existed in some form—roaster, pop-up, cart—since 2014, seized the opportunity to go brick-and-mortar in a new building smack in the middle of the pandemic, opening on North Interstate Avenue in January 2021. He and his partner in both life and business, Liz Tracy, ran it as a coffee bar by day and cocktail bar by night. Nine months later they opened a second location downtown. But, much like COVID itself, the rhythms of selling coffee remained unpredictable and stressful. Francis was still working shifts at Haymaker to make ends meet, and then one day at the downtown location, someone pulled a gun on him. The cheap pandemic rent at the North Portland shop also had an expiration date. Foxy gave up its cocktail program at the end of 2021 and closed for good in March 2022; eventually downtown also shuttered. But in the meantime, there was Darling Woodworks, a showcase for Francis’ handmade side tables, consoles, nightstands and other furniture. Part labor of love, part side hustle and part self-care for post-traumatic stress disorder, it literally started at Foxy, with Francis sanding down wood and assembling picnic tables right in front of the MAX Yellow Line. When Francis first posted a few things on Facebook Marketplace and Instagram, friends and regulars began snapping up the pieces (full disclosure: This writer bought a record shelf ). “That was the first time that I was like, ‘Oh shit, this could be a legitimate business,’” he says. Now Francis does custom jobs and builds bigger items, and after a few months working out of a friend’s garage, he and Tracy, who also makes cutting boards and custom paints, moved to Beaverton, where they now have a workshop. While roasting coffee and making furniture may be two very different crafts, his customers presumed that he’d bring the same level of integrity and care from one to the other. “They’re like, ‘I already know your quality of product is good. I’m going to trust that your other products are going to be the same level of quality.’ It’s been rad.” And along the way, there was a twist: With a somewhat more manageable (and also unbreakable) five16
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Nicole Comach has been around grief for a long time. Starting at age 15, she worked in a Bay Area funeral home until leaving to attend the University of Oregon. In 2019, Comach started her journey into death work after connecting with a Seattle-area death midwife. Today, after training in how to help people through emotional and practical end-of-life issues, Comach runs Emerald Awakenings, a business that escorts people to the borders of the undiscovered country. Comach calls herself an “end-of-life guide,” a self-created specialty in the broader death worker field that includes death midwives and death doulas. Her work comprises everything from sitting with grieving people to helping dying people convey their funeral wishes to holding virtual and in-person memorial services. While some death workers primarily provide bedside companionship and support, Comach’s work also has a strong practical side, making her something of an estate planner for the less tangible parts of a legacy. Her advice: Put your wishes in writing now. “I think we’ve come to realize that every day isn’t promised, and life is messy and tragedies happen,” she says. “If things are not on paper, your end-of-life wishes can get really messy.” Comach moonlights in other crises: She’ll counsel people through a breakup or divorce, having a loved one incarcerated, or other traumatizing losses. One such loss people often feel uncomfortable mourning in public: the loss of a pet. “I’ve known people [to grieve] the death of their dog a lot harder than the death of their mother,” Comach says. “Sometimes it’s worse, really, and you’ll hear that quite often.” Comach doesn’t grade grief. She figures out what someone is feeling, and tries to tailor a space for their sadness. “It’s a really individualized container depending on whom you’re sitting with,” she says. “The best thing you can offer somebody with any type of grief is your presence, and sometimes words don’t even matter.” S U S A N E L I Z A B E T H S H E PA R D .
Best Trail Glazier Dijenaire Crijuan Frazier may have already begun searching out some transformational epiphany when pestered into touring an old pal’s new worksite at Bullseye Glass, he certainly never expected his next decade would be forged in the fires of Southeast Portland’s internationally renowned art glass pioneers. The budding entrepreneur behind DC Ringz hadn’t any artistic background or prior experience manipulating molten elements, but Frazier had spent a lifetime hunting down something like Bullseye’s signature Space Age stained-glass fusion for one simple reason: “My pinkie’s really small—size 3,” he laughs. “I always wanted a pinkie ring but could never find one that fit, so I started casting glass forms the same way they do metal.” That first effort, a beveled black ring with red streaks and spiral effects resembling wood grain, drew sufficient praise for Frazier to launch DC Ringz despite the barrage of stones thrown from fellow glaziers convinced his designs wouldn’t maintain structural
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Best Cannabis Farm integrity. “They kept telling me glass doesn’t like that shape,’” he recalls. “Someone says I can’t do something, my mindset’s always to keep pushing and pushing. There’s a whole science behind making these rings strong enough to be worn every day. No one really knows what this glass can do.” To that end, Frazier has been steadily testing the ceiling of his glassware. He’s currently expanding the company’s prospective clientele from vendor markets and community fairs to storefronts and galleries, while a more streamlined process and substantial capital investment in machinery has lowered the production time for each ring from nearly 90 minutes to less than 10. Alongside newly feasible custom requests—one woman has asked for a ring that doubles as a cigar cutter—he’s also begun experimenting with a line of pendants and approached area night spots about glass bar tops featuring the establishment’s logo lit from below. “For an art form in this world to be so new,” he marvels, “it grabbed my attention. I fell in love with the endless possibilities, and I gave nine years of my life learning how to make something truly mine from sand and ash and whatever mineral adds the color. It’s just playing with the earth, but I’m creating jewelry.”
NOT COOL
J AY H O R T O N .
designing posters and logos for Cinemagic and even guest-curating screenings at the Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard theater. “I had no idea any of this was going to happen,” Kroll says. “It’s been a really cool process. I definitely do feel like a part of [Cinemagic] now, which is cool.” Whether they depict Nicolas Cage wildly gesticulating or Joaquin Phoenix with a thousand-yard stare, Not Cool’s movie stickers are affixed to street signs, water bottles and theater lobbies all over Portland. Kroll says his aesthetic choices often stem from the limitations of screen printing colors, all while playing with textures and dimensions for a graphic effect that differentiates the images from photo-real copies. Moreover, in the nearly one year since longtime employees Ryan Frakes and Nicholas Kuechler took ownership of Cinemagic, Not Cool’s illustrations have essentially become a house style on posters for the theater’s Provoke Fest, VHS Nights and specialty screenings. Kuechler says Kroll’s genuine movie appreciation makes his artwork an ideal fit for the theater. “He’s got great ideas for picking iconic images from movies and not always the stuff you’re used to seeing,” Kuechler says. “Even when the person is too small to identify the features of the actor, you know what movie it’s from.” While Not Cool’s Paul Thomas Anderson sticker collection is currently available for purchase online, and Cinemagic plans to eventually sell Not Cool merch at the theater, Kroll says hawking stickers isn’t the end game. “I would rather give them to somebody who’s going to appreciate it,” he says. “If I get a little money every once in a while, that’s fine.” C H A N C E S O L E M - P F E I F E R .
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Best Dark Artisan
Best Sticker Designer Of all Lady Gaga’s colossal onstage moments in 2018’s A Star Is Born, no scene pops quite like Ally stretching her vocal cords, widening her eyes and changing her life to “Shallow.” Fittingly enough, that scene also marked the moment Ethan Kroll’s artistic trajectory shifted. He’d been screen printing stickers in Portland since 2012, but had never considered illustrating movie characters, despite a lifelong case of cinephilia. On that day in early 2019, Kroll whipped out his iPad, fired up a digital illustration app, and drew Gaga’s iconic moment of arrival. Some positive Instagram feedback kicked off a wave that led Kroll—who goes by “Not Cool”—to begin producing movie sticker packs,
Erika Fortner may claim she’d never once considered a career in retail, but the founder of Queen Meb— the Northeast Broadway boutique that’s part Dosha, part Diagon Alley, offering tarot readings, brooms, and witching herbs, alongside body scrubs and lip balm—seems eerily well-suited for her current role. Fortner, who claims a direct lineage to the legendary Celtic sorceress who inspired her business’s branding, has always felt a kinship with the spirits. She earned a BFA from New York’s Pratt Institute while working as a tarot guide for the Psychic Friends Network (“nineties psychics had a particular flavor,” she laughs, “very inauthentic”), but given her family’s background in furniture repair and her first career as a finish specialist for iconic abstract artist Julie Mehretu, Fortner also developed an aggressively DIY approach to household magic. “The [Wiccan] revival comes from midwives and women who weren’t necessarily taught which herbs to use,” she says, “but found they could just listen to the plants and understand their vibe.” Ever since a desperately concocted homemade poultice somehow protected her cracked, bleeding, overscrubbed art-restorer hands when all commercial salves had failed, Fortner says she’s been “like a mad scientist making all sorts of handmade products and weird fermentations. We have handmade soaps. I’m doing a nail polish right now that’s fabulous. There’s about 180 different incense resins. Pounds and pounds of herbs. Crystals, obviously. People are really digging the smoking blends—tobacco, CBD. [Herbal smoking blend] Sex, Trance & Astral Travel uses a bit of lotus as mild aphrodisiac.” After a pause, she laughs. “We try to elevate, but this world of witchcraft doesn’t shy away from the lusty side of life.”
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From the fun-sized, cast-iron cauldrons imported from India to the grimoires and sculptures commissioned from local artisans—Fortner has personally curated her stock and encourages patrons to lose themselves in the cross-cultural blend of items purposefully presented without identifying tags. “How you actually feel and experience something is more important than what it tells you it’s supposed to do. That’s why I don’t have signs on anything. Let yourself be guided by whatever you feel drawn to. Study it, do what you want, and then we’ll talk about what it is. What you’re drawn to should answer some questions.” J AY H O R T O N .
If somewhat misleading, the logo for local flagging specialists Chick of All Trades does stop traffic. C.O.A.T.’s avatar, a hard hatand vest-clad minx holding a “Safety First” sign, evolved from stick figures that company founder Val Solorzano doodled nearly 20 years ago while working through neighborhood honey-do lists as a freelance handywoman. An opportunity to provide traffic control for the downtown transit mall overhaul led to a flourishing business with nearly 100 employees patrolling construction sites from Salem to Seattle. Despite the signature branding, Solorzano estimates men currently make up around 40% of C.O.A.T. staffers, but “there’s no way to change things now. It’s like Jantzen back in the day. They had a woman logo, and how many guys worked there?” Acting as the first line of defense for municipal upgrades can be a thankless endeavor and carries significant risk for flagging professionals relying upon reflective “Stop/Slow” paddles and balloon lights as their only defense against angry or drowsy motorists. (While flaggers haven’t used actual flags for generations, Solorzano says federal regulations have disallowed the illuminated batons wielded by aircraft marshals because “studies show drunken drivers are more inclined to head toward blinking lights.”) Unlike many of her competitors, Solorzano’s company has yet to lose anyone in an accident, and the alert responses of C.O.A.T. flaggers have likely saved more than a few lives by shepherding construction crews away from imminent collisions. “It’s a hard job! You’re on your feet 10 hours a day, freezing from the cold or sweating out the summertime when the heat’s bearing down and the pavement’s adding another 15 degrees,” Solorzano says. “People get pissed off whenever traffic’s held up, but we’re just doing the best we can to make sure everybody goes home the same way they came to work.” JAY H O R T O N .
Best Dating Profile Consultant At all hours of the day, Ruby’s cellphone pings with the same text, sent by strangers: “Is this real?” Her answer: “Hi, hello, yes it is!” Ruby, who asked to go by her artist name for this story, has recently begun hanging flyers with her phone number on signposts around town that say: “Offering friendly, objective feedback on your dating profile, *no charge.*” Most people think it’s a sales pitch, or a sneaky Bumble marketing ploy. But no, Ruby, 35, is just an artist
and consultant who loves to have deep conversations with people about their profiles, what they’re looking for, and life in general. “We live our lives on the internet, and I thought people aren’t showing their friends their dating profiles; no one is getting input from people on what they’re putting out into the world,” Ruby says. “And it’s arguably one of the most important things you’ll do.” Ruby, who moved to Portland about a year ago, started her project by standing on the street with a sign offering dating profile feedback. She still does that too, and can be spotted sometimes near Powell’s flagship or Never Coffee on Southeast Belmont Street. She doesn’t try to force anyone to talk, but rather waits for those who are interested to approach. Her first piece of advice to all: Make sure to include a full body shot that also orients you in relation to other objects, so people know exactly what to expect. Not matching someone’s expectations, for good or bad, can be jarring. “If it’s all selfies, it says I am not confident enough in myself, I don’t trust how I look in pictures people take of me,” she says. Getting specific with your interests beyond a list of general topics like wine, food or hiking also allows people to know what makes you tick. “I am hot for communication and language, and how we work with it to describe our connection to people,” Ruby says. After handing over a few profiles for her assessment, I can confirm she’s warm, hilarious and objective but doesn’t pull any punches. As a recent recipient of her guidance put it: “Wow, this is so helpful. I feel like I’ve been thoroughly roasted in a really wholesome way.” Want to try it out? Ruby says she’s game to put her number in the local alt weekly: 775-720-9946.
league, created just last summer in the wake of the NCAA ruling that college athletes could earn money using their name with partnerships and branding. That contract runs out when he finishes his degree this fall, which he’s completing remotely. (He’s currently working as an auto body mechanic in Riverside, Calif., his hometown.) He’s scheduling his tryout for the WWE in hopes of entering a circuit. Portland State was the only school that offered him an athletic scholarship: “I’ve been where it’s hot, I’ve been where it snows. Why not go where it rains?” He lived in downtown Portland for a while, but says he didn’t like the noise and all the people. He mostly just played football, ate and slept. Besides a few musicals in kindergarten, Krahn admits he has no acting chops that might prepare him to keep kayfabe. He’s working on it. When he gets home after work these days, he talks in front of a mirror— animatedly—about something he saw that day. “I have to get over the shyness I have when you’re new to something,” Krahn says. “But I have no problem with being over the top.” We wondered if he ever gets tired of people talking about his body. After all, it’s the first, and sometimes last thing, that people approach Krahn about. “Some days, yeah, it gets on the last nerve,” he says. “If you’ve had a long day, you’ve been working, and someone comes up to you in a restaurant and is like, ‘Can I take a picture with you?’ I’m like, ‘I kinda just wanna go home.’ But those days are very few and far between.” S O P H I E P E E L .
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Martha Richards has embodied some of the most iconic characters in American theater, from Elizabeth Proctor in The Crucible to Anna in The King and I. Yet when she auditioned for an improvisational theater company in New York City, she remembers being told, “You’re just not a type. You know, you don’t look like an ingenue. Your voice isn’t quite right. You’ll probably grow into your role by the time you’re 50.” Richards had no intention of waiting that long, and she didn’t become the “great actress” she dreamed of being. But serving as executive director of the James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation turned out to be the role of a lifetime. For 14 years, Richards has been one of Portland’s most influential philanthropists. At the Miller Foundation, she has directed almost $110 million to more than 500 organizations, most of them related to education or the arts. It’s a daunting legacy—and after she retires in December, a new executive director will have to live up to it. “It just made sense,” Richards says of her retirement. “And coming out of a pandemic, coming out of the racial reckoning, coming out of the challenges that we face in this state, it’s time for younger leaders—who I think are fabulous—to have a shot at driving some of the things that will need to happen in the next few years.” Looking back on her stewardship of the Miller Foundation, Richards notes how her background as an actor dovetailed with her responsibilities as a fundraiser. “You know, ‘With your support, we’ll make our goal this year’—that kind of stuff,” she says. “You have to be able to say that without having your face crumble, or laughing, as a fundraiser. And also, for years, I have been sort of a quiet voice at the Miller Foundation. It’ll be interesting to see who I actually am when I’m no longer playing this role.”
Best Viking
P O R T L A N D S TAT E U N I V E R S I T Y
C .O. A .T. F L AG G I N G
Best Curb Appeal
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John Krahn is hard to miss. The nearly 7-foot, 440-pound football lineman at Portland State University who gained some regional renown for his size has set his eyes on joining World Wrestling Entertainment, the part-scripted professional sport where two men square off in a cage and fake-smash each other with folding chairs. Krahn graduates from PSU this fall with a degree in criminal justice. He hopes to become a California Department of Corrections officer and eventually a jail warden—a job in which he believes he can help people get reintroduced successfully to society after serving time. But not before doing a stint in the WWE. Krahn signed in December to the WWE’s “Next In Line”
Best Arts Advocate
BENNETT CAMPBELL FERGUSON.
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Winner!
BEST Dispensary
MALIA JENSEN / CRISTINE TIERNEY GALLERY
Best Salt Chick
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BEST CBD Store We love you too Portland, and want to celebrate with you by offering a limited edition Heir Headz 1G Cartridge from Pruf for only $15!
Stop by your nearest Electric Lettuce today to snag yours! a Jensen: Nearer Nature uary 5 – April 3, 2021
Purchased this spring by the Portland Art Museum for its permanent collection, Portland mixed-media artist Malia Jensen’s remarkable installation Nearer Nature: Worth Your Salt now plays continuously. Two synced screens have been divided into eight discrete perspectives displaying the same footage so slightly separated by starting time that the barely observed figures on one screen appear to echo on the next. For the piece, Jensen fashioned salt licks into pieces that form a human body (a foot, a pair of breasts, a pile of doughnuts representing a stomach), then placed those sculptures across the state and surveilled them with motion-sensitive trail cameras to capture Oregon fauna confronting the art. The self-described “sculptor working in video” collaborated with local video editor Ben Mercer to formulate a sequential structure encompassing the mathematical realities of rendering watchable footage amassed from six distinct sites filmed by three cameras each. “Basically,” she says, “the template meant we wouldn’t need to watch the footage before sequencing. Our organizing principle was literally grouped by time.” While this meant they’d never need to “skim tens of thousands of clips to delete the occasional hiker or glitch, there was still a huge amount of editing,” Jensen says. “Making the larger piece required weaving all these different sequences together into a French braid of complex footage combinations.” Jensen isn’t sure how many observers have seen the work in its quarter-day entirety, but the museum has provided a viewing bench, she notes. “There’s an immersive meditative quality meant to take you out of life’s daily torments. You can sit there tucked away for hours if you want.” J AY H O R T O N .
in Tierney Gallery is pleased to present Nearer Nature, an exhibition of new vide pture by Malia Jensen. It opens Friday, February 5th, and continues through Ap
body of work is the culmination of Nearer Nature Project, a two-year endeavor w out of the artist’s desire to explore our complex relationships with the natural w with one another. Beginning in early 2019, Jensen hand carved six sculptures f VALID THROUGH 7/31. SELECTION MAY VARY. ASK BUDTENDER FOR DETAILS. DISCOUNTS NOT STACKABLE. OTHER RESTRICTIONS MAY APPLY. DO NOT OPERATE A VEHICLE OR MACHINERY UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF THIS DRUG. FOR USE ONLY BY ADULTS TWENTY-ONE YEARS OF AGE AND OLDER. KEEP OUT OF THE REACH OF CHILDREN.
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MICHAEL DURHAM / OREGON ZOO
MICHAEL DURHAM / OREGON ZOO
Best Bear Track Marks
Amid the competitive frenzy of American zoos, most evaluation standards rate Oregon’s solidly middle of the pack regarding big-ticket apex predators. Our lions aren’t more ferocious, our tigers aren’t swifter or smarter, but…well, our polar bears do cooperate very well. The Oregon Zoo’s dearly departed twins Conrad and Tasul entered the record books a decade ago as the first polar bears to have blood drawn without being anesthetized. Beyond that, they also became the first captive bears to allow trainers to administer eye drops and brush their teeth. (Presumably, they would have also been the first bears audited had their health not suffered—both were euthanized within months of each other at nearly 32 years of age in 2016 following terminal illness diagnoses, and Conrad died as the oldest male polar bear in North American captivity.) Government officials took notice of the two and began approaching the Oregon Zoo about utilizing their unusual amenability to provide dependable measurements and statistical norms otherwise near impossible to gauge. “We just trained the bear to accept the needles, and once we were able to have blood drawn from our bears voluntarily, that opened the door for conservationists and research teams,” says zookeeper Amy Hash. “I’ve never studied polar bears in the wild, but from our U.S. Geological Survey contacts, I know it’s very expensive and very time consuming.” And the Oregon Zoo remains a preferred location to research polar bears. This year, representatives of the U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and National Park Service tested new 3D laser-guided scanners on the latest polar pair, Nora and Amelia Gray. They hope to use the technology to weigh and monitor bears in the wild. J AY H O R T O N Willamette Week JULY 13, 2022 wweek.com
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Conscious. Clean.
Organically Curated Home Grown Apothecary Home Grown Apothecary & Dispensary | 503-232-1716 1937 NE Pacific St, Portland OR | homegrownapothecary.com 22
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Best Outlet Store As a society, we learned very little from the pandemic. But stuck at home with restaurants closed, I did gain a renewed appreciation for Reser’s Fine Foods, the purveyor of creamy premade picnic side dishes: potato salad, mac salad, chicken salad, really all the fattening salads. Reser’s is a perpetually overlooked Oregon success story. (Short version: Mildred Reser made potato salad in her Washington County kitchen; now the company has a billion dollars in annual revenues and its name on the side of the Oregon State football stadium.) You probably didn’t even know it has a Reser’s Outlet Store, even though the shop is located just across the street from the Nike campus. There’s something pleasing about the knowledge that beside Phil Knight’s gleaming starship sits an anonymous office that sells discounted coleslaw. Anyway, it’s a real place, a mecca of mayonnaise, with four walls of fridges and freezers stocked with instant solutions to inflation. We’re talking 8 pounds of potato salad, in what looks like an oversized milk carton, for $10. On a recent visit, 12 ounces of seafood salad was $2. The clerk says most customers are buying for parties. “This is the busiest we’ll be all summer,” she said July 3. More for us! A A R O N M E S H .
Best Top Chef Turned Tinned-Fish Entrepreneur Five years ago, Sara Hauman moved from San Francisco to Portland for a job: chef at the Pearl District wine bar Arden. At the time, she had a registered LLC—an idea for a rainy day. “It’s always been in my head—I was just waiting for the right moment,” Hauman says. Creatively, she’s always felt boxed in by the restaurant industry. Instead of using the media buzz of her 2021 Top Chef appearance to open a restaurant, she’s found new freedom in owning her own business, Tiny Fish Co., which launched nationwide in January. “It might look a little crazy,” she says, “but I’m the happiest I’ve ever been.” Boquerones, vinegar-pickled anchovies (“they turn anchovy haters into anchovy lovers”), were her original muse, but sourcing difficulties and a tedious production process steered her toward other underused sea life. Currently, Tiny Fish offers tinned rockfish, mussels, geoduck clams, and octopus—all pulled from the Pacific. M AT T H E W T R U E H E R Z .
Best Nut Butters At 22, Julie Sullivan received a call: “Can you move to Uganda in two weeks?” That summons, and the following two years spent leading an employment-training program in the East African nation, cemented her passion for using “business as a social tool for good.” So when she returned to the U.S., Sullivan was determined to follow through with that commitment here, which led to the creation of Ground Up: a “not-just-for-profit” founded by Sullivan and Carolyn Cesario that’s one part job-training program and one part inventively
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flavored nut butter brand. Ground Up partners with local nonprofits to employ six to eight womxn who are facing employment barriers, such as addiction, mental illness, criminal records, domestic violence, and homelessness, to provide them the necessary tools to reenter the workforce. “We’re not looking at your background or history,” Sullivan says. “If you have the motivation to work, we’re going to work with you.” Over a six-to-nine-month period, participants develop skills that fit their employment goals. And it’s working. Ground Up has graduated 60 womxn into the workforce over the course of six years. Many secure jobs at other businesses in the food industry, including New Seasons Market and Grand Central Bakery. In addition, five graduates are now permanent Ground Up employees, making up half the staff. Ground Up has come a long way from its humble beginnings, when Sullivan and Cesario would make nut butter in a Cuisinart and sell it at farmers markets. Now you can find jars of the spread on grocery store shelves sitting next to big brands like Adams and Jif. And the company is not slowing down. Ground Up now has a year-round chocolate-hazelnut milkshake collaboration with Burgerville, which means only one thing: job creation. “For us, there’s a direct correlation,” Sullivan says. “The more we can grow sales, the more job opportunities we can offer to individuals overcoming adversity.” M AT T H E W T R U E H E R Z .
Best Dog Biscuits Like other founders of small-scale food startups, Kate McCarron hoped that Portland-area farmers markets would give exposure and bring word-of-mouth clientele to her business. The only problem? Those outlets didn’t have much interest in her product: individually packaged dog meals made with all-natural, U.S. Department of Agriculture-certified ingredients. “They didn’t want pet food,” McCarron says. “I think they’re very supportive of local bakers and vendors. It’s because it wasn’t human food.” She did, however, discover a loophole. The markets would welcome a booth selling dog treats, which is why Portland Pet Food Company created a line of biscuits that not only maintained the brand’s commitment to canine nutrition but also ended up using an abundant byproduct of the city’s many breweries: spent grain. For the small percentage of Portlanders who’ve yet to tour one of those brewhouses and get a tutorial on the grain-to-glass process, beer making involves soaking cereals—typically malted barley—in hot water to break down starch into fermentable sugars. The grain is then deemed “spent” once most of those soluble compounds have been extracted, leaving behind a substance that resembles water-logged Grape-Nuts. And while this barley porridge—rich in protein and fiber—wouldn’t look particularly appetizing on a plate, livestock love it, which has led to a symbiotic relationship between brewers and farmers. Yet not every brewery has a ranch hand on speed dial, so plenty of spent grain is still tossed. McCarron began Googling “dog treats” and discovered people were sharing recipes that employed homebrewers’ used barley, so she decided her farmers market entry could lighten the industry’s load of leftovers. “I went to some of the larger breweries first and, of course, they had their own farms,” she says. “So I started reaching out to smaller breweries.” In 2014, Portland Pet Food began baking what it dubbed Brew Biscuits by collecting one bucket of grain
at a time on the days Coalition Brewing made new batches of beer. Eight years later, the company has significantly expanded (and Coalition has since closed). It now requires pallets of grain buckets, supplied by both Hopworks and Ruse. This July, the business shipped its first order of Brew Biscuits to all Whole Foods Markets nationwide. That growth means more spent grain will be diverted from landfills to dog bellies. In 2021, Portland Pet Food offset 13,000 pounds of sludge—the amount needed to make 7,500 gallons of beer. This year, the company expects to upcycle closer to 30,000 pounds of spent grain, which would produce 17,000 gallons of beer, or 136,000 pints. How’s the flavor? Well, varieties include Carlton Farms nitrate-free bacon, organic pumpkin and hearty beef broth. “We don’t encourage humans to eat them,” McCarron laughs. “But many humans do taste them at trade shows. I should probably bring along some cheese for a complement.” A N D I P R E W I T T.
Best Fly-Fishing Dinner Pop-Up Series Since leaving his roles as the chef of Bullard Tavern and co-owner of Holler Hospitality in 2021, Doug Adams has been looking for something to reconnect him with his roots. He found it in the Royal Coachmen, a culinary series founded in partnership with fly fisherman James Park that combines sport and open-flame cooking for a unique culinary experience alongside rivers and streams in Oregon and beyond. Adams credits fly fishing with literally saving his life. Following his appearance on Bravo’s Top Chef in 2015, Adams was grappling with stress, depression and disillusionment with the high-pressure environment of working in prestige restaurants. “When you spend your life in the restaurant industry, for a long time you were told to ‘keep grinding, keep your head down,’ and it would lead to success,” Adams says. “In some ways it can, but a life with your head down can have serious negative effects as well.” It was then that he met Park, owner of Red Truck Fly Fishing, and they bonded over a love of the outdoors, food and the calming sport. “I knew he was a fly fisherman,” Park recalls. “But he told me that he hadn’t spent any time on the water since moving to Portland because he was so focused on his work in the kitchen. I knew his hours at the restaurant were crazy and exhausting, so I encouraged him to make some time to get out and fish since nothing rejuvenates the soul like being in nature.” Once Adams stepped away from his high-profile projects, a collaborative pop-up dinner series seemed a natural next step. For Park, the connection between food, company and the outdoors is a “natural way for me to find peace, connect with nature, and enjoy time with friends and family.” The Royal Coachmen serves hearty, simple, uncompromisingly delicious food that can be cooked in a campground. “There is a deep connection between fishing and cooking,” Adams adds. “It takes a lot of things coming together for a successful experience in both. Time of year in both is key to what you will be using. Tomatoes in August, not December. Salmon flies in May, not March. Both are truly connecting to nature when they are done right. Like a perfect dish, when everything comes together to light magic, fishing is the same. You have the right fly in the right water at the right time of year? Spectacular things can happen.” E Z R A JOHNSON- GREENOUGH.
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Best Wine Labels
Who among us hasn’t browsed the wine section of the local supermarket and snapped up a bottle based solely on the metric that the label looked cool? If that’s you, good chance you’ve recently considered some recent releases by Syndicate Wines. Last September, the Beaverton winery produced five custom Oregon wines featuring labels created by TidalWave Productions, a Portland comic book company. Each bottle of Syndicate’s chardonnay, pinot noir, syrah, pinot noir rosé, and pinot gris comes adorned with a drawing of The 10th Muse, TidalWave’s long-running superhero character, and a new superhero with powers and characteristics based on the wine itself. As described in the comic books that TidalWave publisher Darren G. Davis has developed alongside these labels, Sparkling Rose, for example, is “fizzy, sweet, and produces bubbles of power,” while Pinot Noir is “earthy and dry with a hint of menace.” “This was a way for us to help a local business during the pandemic,” Davis says of this partnership. “Syndicate was such a great support for us, we wanted to give something back. That just made it even more fun to collaborate with them on this.” R O B E R T H A M .
Best Mobile Vineyard Health Care Behind every sublime glass of Willamette Valley pinot noir are thousands of farmworkers, often Spanish speaking, who harvest clusters of grapes at just the right time. For 30 years, ¡Salud!, has stepped in to ensure that those Latinx farmworkers—who often have a temporary status with employers, making them ineligible for traditional insurance coverage—gain access to much-needed health care. A joint effort between winery owners and the Tuality Healthcare Foundation at Oregon Health & Science University Health Hillsboro Medical Center, the nonprofit served over 3,000 workers and their families last year, according to manager of philanthropy Stephanie Buchanan. “¡Salud! services is the best of bilingual, bicultural care for Oregon’s vineyard workers and their families,” Buchanan says. “Because of the pandemic and labor shortages everywhere, getting access to care for anyone is super challenging.” The nonprofit employs mobile health units to provide on-site comprehensive health care services. It also helps farmworkers navigate the byzantine health care system by booking appointments with specialists and accessing resources to pay for that care. No other state has such a far-reaching program assisting the seasonal worker population. When COVID arrived, Buchanan says ¡Salud! had the credibility and history with the community to encourage vaccines and provide testing. “People trust the program,” she says. Luckily, the best way to support this ongoing work is to keep being a wine lover: The organization is funded entirely by donations and fundraising, particularly its massive annual pinot noir auction, set this year for Nov. 11-12. Mark those calendars to snag top-notch wine and support a good cause. A N D R E A DA M E WO O D . 24
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DAUNTLESS WINE CO.
Best Veteran-Owned Farm
Best Venting Ever punched a pillow but it just wasn’t enough? Sounds like the OutRaged Rage Room in Vancouver, Wash., might just be your broken cup of tea. The idea for OutRaged was born out of co-owner Tera Gale’s post-traumatic stress disorder. One day while cleaning, Gale’s husband chucked a glass jar at the trash can and missed. The sound of glass shattering on concrete was incredibly satisfying. So, Gale picked up a glass and threw one herself. A few broken bottles later and the Gales were quitting their jobs and going full-on rage. “It feels great being in control of the destruction,” says Gale, who shares that many visitors coming to the OutRaged Rage Room suffer from PTSD, anger management issues, anxiety or depression. Some therapists actually recommend their patients go rage it up at OutRaged, located a short drive off Interstate 205 across the Glenn Jackson Bridge, and often accompany their clients as part of a session. “We see a lot of cancer patients; people have divorce parties. But there are also people who just love to break stuff for fun,” Gale says. Participants gets a bucket of breakables each and markers so they can write names and other things on their bottles before smashing them. Ragers can also order items like TVs, printers or windows on the “A La Smash” menu. Two of the four rooms encourage ragers to write whatever they want on the walls. Tera Gale’s favorite way to get the rage out? “Taking a baseball bat to a punching bag,” she says with a satisfied tone. M I C H E L L E K I C H E R E R .
Best Indoor Navigation Tool
In a somewhat obscure pocket of Northeast Portland, wedged between the largely industrial East Columbia neighborhood, Marine Drive and a moss-lined ribbon of the Columbia Slough, you’ll find the Columbia
Opening a flagship store is becoming standard practice for growing cannabis farms, but East Fork Cultivars’ Hemp Bar is more than a brick-and-mortar retail shop. It’s a hybrid hemp dispensary, mocktail lounge, vegan cafe, CBD outlet, and low-key Amsterdam-style coffee house. Oh—Hemp Bar should also be considered ground zero for plant-based medicinal education. Come here to learn why humans should probably be juicing raw cannabis on the regular, or just have a seat and enjoy a vegan cheese plate with an herbal hot toddy. Both energies are wholly welcome. BRIANNA WHEELER .
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For people who are blind or visually impaired, navigating the insides of large buildings can be daunting: Many rooms, floors, hallways and obstacles make life difficult. Earlier this year, Portland State University teamed up with GoodMaps, a Louisville, Ky., tech company, and Intel to bring a new internal mapping app to the school’s cavernous Smith Memorial Student Union. Lillian Goodman, 24, who just graduated from PSU with a degree in business administration, says the app is a game changer. Goodman, who began losing her sight shortly after she was born, uses a guide dog to help her get around. She says there are a number of apps that can help her navigate the city, calling out landmarks and street names. But until GoodMaps began using a form of imaging called lidar to map interiors, her options were to reach for Braille placards on the wall of each room or ask others for help. Now, in buildings such as the student union, Goodman can tell the app where she wants to go. She holds her smartphone vertically, and drawing on the mapping GoodMaps has done, the app provides specific directions to her destination. “As time goes on and they fine-tune the app, it’s going to make a big difference for people who are blind and visually impaired on campus,” Goodman says. “It will be one less stressor and source of frustration. It has the potential to be really great.” N I G E L J AQ U I S S .
Children’s Arboretum. The approximately 28-acre nature park is off the beaten path for most, but residents of North and Northeast Portland consider it a secret treasure—a reasonably accessible, bona fide pastoral, fantastically tree-lined respite from the overwhelming noise of urban living. Visiting the park is like leaving the city without actually having to leave the city; a lovely atmosphere not found in more prominently located Portland parks. In the 1960s, the principal of the now-closed Columbia School located on the property started a program called Growth through Research, Organization and Work, or GROW, where students would study basic curriculum through science-centered projects, which included creating an orchard and organic garden, a nature preserve, and an arboretum with a tree from every state in America. The orchard has since been replaced by a parking lot, but the arboretum and nature preserve remain, now with a 1-mile loop trail used primarily by residents of East Columbia to walk their dogs. B R I A N N A W H E E L E R .
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After multiple active-duty tours in the U.S. Marine Corps, Ben Martin built a successful career in marketing. Something was lacking in his life, however—not an uncommon sentiment of veterans reintegrating into society. After hearing about a veteran-run winery in France, Martin turned to viticulture. The satisfaction of working in the field and having something to hold in his hands at the end of a hard day’s work brought new purpose to his life. Martin’s fascination with viticulture as postwar therapy manifested in Dauntless Wine Cø., a Forest Grove winery founded with friends and fellow veterans Ryan Mills and Paul Warmbier. The business employs almost exclusively vets, providing an invaluable kinship. But Martin’s efforts to support former service members didn’t end there. In 2021, he launched the Dauntless Veteran Foundation, a nonprofit that helps veterans translate their military talents from the field to the farm. The foundation has several arms: Vets in Dauntless’ fellowship program work in the vineyard while receiving a stipend; the grant program supplies veterans with funds to pursue an education in agriculture, offsetting the expenses of a career transition; and the viticulture-adjacent rehabilitation program focuses on garden-based therapy. Dauntless wants to lower the age of farmers, too. The team of founders cites 58 as the median age of farmers in America, adding that two-thirds of those retiring are not replaced—a trend that increasingly forces small farmers who are leaving the workforce to sell to Big Ag. Martin continues to work locally (Dauntless has been operating since 2014) to share his knowledge of wine production with fellow veterans. Through the Dauntless Veterans Foundation, he seeks to spread his message further, setting an example of agricultural rehabilitation for veteran organizations nationwide. As the community of veteran-farmers grows steadily around Dauntless’ efforts, so too, they hope, will opportunities for post-service careers in agriculture on a larger scale. M AT T H E W T R U E H E R Z .
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The smell of warm chocolate chip cookies in the Woodlawn neighborhood isn’t a guarantee. It’s unpredictable and entirely dependent on wind patterns on any given day. But if you spend enough time there, and if conditions are in your favor, the smell of melting chocolate chips wafts through the entire neighborhood. For a brief moment, you are back to childhood bliss. That’s because the Nabisco factory in North Portland is baking Chips Ahoy! cookies almost 24 hours per day, according to a Nabisco employee. (He says it’s the factory’s highest-demand product.) That factory, a mile north of Woodlawn, was the site of a monthlong strike last fall. Its parent company, Mondelez International, brought in strikebreakers in buses but struggled to keep up with production as strikers and local activists blocked incoming supply trains from reaching the factory. But damn, do its family-size Chips Ahoy! cookies smell good. S O P H I E P E E L . Willamette Week JULY 13, 2022 wweek.com
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Best Sidewalk Sale
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Diet books from the 1970s adorned with a thin, middle-aged woman on the front. Baby sneakers. Elaborate lace bras. Glass jars and mugs galore. Ski parkas and cutoff jeans. Desks. Couches with all of their armrests, sometimes couches missing armrests. Cat food. Clogs. Plant soil. These are the items you can find while strolling through Portland neighborhoods in the spring. The items are haphazardly stuffed into boxes or plastic bins or, sometimes, just thrown in piles on the ground. They dot sidewalks and street corners, little treasures ready for the picking. Portland has spent much of the past year in a furious debate about who should pick up trash. And the regional government Metro has a team that investigates illegal dumps—including furniture. But perhaps these sidewalk displays can be viewed as a glass half full. It’s half a matter of people dodging a trip to the dump and half a ritual peace offering to the neighbors: Here, take my trash. It might be your treasure. S O P H I E P E E L .
B E S T I D E A S Best Environmentally Friendly Mad Max-Style Road Rally The Pacific Northwest’s version of Mad Max: Fury Road, surprisingly, isn’t all about the battle wagons. Founded in Oregon in 2014, the Gambler 500 calls on car and conservation enthusiasts to collect trash on public lands while racing on backroads in customized stock cars, which culminates in a party in Central Oregon. Naturally, the craft beer industry wasn’t going to sit this one out. In the early days, Gambler vehicles were primarily stock cars used year after year with a little spray paint and stickers applied. Over time, customization became more common, but the goal remains to spend no more than $500 on a junker and make sure to bring a few spare tires. “The whole purpose is to repurpose a car that was going to get crushed anyway,” says Gambler participant and Proper Pint Taproom owner Sean Hiatt. Hiatt’s rig, a 2004 Chrysler PT Cruiser outfitted with a camp stove, kegerator and go-kart roof rack named Proper Pint Crusher, helped him and his team pick up about 500 pounds of garbage over 48 hours this past June. “You try to drive in as many forest roads as possible and, on the way, try to pick up as much trash as possible using an app that lays out dumpsters along the way,” Hiatt says. Each night, they’d camp out and race around the woods in the go kart while attempting to keep the PP Crusher running smoothly. “We got AAA for it, so if and when it does break down we don’t have to just leave it somewhere,” Hiatt adds. The adventure concluded in a two-day camping experience behind the Deschutes County Fair & Expo Center in Redmond called “Gamblertown,” where organizers provided food and drink and hosted a rally race. “It’s like redneck Burning Man,” says Hiatt. “The whole premise was so cool, and hopefully this whole experience will draw more people into it,” Hiatt says. In the end, the 2022 Gambler 500 disposed of 1,100 pounds of trash, 26 vehicles and six boats, and the PP Crusher made it home in one piece. Next year, Hiatt and his pit crew hope to add more suspension and turbo power—maybe even a few more tap lines. E Z R A JOHNSON- GREENOUGH.
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B E S T I D E A S
Best New Colors
For 30 years, regional government Metro has been recycling paint. MetroPaint is made from what’s left at the bottom of the can after a job—used latex paint collected at retail and regional drop-offs is transformed into fresh new paint suited for the Northwest in both formula and palette, and available to consumers at $15 a gallon in stores in Oregon, Washington and Idaho. You’ve definitely seen MetroPaint around town: It’s been used on projects ranging from the Portland Street Art Alliance to the Bybee Lakes Hope Center. MetroPaint got a refresh in April with the release of its newest palette of Pacific Northwest colors. Program coordinator Oliver Dickston says that process started with an evaluation of all the paint taken in by Metro. Between two and four 40-foot containers a week show up to Metro’s Swan Island facility, where workers—who have all taken eye tests to make sure they don’t have any form of color blindness—sort it into different color-coded sinks. Pretty soon there’s a lot of big 250-gallon totes of paint. Here’s how it works with, say, the hue of a Portland sky in April: a nice gray. “We do a drawdown of all of those gray totes. All of those gray hues are slightly different, but that gives us an idea of what the final gray range has to stay within, because this is a combination of all the grays in Oregon that were collected,” Dickston says. Then those hues were sent to Miller Paint, where the palette was designed. “It was a great collaboration process to really start with the limitations when you’re working with recycled paint, but then being able to create standards that blend well together, so people feel like they can put together a complete palette for their home from just 12 colors,” says Miller Paint vice president of color and brand marketing Puji Sherer. It really is an Oregon-friendly selection, with natural greens and browns next to warm whites and ocean-fog grays, and two bonus accent colors. “River Blues is a beautiful color for trim or a bedroom color. It’s got a lot more saturation to it than the rest of the palette. And then Brick Red is a beautiful red that will hold true for both interior and exterior,” Sherer says. Other government agencies in the U.S. also collect paint, but most end up shipping it overseas. Only Metro collects, cleans, remakes and sells it to adorn local homes. You might say: These colors don’t run. SUSAN ELIZABETH SHEPHERD.
Best Shoes for Chefs Erik Hernandez, an athletic shoe designer, has always had a soft spot for restaurants. For years, he worked with top athletes developing shoes at Adidas before moving to Portland footwear design firm Studio Noyes. Through Mise, a shoe company tackling the barren market of kitchen-specific footwear, Hernandez set out to reciprocate the love he felt for his friends in Portland’s restaurant community: “I wanted to use my craft to benefit their craft,” he says. “Diane Lam [of Sunshine Noodles], Gregory Gourdet [of kann], Peter Cho [of Toki and Han Oak]—these are my athletes. The way you’d say Kobe, LeBron or KD,” Hernandez says. He adds that Portland chefs have been incredibly
welcoming; Instagram acquaintances quickly became a network of industry leaders eager to test his passion project. Before its launch last December, Mise outfitted 150 kitchen athletes across the country with sample pairs of its inaugural shoe: The Standard, a slip-on with a leather upper, a nonslip outsole, and a removable and washable internal bootie, that straddles the line between clog and running shoe. The comfortable yet easy-to-clean footwear was an instant hit. “Now more than ever, people in the United States have come to appreciate and understand how demanding the restaurant industry can be,” Hernandez says. “Chefs are on their feet all day. We feel they should be given the same attention and offered the same level of support as athletes.” M AT T H E W T R U E H E R Z .
I D E A S
Best Way to Celebrate Black Culture While Walking
ACUPUNCTURE • MASSAGE • CHIROPRACTIC
B L AC K T O N AT U R E
B E S T
Best Place to Get a Grip “Woman is a most charming creature, who changes her heart as easily as she does her gloves.” Surely, Honoré de Balzac was talking about the supremely high-quality boxing gloves from Portland’s Society Nine. Will you choose a design in classy white and gold, regal black and gold, or rock-star dark violet? The company, named for Title IX—the 1972 federal civil rights law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in any federally funded education program—sells all manner of boxing equipment for women. Founder Lynn Le treats both boxing hotshots and those new to the sport with the same philosophy: “The thrill is in the journey of learning and discovering how truly capable you are of handling pressure and how well you can focus,” she says. Like any sporting equipment, a pair of boxing gloves is personal. “It should feel like you can make a grip and close your fist very easily inside of it, and with wrapped hands, the gloves should feel like they ride along your knuckles,” Le says. “You can’t strike well, and strike safely, without being able to make a great grip inside your gloves.” L I B B Y M O LY N E A U X .
Best Public Service Announcement When Aaron Marshall left Portland for New York in 2020, his goal was simple: to work at one of the world’s top ad agencies. His other ambition: He wanted to talk about stuttering. As he told his eventual employer BBDO in his job interview, “I, myself, have a stutter, and if we ever had the opportunity to do any work around this topic, like with some kind of nonprofit based in this realm, I would love to do that. That’s why I want to be in this industry: to change the way people look at the world.” Marshall got his wish. He landed a job as a copywriter at BBDO and, with the agency’s help, developed a PSA for the Stuttering Association for the Young—SAY, for short—to raise awareness about the difficulty that young people who stutter face when speaking in everyday interactions. The clip is simple: Children appear in front of ever larger audiences (from a classroom to a high school gym to a packed auditorium) and struggle through basic questions: “Can I substitute fries for tater tots?” “Do you have this in a size 8½?” The clip—with its closing message, “For kids who stutter, everyday sentences can take as much courage as public speaking”—has been viewed about 10,000 times on YouTube. “I’ve had a lot of people reach out,” Marshall says, “to say, ‘It’s nice to see us represented in the right way. This is how we should be shown.’” R O B E R T H A M .
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For Kenja Bettis, getting together with other Black Portlanders for a guided walk is a way to reframe a relationship with nature. “Our connections to the land were severed by colonialism and slavery,” says Bettis, the community inclusion coordinator for the Portland Fruit Tree Project. Her group, which harvests and distributes urban fruit that would otherwise go to waste, and others, including Oregon Walks, Imagine Black, Black Community of Portland, and Living Cully, have organized a series of “Afro-ecology” walks through different parts of Portland. The series is called Black to Nature. Upcoming events: water importance on July 16, access to greenspace on Aug. 20, and environmental health on Sept. 17. Bettis says about 40 turned out for the first walk in June. “The biggest goals we have are to connect Black people to nature and to center climate justice,” Bettis says. The walks include conversations about practical subjects, such as the essential role of clean water and the part Black farmers have played in the country’s history, but Bettis says she hopes walkers come away with a deeper relationship to the out of doors, as well. Organizers also anticipate they will learn a version of the spiritual connection their African ancestors felt for the land. “There has to be more to it than just walking,” Bettis says. “The spiritual component is the biggest piece of it for me and the biggest piece in the Afro-ecology movement we’re building.” N I G E L J AQ U I S S .
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brownout · Southern Ave Cedric Burnside
Jimmy "Duck" Holmes
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& the northsiders
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B E S T
BEST SITES & SOUNDS
I D E A S
Best Hotline
DEERWOOD DESIGNS
Best Second Act
An inventive way to listen to some of Oregon’s most beautiful words began with a porta-potty. At least, Anis Mojgani thinks it was a mobile toilet he spotted while on a stroll at dusk during the early days of the pandemic. Whatever it was, the small, blue structure that was clearly built for an occupancy of one made Oregon’s poet laureate think of a phone booth—as well as a method for sharing his art with others during a time of isolation. “I would walk around in the evening and ponder on ways to engage with poetry on a community level,” says Mojgani, who couldn’t fulfill the traditional poet laureate duty of traversing the state. Spotting the boothlike shelter sparked an idea: “What if someone could pick up that phone and hear a poem?” Nearly two years later, Mojgani launched Oregon’s Daily Tele-Pomes Telephone Line. Every day last April—National Poetry Month—anyone could call a number and listen to recordings of Mojgani and three previous poet laureates reciting their favorite works. He says finally bringing the project to fruition helped him reconnect with his own creative spirit following a particularly bleak winter. Apparently, the programming was a service to others, too—a source of soothing words in troubling times. In the first week alone, the hotline racked up about 1,000 calls from 12 different states, Canada and Mexico. At least some of that enthusiasm, though, wasn’t just for the content—at least not initially. Mojgani had gone and reintroduced the element of (a pleasant) surprise. “A lot of the response seemed to be very much rooted in excited curiosity,” he says, harking back to the pre-cellphone, pre-caller ID era. “For me, it stirred up feelings that I associated with the telephone, like you’re not quite sure what you’re going to get when you pick up the phone. Getting that fresh shiver of excitement, calling the number and not knowing what was going to happen, was something people were really drawn to.” You can still dial 503-928-7008 and listen to a reading, but there’s no new content. It currently plays the final poem recorded in April. “Hopefully, at some point, it’ll go back into a functioning new poem situation,” says Mojgani. “It’s sort of been sitting there for whoever might call. So one can still get a poem if one needs one and wants one.” mer, all of them naturally shed by deer and elk in the winter. Avakian finds some of them left by mule deer along creeks in the Coastal Range and Central Oregon. (“I am not professional shed hunter,” he demurs. ”I am at best a novice having a nice day in the woods, hoping I find a few antlers.”) The majority come from white-tailed deer in South Dakota and Iowa. Farmers collect the antlers at their fence lines and ship them to Avakian in unincorporated Washington County. Building a table from a Douglas fir trunk and whitetailed deer antlers can take three weeks, much of that time spent waiting for the finish to dry: “It’s a labor of love and a labor of patience,” Avakian says. Such a table sells for $1,200. Other pieces are more affordable: $70 for a hat rack made from maple with antler hooks. Last week, Avakian set up a booth at the Oregon Country Fair in Eugene. He says plenty of people recognized him from his public service. The attention was positive—the politics of Country Fair-goers tend to match his record—but Avakian doesn’t think much of it. He’d rather talk antlers. “The people who like the things that I make, I think it helps them bring a little bit of nature into their lives,” he says. “And that I do think is gratifying.” AARON MESH.
A N D I P R E W I T T.
Best True-Crime Podcast T RUE -CR IM E C AT L AWYE R
In January 2019, Brad Avakian found himself with time on his hands. A 16-year career in Oregon politics had come to an end with the close of his second term as state labor commissioner. It had been a memorable run, if one that detoured into the culture wars: Avakian will forever be linked to the Sweet Cakes by Melissa case, where he pursued a financial penalty against a Gresham bakery that refused to make a wedding cake for a lesbian couple. As he left office, Avakian began teaching business law at Willamette University and overseeing human resources at Clark College. He also started collecting deer antlers. Three years later, Avakian is the proprietor of DeerWood Designs. A lifelong woodworker, Avakian makes coat racks, wine holders and checkerboards out of antlers. He arranges them into flower baskets, which he dubs “plantlers.” His signature item: wooden tables made from live edge tree rounds, supported by an antler base. “Nature’s ability to make something beautiful without any human involvement is really remarkable,” Avakian says. “I really give the deer a lot more credit than me.” He goes through as many as 300 antlers each sum-
Less than six months into the pandemic, Elyse Lopez ran out of true-crime podcasts. Even pre-COVID, before we were forced to sequester and find new ways to lift the boredom, Lopez admits she regularly binged the genre—sometimes listening to her favorites, like Crime Junkie and Court Junkie, more than once. While hunkered down, she was forced to take in new content in real time—a devastatingly slow installment of once a week. “That wasn’t enough for me,” Lopez says. “So I was like, ‘You know what? I’m just going to research and write cases that I’m interested in and start my own podcast.” Which is how True Crime Cat Lawyer began. Yes, the name is a bit misleading. Lopez is indeed a licensed attorney in Oregon and Washington (workers’ compensation law), but she doesn’t represent felines. Willamette Week JULY 13, 2022 wweek.com
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B E S T
Any true crimes recounted on the podcast that involve cats would be pure coincidence (and highly unusual). The cat in the title refers to Winston, Lopez’s beloved pet, co-host and True Crime mascot, whose tuxedo coat is appropriately accessorized with a red bow tie. “She’s the face of the podcast because she’s far more beautiful than I could ever hope to be, and it’s nice to lure people in with a cute cat,” Lopez says. “You can’t say no to a cute cat.” After a few opening chirps and meows from Winston at the start of each episode, Lopez quickly gets down to business. Her primary goal when digging into the details about serial killers, family annihilators, unsolved murders, and disappearances—most based in the Northwest—is to eliminate sensationalism, a storytelling filter that’s far too common in the genre, and present information as ethically as possible. That means fleshing out the victim, not centering on the perpetrator. (Lopez donates all Patreon platform and advertising proceeds to crime victim and animal welfare organizations.) “I can always find information about the trial, things like that,” says Lopez. “But so often what we’re missing is who that person was. That person wasn’t just a person who was murdered. That person was a brother, a sister, a mom, a dad. Just giving them a voice where they wouldn’t otherwise have one.” One case where humanizing the deceased was particularly important was the 2002 disappearances and murders of Ashley Pond and Miranda Gaddis of Oregon City. The story garnered national attention, but it’s far more personal to Lopez. She attended school with Gaddis in fifth grade, becoming friends with the girl before she moved. “I really only mentioned [convicted killer] Ward Weaver insomuch as to say when he was sentenced and how long he’s serving in prison,” Lopez says. “I wanted it to be focused on the two girls.” Now that she’s been combing through true crime for nearly two years, devoting episodes to everyone from Christian Longo to Diane Downs to the I-5 Killer, she says her favorite cases aren’t necessarily those that make headlines. Lopez is more interested in people who seemingly vanish off the face of the earth and don’t necessarily get any news coverage. Her hope is to give those cases more attention so someone will remember something and come forward with new information. “Missing-persons cases are fascinating, because I truly don’t understand how someone can be here one minute and not here the next, especially when we look at cases from 2010 forward,” Lopez says. “Our phones are constantly sending little pings about where we are. I truly don’t understand how we’re still having missing persons.” A N D I P R E W I T T.
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media] is the head chef. You never see the line cook. You never see the dishwasher. You never see the prep cook who gets up at 6 in the morning.” No industry in Oregon is seeing its personnel flee to higher-paying, lower-stress jobs like the hospitality sector. Bella says he nearly left, too—until he visited the kitchen at Austin restaurant Suerte and watched the cooks cheering the happy-hour rush of orders like they were at a pep rally. “I felt like I was high on acid,” he recalls. “Did someone dose me with mushrooms? How is everybody so happy to be here?” Bella wanted that atmosphere for Ate-Oh-Ate. That required paying a competitive wage: $18 an hour for a dishwasher. But he also figured public displays of appreciation couldn’t hurt. The result is a social media account hyping the contributions of his co-workers— plus a lot of mac-salad scoops. It’s one of the few happy spaces on Twitter (and, on more than one occasion, it caused this reporter to order a delivery plate). “If I’m going to prioritize my own happiness,” Bella says, “it’d be kind of a prick move not to prioritize my team’s happiness. That’s more important to me than selling teriyaki chicken.” A A R O N M E S H .
Best Furniture Memes By day, the anonymous Portland man who calls himself Herman Wakefield repairs and consigns used furniture. By night, he posts memes on Instagram. Under the ’Gram handle @northwest_mcm_ wholesale, Wakefield makes memes that use internet lingo and joke structure to talk about midcentury modern furniture. (Over 50? A meme is basically a web comic that mocks somebody.) Even the name Herman Wakefield is a furniture pun: a combo of furniture companies Herman Miller and Heywood-Wakefield. The account began as a sort of authenticity audit, calling out resellers for selling designer fakes or taking unwarranted markups, then expanded to gags about how all the houses flipped on HGTV look the same and how Portland boys in Carhartt jackets haven’t picked up any tools but a video game console. Mostly Wakefield skewers design trends—you might’ve seen his “Frank Lloyd Wright would’ve loved COVID patios” meme pop up in one of your group chats. Currently approaching 35,000 followers, Wakefield had no idea his account would ever get this big and was actually “quite satisfied when I had 300 followers.” Of all his creations, Wakefield’s personal favorite is the “Horseshoe Theory of Chair Design and Function,” featuring a constellation of chair designs to match the spectrum of political ideologies. (An Eames chair is liberalism. A La-Z-Boy is male chauvinism. It tracks.) “I spent several days on that one,” he says. “A friend from high school sent it to me because he thought I’d like it. It’s a weird feeling when people you haven’t seen in years send you your own memes.”
Best Kitchen Hype Videos
L A U R E N YO S H I KO T E R R Y.
Best Werewolves A . S . VA L E N T I N O
An Instagram account is all but a professional obligation for a chef in 2022, every photo intended to spur a reservation or a Caviar order. But there’s something different about what Ricky Bella is doing with his Twitter account: @rickybellspdx. Several nights a month, he posts videos of the line cooks working the grill at Hawaiian plate-lunch restaurant Ate-Oh-Ate. Other tweets feel like locker-room pep talks: “Chef Alani just fucking crushed it beyond belief. 10/10. No notes.” It’s all very Friday Night Lights, with an egg on top. That’s no accident. Bella, 32, has worked in Portland kitchens for more than a decade, starting at Paley’s Place. “I have a distaste for celebrity chef culture— chef worship shit,” he says. “All you ever see [on social
transition than the werewolf. “When you are on HRT testosterone therapy, most people become hairier and stronger and gain muscle, which is very similar to werewolves,” says Valentino, a trans Portland darkwave artist. “And both werewolves and the transmasculine community are, in the popular imagination, scary to heteronormative folks.” Valentino has fully embraced the metaphor with “Werewolf,” a steamy tune that recalls the synthheavy throb of early Ministry. Driving the point home further is the sexy video they created with filmmaker Mason Rose that features lots of leather, latex, sweaty skin, chains, and werewolf masks. “I wanted it to be about the ritual of transition,” Valentino says, “but it also had to be something that’s scary and exciting and about coming into a stronger form of myself. And I wanted to have a trans werewolf orgy vibe, which I was particularly excited about.” ROBERT HAM.
Best Outdoor Concerts There are few places as remote as Fort Rock, Ore. It’s about 70 miles southeast of Bend, in a patch of empty high desert called Christmas Valley. It’s not the kind of place where you take a 9-foot Steinway piano ( just like the one at Carnegie Hall), but that’s exactly what Portlander Hunter Noack does, every year. He actually hauls his 1,200-pound instrument on a special trailer that turns into a stage all across the state and beyond. His 250-member audiences wear headphones, and he plays pieces by Rachmaninoff, Bach, Chopin and Schumann. Many people sit through the shows, but Noack encourages the crowd to wander, look at rivers, and examine clouds and flowers while listening to his music. Noack, 33, calls his project In a Landscape, and with it he combines two things that are close to his heart: piano music and the sublime beauty of Oregon and the West. He’s seeking to democratize classical music by getting it out of stuffy concert halls and into the wild. “We are just so desperate for things that are beautiful these days,” Noack says. “People tell us there is power in being in these magical places with music that is meaningful to them.” Noack was born in Newport and raised in Sunriver. His mother ran the Sunriver Music Festival, and his father, a golf pro, taught him how to hunt and fish. Noack began playing piano at age 4 and went on to study at the prestigious Interlochen Center for the Arts in Michigan and London’s Guildhall School of Music & Drama. The idea of setting music in nature nagged at him in London. He filled a theater there with trees, set out stumps for people to sit on, and played. Around that time, he met Thomas Lauderdale of Pink Martini at a party hosted by a U.S. ambassador. They crossed paths again in Paris months later, and their romance brought Noack to Portland, where he took his idea outside. In 2016, Noack got a grant from the Regional Arts & Culture Council to put on three shows in the tri-county area. Instead of three performances, he played nine in that first season. From there, In a Landscape has only grown. This year, Noack still has more than a dozen shows left on the calendar all around Oregon, with additional concerts scheduled in California, Idaho, Utah and Wyoming. If you need a dose of pure beauty in this darkening world, go see Noack play somewhere, anywhere. ANTHONY EFFINGER.
A.S. Valentino can think of few better symbols for someone going through the process of female-to-male Willamette Week JULY 13, 2022 wweek.com
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42nd Annual
Cathedral Park Jazz Festival July 15th, 16th & 17th
Greaterkind, Jim Pepper Flying Eagle Band, Outer Orbit, Brown Calculus, Tony Coleman, Eddie Martinez, Mel Brown Trio, Rebecca Hardiman, Pura Vida Orquesta, Shoehorn’s Hatband, Lauren Sheehan with Great Auntie Lo, Bridge City Soul, The 1905 Orchestra, Trio Continuum, The Portland State University Festival Ensemble
Music heals—Come join us for this free, diverse festival weekend of music!
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B E S T
S I T E S
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Best Email Newsletter
P I A N O . P U S H . P L AY.
Best Democratized Instruments
BEST WO R D S
Remember when the email newsletter was gonna save us all from social media? Oh well. But when the sender is Mississippi Records owner Eric Isaacson—a man who neither uses social media nor owns a mobile phone—an email can still be like a letter from your most erudite and passionate, music-loving, history-minded Portland friend, full of disquisitions and digressions, as well as announcements about nonprofit fundraising, calls to action, eulogies, trivia questions, and a whole lot of references to Sun Ra and Dead Moon (but also Michael Jackson, Sávila and Tom Peterson). In other words, reading his newsletters is a lot like being at Mississippi Records. “I just started doing them during the pandemic out of desperation to keep in touch with folks, but then got into it as its own means to an end,” Isaacson related to WW via, yes, e-mail. The first missive went out on March 29, 2020, while the most recent, No. 13, dropped in May. There are multiple contributors, and between fans of Mississippi the store and Mississippi the label, there are now almost 10,000 subscribers. Perhaps most impressively, Isaacson says, they “actually open it and click on links!” Mississippi’s email newsletter platform does not automatically archive the messages online, so subscribing is the only way to read it. For now, that is. Because of course Isaacson would rather do a proper printed zine, and that is actually the plan, starting with a best-of issue. J A S O N C O H E N .
Megan Diana McGeorge believes it takes more than talent to be a great pianist. “You could be technically brilliant, but over the years, the kinds of players that I see make people stop and listen, they could be playing the simplest piece of music,” she says, “but when they’re playing it with feeling, other people can feel that.” McGeorge has used pianos to transform Portland into an arena of feeling. As the founder and creative director of the nonprofit Piano. Push. Play., she has brought pianos to parks and other community spaces, filling them with strains of “Für Elise,” “Heart and Soul,” and the Amélie score.
This summer, Piano. Push. Play.’s pianos will be everywhere from Multnomah Village to the Portland Mercado (in the fall and winter, the pianos are placed in schools). Per the program’s musically democratic ethos, anyone is welcome to play. “It’s giving people the opportunity to be respectful, showing them, ‘Look, we’re not locking this up. We’re not locking the bench to the piano. We’re going to believe in you, Portland public people—that you’re going see this thing and respect it and enjoy it and even probably maybe play it, even if you don’t know how.’” B E N N E T T C A M P B E L L F E R G U S O N . Willamette Week JULY 13, 2022 wweek.com
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Willamette Week JULY 13, 2022 wweek.com
2000v+iews
e 5-Star R land Port At Our s! Location
B E S T
W O R D S
Best Immersive Art
CHRIS NESSETH
Best Bar Library
Several Portland pubs double as bookstores. Over at Worker’s Tap, a new, worker-owned beer bar located near the corner of Southeast 12th Avenue and Burnside, they’re doing things differently. Co-owner and barkeep Connor Smith says the genesis of the bar wasn’t in business, but in activism. “We have all known each other through activism and organizing in the city, and the initial idea behind Worker’s Tap was creating a community space,” Smith says. “The bar is for making money to support that space.” It’s a place John Reed would feel at home. The bar provides free meeting space for progressive, socialist and unionist causes— as well as the occasional D&D group—and it has stripped out many of the common distractions of bars—televisions, karaoke machines, pool tables—in favor of an environment designed to encourage conversation and collaboration among its clientele. Essential to this ideas-focused bar is a library on the top floor: several bookshelves holding a few hundred books regarding union organizing, LGBTQ+ rights, anarchism, radical environmentalism and anti-imperialist struggle. It also has a copy of Frank Herbert’s sci-fi epic Dune, if that’s more your speed. The bartenders keep a ledger behind the bar, allowing you to jot down your phone number and take out a book for a few weeks if it catches your fancy. They might even give you a drink discount if you present a brief book report at the bar. When pressed, Smith recommended War and an Irish Town, a combination memoir and materialist analysis of the Troubles by Eamonn McCann, who grew up in Northern Ireland under the thumb of the British. C O R B I N S M I T H .
Best Way to Get Kids to Read In 2008, when Michelle McCann and four other moms’ kids were in first grade, they hatched a plan to make the kids into readers: a book group.
BEST SIGHTS
They thought it might last a year. But 11 years and more than 100 books later—despite facing all kinds of reasons to fall apart—the group (four boys and one girl) endured. “We parents felt like it was going to end any time,” McCann, an author and editor of children’s books, says. “The kids were adamant they wanted to keep going—and that they never wanted to meet less often.” McCann’s son, Ronan, 20, a math major at Colorado College, says the group’s first book, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, was probably also the consensus favorite. He adds that having to read a book a month, then meet to discuss it, made him a better reader and English student than he would have been otherwise. The five kids went to different middle schools and high schools, and at each transition, their mothers asked if they wanted to end the group. The answer: a resounding “no!” “If you’d told me I was going to be in a book group for that long, I would have said it would be boring and not fun at all,” Ronan says. “It was the opposite.” Everybody took turns picking the books. The kids came to the group with discussion and trivia questions they shared over a meal. Michelle McCann says the diverse subjects offered the mothers the opportunity to tackle topics with their children they would have otherwise struggled to broach. “The books gave us a chance to talk about race and rape and drugs and all sorts of things,” she says. “There’s no way in hell I would have had a chance to talk to my son about those topics without the books. It just blows my mind.” On July 16, Chronicle Books releases Reading Together, which the group wrote collectively to describe their experience and provide a guide for others. “We had expectations of it being hard,” Michelle says of keeping the group together. “It was not hard.” N I G E L J AQ U I S S .
Virtual reality has been a new media poster child for at least five years, proliferating across multiple platforms, including social media, video games, fitness and even surgical training. But VR in the art realm is perhaps a little behind in terms of both accessibility and production. A major local antidote is PAM CUT’s “VR to Go” program, which allows Portlanders to rent an Oculus Go headset preloaded with immersive projects from the Portland Art Museum. “This kind of curated programming is unique across the country,” says Jon Richardson, PAM CUT’s associate director of creative programs. VR to Go is a joint effort between PAM CUT and Montreal’s world-renowned Phi Centre. As for the 10 “projects” (Richardson questions whether they should be called “films” considering several originated in the digital space), they were curated by PAM CUT staff, including director Amy Dotson, and will be available until Aug. 26, when a new crop will rotate in. Among the 10 works, genres and experiences vary widely: from harrowing refugee escapes (Meet Mortaza) to avant-garde animation (Blind Vaysha) to nature documentaries about the plight of the scaly, often-poached pangolin. “The only thing consistent is inconsistency; everybody has a different favorite,” says Richardson of this summer’s program feedback, though he notes kids tend to fall for A Predicament of Pangolins. “I’ve also seen photos of grandparents in the headsets with these expressions of wonder on their faces.” Richardson adds that many renters organize a VR party, gathering friends and family to get the most bang for their 45 bucks. Even with extra bodies around, he recommends donning the Oculus in a comfortable space, free from possible disturbances. “I would be mindful of a cat jumping on your lap or a dog pawing at your leg,” Richardson adds. C H A N C E SOLEM-PFEIFER.
Best Sex-Positive Theater Company Twenty-five years ago, Eleanor O’Brien donned a G-string and climbed into a cage for her role in a Seattle production of Paula Vogel’s play Hot ’n’ Throbbing. “As an actor, I had to embody, like, ‘OK, I’m a confident, sexy woman,’ and it was such a stretch for me,” O’Brien says. “But it began a shift that took many years to get to the point where I actually considered myself a sexy person. That was the beginning of it.” Today, O’Brien is the artistic director of the sex-positive theater company Dance Naked Creative (formerly Dance Naked Productions). And whether she’s delivering a monologue about a guy going down on her in a cabin or creating a show about her days as a “terrible” dominatrix in New York City, her approach to human sexuality is playful, thoughtful and liberated. “My theater isn’t necessarily about being sexy,” she says. “It’s more about examining and looking at sexuality. It’s not like going to a strip club or a burlesque show. It’s much more about, ‘What is the experience like for people?’” O’Brien infuses her work with both frankness and optimism. In part, that’s because when she started Dance Naked Creative in 2005, she wanted to offer a perspective that could surprise playgoers. “What I knew that I wanted to make was theater that was a positive lens on sexuality, because I felt like Willamette Week JULY 13, 2022 wweek.com
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2022 SUMMER HARVEST FEST SERIES LIVE MUSIC ON SAUVIE ISLAND UNDER THE MASSIVE HISTORIC OAK TREE // TOPAZFARM.COM
JULY 17 PORTLAND CELLO PROJECT PRESENTS ELLIOTT SMITH MEETS PRINCE AND RADIOHEAD LOW TIX ALERT JULY 18
PHOTO BY SAM GEHRKE
AUG 11
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Willamette Week JULY 13, 2022 wweek.com
SURPRISE ARTIST
LA LUZ SPECIAL 10TH ANNIVERSARY SHOW WITH SPECIAL GUEST SHANNON SHAW AUG 12 JOSEPH SPECIAL GUEST PALM SUNDAY LOW TIX ALERT AUG 18 FRUITION SPECIAL GUEST RAINBOW GIRLS AUG 24 ANDY SHAUF & HALEY HEYNDERICKX
B E S T
Best Treehouse Architect P O R T L A N D T R E E H O U S E CO M PA N Y
a lot of what I saw was trauma,” she says. “If you saw sexuality in the theater, it tended to be rape or some kind of crisis, or it was a joke.” It’s an approach that has resonated with audiences. O’Brien (who will perform her show Plan V: The Joyful Cult of Pussy Worship this summer at London’s Vagina Museum and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe) speaks glowingly of the people who attend her productions, eager to share stories of both sexual anguish and ecstasy. “Shame thrives in darkness,” she says. “And in the theater, we’re literally shining a light on it.” B E N N E T T
S I G H T S
CAMPBELL FERGUSON.
Best Outdoor Movie Screenings If you’re a film buff with a fondness for outdoor cinema, you probably have some cherished memories of seeing movies in Portland parks. Maybe you swooned as you watched Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck in Roman Holiday at Director Park; maybe you chuckled while sitting in Brooklyn Park as Tobey Maguire unleashed his sick Spider-Man 3 dance moves. In Portland, outdoor movies come in all shapes and sizes—a tradition that continues this summer with a slate of screenings from Portland Parks & Recreation. While PAM CUT’s drive-in events offer a more cinephile-friendly experience, there’s a casual magic to PP&R’s screenings. There’s something soothing about lying on a picnic blanket at sunset and not caring that kids are running around while the movie’s playing. It’s all about the spirit of community—which is what moviegoing should be about anyway. This year, the must-see movie is Pixar’s Soul, which was unceremoniously dumped on Disney+ in 2020. Lyrical, melancholy and moving, it’s a film that deserves to be seen in a beautiful arena—like Woodstock Park, where it will be shown Saturday, Sept. 3. B E N NETT CAMPBELL FERGUSON.
Best Artistic Housepainters Sorry, Takashi Murakami isn’t going to paint your house. But if you still want to be the talk of the block and avoid the drab path that runs through Home Depot, get the “perfectionist painters” of Aphrodite Painting on your project. Portraitist-turned-housepainter Ciena Colburn and her team of artists apply their training in color theory and see that their lines are cleaner than clean. “When I graduated art school, I had a hard time finding consistent work that utilized my artistic skills, so I started painting houses,” Colburn says. “Ever since, I’ve been seeking out similarly minded artists who want to use their fine motor skills to beautify people’s homes.” Colburn’s team can do more than brush a color onto a wall. They can add murals, signs and flourishes. Her favorite project? “I love painting early 1900s built-in cabinetry because the structure and paneling allows you to paint accents and use multiple colors — same goes for the exteriors of old Victorians with ornate façades and porch balusters.” She recalls with pleasure painting an art nouveau-style border around the edge of a bathroom ceiling. “It really brought a sense of dignity and style to that room.” L I B B Y M O LY N E A U X .
“Treehouses are the future,” says Leland Hull. Climb inside any of the structures built by his Portland Treehouse Company and you might agree—if you’re not too busy trying out the swing, zip line, rock-climbing wall or bucket-and-pulley system. Hull, 36, started Portland Treehouse Company in 2016 after a lifelong love of tree climbing. Growing up, Hull spent a lot of time hanging out in treehouses. It was a unique space of creativity and relaxation, a safe place where he could escape the world for a while. Which is precisely why a lot of Hull’s clients approach him. Adults and kids alike are looking to create outdoor spaces where they can safely relax and unplug. Some people want a tree fort for the kids, others ask for elaborate livable structures that they can rent out, complete with running water and electricity. Prices range from $7,000 to $25,000. Hull’s team can run the project from design to construction, or just leave you with designs for you to build. Hull takes the unique shape of each tree foundation into account for every blueprint. “It’s a partnership with the tree,” Hull says. “You have to know how to create a static structure in a kinetic environment,” he adds, explaining how he builds each structure to support the health and growth of the tree. What is it going to take to get you in this tree today? Portland Treehouse Company is willing to do it—whether it’s a netted canopy, a slide, a Murphy bed or a graywater shower. M I C H E L L E K I C H E R E R .
Best Sweater Collection
For Chris Slusarenko, who owns more than 60 of them, a sweater is simply his preferred uniform—both in and out of rock. “I run cold and I run hot,” he says. “A sweater onstage is a bit of a security blanket. It just feels right.” Eyelids fans look forward to seeing which sweater Slusarenko might turn up in at each show. Comfort counts as much as style, including how much freedom it allows to play guitar. There’s one—a “U.K. threetiered striped jumper”—he owns in triplicate, so for a 2019 show at Ecliptic Brewing, he wore all three at once, peeling them off like a pullover magician. And on Halloween at the Fixin’ To in 2021, he “crucified” a sweater as part of his costume. Some of Slusarenko’s sweaters date back to his high school days. Many more were charity shop-scavenged by his wife, Scottish visual artist Jo Hamilton (and, as someone who often works in yarn, including the Eyelids’ crocheted stage backdrop, she’s also qualified to patch them). And Slusarenko believes a certain well-worn, green-striped Irish jumper dates back to the ’90s and the Portland location of the Beastie Boys-associated store X-Large, which then employed Quasi’s Sam Coomes and Janet Weiss. A collared shirt underneath—ranging from a redand-white JCPenney houndstooth to a solid blue from Sheplers—typically completes the look. “I’ve always been a bit of a hyper-nerd in rock,” Slusarenko says, citing the likes of Cheap Trick’s Rick Nielsen and David Byrne as geeky style avatars. “On tour, fans will come up and say, ‘I haven’t seen that one before!’ or, ‘Oh, you’re wearing the classic,’” he adds. “It cracks me up, but I’ll take it.” J A S O N C O H E N .
Weezer had “The Sweater Song.” Eyelids have the Sweater Frontman. Willamette Week JULY 13, 2022 wweek.com
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Willamette Week JULY 13, 2022 wweek.com
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Arts & Entertainment BEST NEIGHBORHOOD EVENT
BEST BIKE EVENT
BEST PODCAST
WINNER:
WINNER:
Naked Bike Ride
They Talk Sex Podcast
SECOND PLACE: Sunday Parkways RUNNER UP: Pedalpalooza
SECOND PLACE: Beervana RUNNER UP: Maintenance Phase
BEST VISUAL ARTIST
BEST RADIO STATION
WINNER:
WINNER:
SECOND PLACE: Josh Daily Art RUNNER UP: Bobby Lugosi
SECOND PLACE: Shady Pines Radio RUNNER UP: KBOO
SECOND PLACE: Alberta Street Gallery RUNNER UP: Blue Sky Gallery
BEST PLACE TO DANCE
BEST MUSEUM
WINNER:
OMSI
BEST OUTDOOR EVENT
SECOND PLACE: Goodfoot RUNNER UP: Holocene
Mississippi Street Fair SECOND PLACE: Alberta Street Last Thursday RUNNER UP: Devils Point Bikini Car Wash
BEST ART GALLERY
WINNER:
Portland Art Museum
WINNER:
Portland Night Market SECOND PLACE: Edgefield Concerts RUNNER UP: Rose Festival
BEST MUSIC VENUE
WINNER:
Edgefield SECOND PLACE: Revolution Hall RUNNER UP: Doug Fir Lounge Every year we ask you, our valued readers (arguably the most plugged into the local scene) to nominate and then vote for the Best Portland has to offer.
BEST COMEDY CLUB
This year, we’re excited to see the city humming again: live music is back—and so is comedy and theater and dancing. We’re slurping ramen indoors and sipping margaritas on rooftops. That energy has translated to our poll. We received over 200,000 votes: that’s a whole lot of people passionate about their city and wanting to tell us about it.
SECOND PLACE: Curious Comedy RUNNER UP: Kickstand Comedy
In the following pages, you’ll find more than a guide to the place we all call home. It’s a celebration of us, and of you, and of the best people, places, foods, goods and services that make Portland what it is.
WINNER:
Helium Comedy Club
BEST THEATER COMPANY
WINNER:
Portland Center Stage SECOND PLACE: Artist Repertory Theater RUNNER UP: Milagro Theater
WINNER:
Mike Bennett
OPB
WINNER:
Crystal Ballroom
SECOND PLACE: Portland Art Museum RUNNER UP: The Freakybuttre Peculiarium and Museum
BEST STRIP CLUB
BEST MUSIC FESTIVAL
WINNER: Sassy’s
WINNER:
Waterfront Blues Festival
SECOND PLACE: Devils Point RUNNER UP: Mary’s Club
BEST PERFORMING ARTS CENTER
SECOND PLACE: Pickathon RUNNER UP: Cathedral Park Jazz Festival
WINNER:
BEST KARAOKE
Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall
WINNER:
The Alibi
SECOND PLACE: Keller Auditorium RUNNER UP: Alberta Abbey
BEST BAND/ MUSICAL GROUP
WINNER:
Pink Martini SECOND PLACE: Jenny Don’t and the Spurs RUNNER UP: Tox!c
SECOND PLACE: Voice Box RUNNER UP: Baby Ketten Klub
BEST TRIVIA NIGHT
WINNER:
Untapped Trivia SECOND PLACE: Bridgetown Trivia RUNNER UP: The Growler Guys
Willamette Week JULY 13, 2022 wweek.com
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Cannabis BEST EDIBLE PRODUCT
WINNER:
Wyld Gummies SECOND PLACE: Drops RUNNER UP: Sun Syrup by Luminous Botanicals
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BEST BAKE∏Y 2022
BEST BUDTENDER
WINNER:
Surg at Mongoose Cannabis SECOND PLACE: Lila McElroy (MindRite PDX) RUNNER UP: Andi at Homegrown Apothecary
BEST DAB
WINNER:
Dr. Jolly’s
grandcentralbakery.com
SECOND PLACE: Happy Cabbage RUNNER UP: Echo Electuary
BEST ORGANIC SELECTION
WINNER:
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Homegrown Apothecary SECOND PLACE: Farma RUNNER UP: Mongoose Cannabis Co.
SECOND PLACE: East Fork Cultivars RUNNER UP: Pruf Cultivar
BEST TOPICAL
WINNER:
Empower BodyCare/CannaCare SECOND PLACE: DEW Sensual Cannabis Oil by Luminous Botanicals RUNNER UP: Make & Mary Topicals
BEST CANNABISINFUSED PRODUCT
WINNER:
Luminous Botanicals SECOND PLACE: Elbe’s Edibles RUNNER UP: Laurie + Mary Jane Bleubleez
BEST CANNABIS STRAIN
WINNER:
Blue Dream SECOND PLACE: Jack Herer RUNNER UP: Super Silver Haze
BEST DISPENSARY
BEST CBD STORE
WINNER:
WINNER:
SECOND PLACE: Home Grown Apothecary RUNNER UP: Mongoose Cannabis Co.
Electric Lettuce SECOND PLACE: Home Grown Apothecary RUNNER UP: Hemp Bar
BEST CANNABIS FARM
WINNER:
Gnome Grown
Electric Lettuce
BEST TINCTURE
WINNER:
Mule Extracts SECOND PLACE: Universal Cannabis Tonic by Luminous Botanicals RUNNER UP: Hapy Kitchen Stone’d Fruit Syrup 1:1:1
Food BEST VIETNAMESE RESTAURANT
BEST CHINESE RESTAURANT
BEST THAI RESTAURANT
WINNER:
WINNER:
Shandong
WINNER:
Luc Lac
SECOND PLACE: Pho Van RUNNER UP: Pho Hung
BEST BRUNCH SPOT
WINNER:
Jam on Hawthorne SECOND PLACE: Broder RUNNER UP: Screen Door
Eem
SECOND PLACE: Duck House RUNNER UP: HK Cafe
SECOND PLACE: Paadee RUNNER UP: Thai Peacock
BEST MEXICAN RESTAURANT
BEST INDIAN RESTAURANT
WINNER:
WINNER:
Por Que No Taqueria SECOND PLACE: Los Gorditos RUNNER UP: Gureo
Bollywood Theater SECOND PLACE: Swagat RUNNER UP: Maruti
BEST ETHIOPIAN RESTAURANT
WINNER:
BEST WINGS
WINNER:
Queen of Sheba
Fire on the Mountain
SECOND PLACE: E’Njoni RUNNER UP: Bete Lukas
SECOND PLACE: Hat Yai RUNNER UP: Pok Pok
BEST LATENIGHT MENU
BEST DONUT
WINNER:
Doe’s Donuts
Luc Lac
SECOND PLACE: Bye and Bye RUNNER UP: Hungry Tiger
WINNER:
SECOND PLACE: Pip’s Original Doughnuts RUNNER UP: Blue Star Donuts
BEST BURGER
BEST BARBEQUE
BEST MEDITERRANEAN RESTAURANT
BEST FRENCH RESTAURANT
BEST PIZZA
WINNER:
WINNER:
WINNER:
WINNER:
Apizza Scholls
SECOND PLACE: Mid City Smash Burger RUNNER UP: PDX Sliders
SECOND PLACE: Homegrown Smoker RUNNER UP: Podnah’s Pit
BEST TACO
BEST GLUTEN-FREE RESTAURANT
Killer Burger
WINNER:
Por Que No Taqueria SECOND PLACE: Birreria PDX RUNNER UP: Tight Tacos
BEST SANDWICH SHOP
WINNER: Lardo
SECOND PLACE: East Side Deli RUNNER UP: Taste Tickler
BEST VEGETARIAN/ VEGAN RESTAURANT
WINNER: Harlow
SECOND PLACE: Fermenter RUNNER UP: The Sudra
Matt’s BBQ
WINNER: Harlow
SECOND PLACE: Off the Griddle RUNNER UP: New Cascadia
Nicholas Restaurant Lebanese and Mediterranean Cuisine SECOND PLACE: Shalom Y’all RUNNER UP: Ya Hala
BEST ICE CREAM
Petite Provence SECOND PLACE: Le Pigeon RUNNER UP: Canard
WINNER:
Fire on the Mountain
SECOND PLACE: Fifty Licks
SECOND PLACE: Laughing Planet RUNNER UP: Hopworks
BEST FOOD CART
BEST CATERING SERVICE
WINNER:
WINNER:
WINNER:
SECOND PLACE: Mid City Smash Burger RUNNER UP: Garden Monsters
SECOND PLACE: Killer Burger RUNNER UP: Lucky Devil Eats
SECOND PLACE: Ken’s Artisan Bakery RUNNER UP: Mt. Tabor Bread
Jojo PDX
Elephants Catering and Events
BEST RAMEN
BEST SUSHI
WINNER:
WINNER:
SECOND PLACE: Kayo’s Ramen Bar RUNNER UP: Boxer Ramen
SECOND PLACE: Mio Sushi RUNNER UP: Yama Sushi & Izakaya
Afuri Izakaya
Bamboo Sushi
SECOND PLACE: Sizzle Pie RUNNER UP: Babydoll Pizza
BEST FAMILYFRIENDLY RESTAURANT
WINNER:
Salt and Straw
WINNER:
BEST BAKERY Grand Central Bakery
BEST BAGELS
WINNER:
Henry Higgins Boiled Bagels SECOND PLACE: Spielman Bagels RUNNER UP: Bernstein’s Bagels
Willamette Week JULY 13, 2022 wweek.com
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Drink BEST BEER SELECTION ON TAP
BEST COCKTAIL LOUNGE
BEST COCKTAIL BAR
WINNER:
WINNER:
WINNER:
SECOND PLACE: Roscoe’s RUNNER UP: Apex
SECOND PLACE: Keys Lounge RUNNER UP: Teardrop
SECOND PLACE: Hey Love RUNNER UP: Teardrop Lounge
BEST SPORTS BAR
BEST SMOOTHIE/ JUICE BAR
BEST BREWERY
Loyal Legion
WINNER:
Breakside Brewery
SECOND PLACE: Claudia’s Sports Pub RUNNER UP: HOME, A Bar
SECOND PLACE: Moberi RUNNER UP: Best Friend
SECOND PLACE: Ex Novo Brewing Company RUNNER UP: Ecliptic Brewing
BEST LGBTQ BAR
BEST TEA SHOP
BEST COFFEE
WINNER:
WINNER:
Tea Chai Te
WINNER:
BEST BARTENDER
WINNER:
Jaxin Ryan
Sun+Earth certifies cannabis that is grown under the sun, in the soil of mother earth, without chemicals, by fairly-paid workers. Luminous Botanicals is proud to be the world’s first Sun+Earth certified manufacturer.
www.luminousbotanicals.com Do not operate a vehicle or machinery under the influence of this drug. For use only by adults twenty-one years of age and older. Keep out of the reach of children. 42
Willamette Week JULY 13, 2022 wweek.com
WINNER:
WINNER:
SECOND PLACE: CC Slaughters Nightclub and Lounge RUNNER UP: Crush
Thank you for choosing ethical, earth-friendly cannabis.
Victoria Bar
The Sports Bra
The Sports Bra
Voted Best Cannabis Infused Product!
Bible Club
Kure
SECOND PLACE: Cup of Tea RUNNER UP: Tao of Tea
BEST KOMBUCHA
WINNER:
SECOND PLACE: Lion Heart Kombucha RUNNER UP: SOMA Kombucha
SECOND PLACE: New Deal Distillery RUNNER UP: 503 Distilling
BEST CIDERY
WINNER:
SECOND PLACE: Portland Cider RUNNER UP: Schilling Cider House & Gluten
BEST HAPPY HOUR
WINNER:
Gold Dust Meridian SECOND PLACE: Ringside RUNNER UP: Aalto Lounge
BEST DISTILLERY
WINNER:
BEST WINE BAR
Reverend Nat’s
SECOND PLACE: Stumptown RUNNER UP: Nossa Familia
Brew Dr. Kombucha
SECOND PLACE: Christy Jade Alcazar RUNNER UP: Cassandra Fiorella
WINNER:
Coava Coffee Roasters
Vino Veritas SECOND PLACE: Las Caves RUNNER UP: Division Wines
BEST DIVE BAR
WINNER:
The Vern SECOND PLACE: Low Brow Lounge RUNNER UP: Dante’s
Freeland Spirits
BEST WINERY
WINNER:
Willamette Valley Vineyards SECOND PLACE: Sokol Blosser Winery RUNNER UP: Hip Chicks Do Wine
BEST BLOODY MARY
WINNER:
Jam on Hawthorne SECOND PLACE: Space Room RUNNER UP: Genie’s
Goods & Services BEST ACCOUNTANT
BEST BANK/ CREDIT UNION
WINNER:
WINNER:
Artemis Tax SECOND PLACE: McDonald Jacobs RUNNER UP: Anvil Tax
BEST RECORD STORE
WINNER:
Music Millennium SECOND PLACE: Mississippi Records RUNNER UP: Everyday Music
BEST CHILDREN’S STORE
OnPoint Credit Union SECOND PLACE: Unitus Community Credit Union RUNNER UP: Rivermark Community Credit Union
BEST AUTO DEALERSHIP
WINNER:
Subaru of Portland SECOND PLACE: Dick Hannah RUNNER UP: Beaverton Toyota
WINNER:
BEST HOME GOODS STORE
SECOND PLACE: Kids at Heart RUNNER UP: Green Bean Books
WINNER:
Thinker Toys
BEST BOOKSTORE
Kitchen Kaboodle SECOND PLACE: Presents of Mind RUNNER UP: Paxton Gate
WINNER:
BEST SEX POSITIVE SHOP
SECOND PLACE: Third Eye Books RUNNER UP: Annie Bloom’s Books
WINNER:
Powell’s
BEST SPORTS STORE/ OUTFITTER
WINNER:
Next Adventure SECOND PLACE: REI RUNNER UP: Foster Outdoor
BEST PET SUPPLY STORE
WINNER: MudBay
SECOND PLACE: Pets on Broadway RUNNER UP: Fang!
She Bop SECOND PLACE: Kynx by Brynx RUNNER UP: Fantasy
BEST VINTAGE STORE
WINNER:
House of Vintage SECOND PLACE: Red Fox Vintage RUNNER UP: Vintage Pink
BEST HARDWARE STORE
WINNER:
Ace Hardware Pearl SECOND PLACE: Division Do It Best Hardware RUNNER UP: Parkrose Hardware
BEST MORTGAGE BROKER
WINNER:
Julee Felsman Guaranteed Rate SECOND PLACE: Nikole Potulsky Two Rivers Mortgage RUNNER UP: Jake Planton - Two Rivers Mortgage
BEST BOTTLE SHOP
WINNER:
John’s Marketplace SECOND PLACE: Belmont Station RUNNER UP: Imperial
BEST GIFT SHOP
WINNER:
Tender Loving Empire SECOND PLACE: Paxton Gate RUNNER UP: Made Here PDX
BEST CLOTHING RESALE STORE
WINNER:
Here We Go Again SECOND PLACE: Artifact RUNNER UP: Goodwill
Willamette Week JULY 13, 2022 wweek.com
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OUR EVENT PICKS, E M A I L E D W E E K LY.
BEST REAL ESTATE COMPANY
BEST TATTOO SHOP
WINNER:
Atlas Tattoo
WINNER:
SECOND PLACE: Blue Ox RUNNER UP: Gold Sparrow Tattoo
SECOND PLACE: Cornell Farms RUNNER UP: Garden Fever
Living Room Realty SECOND PLACE: Urban Nest Realty RUNNER UP: Green Buck Real Estate
BEST CLOTHING BOUTIQUE
WINNER:
Paloma Clothing SECOND PLACE: Adorn RUNNER UP: Sloan
BEST GROCERY STORE
WINNER:
New Seasons Market SECOND PLACE: Providore RUNNER UP: Market of Choice
BEST JEWELRY SHOP
WINNER:
Betsy & Iya SECOND PLACE: Twist RUNNER UP: Paxton Gate
BEST EYEWEAR SHOP
WINNER:
MyOptic SECOND PLACE: Eyes on Broadway RUNNER UP: Hawthorne Vision
BEST FLORIST
WINNER:
BEST TEMP/JOB AGENCY
WINNER:
Boly Welch
BEST REAL ESTATE AGENT
WINNER:
Tori Buck & Michael Green - Green Buck Real Estate SECOND PLACE: Deb Counts - Tabor (Welcome to PDX Portlandia Properties + Cascadia NW) RUNNER UP: Jill Parker & Perla Martinez Evans - Portland Urban Properties Group @ KW
BEST PLANT SHOP
WINNER:
Portland Nursery SECOND PLACE: Pistils Nursery RUNNER UP: Cornell Farm
BEST SHOE STORE
BEST VETERINARY PRACTICE
WINNER:
DoveLewis Veterinary Emergency & Specialty Hospital SECOND PLACE: Brooklyn Yard RUNNER UP: Alberta Veterinary Care
BEST RUNNING STORE
WINNER:
Portland Running Company SECOND PLACE: Foot Traffic Sellwood RUNNER UP: Fleet Feet
BEST CANDLE
WINNER:
Yo Soy Candle SECOND PLACE: Willa and Jean Candles RUNNER UP: Light and Glow Candle Co.
Imelda’s and Louie’s SECOND PLACE: Footwise RUNNER UP: PedX
BEST PHONE REPAIR
SECOND PLACE: Solabee RUNNER UP: Coy & Co
WINNER:
BEST BIKE SHOP
Portland Nursery
WINNER:
WINNER:
Sammy’s Flowers
BEST GARDEN SUPPLY/ NURSERY
iChihuahua! SECOND PLACE: The Fix Hut
WINNER:
River City Bicycles SECOND PLACE: Community Cycling Center RUNNER UP: Metropolis Cycle Repair Willamette Week JULY 13, 2022 wweek.com
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People BEST BLAZER
BEST THORN
WINNER:
WINNER:
SECOND PLACE: Anfernee Simons RUNNER UP: Jusuf Nurkic
SECOND PLACE: Bella Bixby RUNNER UP: Meghan Klingenberg
BEST LOCAL CELEBRITY
BEST LOCAL INSTAGRAM ACCOUNT
Damian Lillard
WINNER:
Unipiper SECOND PLACE: Dick Hennessy RUNNER UP: Cat Hollis
BEST DJ
Christine Sinclair
WINNER:
@jojo.pdx SECOND PLACE: @pleaserproblems RUNNER UP: @sloppyjopxx
WINNER:
Dj Pussyfoot SECOND PLACE: Jess the Ripper RUNNER UP: Dj Aurora
BEST POLITICAL FIGURE
WINNER:
Ron Wyden SECOND PLACE: Jo Ann Hardesty RUNNER UP: Kate Brown
BEST STRIPPER
WINNER:
Nia Giselle SECOND PLACE: Phoenix Rising RUNNER UP: Kat Van Dayum
BEST TIMBER
WINNER:
Diego Chara SECOND PLACE: Diego Valeri RUNNER UP: Yimmi Chara
BEST MASCOT
WINNER:
Dillon Pickle SECOND PLACE: Unipiper RUNNER UP: Blaze
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Willamette Week JULY 13, 2022 wweek.com
Health & Wellness BEST YOGA STUDIO
BEST PHYSICAL THERAPY CLINIC
WINNER:
WINNER:
The People’s Yoga SECOND PLACE: Flex & Flow RUNNER UP: The Bhakti Yoga Movement Center
BEST GYM
WINNER:
Lloyd Athletic Club SECOND PLACE: Portland Rock Gym RUNNER UP: Vive Fitness
Bridgetown Physical Therapy SECOND PLACE: Therapeutic Associates RUNNER UP: Therpydia
BEST HAIR SALON
WINNER:
Urban Colorz Salon
BEST PILATES STUDIO
SECOND PLACE: Ginger Salon RUNNER UP: Hair Maven PDX
WINNER:
BEST HAIR REMOVAL
Studio Blue SECOND PLACE: Megaburn Fitness RUNNER UP: YoYoYogi
BEST CHIROPRACTOR
WINNER:
North Portland Wellness Center SECOND PLACE: Equilibrium Chiropractic Acupuncture and Massage RUNNER UP: Therapia Wellness Clinic
BEST DENTIST
WINNER:
Timber Dental SECOND PLACE: Bling Dental RUNNER UP: Dr. Lisa Kakishita
BEST BARBERSHOP
WINNER: Rudy’s
SECOND PLACE: Bishop’s RUNNER UP: Too Sweet Barbershop
WINNER:
Urban Waxx SECOND PLACE: Brown Sugar PDX RUNNER UP: Sugar Me
BEST HAIR STYLIST
WINNER:
Haircraft by Jo SECOND PLACE: Amyrose Ahlstrom RUNNER UP: Dinah Ritchey
BEST MASSAGE
WINNER:
Common Ground Wellness Cooperative SECOND PLACE: North Portland Wellness Center RUNNER UP: Equilibrium Chiropractic Acupuncture and Massage
BEST NATURAL OR ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE CLINIC
WINNER:
North Portland Wellness Center SECOND PLACE: Wild Hearts Wellness RUNNER UP: Hey Doc Clinic Willamette Week JULY 13, 2022 wweek.com
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STREET
MOAN AND WAIL Photos by Nick Mendez
On Instagram: @nickmendez.photography
Now celebrating its first anniversary, Moan Zone is the kinky, queer, body-positive brainchild of DJ Pains Grey, who, around once a month at the Star Theater, throws a party set to a soundtrack of New Wave, EBM and Italo disco. Leather is prevalent and nudity is welcome, which means the dance floor is typically packed with nipples and ass cheeks.
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FLOAT ON Photos by Danny Fulgencio On the web: dannyfulgencio.com
The Big Float has drifted into the sunset. The final installment of the annual beach party and river parade drew thousands to the Willamette River on July 10, on flotation devices ranging from inflatable unicorns to paddle boards. The event, launched in 2011, benefited the Human Access Project, a nonprofit dedicated to connecting people to the city’s chief waterway, long stigmatized by sewage overflow before completion of the Big Pipe project.
Willamette Week JULY 13, 2022 wweek.com
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STUFF TO DO IN PORTLAND THIS WEEK, INDOORS AND OUT.
COURTESY OF
C O U R T E S Y O F M O N TAV I L L A FA R M E R ' S M A R K E T
�
� GO: La Strada dei Pastelli Chalk Art Festival If chalk and a sidewalk kept you entertained for hours as a kid during summer break, you’ll want to add this festival to your calendar for a bit of nostalgia. Hillsboro’s Cultural Arts District hosts both nationally renowned and emerging artists who turn patches of pavement into masterpieces worthy of a museum. In addition to the street art, there will be live music, more than 40 vendors, and crafts for kids. Hillsboro Cultural Arts District, East Main Street from 1st to 4th avenues, tvcreates.org/lastrada. 10 am-6 pm Saturday-Sunday, July 16-17. Free.
GO: Montavilla Farmers Market
SUMMER LUU
� GO: Best New Band Showcase Night Heron. Glitterfox. Pool Boys. Sean Battles. Kingsley. The Macks. No, those aren't the names of obscure members of the Avengers—they're the fabulous finalists in WW's annual Best New Band Showcase. This year, we're partnering with MusicPortland, a non-profit organization that advocates on behalf of the popular music local ecosystem. Get ready for an evening of genre-defying music that will run the gamut from Americana to rock to R&B and beyond. Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi Ave., 503-288-3895, mississippistudios.com. 6:30 pm, Monday, July 18. $10. 21+.
�
LISTEN: Portland Cello Project at Topaz Farm Listen to the nationally recognized Portland Cello Project perform under a 500-year-old oak tree at Sauvie Island’s Topaz Farm. The group will premiere “Elliott Smith Meets Prince & Radiohead,” the second performance in the farm’s 2022 Summer Harvest Fest. Bring your picnic gear and enjoy food from renowned local chefs, including Mike Kessler of Toro Bravo fame and Paula Markus from Chop Butchery & Charcuterie. Topaz Farm, 17100 NW Sauvie Island Road, 503-621-3489, topazfarm.com. 6:30 pm Sunday, July 17. $30.
� GO: Love, Oregon If you’re searching for your inner Bigfoot, the Love, Oregon festival might just be the place to find it. The three-night campout is an opportunity to partake in the bounty of Oregon’s food and nature, with farm-to-table meals from local chefs James Bradley and Nikeisah Newton and music by celebrated artists all weekend long in the middle of an old-growth forest. Camp Colton, 30000 S Camp Colton Drive, Colton, 503-824-2267, loveoregonproject. com. Friday-Sunday, July 15-17. $60-$295.
DRINK: Alt Wine Fest 2022
COURTESY OF JAZZ SOCIETY OREGON
Oregon is famous for pinot noir, but organizers of the Alt Wine Fest think the 80-plus other varieties grown here deserve some recognition. Decide for yourself when you sip non-pinot noir selections from over 30 local winemakers at the sprawling Abbey Road Farm. Tacos, lawn games and a live DJ will be on hand to round out the experience. Abbey Road Farm, 10280 NE Oak Springs Farm Road, Carlton, 503-687-3100, altwinefest.com. 1-5 pm Sunday, July 17. $68 includes souvenir glass, wine samples and wine shop service; $145 includes shuttle transportation from Portland.
�
LISTEN: 42nd Annual Cathedral Park Jazz Festival
Known as “the longest-running jazz and blues festival west of the Mississippi,” this party under the iconic, gothic-inspired St. Johns Bridge features well-known local musicians like Eddie Martinez, the Mel Brown Trio and Tony Coleman. Bring your own (low) seating, but you can leave the picnic gear at home. A beer and wine garden and fleet of food trucks will be on hand. Cathedral Park, 8706 N Bradford St., jazzoregon.org. 4:30-10:30 pm Friday, 1-10 pm Saturday, 1-8:30 pm Sunday, July 15-17. Donations accepted.
T U A L AT I N VA L L E Y C R E AT E S
One of Southeast Portland’s most popular farmers markets recently expanded its hours to include Thursday evenings all summer long. Mosey over to 79th and Stark for a smaller version of the weekend event, complete with fresh produce, food vendors and a beer garden operated by Threshold Brewing. Live music is scheduled to start an hour after the market opens. The Plaza at Southeast 79th Avenue and Stark Street, montavilla market.org. 4-7 pm Thursday through Sept. 29.
DRINK: Fuji to Hood Portland’s beer-focused exchange student program is back. The Fuji to Hood festival features beverages by local brewers made in collaboration with their counterparts in Sapporo, Japan, alternating between the two locations every year. The event has been on pause because of the pandemic but now returns to Culmination Brewing with over a dozen brewery teams and 24 ambassadors from Japan. In addition to beer, a cider and a spirit will be pouring for the first time ever. Culmination Brewing, 2117 NE Oregon St., 971-254-9114, fujitohood. com. Noon-9 pm Saturday, July 16. $25 general admission. $35 VIP.
CELEBRATE: Tiger Tiger Celebrate Portland’s Asian American and Pacific Islander community at this inaugural festival featuring musicians, storytellers and other creatives. The event also offers food from the minds behind two of Portland’s top food carts (Matta and Baon Kainan) and acclaimed new bakery HeyDay PDX. Fernhill Park, 6010 NE 37th Ave., eventbrite.com. 4-9 pm Sunday, July 17. Free, registration suggested. �
WATCH: A League of Their Own Directed by the legendary Penny Marshall and featuring a star-studded cast, this classic female-empowerment film follows two Oregon sisters (Geena Davis and Lori Petty) as they join the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League during World War II. In case you get teary-eyed, just remember, “There’s no crying in baseball!” Hollywood Theatre, 4122 NE Sandy Blvd., 503-493-1128, hollywoodtheatre. org. 7:30 pm Monday, July 18. $8-$10. Willamette Week JULY 13, 2022 wweek.com
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FOOD & DRINK Top 5
Buzz List WHERE TO DRINK THIS WEEK.
1. PIX PÂTISSERIE
2225 E Burnside St., 971-271-7166, pixpatisserie. com. Noon-9 pm Friday-Sunday. After 21 years in the restaurant industry, Pix Pâtisserie founder Cheryl Wakerhauser is retiring. That means you have a little more than a month left to fit in one last visit to her dessert emporium, which originally began as a farmers market stand in 2001. While stocking up on macarons and cream puffs, be sure to take advantage of Pix’s patio and order a bottle from the extensive Champagne and sparkling wine list, which has been awarded the “World’s Best” title multiple times.
2. VON EBERT CASCADE STATION AND TIMBERLAND
10111 NE Cascades Parkway, 503-206-5765; 11800 NW Cedar Falls Drive, #110, 503-716-8663; vonebertbrewing.com. 11 am-9 pm daily. Cascade Station closed Monday. The two tap houses under the Von Ebert umbrella have just launched a Power Hour, and no, this isn’t the brewery’s version of the drinking game you may remember from your early 20s. Every Monday and Tuesday, from 7 to 8 pm, draft pours cost only $3, which is more than half off. Hell, with pints at that price, you may want to go ahead and revive the pregaming tradition.
3. BUOY BEER POP-UP
1152 Marine Drive, Astoria, 503-298-6833, buoybeer.com. Noon-8 pm daily. Show Buoy Beer some much-needed love by heading out to Astoria for pints at its new popup. By now, you’ve seen the devastating images of the brewery’s primary location above the Columbia, partially crumpled like a tin can. There’s no word on when the pub, which collapsed in mid-June, might reopen, but fortunately the brand was welcomed by the new Astoria Food Hub, where you can now get Buoy on tap along with classic seafood once the kitchen is up and running.
4. JOLLY ROGER CHRIS NESSETH
1340 SE 12th Ave., 503-232-8060, jollyrestaurants.com. Noon-midnight Monday-Thursday, noon-1 am Friday-Saturday, noon-11 pm Sunday. Along the journey from family-friendly seafood restaurant to neighborhood sports bar, the Jolly’s most salable feature (beyond that iconic signage) has been an easy adaptability to changing tastes and demographic shifts over 60-some years. The place does engender goodwill among a dizzying cross section of Portlanders for reasons difficult to articulate. Pay this dive a visit (or several) before last call. At some point in the next year, developers will knock down the building and replace it with a residential complex.
5. PAPA HAYDN
5829 SE Milwaukie Ave., 503-232-9440, papahaydn.com. 11:30 am-10 pm Wednesday-Sunday. Papa Haydn is best known for its desserts—and its cafe on Northwest 23rd Avenue—but the original location across the river boasts both a charming patio and a long list of cocktails for those days when you want to end (or start) your meal with a liquid confection. Opened in 1978, the restaurant and its shaded terrace are a hidden Southeast Portland gem—the perfect place to sip on the Secret Garden (citron vodka, strawberry purée, muddled basil) while seated in an actual secret garden.
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Editor: Andi Prewitt Contact: aprewitt@wweek.com
Top 5
Hot Plates
WHERE TO EAT THIS WEEK. AARON LEE
1. ARDEN
Ray of Sunshine Beirut Bites, a new spinoff from the Nicholas Restaurant family, brings some Mediterranean brightness to Grand Avenue.
BY T H O M H I LTO N
BITE ME: Beirut Bites’ street pizzas, stuffed pitas, and chicken shawarma bowls make for a perfect on-the-go lunch. Oh, and don’t overlook the pinwheel pita chips.
In 2021, Nicholas—one of Portland’s oldest Lebanese-Mediterranean restaurants—moved from its flagship location on Southeast Grand Avenue to a new, much roomier building on Southeast Madison Street. Now, after being vacant for a year, the original space has been rebranded by second-generation owner Hilda Dibe as Beirut Bites, a fast-casual concept with a bumblebee-yellow paint job that promises to supply some sunshine even during Portland’s gloomiest days. As the area’s first Lebanese street food spot, Beirut Bites uses family recipes to encourage newbies and longtime Nicholas fans to engage with casual dishes rarely seen in Portland, the specialty being street pizzas ($12) prepared in a 700-degree oven that the Dibes imported after they arrived in the States in the early 1980s to escape the Lebanon War. There are five varieties of pies, including the Shatta, which has a flaky, tender crust topped with fermented red chile paste and a blend of imported Lebanese cheeses. The dish may look like a standard cheese pizza, but the addition of grilled onions, sesame and cumin give it an unexpected dimension. The Areyess, a stuffed pita served alongside a tomato-and-chickpea soup, is like a calzone colliding with a birria taco. It also has all of the makings of a signature dish: a brown, crispy crust, rich and cheesy interior, housemade lamb sausage, and a sweet, spicy broth for dipping. During my visit, some diners who had just finished a yoga session scarfed theirs down, insisting it would become a post-stretching ritual. The setup at Beirut Bites is simple: Order at the counter and watch your meal be prepared through an open window to the kitchen. A large mural on one wall that reads “I Dare You to Bite Me” over and over is playful, if a little confusing. Tables inside are pretty quiet, while the few out on the sidewalk are subject to the bustle of Grand Avenue traffic. Preordering is available, and it definitely feels like an ideal place to stop for lunch on the go. Most dishes are served with pita chips, which are not to be ignored. They’re one of the most compelling new bites in Portland: three strips of flatbread rolled into tight pinwheels placed on a skewer, deep fried and then topped with cilantro harissa. More than just a snack, they’re an incredibly executed savory pastry—a textural delight packed with salt and spice from the fermented red chile sauce. Another common accompaniment is plain hummus, which has a pleasant smooth texture but is a bit too tahini forward and lacking salt and lemon. Instead, opt for a side of the muhammara ($7), a standout roasted red pepper and walnut hummus that’s smoky, rich and full of paprika. Bowls ($16) can be served with a basic romaine-and-to-
Beirut Bites uses family recipes to encourage newbies and longtime Nicholas fans to engage with casual dishes rarely seen in Portland, the specialty being street pizzas. mato salad, tender vermicelli jasmine rice, or a mix of both. Meat options, in general, outperform their vegetarian alternatives. The chicken shawarma ( juicy thigh pieces spiced with ginger, cloves and nutmeg) was great with creamy garlic toum, and superior to the underseasoned cauliflower, which was paired with some pretty roughskinned eggplant. Wraps ($16) are best avoided for now. The lamb gyro was tasty, but the falafel had an overpowering aromatic flavor and gritty texture. Both were clumsily constructed, the interiors overloaded with red cabbage, which meant usual star ingredients like cucumber, feta and tzatziki were lost in the jumble. The sesame garlic pita, while great in chip form and as a vehicle for hummus and pizza, felt too thick and soft for wraps, making it challenging to eat. Desserts ($6) could also use some improvement. The pistachio butter cups have a great cardamom flavor, but the too-thick chocolate exterior wasn’t tempered properly, and one bite caused the whole thing to shatter. Baklava cigars also had a chocolate shell that fell off after one bite, and while crispy and sweet, they lacked that syrupy stickiness that’s crucial to truly transcendent baklava. Both specialty drinks ($6.50) should count as desserts and be ordered instead, as both have the potential to become cult classics. The chocolate iced Turkish coffee gets a decadent puddinglike texture from tahini and oats. While the lemonada, a refreshing slushy of crushed ice, lemonade, mint and orange blossom water, is so good I’d never be able to pass it up when in the neighborhood. I’ll continue to look forward to that lemonada when I need a cold refreshment on a hot day or, more likely, when I need to be mentally transported to a Mediterranean beach while facing another day of Portland’s endlessly gray summer.
417 NW 10th Ave., 503-206-6097, ardenpdx.com. 5-9 Wednesday-Saturday. The food menu had not been this Pearl District wine bar’s strong suit. It is now that Erik Van Kley is helming the kitchen. The longtime Portland chef may only have a small four-burner stove to work with, but he still manages to create decadent dishes, like an appetizer of creamy burrata, crispy-fried mushrooms and pine nuts; and mains, such as duck liver ragù over tagliatelle and morel mushroom and ricotta cappelletti. Indecisive? Go with the chef’s prix fixe, four courses for $65 per person.
2. CALLAO
1510 S Harbor Way, 503-295-6166, kingtidefishandshell.com/callao. 2-7 pm Wednesday-Sunday. Now that it’s officially summer, you owe it to yourself to spend some time on the waterfront while snacking on light fare suited for hotter temperatures. Chef Alexander Diestra has made it a little easier to do just that with his new seasonal outdoor pop-up, Callao, which prepares traditional South American ingredients through a Japanese lens—think skewers, ceviche and a couple of dreamy desserts, like a coconut cookie sandwich and coffee jelly served with hazelnut whipped cream.
3. RANGOON BISTRO
2311 SE 50th Ave., 503-953-5385, rangoonbistropdx.com. 5-9 pm Wednesday-Friday, noon-9 pm Saturday-Sunday. After half a decade hawking tea leaf salads and chickpea tofu to farmers marketgoers on weekends—while holding down day jobs—the trio behind Rangoon Bistro now have a restaurant. The dishes reflect a pursuit to perfect childhood memories of two of the Myanmar-born co-owners native foods: cucumber thoke and poached shrimp, a gloriously large rice noodle dumpling stuffed with ground pork, and chana dal, skinned and split chickpeas served at least a half-dozen ways.
4. POLLO BRAVO
1225 N Killingsworth St., 503-4778999, pollobravopdx.com. 11:30 am-9 pm daily. During the pandemic, Pollo Bravo stuck it out for a while with takeout and delivery from Pine Street Market, but without downtown’s tourists and office workers, co-owners Josh and Sarah Scofield eventually decided to go on hiatus. Now the beloved brand is back in a stand-alone restaurant with its signature chicken and stalwart sides (radicchio salad, patatas bravas), as well as select tapas and a rebooted Bravo burger.
5. DOUGH ZONE
1910 S River Drive, 503-446-3500, doughzonedumplinghouse.com. 11 am-10 pm daily. Dough Zone, a Seattle dim sum darling with its first Portland outpost, must have come in with some industrial-sized sage sticks to cleanse the former Lucier space: Early on, it seems to have what it takes to lift the yearslong funk there. Despite the remaining opulence, this is a casual business—a place to go with friends and order a smorgasbord. Fill a table with spicy beef pancake rolls, Berkshire-Duroc pork-andshrimp steamed dumplings, and xiao long bao, which at $7.95 for an order of six is the best deal in town.
EAT: Beirut Bites, 318 SE Grand Ave., 503-500-5885, beirutbitespdx.com. 11 am-8 pm Monday-Thursday, 11 am-9 pm Friday-Saturday. Willamette Week JULY 13, 2022 wweek.com
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Submission Deadline September 5th, 2022 photocontest.oregonwild.org Photo by: Dan Kearl
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Willamette Week JULY 13, 2022 wweek.com
POTLANDER
Fire Dept. Crispy Treat Bite
Pot Cannabis-infused rice crispy treats are the self-care we need this summer. BY B R I A N N A W H E E L E R
Writer, feminist icon, lesbian and witch-auntie Audre Lorde wrote in regards to her battle with cancer that “caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.” And at this moment, when the most cancerous aspects of our society—greed, entitlement and bigotry—are flourishing like basement mold in a decaying Northwest Craftsman, self-care may be more important now than ever. That’s not to say we should all be spaced-out, trauma-averse scroll zombies. Quite the opposite, in fact. We should be fortifying our psyches, unlocking our empathy, getting vulnerable enough to share grief. Society is melting down, and if we’re going to make it, we’ve gotta take care of ourselves. I don’t know about you, but for me, that includes a diet rich with cannabis, sometimes in a therapeutic, whole-plant capacity, and other times via a crispy confection that evokes grade school bag lunches, bake sales, and the innocence of youth. End of the world (as we know it) or nah, brownies, cookies, gummies and candies will always have their place in a stoner’s pantry, but for the particularly nostalgic pothead, rice crispy treats are a self-care edible nonpareil. Though easy to whip up in any home kitchen, we sampled a handful of premade crispy rice squares with varying potencies to decide which ones best complement our “end of the fuck around era, start of the find our era” stash boxes. Here are the results:
Fire Dept. makes a wide selection of cookies and pre-rolls, many of which have been featured in this column before, but we had yet to audition its cannabis-infused crisped rice treats. The 50 mg chocolate variety is infused with live resin, and while a tag affixed to the front of the package designated the treat was also indica infused, no specific strain was listed in the ingredients. For folks expecting a brickish treat, be forewarned: This edible is the size of a squashed ping-pong ball, so unless your sweet tooth is teensy, don’t expect this edible to satisfy any big cravings. At 50 mg, it’s not easy to break the crisp up into sharable doses, so consider this a snack for one high-tolerance user. Expect a straightforward choco-crunchy bite (seriously, it’s like one bite) with a chemical smack from an added extract rather than the grassy musk of infused butter. BUY: Happy Leaf, 1301 NE Broadway, 971-8000420, happyleafportland.com.
Better Edibles CannaCrispy These edibles are a bit truer to the traditional Rice Krispies Treat. Better Edibles’ product is a single mini-brick in a uniform 2-by-1-inch size with either 50 mg or 100 mg of THC. Snacking on the 50 mg variety immediately made me ravenous for more marshmallow goodness. There is a less potent cannabis aftertaste since CannaCrispys are made with cannabis extract rather than infused butter. The treats are available in three flavors: chocolate, fruity and original. The variety is great, but I only wish the squares were three or four times bigger. BUY: Gram Central Station, 6430 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., 503-284-6714.
Mellow Vibes Crispy Treats Mellow Vibes, originators of the popular infused potcorn that’s infiltrated dispo shelves statewide, is also producing rice crispy squares similar in size and heft to Better Edibles’. These treats are medicated with distillate, and available in double-chocolate and mixed-fruit varieties. The 50 mg dose makes them relatively easy for two to share, but like the other crispy treats, they seem to be manufactured for a single user. I certainly missed the grassy, buttery finish of a homemade cannabis crispy rice treat, but the chocolate and fruity flavors stood out despite a lingering distillate aftertaste. For users who relish the mouthfeel of distillate, make some room in your stash box for these Mellow Vibes. BUY: The Dispensary on 52nd, 4452 SE 52nd Ave., 503-420-8000, thedispensaryon52nd.com.
Willamette Week JULY 13, 2022 wweek.com
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Summer Sale! Ends Sat July 16th
BOOKS
Editor: Bennett Campbell Ferguson | Contact: bennett@wweek.com COURTESY OF CHELSEABIEKER.COM
969 SW Broadway 503-223-4976 Mon - Sat 10-5 (503) 493-0070 www.johnhelmer.com
1433 NE Broadway, Portland MON-SAT 10-6 PM & SUNDAY 11-5 PM
Summer Sale! Ends Sat July 16th
THINK PINK: Chelsea Bieker.
969 SW Broadway 503-223-4976 Mon - Sat 10-5 www.johnhelmer.com
Stories of Resilience Portland author Chelsea Bieker discusses her short short collection Heartbroke and her next novel.
BY M I C H E L L E K I C H E R E R
Great food, fun cocktails, AC inside and cool vibes on the patio.
Outdoor Shows • Trivia Tuesdays • Pinball SIN Happy Hour Tues-Fri 10pm to Midnight
Summer Sale! Ends Sat July 16th
3448SW NE Sandy Blvd 969 Broadway 971-346-2063 theshakubar.com 503-223-4976
Mon - Sat 10-5
www.johnhelmer.com
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Willamette Week JULY 13, 2022 wweek.com
Don’t be fooled by the candy necklace cover. The stories in Portland author Chelsea Bieker’s Heartbroke are brimming with grit and misery—and just the right amount of wildness. After the success of Bieker’s debut novel, Godshot, in 2020 (which was a finalist for both the Oregon and California Book Award, and was longlisted for The Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize), she wrote Heartbroke (Catapult, 288 pages, $26), her first short story collection. At first, Bieker—whose fiction often deals with domestic violence—didn’t consider how all the stories were connected or whom they were “for.” “But it became pretty evident that I was really continuing to inhabit the same spaces again and again,” she tells WW. “There are a lot of these men that end up being awful, essentially. I became curious about how one arrives there.” One of those men is Pretty, a character featured in several stories. First, we see him as the abusive ex-husband of Jan and Baby, two women with different addictions who wind up living together years after their respective divorces. (“Once her pride was gone,” Baby says.) Yet we also glimpse Pretty’s childhood and hear from his mother, who attempts to apologize for all the ways she put her sadness into him, as she phrases it. “When I got to the character of Pretty I was really curious, in general, about generational trauma,” Bieker says. “These are stories about people at really difficult crossroads, and people who are still trying to access resiliency and still trying to attune to their own desires, even in really difficult circumstances.” Like Godshot, Heartbroke takes place mostly in California’s Central Valley, where Bieker grew up. Her next novel, however, will take us to other places she has lived or explored: Hawaii, San Francisco and Portland. While Bieker thought the lessons she learned from
Godshot would make writing her upcoming novel simpler and speedier, that hasn’t been the case. It wasn’t until about four years into the process that the new book started to reveal itself to her. “This book really had a set of its own lessons for me,” Bieker says. “There is an element of surprise, even in the past four or so months, where I’ve had so many realizations about what the story is actually doing and what this book is about.” Bieker says that going on walks with specific playlists puts her in a meditative rhythm and gets her geared up to write. “Then I can visualize scenes kind of cinematically in my mind, and that’s really helpful for me,” she says. “I can trick my brain into kind of entering that more subconscious state.” Getting to that state is especially important when Bieker is writing a particularly difficult scene. Driven by a desire to create empathy, she often helps readers inhabit a point of view they might otherwise never experience, particularly when it comes to stories that look at how family dynamics affect children their whole lives. “In writing a lot of the stories in Heartbroke, I was not only exploring these children’s worst fears and worst-case scenarios, but also that sort of inherent love that exists, despite everything,” she says. “I’ve felt that so much in my life and understand the nuance of what it’s like to have, say, parents who are alcoholics and really mired in their own addiction—and still really love them despite reason.” Bieker’s latest book recommendations include Things They Lost by Okwiri Oduor, Ghost Lover by Lisa Taddeo, and Black Light by Portland author Kimberly King Parsons. “I would really just call people to seek out fiction from perspectives that they’re not usually accustomed to,” Bieker says. “It’s just the easiest way—and the most entertaining way—to learn about a different culture or experience. I think it changes our brains over time to have those exposures, in a good way.”
MUSIC SHOWS
WEEK
WHAT TO SEE AND WHAT TO HEAR BY DA N I E L B R O M F I E L D @ b r o m f 3
MONDAY, JULY 18:
In a crowded field of digitally literate pop artists, yeule stands alone. Rather than exaggerating the sensory overload of the internet, the young Singaporean artist paces their work at a slow and ominous simmer and uses their post-human “glitch princess” persona as the starting point for some of the most striking, intellectually challenging, and lyrically alarming pop of the new decade. It’s a style that comes from a deep sense of belonging in internet communities—and a rebuke to the idea that the bonds and connections formed over the web are inherently inauthentic. Holocene, 1001 SE Morrison St. 8 pm. $22. All ages.
THURSDAY, JULY 14:
717 SW 10th Ave Portland, OR 97205 503.223.4720 www.maloys.com
English Sunrise
For fine antique and custom jewelry, or for repair work, come visit us, or shop online at Maloys.com. We also buy.
Billing themselves as a boy band is the most brilliant thing the young Columbia, Mo., band Post Sex Nachos could’ve done. Though their music has less in common with *NSYNC than the festival-ready indie rock that Dance Yourself Clean has made their specialty, “Your Second Favorite Boy Band”—as they’ve billed themselves on their latest tour—are five fashionable dudes singing upbeat pop songs. And the name sounds like a self-deprecating joke until you realize that, unlike the Jonas Brothers and their purity-ringed ilk, these guys actually have sex. Hawthorne Lounge, 1507 SE 39th Ave. 8 pm. $12.50. 21+.
SUNDAY, JULY 17:
S. Carey, along with his Bon Iver bandmate Justin Vernon, is a pillar of the Eau Claire, Wis., indie-rock scene. But while Vernon has gradually ventured deeper into the shuddering electronics and filigreed arrangements beloved by his buddy Kanye, Carey has retreated deeper into an icy, meditative ambient-pop style that validates just about every coastal cliché about the wintry wildernesses of the Midwest. His songwriting is simple even when it is at its most personal (as on this year’s Break Me Open), but his sumptuous, sweeping music says more than enough on its own. Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi Ave. 8 pm. $20. 21+.
1022 NW Marshall Street #450 Portland OR | (503) 226-6361 | paulsoncoletti.com
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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:
NEW LINE CINEMA
COURTESY OF 99W DRIVE-IN
SCREENER
DOUBLE FUN: The 99W Drive-In.
Can Drive-In Theaters Strike Back? No longer a pandemic necessity, Oregon’s outdoor movie theaters seek to become a renewed summer staple. BY C H A N C E S O L E M - P F E I F E R
@chance_ s _ p
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INDIE PICK:
Adam Driver is a master of maximalist acting (see: Girls and Star Wars), but his performance as the titular poet and bus driver in Jim Jarmusch’s Paterson (2016) proves that he’s at his best when he’s at his quietest. Golshifteh Farahani plays Paterson’s wife, Laura, a nascent cupcake entrepreneur; together, the actors create a subtly revolutionary portrait of a modern marriage. Amazon Prime.
HOLLYWOOD PICK:
With every viewing, Kelly Fremon Craig’s The Edge of Seventeen (2016) grows deeper, rawer and funnier. Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit) stars as Nadine, an alternately arrogant and self-loathing high school junior who declares, “And then I had the worst thought: I got to spend the rest of my life with myself.” Spending time with Nadine isn’t always easy, but that’s why it’s worthwhile. In her furious, wounded glory, she’s both hard to like and easy to love. Netflix.
INTERNATIONAL PICK:
Wim Wenders (Paris, Texas) brought a beguiling flavor to German expressionism with Wings of Desire (1987), about two existentially troubled angels. Henri Alekan handled the film’s enveloping cinematography, shooting in blackand-white (for heaven) and color (for Earth). HBO Max.
M E T R O - G O L D W Y N - M AY E R
At the early heights of the COVID-19 pandemic, drive-in movie theaters were thrust into a sudden spotlight. In spring 2020, 99W Drive-In owner Brian Francis spoke to The New York Times about his Newberg theater being one of the only places in Oregon where you could watch a movie on the big screen (at that moment, he was bombarded with customer calls to open early). And just last month, a patron at the Milton-Freewater Drive-In showed owner Mike Speiss a 2020 copy of Time that featured his Northeast Oregon theater. But glowing media narratives don’t always equate to lasting consumer behavior. As it turns out, the customer who brought Speiss that magazine had walked into a somewhat tepid summer for drive-ins thus far. May and June rains haven’t helped, nor has a studio pipeline constricted to biweekly blockbusters. Even worse, sweeter pandemic booking rates set by studios evaporated last year—and movie vaults that opened in 2020, allowing Francis to play classics like Toy Story and The Empire Strikes Back, have locked up again. “There was a lot of renewed awareness,” Speiss says of how the pandemic impacted drive-ins. “It really didn’t help the bottom line much at all.” Ironically, 2019 was the biggest year in the history of 99W Drive-In, Francis says, with crowds he hasn’t yet seen return—especially this year (doubly ironic, Francis has heard some patrons stayed away because they assumed from press coverage that his theater would be overcrowded). At the very least, Francis wants guests to know his Newberg lot has room to accommodate large audiences for its constant double features (like last month’s screening of Elvis and Purple Rain). “A lot of people think I’m going to be mobbed and that it’s not worth trying, but I’ve been able to get everybody in,” he says. “You don’t need to reserve spots; come at dusk. It’s almost old school.” Sixty-one years into his family operating the Milton-Freewater location, Speiss says the best parts of drive-ins are still seeing gargantuan images ahead and the constellations above. While the studio pipeline and high booking rates for first-run titles are challenges, the
theater is “close to normal weekends,” and Speiss expects the selection of titles to be more “robust” in years to come. Francis’ family has owned Newberg’s Cameo Theatre and the lot upon which 99W sits for three generations. The local crowds haven’t returned in force, but he is seeing visitors from Salem, Eugene and Vancouver putting in highway miles for outdoor movies. Portland outdoor movie pop-ups are continuing this summer as well. The Hollywood Theatre has moved its offerings from the Portland Expo Center in 2021 to state parks in 2022 (Back to the Future II is up next at Milo McIver State Park on July 23). And after a couple summers of distanced drive-ins at Zidell Yards, PAM CUT (formerly the NW Film Center) has relocated its programming to the Bridge Lot at OMSI, which has plenty of lawn chairready space. Associate director of creative programs Jon Richardson says PAM CUT’s goal is to make every screening a distinct, themed event. For Strictly Ballroom on July 16, dance instructors will be on hand, and Ghostbusters on July 29 will feature slime-making from a cosplay outfit called the Portland Ghostbusters. Plus, all screenings will be preceded by a local short, and single tickets ($20) will also gain the holder one free entry to the Portland Art Museum through Aug. 31. While outdoor movies—drive-ins particularly—have been an American pastime for going on a century, younger city dwellers and suburbanites may have seen them only in movies like Grease or The Outsiders. Richardson has plenty of pro tips for newcomers. “Layers,” he laughs. “It’s going to be hot, and then later it’s going to be not hot.” For his part, Francis encourages guests not to block sightlines with open car trunks. “Think about the people behind you,” he says. “Control the parking lights. Pull the emergency brake.” Finally, Speiss invites moviegoers new to the drive-in experience to mimic his Eastern Oregon regulars, who have drive-in movies down to a science. “They have their pickup parked backward with a blow-up mattress in the bed and a portable stereo system and lawn chairs—all sprawled in a line,” he says. What better way to experience gargantuan images ahead and constellations above?
Ken Kwapis’ starry ensemble comedy He’s Just Not That Into You (2010) was filmed in two Oregon locations, Portland and Madras. The sprawling cast includes Ben Affleck, Scarlett Johansson, Bradley Cooper, and two iconic Jennifers (Aniston and Connelly), but the standouts are Justin Long (as a down-on-love bar owner) and Ginnifer Goodwin (as a defiant romantic). HBO Max.
MOVIES G ET YO U R R E P S I N F O C U S F E AT U R E S
C O U R T E S Y O F E L E M E N TA L F I L M . C O M
TOP PICK OF THE WEEK
Wet Hot American Summer (2001)
One of the laugh-out-loud funniest comedies of the 21st century, this cult classic set at a summer camp features an all-star cast of counselors: Paul Rudd, Amy Poehler, Bradley Cooper, Janeane Garofalo, Elizabeth Banks, Molly Shannon, Christopher Meloni, David Hyde Pierce, and even more comedic geniuses we wish we could fit in the word count. Academy, July 12-14.
ELEMENTAL
Strictly Ballroom (1992)
As our world faces existential threats like a depleted water supply and increasingly deadly wildfires, the best weapon we have is information. So it matters that the Portland-made Elemental is not just a documentary, but a wonderfully constructed one that systemically outlines the challenges and failures of humanity’s battle against wildfires—and their impact on both people and the planet. The film, narrated by David Oyelowo (Selma), features interviews with world-renowned forest and climate experts, along with a cross section of individuals impacted by and fighting back against the growing threat. Thanks to director Trip Jennings, it’s a comprehensive look at a war that isn’t lost, but must be redefined (“I have visited with scientists, investigators and firefighters, and they have told me again and again that we can have healthy forests and safe communities, and that we can prepare for and adapt to fire,” Jennings says in his director’s statement). Parts of Elemental may be too academic for a wider audience, but the use of drone shots gives a dynamic sense of scope to the documentary, while Nick Jaina’s velvety score brings texture to Jennings’ portrait of nature’s wrath and resilience. NR. RAY GILL JR. Hollywood Theatre. 7:30 pm Wednesday, July 20.
OFFICIAL COMPETITION
An 80-year-old billionaire decides to ensure his legacy by financing the creation of an epic film about…anything. He hires eccentric filmmaker Lola Cuevas (Penélope Cruz), whose idea to adapt a Nobel Prize-winning novel called Rivalry sets the stage for Official Competition, a satirical adventure from Argentine filmmakers Gastón Duprat and Mariano Cohn. The film revolves around Lola’s collaboration with movie star Félix Rivero (Antonio Banderas) and revered elder theater actor Iván Torres (Oscar Martínez), who are cast in her film as rival siblings. Félix and Iván engage in a strange series of acting exercises (which include suspending a boulder over the actors’ heads as they rehearse), their egos creating comedic friction as Lola cleverly manipulates them. Cohn and Duprat, who wrote the script with Duprat’s brother Andrés, employ precise symmetry and over-theshoulder shots in conversations to draw the audience in, while using deliberately vapid visuals to enhance the characters’ isolation. The result? A surreal environment that allows Lola, Félix and Iván to gradually fade away from anything resembling normal society, making Official Competition a fascinating and subtly hilarious film to watch. R. RAY GILL JR. Cinema 21.
MINIONS: THE RISE OF GRU
The biggest animated universe in movie history is seemingly on cruise control in Minions:
The Rise of Gru—which is of minimal concern to its tiny stars, who seem to be in a universe of their own. A prequel to the Despicable Me trilogy, the film begins with 12-year-old future master of evil Gru (Steve Carrell) living in 1970s suburbia and longing to join the Vicious 6, an infamous supervillain group. The Vicious 6 have just ousted their leader, Wild Knuckles (Alan Arkin), and they hold open tryouts for a collection of dubious wannabes in a sequence reminiscent of the audition scene from Mystery Men. That’s just one of many scenarios framed against a vivid ’70s backdrop that’s glorious to gaze at—you feel as if you’re not just looking at another time, but another world. Unfortunately, the creativity ends with the animation. Gru spends the bulk of the film with the forgettable Wild Knuckles just waiting to be rescued, limiting his interactions with the riotous, gibberish-talking Minions, who fight not only to save Gru, but the movie. PG. RAY GILL JR. Academy, Cedar Hills, City Center, Eastport Plaza, Evergreen Parkway, Jubitz, Living Room, Lloyd Center, OMSI, Pioneer Place, St. Johns Twin, Studio One, Tigard, Wunderland Beaverton, Wunderland Milwaukie.
THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER
The latest addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe begins with a graceful homage to The Tree of Life and ends with a tear-jerking climax that could have been written by Nicholas Sparks. It’s a gratifyingly weird
film, but it isn’t good—and it casts serious doubts on director Taika Waititi’s next assignment, a Star Wars feature. Chris Hemsworth is back as Thor, the god of thunder and goofy pre-battle speeches, and so is Natalie Portman, who plays Thor’s ex-girlfriend, Dr. Jane Foster. Since the breakup, she’s acquired some serious superpowers—handy, since a mopey and murderous chap named Gorr (Christian Bale) is rampaging through the cosmos. The problem with this plot is that it’s actually four plots. In the name of why-the-heck-not excess, Waititi has made a movie that is simultaneously a somber father-daughter drama, a cheery romantic comedy, an eye-assaulting action spectacle, and a disease-of-the-week weepie. A more deft director (Edgar Wright, perhaps) might have coaxed the movie’s disparate parts to cohere, but Waititi doesn’t care about coherence. As his tactless, trivializing portrayal of a character’s stage IV cancer diagnosis suggests, he’s gotten lost in a maze of indulgent and seemingly random storytelling impulses. Thor: Love and Thunder wants to be witty and it wants to be moving, but its quest to be both is so scattershot it fails to be either. PG-13. BENNETT CAMPBELL FERGUSON. Academy, Bagdad, Cedar Hills, Cinema 21, Eastport, Fox Tower, Joy Cinema, Laurelhurst, Living Room, Lloyd Center, Pioneer Place, Roseway, St. Johns, St. Johns Twin, Studio One, Wunderland.
Coast that Elvis high with Baz Luhrmann’s feature debut, which first introduced us to his extravagantly maximalist style via an underdog story about a champion dancer (Paul Mercurio) whose flashy style infuriates the prudish Ballroom Confederation. Learn ballroom dancing before the movie from First Dance instructors! PAM CUT at OMSI Bridge Lot, July 16.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986) In Tobe Hooper’s sequel, a radio host (Caroline Williams) is terrorized by Leatherface’s cannibal family while a former Texas Ranger (Dennis Hopper) attempts to hunt them down. Bill Mosely (who plays Chop-Top) will attend for a post-screening Q&A moderated by Dennis Dread, along with a pre-screening chili competition with prizes courtesy of Wyrd War. Hollywood, July 16.
There Will Be Blood (2007)
Paul Thomas Anderson’s acclaimed historical epic charts the rise and fall of insatiable oil baron Daniel Plainview (played by Daniel Day-Lewis, who deservedly won a Best Actor Oscar for his menacing performance). Screens as part of Cinemagic’s first anniversary celebration (see below for more of the stacked lineup). Cinemagic, July 17.
Smooth Talk (1985)
Laura Dern, in a breakout performance, shines in this adaptation of the acclaimed Joyce Carol Oates short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” Set during a sweltering summer, the film stars Dern as a rebellious 15-year-old who is constantly flirting with disaster (i.e., boys)—until she unintentionally attracts the attention of a dangerously smooth-talking older man (Treat Williams). Clinton, July 18. ALSO PLAYING: 5th Avenue: Cane River (1982), July 15-17. Academy: The Goonies (1985), July 12-14. Cinemagic: They Live (1988) and Escape From New York (1981), July 15-16. School of Rock (2003), July 17. Speed Racer (2008) and Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky (1991), July 17. An American Werewolf in London (1981), July 18. Revanchist (1994), July 18. Videodrome (1983), July 19. Electric Dragon 80.000V (2001), July 19. Cinema 21: Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), July 16. Clinton: Spell - Sweet Slaugherhouse (1977), July 13. Friday (1995), July 15. The Ice Cream Man (1995), July 16. Hollywood: Ladies & Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains (1982), July 14. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), July 17. Seeds (1968), July 19. PAM CUT at OMSI Bridge Lot: Back to the Future (1985), July 14. Sing 2 (2021), July 15. Krush Groove (1985), July 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. Willamette Week JULY 13, 2022 wweek.com
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July 18 | Mississippi Studios Doors at 6pm
Last month Willamette Week named the city’s Best New Bands. On Saturday, July 18th these bands will compete for the title of “Best” at Mississippi Studios. Grab your tickets now for what will be a fun showcase of Portland’s newest musical talent.
Get Tickets 60
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POOL BOYS
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JONESIN’
FREE WILL
B Y M AT T J O N E S
"Stately"—hey, what's your name?
ASTROLOGY ARIES
(March 21-April 19): You are entering the Season of Love's Renewal. To celebrate, I offer you a poem by eighth-century Tamil poet Andal. Whatever gender you may be, I invite you to visualize yourself as the "Snakewaist woman" she addresses. Here's Andal, bringing a fiery splash of exclamation points: "Arouse, Snakewaist woman! Strut your enchantment! Swoop your mirth and leap your spiral reverence! As wild peacocks shimmer and ramble and entice the lightning-nerved air! Summon thunderheads of your love! Command the sentient wind! Resurrect the flavor of eternal birth!"
TAURUS
(April 20-May 20): Tips to get the most out of the next three weeks: 1. Work harder, last longer, and finish with more grace than everyone else. 2. Be in love with beauty. Crave it, surround yourself with it, and create it. Be especially enamored of beautiful things that are also useful. 3. Taste the mist, smell the clouds, kiss the music, praise the earth, and listen to the moon in the daytime sky. 4. Never stop building! Keep building and building and building: your joy, your security, your love, your beauty, your stamina, your sense of wonder.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Gemini astrologer As-
trolocherry says that while Geminis "can appear naive and air-headed to onlookers, their minds usually operate at light speed. They naturally absorb every surrounding particle of intellectual stimuli. They constantly observe their interactions for opportunities to grow their knowledge." I believe these qualities will function at peak intensity during the next four weeks, Gemini— maybe even beyond peak intensity. Please try to enjoy the hell out of this phase without becoming manic or overwrought. If all goes well, you could learn more in the next four weeks than most people learn in four months.
ACROSS 1. Grand slam run count 5. Prince Buster's genre 8. Candle-heavy occasions, for short? 13. Quindlen with the 2022 best-seller "Write for Your Life"
65. Farthest orbital point 66. Supernatural witch of Slavic folklore 68. Daughter of Pablo Picasso 69. Thumb drive port 70. Capital near Lillehammer
14. Corn opener?
71. Positive quality
15. Some cameras or copiers
72. Rd. intersectors
17. Show biz parent, maybe
73. Bovary and Tussaud, for example (abbr.)
19. Generational separator 20. Brick quantity
DOWN
21. Aspiration for neither the over- or under-achiever
1. Adjective for many worldrecord attempts
23. Roth offering
2. Not faked out by
25. Salon worker
3. Like some decisions
26. 180 degrees from NNE
4. Disreputable newspaper (not like the one you're reading!)
27. Yerevan's country 31. Actor Morales whose Wikipedia bio mentions his name frequency in crosswords 33. Getting your kicks? 34. _ _ _-Magnon 36. Toy truck maker 40. Bedsheets, tablecloths, etc. 44. "The Only Way Is _ _ _" (U.K. reality soap since 2010) 45. The day before 46. Finishes, as cupcakes 47. Word before rain or jazz 50. Done over, like school pictures 52. Tuna steak choice 55. Part of CUNY or NYU 57. "Diners, Drive-_ _ _ and Dives" 58. Slide whistle-playing Simpsons character 62. Pro runner?
5. Sport in which athletes crouch 6. "Turn it up and rip the _ _ _ off!" 7. Directed a wad of paper into a wastebasket 8. Truist Park team 9. Social media and computing elite
30. Person who may not feel romantic attraction, for short 32. _ _ _ Sea (arm of the Mediterranean) 35. Cheer for AtlÈtico Madrid 37. Twinge that may need massaging 38. Worn-out jeans spot 39. PTA pt. 41. Burp follower 42. Cable recorder, perhaps 43. Majors who was "The Six Million Dollar Man" 48. Ready to breed 49. "Holy Diver" rocker Ronnie James 51. Tequila who originally gained fame on MySpace 52. "And hurry!" 53. Medical privacy law, initially 54. Huge celebs 56. Big ride to a Dead concert, maybe 59. Alter _ _ _ 60. Ship feature 61. Declines slowly
10. Lenovo alternative
63. It's not a good look
11. Hatha and bikram, for two
64. Country next to Thailand
12. Catches, as fly balls
67. _ _ _ Kippur
16. Erupt 18. "The Bad Guys" screenwriter Cohen (not one of the filmmaking brothers!) 22. "That it be, lad" 24. Suez Canal's outlet 27. U.S. Open stadium 28. Platonic P's 29. "_ _ _ bin ein Berliner" (JFK quote)
©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.
last week’s answers
CANCER
(June 21-July 22): Naeem Callaway founded Get Out The Box, an organization that mentors at-risk youth in low-income and rural communities. Here's one of his central teachings: “Sometimes the smallest step in the right direction ends up being the biggest step of your life. Tiptoe if you must, but take the step." Even if you don't fit the profile of the people Callaway serves, his advice is perfect for you right now. For the time being, I urge you to shelve any plans you might have for grandiose actions. Focus on just one of the many possible tasks you could pursue and carry it out with determined focus.
LEO
(July 23-Aug. 22): A Leo astrologer I've known for years told me, "Here's a secret about us Lions. No matter what happens, despite any pitfalls and pratfalls, my ego will stay intact. It ain't gonna crack. You can hurl five lightning bolts' worth of insults at my skull, and I will walk away without even a hint of a concussion. I believe in myself and worship myself, but even more importantly: I trust my own self-coherence like I trust the sun to shine." Wow! That's quite a testimony. I'm not sure I fully buy it, though. I have known a few Leos whose confidence wavered in the wake of a minor misstep. But here's the point of my horoscope: I encourage you to allow a slight ego deflation in the coming days. If you do, I believe it will generate a major blossoming of your ego by August. And that would be a very good thing.
VIRGO
(Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Virgo poet Claude de Burine described how one night when she was three years old, she sneaked out of the house with her parents' champagne bucket so she could fill it up with moonlight. I think activities like this will be a worthy pursuit for you in the coming days. You're entering a favorable phase to go in quest of lyrical, fanciful experiences. I hope you will make yourself available for marvels and curiosities and fun surprises.
Willamette Week JULY 13, 2022 wweek.com
intimacy. I bring these thoughts to your attention because I think that one of Libra's life-long tasks is to master the art of being kind rather than merely nice. And right now is an especially favorable phase for you to refine your practice.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): You sometimes feel you have to tone down your smoldering intensity, avert your dark-star gazes, conceal your sultry charisma, dumb down your persuasive speech, pretend you don't have so much stamina, disguise your awareness of supernatural connections, act less like a saint and martyr in your zealous devotions, and refrain from revealing your skill at reading between the lines. But none of that avoidance stuff usually works very well. The Real You leaks out into view. In the coming weeks, I hope you won't engage in any of the hiding behavior I described. It's a favorable time to freely pour forth your Scorpionic blessings.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): There could be in-
teresting and important events happening while you sleep in the coming nights. If a butterfly lands on you in a dream, it may mean you're prepping for a spiritual transformation in waking life. It could be a sign you're receptive to a breakthrough insight you weren't previously open to. If you dream of a baby animal, it might signify you're ready to welcome a rebirth of a part of you that has been dormant or sluggish or unavailable. Dreams in which you're flying suggest you may soon escape a sense of heaviness or inertia.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): How to be the best
Capricorn you can be in the coming weeks and months: 1. Develop a disciplined, well-planned strategy to achieve more freedom. 2. Keep clambering upwards even if you have no competitors and there's no one else at the top. 3. Loosen your firm grasp and steely resolve just enough so you can allow the world to enjoy you. 4. Don't let the people you love ever think you take them for granted. 5. Be younger today than you were yesterday.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): In the next seven
to eight weeks, I'd love for you to embody an attitude about intimacy articulated by author Hélène Cixous. Here's her aspiration: "I want to love a person freely, including all her secrets. I want to love in this person someone she doesn't know. I want to love without judgment, without fault. Without false, without true. I want to meet her between the words, beneath language." And yes, dear Aquarius, I know this is a monumental undertaking. If it appeals to you at all, just do the best you can to incorporate it. Perfection isn't required.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): I periodically consult a
doctor of Chinese Medicine who tells me that one of the best things I can do for my health is to walk barefoot—EVERYWHERE! On the sidewalk, through buildings, and especially in the woods and natural areas. He says that being in direct contact with our beloved earth can provide me with energetic nourishment not possible any other way. I have resisted the doc's advice so far. It would take the soles of my feet a while to get accustomed to the wear and tear of barefoot walking. I bring this up, Pisces, because the coming weeks will be an excellent time for you to try what I haven't yet. In fact, anything you do to deepen your connection with the earth will be extra healing. I invite you to lie in the sand, hug trees, converse with birds, shout prayers to mountains, and bathe in rivers or lakes.
Homework: To heal yourself, bestow two blessings, one on a human and one on an animal. Newsletter.FreeWillAstrology.com
LIBRA
(Sept. 23-Oct. 22): There is a distinction between being nice and being kind. Being nice is often motivated by mechanical politeness, by a habit-bound drive to appear pleasant. It may be rooted more in a desire to be liked than in an authentic urge to bestow blessings. On the other hand, being kind is a sincere expression of care and concern for another. It fosters genuine CHECK OUT ROB BREZSNY’S EXPANDED WEEKLY AUDIO HOROSCOPES & DAILY TEXT MESSAGE HOROSCOPES
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