Willamette Week, October 11, 2023 - Volume 49, Issue 48 - "Showgoing Secrets"

NEWS: Doctors Get Out of Jail.

P. 10 FOOD: Grand Amari Could Use a Digestif.

P. 20

OM W W E E K .C 8 /4 9 4 VOL 023 2 .

10.11

MOVIES: A Hungarian Homecoming. P. 24

The tips, tricks & trivia you need to navigate Portland’s music venues. Page 12

TUESDAY, OCT. 17 BOUNCING SOULS THURSDAY, OCT. 19 JUKEBOX THE GHOST OCT. 26 & 27 PATTY GRIFFIN & TODD SNIDER FRIDAY, NOV. 3 PHOEBE ROBINSON MONDAY, NOV. 6 KISHI BASHI FRIDAY, NOV. 10 THE INFAMOUS STRINGDUSTERS SUNDAY, NOV. 12 ZZ WARD WEDNESDAY, NOV. 15 THE NEW PORNOGRAPHERS

SATURDAY, OCT. 21 NEVER COME DOWN & STILLHOUSE JUNKIES THURSDAY, OCT. 26 THE LIL SMOKIES & TOWN MOUNTAIN MONDAY, OCT. 30 BRANDY CLARK

SATURDAY, NOV. 4 MARC BROUSSARD SUNDAY, NOV. 5 THE GORIES TUESDAY, NOV. 7 CHOIR! CHOIR! CHOIR! WEDNESDAY, NOV. 8 RANDY FELTFACE

SATURDAY, OCT. 14 TOMMY PRINE WEDNESDAY, OCT. 25 RATBOYS TUESDAY, OCT. 31

SOULSIDE & SCREAM

THURSDAY, NOV. 2 RAWAYANA TUESDAY, NOV. 7 PALEHOUND SATURDAY, NOV. 11 MARGARET GLASPY WEDNESDAY, NOV. 22 ALEJANDRO ESCOVEDO SATURDAY, NOV. 25 TONY FURTADO ACOUSTIC BAND

FRIDAY, NOV. 10 JOAN OSBORNE

THURSDAY, NOV. 16 SYML

SATURDAY, NOV. 11 JEFFREY MARTIN

MONDAY, NOV. 27 QUICKSAND

FRIDAY, NOV. 17 MUDHONEY

SATURDAY, DEC. 9 HISS GOLDEN MESSENGER

SATURDAY, NOV. 18 THE BROTHERS COMATOSE

MONDAY, DEC. 11 DEVENDRA BANHART

NOV. 21 & 22 BUILT TO SPILL

SATURDAY, OCT. 28 DRUGDEALER SUNDAY, OCT. 29 KARI FAUX THURSDAY, NOV. 2 KILL ROCK STARS + FRIENDS

SATURDAY, NOV. 4 THE CAVE SINGERS SUNDAY, NOV. 5 LAURA VEIRS WEDNESDAY, NOV. 8 SPEEDY ORTIZ NOV. 18 & 19 MARGO CILKER

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Willamette Week OCTOBER 11, 2023 wweek.com

MICHAEL RAINES

FINDINGS

GRAND AMARI, PAGE 20

WHAT WE LEARNED FROM READING THIS WEEK’S PAPER VOL. 49, ISSUE 48 “Negativity bias” may have given our ancestors some protection from bears. 4 Oregon Health & Science University’s executive vice presidents just lost $947,140 in bonuses. 8 Small nonprofits that provide free diapers to Portland families can’t keep enough in stock. 8 Multnomah County jails had no medical director for eight months. 10 Deep Throat had a record-

breaking run at the Aladdin. 13

Pizza Slut’s vegetarian slices might contain a meaty surprise. 15 Don’t wear brand-new pink cowboy boots to Edgefield. 15

ON THE COVER: Tips, tricks and trivia for getting the most out of Portland’s top music venues; photos

by Samantha Klopp and Thomas Teal.

Making out at Holocene? Try the Jr. Lounge. 16

A must-see documentary at this year’s Portland Film Festival focuses on infighting in the town of Lynden, Wash.

19

A ghost schooner is said to haunt Lincoln City’s Taft district. 19 Frita McMuffins are what’s for brunch at Palomar. 20

Portland’s best truck stop is hosting a bracket-style Battle of the Bartenders this month.

21

The Dandy Warhols have met their match: Texas psych miscreants The Black Angels.

22 Something wicked has come to Corrib Theatre. 23

OUR MOST TRAFFICKED STORY ONLINE THIS WEEK: Damian Lillard files for divorce from his wife, Kay’La Lillard.

Masthead PUBLISHER

Anna Zusman

EDITORIAL

Managing Editor Aaron Mesh Arts & Culture Editor Andi Prewitt Assistant A&C Editor Bennett Campbell Ferguson Staff Writers Anthony Effinger Nigel Jaquiss Lucas Manfield Sophie Peel Rachel Saslow Copy Editor Matt Buckingham Editor Mark Zusman

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Willamette Week OCTOBER 11, 2023 wweek.com

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• ••••

DIALOGUE

••••

TA R E B A LRO S ER E T A •••• E H T OCT 12

We don’t know anything about art, but we know what we like: a story that gets readers talking. And we received plenty of opinions regarding our dispatch from the Portland Art Museum, where longtime docents—many of them senior white women—are making way, with various degrees of willingness, for a younger group of student guides from other backgrounds (“Do the Docent Thing,” WW, Oct. 4). That shift hits a number of hot buttons around representation, diversity and especially age. Here’s what our readers had to say:

NPR radio show live taping

R. ERIC THOMAS SAFIYA SINCLAIR J. WORTHAM NO-NO BOY OCT 18

a joyful celebration of everything worth fighting for

CARSIE BLANTON + Brittany Ann Tranbaugh

a-wol dance OCT 20 collective OCT 21

GLASS SHADOWS

SOUVENIRS

an aerial dance experience with live music by EastGhost

OCT 22

celebrating the songs of JOHN PRINE

feat. Jeff Haigerty, Colin Hogan, Kris Deelane, Steve Einhorn, Michael Sheridan, Kate O’Brien, Janet Julian and more!

OCT 25

OCT 26

EILEN flamenco with JEWELL Rafael Ramírez + Nick Delffs

Lo Preciso OCT 27-29

Saloon Ensemble

THE NITEMARE B4 XMAS performs

HalloWEEN Hallo WEEN

OCT 31

MARCHFOURTH + BROWN STALLION Oregon’s Top WEEN Tribute Band

UPCOMING SHOWS

•••••••••••••

11/3 - SMASH THE MIRROR: A PORTLAND TOMMY EXPERIENCE 11/5 - SEFFARINE 11/7 - DEB TALAN (OF THE WEEPIES)

•••••

albertarosetheatre.com

3000 NE Alberta • 503.764.4131 4

Willamette Week OCTOBER 11, 2023 wweek.com

_OAKTEA_, VIA REDDIT: “This is 100% about optics. I really wish they would have worked harder on integrating the docents with the new paid volunteer system—both the docents and the volunteer PSU students would have a lot to learn from each other.

“Art, and art history, is all about humans communicating their experiences and their ideas.

I feel like PAM just ditched a passionate source of experience and knowledge. It’s not to say that the new source can’t contribute as well, but I think the museum and the community it serves will suffer because of this decision.”

VIKKI ARAIZA, VIA FACEBOOK: “I don’t see why they can’t do both. Older women regardless of race have a lot to offer and maybe if they paid everyone instead of just the students, they could learn from each other. This screams throwing out the baby with the bathwater.”

BIG BISCUIT, VIA WWEEK. COM: “What idiot organization doesn’t want experienced, passionate volunteers no matter their age? I guess we will be reading an article in a couple of years about the museum losing money with

one of the reasons being higher labor costs.”

NINA JOHNSON, VIA FACEBOOK: “If you read the article, they are replacing the volunteer docents with paid positions. One of the huge barriers for diversifying any position is asking people to do it for free vs. paying them. This change, to paid positions, will allow a wider group of people who formerly were interested, but who literally couldn’t afford to take the job, to share their expertise with the museum visitors. This allows for a greater diversity in class, as well as race. I know that I couldn’t afford to work volunteer positions for a large part of my life, simply because I couldn’t afford it. This is a positive change, despite how it’s being framed here. There are still tons of volunteer opportunities in the arts around town and at the museum.”

WHEEBLESWOBBLE, VIA REDDIT: “I approve of having retired art teachers leading tours.

I also approve of tour leaders who can understand from a firsthand perspective the motivations of the minority artists whose work is being shown. We need the latter, but maybe we don’t have to turn

Dr. Know

BY MARTY SMITH @martysmithxxx I’ve never understood the story of Wapato Jail in North Portland: It didn’t open because we didn’t need it. That should mean that crime in Portland suddenly took an unexpected nosedive right as the jail was being finished, but we all know that just the opposite happened.

—Just Wondering If you ever find yourself in a situation where you have 30 seconds to find the flaw in some complex argument you’ve never seen before, you could do a lot worse than simply searching the document for the phrase “we all know...” and going from there.

What that reveals in this case, Wondering, is that you’ve probably fallen prey to “negativity bias,” the widespread human tendency to prioritize bad news over good. (This may be evolutionary: Remembering a pretty sunset may be less important for survival than recalling the spot where those bears ate Thag.) “Of course crime is getting worse!” we think. “Everything always gets worse! The whole world’s been going to hell ever since they canceled Matlock!”

the former into coat-check clerks in order to achieve that.

“Competing moral imperatives are annoying.”

INGA ANDERSDOTTIR, VIA WWEEK.COM: “I would love to see PAM make their docent staff more diverse by actually doing the work to bring in older, retired Black and Latine people. They have done nothing in this direction. This is ageism more than it is anything else. If it weren’t, then they’d be trying to bring in diversity in ALL age groups.”

MARLO URBINA, VIA FACEBOOK: “I understand that some folks who don’t have to work into their retirement age want to volunteer and that’s an admirable quality BUT I want folks to shake off the mantle of privilege and see that leading a museum tour is not the most pressing needs our society has. Let the young artists who need to build a résumé do this type of work. There are so many needs out in our community for a mature reliable volunteer!!! True desperate needs.”

MIRSTRONG, VIA REDDIT: “PAM has an upcoming exhibit about music posters from the 1960s. Would be nice to have a docent whose ‘lived experiences’ included actually being alive in the 1960s.”

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

Sometimes, however, the worst isn’t true: According to FBI data, violent crime in Portland has been on a downward trend since peaking in 1985—and, in fact, there was a sharp drop beginning in 2003, the year Wapato was completed. Was that drop in crime the reason we didn’t need a new jail?

Nope, not even close—in fact, we did need it! The acute need for jail beds throughout the 2000s was rivaled only by the acute embarrassment of the Multnomah County officials who’d gotten Wapato’s $58 million price tag approved by voters in 1996. No, the real fly in the ointment was Measure 47, a ballot initiative that also passed in the 1996 election.

Part of the 1990s tax revolt, Measure 47 at one stroke drastically changed the revenue picture for government agencies in Oregon, reducing public-sector coffers by hundreds of millions of dollars. This made it effectively impossible for officials to drum up the money it would have taken to open and operate the jail they were about to build.

Adding insult to injury, the special tax-exempt bonds used to fund the jail came with strict rules that made it basically illegal to use the facility for anything else, or even to sell it. Those rules finally expired in 2016 when the bonds were paid off. That’s how Wapato recently became (for the moment, at least) a homeless shelter, which is better than nothing.

Still, not our finest hour.

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

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Willamette Week OCTOBER 11, 2023 wweek.com

MURMURS BLAKE BENARD

COMMISSIONER DAN RYAN, RIGHT PORTLAND POLICE HAVE SENT DRONES TO 22 CALLS: Following the announcement this summer that officers would begin using drones, the Portland Police Bureau has published statistics showing how often they’ve been used.

According to the new dashboard, created last month and updated Oct. 9, police have deployed drones to 22 calls, using an average of two of the “unmanned aerial systems” each time. Of those 22 flights, seven were “exigent,” seven were search warrants, five were “traffic” related, and three were for training. All but one were on the east side of the Willamette River, and 10 were east of Interstate 205. The bureau’s release of the data comes six weeks after WW requested all of the bureau’s drone flight reports, which must include a “summary of activities” and all “data gathered” per the bureau’s new drone policy created early this year. The bureau marked the request fulfilled on Monday without providing the reports, instead referring WW to the new dashboard. The bureau has delayed publicly announcing the dashboard, which was published on its website in mid-September, while it susses out any bugs and double-checks the accuracy of the info, bureau spokeswoman Terri Wallo Strauss tells WW. CITY COUNCIL KICKS DISTRICT OFFICES DOWN THE ROAD: Under the new form of government that will take effect in 2025, members of the Portland City Council will represent distinct geographic districts. Amid the drama between Mayor Ted Wheeler and sitting city commissioners over the government transition, Commissioner Dan Ryan posed a question last week: Will the new city councilors’ offices in their home districts be set up before 2025? The short answer from city staff: probably not. “I don’t know what the district commissioners are going to want,” Wheeler said at a council meeting last week. “It’s up to them to define what their relationship is going to be with their districts. They should help determine that.” Ryan and Commissioner Rene Gonzalez bristled at the notion of waiting. “The fact is,” Ryan said, “that’s what I think should be the priority.” The City Council approved $7.2 million earlier this year for the renovation of City Hall to make room for the 12-member council; that did not include the costs of establishing district offices. In a letter to Wheeler on Tuesday afternoon, all city commissioners agreed with Ryan and requested that the mayor establish district offices before 2025. “Establishing District Offices is crucial in fulfilling the vision that Portland voters approved,” they wrote.

SCHOOL BOARD RETHINKS HOLLANDS’ ROLE IN PROPERTY DEAL: Portland Public

Schools Board Chair Gary Hollands made news last week when he proposed leasing a PPS property to a private organization he runs so it could build a state-of-the-art sports complex in a disadvantaged Northeast Portland neighborhood. The idea stirred concern about a conflict of interest because Hollands sits on both sides of the proposed deal (“Mr. Hollands’ Opus,” WW, Oct. 4). On Oct. 6, PPS board member Julia Brim-Edwards sought to inoculate the board from Hollands’ influence with an amendment that would remove him from PPS’s side of the negotiations with the Albina Sports Program, of which Hollands is interim director. Brim-Edwards said she spoke with an outside lawyer about her obligations as a School Board member before drafting her amendment. “Given Director Hollands’ role with the Albina Sports Program, he will not provide input to or engage with PPS staff or the board on the PPS negotiations, internal discussions, strategies, analysis, or other actions relating to a real estate transaction in any capacity other than representing Albina Sports Program,” Brim-Edwards’ amendment reads. Hollands would also be denied access to any confidential information about the deal from PPS. A subcommittee of the School Board voted Sept. 20 to send the proposal to the full board at its meeting Tuesday evening, after press deadline. Look for updates at wweek.com.

LAWYERS INDICATE PLANS TO SUE COUNTY FOR INMATE DEATHS: Two law firms have sent Multnomah County letters indicating they are weighing lawsuits over the deaths of two men in county jails. Both letters, reviewed by WW, indicate the two firms are investigating the deaths and demand that the county retain evidence. The county received the first letter Aug. 17 from J. William Savage on behalf of the estate of 36-year-old Clemente Pineda, who was found unresponsive in the county’s downtown jail on Aug. 1. His death was the most recent in an unprecedented string of six deaths in county custody so far this year (see “The Doctor Is Out,” page 10). The letter references the circumstances of his death, first reported by WW, and threatens a wrongful death lawsuit. Pineda was known to be lying face down on the floor in the hours prior to his death, but received no medical care (“Cell Death,” WW, Aug. 16). The second letter was sent Sept. 12 by Juan C. Chavez, saying the Oregon Justice Resource Center is representing the father of 31-year-old Josiah Pierce, who died July 19 in the county’s eastside Inverness Jail. The letter demands that the county retain records related to Pierce’s death, and adds his father “retains the right to bring any claims as they come to light.”

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503-228-1353 orsymphony.org Willamette Week OCTOBER 11, 2023 wweek.com

7

NEWS

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW THIS WEEK

RESULTS

BREAKDOWN when the program was announced.

The big winner among the EVPs would have been John Hunter, chief executive of OHSU Health, its network of clinics and hospitals. Hunter makes $1.15 million a year, and his bonus would have been $183,000.

Lawrence Furnstahl, EVP and chief financial officer, would have done second best. He earns a base salary of $954,384, making his bonus $151,747.

In all, OHSU’s eight top executives were slated to get $947,000.

Jen Laverdure, vice president at American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 328, one of the unions that circulated the petition, said that denying the EVPs their bonuses is a start. The unions had asked that the whole $12.5 million be used to compensate low-wage OHSU workers, many of whom drive Uber and Lyft to make ends meet, and to pay residents who work 16-hour shifts.

“Our demand was not just ‘don’t give the bonuses’ but to spend it on those that do the work,” Laverdure says.

Presidents at academic medical centers often make more than leaders of plain old universities. President Jacobs’ salary is $1,642,000.

For comparison’s sake, Jayathi Murthy, the president of Oregon State University, is paid a base salary of $423,000 and gets $227,000 from the OSU Foundation. John Karl Scholz, president of University of Oregon, makes a base salary of $725,000.

Reversal of Fortune OHSU’s top executives won’t get bonuses after all.

BY A N T H O N Y E F F I N G E R aef finger@wweek .com

Easy come, easy go.

Until this week, the eight executive VPs at Oregon Health & Science University were poised to share in “President’s Recognition Award” bonuses of $12.5 million that university president Dr. Danny Jacobs planned to hand out to about 10% of his 19,765 employees.

First reported by WW two weeks ago (“Brass in Pocket,” Sept. 27), news of the six-figure awards for top executives irked many employees, including thousands who are in six unions and got nothing from the program. In response, the unions circulated a petition last week demanding that executive vice presidents, the top layer of managers, decline the “egregious” payouts.

On Monday, Jacobs told his lieutenants that they wouldn’t be getting the money after all—removing

$947,140 in total from their holiday stockings. But, according to OHSU spokeswoman Sara Hottman, the reversal had nothing to do with opposition from employees. Rather, OHSU tallied up the number of eligible employees below the EVP level and figured out that the $12.5 million wouldn’t stretch far enough up the food chain to include them. That was always the plan, Hottman said in an email. Nothing was “rescinded.”

“After verifying the pool of qualified UA members, Dr. Jacobs has determined the EVPs are not eligible for these awards,” Hottman wrote.

“UA” stands for “unclassified administrative” and describes workers not on the faculty, in research or in a union.

EVPs were among those who stood to make the most from the President’s Awards. Their take was to be 15.9% of their base salary, according to a slide describing the plan that was obtained by WW last month,

BONUSES LOST

WHAT OHSU EXECUTIVE VPS STOOD TO MAKE NAME

TITLE

SALARY

BONUS

John Hunter

EVP, CEO, OHSU Health

$1,152,001

$183,168

Lawrence Furnstahl

EVP, Chief Financial Officer

$954,384

$151,747

David Jacoby

EVP, Dean of Medicine

$875,000

$139,125

Alice Cuprill-Comas

EVP, General Counsel

$667,456

$106,126

Marie Chisholm-Burns

EVP, Provost

$600,000

$95,400

Constance Seeley

EVP, Chief of Staff

$591,057

$93,978

Peter Barr-Gillespie

EVP, Chief Research Officer

$566,955

$90,146

Qiana Williams

EVP, Chief People Officer

$550,000

$87,450

Source: Oregon Health & Science University 8

Willamette Week OCTOBER 11, 2023 wweek.com

$947,140

Didee Deficit Fresh out of diapers, local aid organizations say parents are using old T-shirts.

There’s a diaper shortage in Portland, but not the kind clearing grocery store shelves. Rather, small nonprofit organizations that provide free diapers to Portland’s neediest families can’t keep enough in stock.

“I’ve never seen it like this,” says Maura White, executive director of Mother & Child Education Center on Northeast 41st Avenue.

“We feel horrible we can’t provide enough diapers. It’s a really bad situation.”

THE PROBLEM

White, who has worked in nonprofits for 30 years, saw an uptick in demand starting in June. All summer long, Mother & Child ran out of diapers two weeks into each month’s supply (see chart).

She has heard of clients having to create makeshift diapers out of T-shirts after being turned away.

Mother & Child and SnowCap Community Charities are among the only places caregivers can go for walk-in, emergency diaper needs.

SnowCap saw a 20% increase in diaper needs for its clients this August compared to August 2022.

The growth, however, came with a similar rise in demand for food and clothing, according to the organization.

“We’ve broken every service record for the last 56 years already this year,” says Kirsten Wageman, executive director. “But it’s for all basic human needs.”

THE REASONS

The source of the increased diaper demand is tricky to pin down, but Rachel Alston, founder and executive director of PDX Diaper Bank, has some ideas. Two of the diaper bank’s partner agencies recently stopped accepting walk-in diaper requests, increasing the burden on the few left that do.

Fifty-five organizations are currently on the waiting list to partner with the PDX Diaper Bank, which provides both cloth and disposable diapers to clients in sizes ranging from newborn to adult. Alston has also noticed a surge in applications in the past six to 12 months from agencies that serve immigrant and refugee

families.

“I’ve been tooting this horn since 2012, and it’s only in the past five years that people are really starting to pay attention to this locally,” Alston says.

Diapers are not covered by government food aid such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. The average cost to diaper a child is $1,200 annually, which is a financial hardship for one-third of American families, Alston says.

Health consequences of infrequent diaper changes include urinary tract infections and rashes.

In addition to the health factors, Alston worries about the ripple effects for families that don’t have enough essential resources like diapers. Because most day cares require that families drop off diapers with their child each day, she notices that parents will often call out of work or school when they run out.

Help is on the way for Mother & Child, at least to get it through October: Adidas heard about the nonprofit’s predicament and offered to host a diaper and wipe drive, and to send a crew of volunteers over next week. “It’s a huge win for us,” White says.

And PDX Diaper Bank learned last month it had secured a $1.2 million federal grant that will get an estimated 3 million diapers to Oregonians over the next two years.

“This is super exciting,” Alston says, “but ultimately it still just brushes the surface of local diaper need.” R AC H E L S A S L OW.

Diaper Demand Diapers distributed by Mother & Child Education Center

Summer 2022: 26,125 diapers

Summer 2023: 32,925 diapers

Source: Mother & Child Education Center

SOPHIE PEEL

CHASING GHOSTS

NO LUCK: Five new townhouses along Southeast Division remain vacant.

Townhouse Divided A six-year lawsuit displays a bitter development feud that’s left five unoccupied townhouses in its wake.

ADDRESS: 2260-2276 SE Division St. YEAR BUILT: 2020 SQUARE FOOTAGE: 7,500 MARKET VALUE: $2.8 million OWNER: 2505 SE 23rd Avenue LLC HOW LONG IT’S BEEN EMPTY: 3 years WHY IT’S EMPTY: A lawsuit between developers Lucas Ralston does not like to talk about the five uninhabited townhouses along Southeast Division Street at 23rd Avenue.

The townhomes are surrounded by a fence and occasionally tagged with graffiti. That’s despite being built less than three years ago and—aside from the spray-painted vulgarities—looking brand new.

All five are owned by a limited liability company whose principal, David Chiddix, is based in Santa Rosa, Calif. According to business records, Chiddix is vice president of Colorado Federal Building & Investment LLC, an investment and real estate company.

And that’s where California met

Oregon in 2015 and everything went south, according to a bitter, six-year, ongoing lawsuit in Multnomah County Circuit Court between a prominent Portland development family and a longtime family friend.

A December 2018 lawsuit filed by MLR Investment, a development company led by longtime Portland developer Tim Ralston and his son, Lucas, lays out the rift.

The Ralstons’ company agreed in 2015 to develop 17 Oregon and Washington properties for Colorado Federal Building and Investment (that’s

the company where Chiddix is vice president). They ranged from luxury apartment complexes to single-family homes to townhouse complexes, including the Division townhomes that now lay fallow.

The Ralstons hired a longtime family friend named Ryan Zygar to manage the Oregon developments.

(According to filings, Lucas Ralston, 33, lived in California at the time and Tim Ralston spent much of his time there.) The Ralstons provided Zygar with a car and space at their company’s Portland office, although they later said in court declarations he was unemployed and living with his parents. Filings claim the Ralstons agreed to pay Zygar a base salary of $1,000 a month per development until completion.

By 2017, things had gotten weird.

The Ralstons allege in court filings that Zygar and his company, Tieton Homes, spent $844,000 “on impermissible, unrelated, and wrongful expenses including, but not limited to gas, groceries, office supplies, department stores, restaurants, and other miscellaneous personal expenses.”

The Ralstons are alleging fraud and unjust enrichment. (Zygar denies in court filings that he ever misused funds.)

It’s not clear from court documents who actually developed the homes, and Lucas Ralston wouldn’t say if it was his and his father’s company or another developer who ultimately built them. But when the Ralstons sued Zygar in 2018, the legal fight put a hitch in Chiddix’s developments, including the Division townhomes.

The lawsuit has dragged on for nearly six years. Earlier this year, MLR’s attorney, Nicholas Henderson, withdrew, citing a conflict of

interest. Court filings from January state he’ll now serve as a witness should the case move to trial.

Chiddix, who lives in an 8,500-square-foot home in Santa Rosa with seven bedrooms and nine baths on 10 acres of farmland, did not respond to phone calls and texts seeking comment.

When reached by phone, Lucas Ralston asked: “What exactly are we talking about?” But he seemed acutely aware of the empty townhouses on Division. Ralston explained the company he runs with his father “developed them for a bank.” He later backtracked and said, “It wasn’t really our call not to develop them.”

“This is kind of a longer story,” Ralston told WW. “I’m going to have to go now, and good luck on your story.”

Zygar said he “had a dispute” with the Ralstons “and left.” He added: “I needed to move on, get away from them.”

If one were to look at the townhomes today, fence and graffiti aside, they look move-in ready. But according to city permitting documents, the owner is still pulling city permits for various interior work, such as expanding the fourth floors and installing glass guardrails on the decks.

WW’s original tipster on this property expressed a flash of optimism in their email.

“At least,” the tipster wrote, “they’ve recently been painting over the graffiti.” S O P H I E P E E L .

Every week, WW examines one mysteriously vacant property in the city of Portland, explains why it’s empty, and considers what might arrive there next. Send addresses to newstips@wweek.com.

WHO’S STRIKING THIS WEEK?

DENTISTS! They’re demanding higher wages and more time to treat the toughest cases.

Hot labor summer is turning into a long walkout fall. After successful strikes by Hollywood writers, United Parcel Service workers and others, unions across the country are picketing for better pay and benefits.

The same is true in Portland.

Nurses at Oregon Health & Science University voted to strike, then won a new contract last week with wage increases of as much as 15%. Doctors, nurses and physician assistants at Legacy Health are working to unionize. Workers at Kaiser Permanente walked out for three days last week and plan to leave again next month if their demands aren’t met. Employees at Powell’s Books picketed on Labor Day; Portland Public Schools teachers could strike midmonth.

Given the depth of worker grievance right now, WW is starting an occasional series on labor actions around town. Today is the first installment, and it starts small, by the numbers.

WORKERS: Multnomah County dentists UNION: American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 88 NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES: 18 LABOR ACTION: Vote to strike

You may not know it, but Multnomah County has dentists on its payroll. They perform checkups, cleanings, fillings and even root canals on people who have Medicaid or are uninsured. Many of their patients are houseless and in dire need of oral care.

The county health department employs 20 dentists, and 18 of them are members of Local 88. They voted to strike late last month. Contract negotiations are

underway, and the county wants them to see more patients for routine work, cutting into time needed for more dire emergencies, AFSCME Local 88 says.

The fight isn’t about money, says Lillian Harewood, dentist and union delegate. County dentists work four 10-hour days. On three of those days, each dentist sees 22 patients: 11 in one chair and 11 in another, with the dentist shuttling between chairs. One day each week, Harewood and her colleagues work just one chair each, focusing on 11 tougher cases.

“We keep that one-chair day for our most challenging patients,” Harewood says. Many are very anxious around dentists and require more time for even simple

procedures, she says.

In the new contract, the county wants dentists to see 22 patients on all four days, Harewood says.

If that becomes the norm, then union dentists want to see fewer than 11 in each chair, maybe eight, so they have more time to do referrals, transfer X-rays, and do other administrative work. If they don’t get that, then they want more money.

Harewood and her fellow union delegates are committed to landing a new contract through mediation, but if they don’t reach an agreement this week, they may strike as soon as next month.

The county did not respond to a request for comment.

ANTHONY EFFINGER.

Willamette Week OCTOBER 11, 2023 wweek.com

9

NEWS BLAKE BENARD

SAFETY CONCERNS: A recently retired staff doctor describes problems at Portland’s troubled jails.

The Doctor Is Out As inmates died, Multnomah County’s jails lost their doctors.

BY L U C A S M A N F I E L D lmanfield@wweek .com

The summer of 2023 was an extraordinarily deadly time in Multnomah County’s two jails. Between May and August, six inmates died in county custody—a body count higher than in the previous five years combined.

During that three-month period, county doctors were raising alarms about conditions inside the jails, WW has learned.

By July, all three of the jails’ physicians had quit, including their longtime medical director. Two of them sent resignation letters that voiced concerns about short staffing and patient safety, but declined to elaborate on their fears when reached by WW. But the third, Dr. Elaine Marcus, was willing to tell her story, which is supported by current and former staffers who wish to remain anonymous. She says the county struggled for eight months to replace its jail medical director, who agreed to stick around for a while “on call” and finally quit in frustration.

When Marcus retired in July, she was the last physician left working in Multnomah County’s jails and, she says, the situation was spinning out of control.

“They didn’t have enough providers and they didn’t have leadership,” she says. “Of course things were going to go wrong.”

The lack of physicians was compounded by a shortage of specialized health care providers, who prescribe psychiatric medications for inmates who demonstrate mental illness—nearly a third of the jail population. For a few weeks over the summer, there wasn’t a single psychiatric nurse practitioner left working 10

Willamette Week OCTOBER 11, 2023 wweek.com

in the buildings, staff tells WW. The county scrambled to hire a single replacement from a staffing agency, but she was quickly overwhelmed, staff says. As a result, medical appointments became scarce and wait times to see a doctor sometimes extended to more than a month.

Meanwhile, there’s been such a shortage of frontline nurses that those who remain are often required to work 16-hour double shifts, a practice the state prohibits at public and private hospitals.

No one is alleging that errors in patient care led to inmate deaths. But, jail staff say, the facilities haven’t felt safe.

Jail conditions are the responsibility of Sheriff Nicole Morrissey O’Donnell. But jail doctors are hired and fired by the Multnomah County Health Department, overseen by County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson.

In a statement to WW, Vega Pederson conceded the staffing problem is real. “Corrections Health is a challenging place to work and definitely needs additional staff,” she said, offering a laundry list of initiatives she’s supporting to increase staff, including budget increases, pay raises and retention bonuses.

“I will continue to focus efforts across the county to support this team.”

In a separate statement, the county health department also acknowledged the problem. “Corrections Health agrees that the more staff and resources we have to serve our clients, the more we can do to help them and keep people healthy,” it reads, in part. “But we also know that the work our employees continue to do every day saves lives.”

Jails are not hospitals. But they are forced to act like them.

The people who arrive at their doors often come with traumatic injuries or chronic, untreated conditions. In Portland, more than 30% of people in jail have mental health issues.

So, Multnomah County has built medical clinics in its jails and hired teams of nurses and clinicians to staff them. It’s a difficult and often thankless job—entry-level nurses are currently paid

nearly $5 less per hour than their counterparts at some Providence hospitals, says Kevin Mealy, a spokesman for their union.

But it is also a crucial one, and employees tell WW they take pride in doing it.

In Portland, like elsewhere in the country, jails are the health care provider of last resort. For many people, their only contact with a doctor is after they’re arrested.

None of this comes cheap. Portland’s jails treat over 36,000 people every year. Federal insurance programs like Medicaid do not cover people in jail, and so local authorities must come up with the money themselves.

Many, including Clackamas and Washington counties, outsource the job to for-profit companies that are frequently accused of providing substandard care. But not Multnomah, which delegates the task to its health department, spending $31.5 million a year to do it.

The pandemic has caused health care staffing shortages nationwide, and Multnomah County is no exception. By 2022, Corrections Health was struggling to hire staff across its organizational chart.

It was dealing with “chronic vacancies” among frontline nurses, director Myque Obiero told county commissioners. Last fiscal year, 24% of corrections nursing positions were vacant.

A recent survey of nearly 40 corrections nurses by their union found only 20% were satisfied with their jobs. Their biggest concern: short staffing.

The resulting delays in care, they said, were a safety issue—and mandatory overtime had become the new normal rather than the exception. This fiscal year, the county estimates it will have mandated that nurses work overtime 600 times.

It’s a vicious cycle. As nurses burn out, the county requires more mandatory overtime, which in turn makes it more difficult to recruit replacements.

Meanwhile, the county was also struggling to find a new medical director.

The position was held by Dr. Michael Seale, who was hired in

2015 after previously overseeing jail health care in Houston. Seale was known as a tireless worker: someone who’d pick up the phone at 2 am to answer a tough medical question or take on a shift when no one else was available.

But the workload took a toll, and Seale planned to retire at the end of the year.

For the better part of a year, the county hunted for a replacement. In February, a promising candidate was rejected after making it through two rounds of interviews when the candidate turned out not to have the necessary credentials. The county hired a new recruitment agency and started the process over.

Seale gamely stuck around “on call,” until May 30, when a colleague abruptly resigned.

That colleague, Dr. Angelina Platas, wrote in her resignation email that she was “heartbroken” to leave but she had no choice.

“I cannot continue working for Corrections Health while feeling that the patients we serve are not treated as if they deserve the highest quality

“It was getting scarier and scarier.” medical care available,” she wrote.

That same day, Seale sent his own resignation letter, citing the lack of “customary provider staffing” resulting from Platas’ exit. “I cannot put my license at further risk,” he wrote.

Neither physician was willing to speak to WW to elaborate on their concerns.

In its statement to WW, the county says there’s “a variety of reasons” it’s difficult to hire clinicians, pointing specifically to the problem of telework. “Many providers could work for systems that allowed telework for virtual and telehealth visits,” the county says, an option that’s “not appropriate” in jails.

By June, Dr. Elaine Marcus was the only physician left, at least in Multnomah County’s two jails, she says.

Marcus, a graduate of NYU’s medical school, was working as a family medicine doctor for Providence when she became disillusioned with corporate medicine. Working in corrections and treating some of Portland’s most vulnerable people, she says, felt more important—and more interesting.

But with Seale on his way out, she says, “it was getting scarier and scarier.” As her retirement loomed, she couldn’t wait to leave.

It wasn’t just the leadership vacuum or the lack of physicians, she says.

During a series of Zoom meetings early this year, staff realized every one of the jail’s psychiatric nurse practitioners, who prescribe the antidepressants and antipsychotic medications so crucial to managing inmates’ mental illnesses, were leaving that spring.

“There was a stretch of time when there was nobody to review patient care or prescribe medications,” Marcus says.

The county hired a replacement from a staffing agency in May, but she quickly became “overwhelmed,” Marcus says.

The replacement lasted only a few months, during which the wait for inmates to get medication got longer and longer—more than a month in some cases, Dr. Marcus and other jail staff told WW. The lack of mental health prescribers made everyone else’s job more difficult. As inmates’ mental health deteriorated, they became increasingly agitated, anxious and more difficult to treat.

Deputies had to step in to Marcus’ office more often to intervene, she says. Beginning in May, patients were referred to her office who needed prescriptions for psychiatric drugs she didn’t feel sufficiently trained to administer.

Marcus retired in July. The county hired a new medical director, a former Providence surgeon, in August.

The county says it has been “aggressively” recruiting more staff and has health care providers on call, if needed. It has hired 10 providers since 2022, and is currently interviewing more. “Finding providers who want to work in corrections and are a good fit for our employees, environment and population is not easy,” it said in a statement.

The county recently added 19 nursing positions to its latest budget in hopes of reducing mandatory overtime.

But it’s done little to address immediate concerns and only one of the positions has so far been filled. The vacancy rate now stands at 42%.

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Willamette Week OCTOBER 11, 2023 wweek.com

11

The tips, tricks and trivia you need to navigate Portland’s music venues.

The night is young. Your favorite band is in town—or at least some band is in town, and that will do for now. You have your earplugs, and the edible should hit in 20 minutes.

Think fast: Where in the room are you going to be when the headliner takes the stage?

From a seat with excruciating acoustics to a seemingly eternal line for the ATM, it doesn’t take much to ruin your enjoyment of a concert. The buzzkills are everywhere.

Unless you come prepared.

There are 300 music venues in Portland, ranging from the cozy Honey Latte Cafe to the cavernous Moda Center. All of them will be more fun if you’re armed with the knowledge of seasoned showgoers: the Portlanders who know the perfect alcove for making out at Holocene or the best ways to “accidentally” run into musicians at the Aladdin Theater.

Enter WW’s music correspondents, who drew from their own extensive experiences— plus interviews with fans, artists, and music industry insiders—to create a guidebook of tips and tricks to help you navigate nine of Portland’s most popular music venues.

Simply put, we’re here to tell you some useful shit. That means being honest, even when things get weird. We’ll tell you which bathroom to avoid at the Alberta Rose Theatre, how to find the semi-secret entrance to the Crystal Ballroom, and which venue is haunted (allegedly) by the ghost of a strangled publicity agent. And we asked 2022 Best New Bands finalist Glitterfox to list their five favorite Portland venues to play.

Live music is unpredictable, especially in the backwash of a pandemic. You can’t control which shows get canceled or which bands bomb, but you can control how well acquainted you are with the spaces where it all happens.

What’s in the following pages will save you time and money, shorten your wait for a piss, and give you something to talk about during the opener. Knowledge is power—especially when you want to keep calm and party on.

—Bennett Campbell Ferguson, Assistant Arts & Culture Editor 12

Willamette Week OCTOBER 11, 2023 wweek.com

SAMANTHA KLOPP

Showgoing S

Glitterfox’s Andrea Walker Names the Band’s Five Favorite Portland Venues

1. Green Anchors PDX “Super DIY spot on the Willamette River next to Cathedral Park in St. Johns. We [Walker and Glitterfox vocalist Solange Ioga] actually got married there! And have been hosting our own mini festival called Glitterfest there every year since. Green Anchors is a teeming community of small businesses, conservationists and creatives, and their magical outdoor stage pairs mega-indie spirit with unbeatable views of the St. Johns Bridge.”

Secrets

LITTLE DRAGON AT ROSELAND THEATER

Aladdin Theater 3017 SE Milwaukie Ave., 503-234-9694, aladdin-theater.com.

Best Spot for “Chance” Encounters: Owing, perhaps, to its (monied, aging, NPR-tote-bag-laden) clientele’s more nuanced perspective on rock star idolatry, the alleyway behind the Aladdin used for loading and unloading gear remains open to passersby—and provides superfans with the opportunity to meet living legends middeparture. For locals in the area, it mostly leads to stories of hooligans witnessing Donovan quietly finishing his smoke in a darkened alcove.

Filthiest Claim to Fame: The Aladdin shamelessly acknowledges its infamous porno palace past. Regular patrons are expected to be aware the theater broke records for consecutive screenings of Deep Throat without wondering what occurred in the too-small, too-hard seats. For this reason, we’re always stunned and a little delighted when a rickety screen slowly descends from the ceiling to augment performances of artists with visual accompaniment. Such imagery is best seen from the equally uncomfortable balcony seats, where late-arriving attendees might catch a glimpse inside the theater’s microscopic projection booth.

Best Bite: While the Aladdin trumpets its X-rated history, the Lamp’s neighboring lounge eagerly disappeared all traces of the location’s prior era as a drug-steeped den of iniquity. Back then, the bartenders were so convinced their lines were tapped that they would only discuss the comings and goings of regular dealers in terms of “pies” on the shelf, deeply confusing those few customers who inquired about actual pies (and were unsure why they’d arrive around 2 am). These days, the Lamp acts as a sorely needed annex for wise Aladdin guests preferring to slip inside the adjoining bar rather than brave endless beer and bathroom lines. J AY H O R T O N .

Alberta Abbey 126 NE Alberta St., albertaabbey.org.

2.

Alberta Rose Theatre “Hands down one of the sweetest green rooms we’ve experienced anywhere. The staff are all mega-friendly and pro.”

3.

Mississippi Pizza Atlantis Lounge

“Where we got our start!

Our love for this venue will go on forever.”

4.

Mississippi Studios “We used to live on Mississippi Avenue, and every day I’d walk past this venue and dream of the day when we’d play here.

We finally got to during the Best New Bands showcase in 2022. Can’t wait to come back.”

5.

Holocene “We did our last single release show here and absolutely loved it.

Venue has a really cool layout and vibe, and sounds great.”

Best Way to Avoid Circling the Block: The parking lot across the street from the Abbey is underused and often has empty spaces for you to leave your vehicle. If not, head up Alberta to the Natural Grocers and use its parking lot—so long as it’s after 8 pm.

Best Place to Keep Your Social Distance: Slip up to the rarely used balcony at the Abbey for great sightlines and a way to stay a few feet away from the rest of the concertgoing rabble.

Best Way to Kill Time Between Sets, Part 1: Grab a book from the Abbey’s humble lending library to make your solo concert trips a little less lonesome. You might cultivate a nice air of mystery and attract a new partner with a similar literary bent. If you find a real page-turner, check the book out and take it with you. Just promise to return it, eh? Don’t want to add another title to your growing “to be read” stack.

Best Way to Kill Time Between Sets, Part 2: You can also use your downtime to explore the Abbey’s 100-year history at the small exhibit the venue has set up inside the lobby. There’s much to learn about how this space was once a hub for the historically Black neighborhood before falling into disrepair around the turn of the century. It now stands as one the city’s best places to see live music and, with the help of the Abbey’s foundation, a place to support the area’s underserved communities with social services.

Best Way to Record a Live Album on the Cheap: If you’re lucky enough to get booked at the Abbey, you can get a top-quality recording of your set with some help from the venue’s enormously talented team of sound engineers. With enough lead time, you’ll walk away with a crystal clear recording that you can sell to fans or turn into your next big release—all for the bargain basement price of $75 for a solo acoustic act or $100 for a full band. All you have to do from there is not suck. R O B E R T H A M .

Willamette Week OCTOBER 11, 2023 wweek.com

13

SAMANTHA KLOPP

Theresa M. Kºhlhºff Attºrney At Law

WILLS : : TRUSTS : : PROTECTIVE PROCEEDINGS

FREE WILLS, TRUSTS & PROBATE SEMINAR Sunday Oct. 15, Nov. 12, and Dec. 17 Noon to 2pm 7512 N. Berkeley Ave.

Crystal Ballroom 1332 W Burnside St., 503-225-

SAMANTHA KLOPP

www.NorthPortlandAttorney.com (503) 286-1346 TheresaKohlhoff@gmail.com

0047, crystalballroompdx.com.

Alberta Rose Theatre 3000 NE Alberta St., 503-719-6055, albertarosetheatre.com.

Best Food: With a lineup of sweet and savory Australian hand pies, you can’t go wrong, but curried samosa and sweet apple in particular will knock your socks off.

Best Tip When You Gotta Go: Head to the bathrooms closest to the bar and avoid the ones closest to the entrance, which usually attract an epically long line.

Best Way to Find Parking: The Alberta Arts District isn’t exactly known for its abundance of street parking, but if you venture a block or two back into the residential streets, you’re bound to find a few spots.

ALEX BARR.

14

Willamette Week OCTOBER 11, 2023 wweek.com

Best Sanctuary: The balcony bathroom.

It’ll certainly beat the long lines on lower floors, lines which more often than not mingle with those for drinks, food and merch.

Best Entry Point: If you enter the venue through Lola’s Room on the west side of the building (take the door on Southwest 14th), the labyrinthine staircase will bring you up really close to the right side of the stage (plus, ride-share drivers will likely drop you there anyway). And if you can’t get in, just go to the right side and you can get way closer to the stage than on the left.

Best Place to Relearn Your Californian Earthquake Instincts: If you have a general admission ticket, dance on the spring-loaded “floating” floor, said to be among the last of its kind in the U.S. If the act is psychedelic in the vein of the Grateful Dead, you’re going to bounce up and down with the crowd anyway.

Best Urban Legend: Did Little Richard actually fire Jimi Hendrix in the middle of a set at the Crystal? The venue’s official website alludes to this having possibly happened in the ’60s, but no one will confirm nor deny the story’s veracity. It may ring true to some music historians, but most Hendrix experts believe an Ike and Tina Turner concert was held at the theater on the day of the supposed dismissal in 1965 instead.

Best Place to Catch Your Ride Home: On the other side of Burnside (across from Ringler’s Annex).

Best Vantage Point: Stick to the all-ages side of the ballroom if possible. Acoustically, it’s more harmonious, and the angles, crowds and sound on the other side are vexing at best. E R I C A S H .

tween the bar and the mainstage, you’d once find—and, depending upon whom you ask, may still for the right price—access to Dante’s fitful experiment with elevated VIP seating. Perhaps installed for the extended run of Top Gun musical pastiche Hot Gun, the fun-sized private suite’s limited sight lines weren’t quite right for theatrical production, and the vibe felt altogether wrong for harder fare.

Best Pizza and Beer Protocols: The back room tends to feature better pours, but only the main bar has draft beer and indoor access to the pizza window.

Reviews are mixed about the quality of the slices ever since the adjacent Lonesome’s Pizza became Pizza Slut, but Portland’s famously scant late-night food options mean that patrons would likely starve without them (though cruelty-free advocates would best watch out for past fave Vegetarian Surprise, which hid a layer of bacon below two layers of cheese). J AY H O R T O N .

Edgefield 2126 SW Halsey St., Troutdale, 800-6698610, edgefieldconcerts.com.

SHAKEY GRAVES AT THE CRYSTAL BALLROOM

Dante’s 350 W Burnside St., 866-777-8932, danteslive.com/production.

SCAN FOR TICKETS

THOMAS TEAL

Best Tables to Avoid: Customers bringing drinks to the spate of fun-sized outdoor tables hastily assembled post-smoking ban should remember how close they are to the street. On league-mandated vacay in 2011 following a cleat-first assault on Green Bay Packers offensive lineman Evan Dietrich-Smith, PDX native and Detroit Lions defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh returned home only to crash a 1970 Chevy Coupe into a curb, a light post, and a tree—just missing the gaggle of 1 am Dante’s patrons by the narrowest of margins.

Best Past Lives: A space that strutted into the ’80s as a gay disco metropolis and simmered through the ’90s as a disused Chang’s Mongolian Grill outpost, Dante’s opened in 2000, drawing upon the defining motifs of each former incarnation for an aesthetic fired by louche dissipation and light (the gas-lit conflagrations that once charred fatty lamb have been repurposed as eternal flames brightening the nightlife).

Most Functional Feature: According to claims by some past employees, subterranean green rooms located just behind the back bar’s matinee stage host the only water main controls capable of shutting down hydrants along lower West Burnside.

Best Phantom Enclave: Along the eastern wall be-

Best Shortcut to a View: Once you’re inside the venue, make a beeline for the right side of the field as you face the stage. Sure, the left side might be a breezy, inviting, temptingly shady escape from the summer heat. But trust us…the grass is definitely greener on the right side. All you have to do is stick out the blinding sun for the opener—or between the hours of 5 and 7 pm—before it disappears behind the stage: A small price to pay for a no-zoom-required video of your favorite artist. Seriously, you’ll be that close. Just follow the little path along the very edge of the nearest hill and make your way up as close to the stage as you can get (before you start to feel guilty about how many people you’ve cut in front of ). Oh, and wear comfy shoes.

Standing at a slanted angle in brand-new (super-cute) pink cowboy boots for an extended period of time is a recipe for blisters. We’d guess, anyway.

Best Chair: Bring lawn chairs, but make sure they’re low enough to the ground. Because Edgefield security will check. Like, pull-out-a-ruler-and-measure-thechair’s-exact-height check. And if your chairs are too tall, they’ll make you endure a long, somewhat humiliating journey back to your car to put them away. And they’ll point at you and laugh (JK).

Best After-Show Ritual: Don’t even bother heading to your car right after the show ends. Instead, make your way to one of Edgefield’s 10 different restaurants and bars—some of which stay open until 2 am on concert nights. That way, instead of being stuck in your car waiting in frustration for concertgoers to clear out, you’ll be playing pool and enjoying soft pretzels and fondue (arguably the best item on any McMenamins menu). And by the time you’re done, the lot’ll be empty.

Alternate Post-Show Activity: Attempt a hitchhiking scheme. Simply walk off in the direction of Portland and wait for friendly attendees slowed by inevitably snarled traffic to see you and offer rides. But WW is not responsible for your safety. (Note: If you plan to hitchhike, you do need to leave right after the show ends. Otherwise, there will be no one around to host your hike.) S H A N N O N DA E H N K E .

DANTE’S Willamette Week OCTOBER 11, 2023 wweek.com

15

THOMAS TEAL

TOMMY PRINE in-store performance & signing

Son of the late John Prine boldly carves his own path on his vulneralbe debut album ‘This Far South’.

wednesday october 18th 6pm

friday october 13th 6pm

TAMAR BERK

BIJOUX CONE

in-store performance & signing

in-store performance & signing

lush melodramatic synth pop and disco synth grooves!

Get Busy Tonight

saturday october 14th 5pm

O U R E V E N T P I C K S , E M A I L E D W E E K LY. S I G N U P AT W W E E K . C O M / N E W S L E T T E R S

16

Willamette Week OCTOBER 11, 2023 wweek.com

‘Tiny Injuries’ stands as a testament to the beauty of vulnerablily, and as an invitation for listeners to find solace within their own journey.

Holocene 1001 SE Morrison St., 503-2397639, holocene.org.

Best Way to Rave Close to Home: It’s no secret Portland has a thriving community of techno gods. Holocene isn’t known for always having the best music, but its main room is equipped with a custom PA and Lab Gruppen amplifiers sound system that provides a killer experience for lo-fi house and weird electro music lovers who aren’t looking to stray out of the city (event series Spend the Night, in particular, constantly receives high praise).

Best Non-Ableist Attribute: A friend of mine is ADA. We wanted to catch a show, but they mentioned they didn’t have great experiences with ADA-compliant venues. We called ahead to give Holocene a heads-up before arriving—and my friend got the red-carpet treatment. Not a single fuss was made over the accommodations they needed.

Best Place to Make Out: Come with a significant other (or a friend, if you’re a makeout-with-your-friends type of person) and sneak away from the main room to make out in the Jr. Lounge, or head up to the bar/upper lounge area. The venue provides an abundance of dark corners to conceal lovers of the night.

Best Perk: Holocene is right across from Sassy’s, one of my favorite strip clubs in Portland. After you’ve danced the night away, you can head over for a different kind of dancing.

Best Place to Park: I’ve always had luck with parking between Belmont and Morrison, about three blocks east of the actual venue.

There are street lights along that route, and it’s way less crowded than parking right on Morrison or Belmont.

Best Hidden Gem: There’s a photo booth stashed in the back of the venue. While everyone is rushing the door after events, sneak in real quick for a piece of memorabilia.

Best Place to Consume Illicit Substances: If you like to party-party, Holocene is for you.

Now, I’m not condoning anything, but I will say that leaving the main room for quieter, less humid areas like the Jr. Lounge is perfect for those of us who have found ourselves tripping a little too hard to be on the dance floor.

BEANS FLORES.

There’s Always Something Playing at The Liberty!

You’ll Love It Inside!

Make our historic Venetian theatre part of your next trip to the coast.

Music • Dance • Theatre Children’s Programs • Film Comedy • Historic Tours For our current schedule and to buy tickets, visit: www.libertyastoria.org

Downtown Astoria’s historic Liberty Theatre was made for music, dance, theatre, readings, film, comedy, children’s programs – and you!

1203 Commercial Street | Astoria, OR 97103 | 503.325.5922 | www.libertyastoria.org

HOLOCENE

Mississippi Studios 3939 N Mississippi Ave., 503-288-3895, mississippistudios.com.

Best Place to Gate Crash: Want to get your schmooze with your favorite local band? Or blindside the touring act you came to see with awkward, Chris Farley Show-style questions? You may be in luck! The very back of the smoking patio brushes perilously close to an oft-unguarded green room area at Mississippi Studios. Now, this isn’t a license to act like a creeper or talk an artist’s ear off about how you were once in a band and almost made it big. But it may be a chance to share a brew, compliment a set, or share your knowledge of the cool spots to eat in Portland.

Best Vantage Point: The small balcony up on the left side of the room is first come, first served. Try to snag a spot up there right when you arrive—it’s usually full by the time people realize it’s there—but don’t lose hope if you don’t make it. Mississippi Studios can have pretty rough sightlines on the ground floor, especially during acts that attract a lot of tall people (looking at you, metal bands!). If, however, you’re looking for space and comfort, you should feel no shame heading to the back by the bar and taking in the band from that viewpoint. This also allows you easier access to the venue’s usually impressive draft list and cocktail selection, should you feel so inclined.

Best Living Room Vibes: Besides the immaculate sound and supreme curatorial powers of its bookers, what makes Mississippi Studios such an iconic destination for both fans and bands is the cozy living room layout. The stage is adorned with vintage lamps, drums, and a painting of a gladiator woman that looks like it was found at an estate sale in the West Hills. All of this adds a warm, bohemian vibe that is enhanced by the psychedelic rugs that cover the floor. If there is such a thing as a perfect venue to duck in from the cold and dreary winter weather, Mississippi is it.

Best Bathroom and Bar Backup: We all hate standing in line at a show, whether we’re waiting to order a drink or our bladder is about to burst after a killer set. Luckily, you can swiftly move back and forth between Mississippi and Bar Bar. This means you can pop over to take advantage of the facilities, grab a beverage if you don’t feel like waiting, or even get a bite to eat. But it’s really all about the bathroom, and taking a quick jaunt next door might ultimately mean more time to watch the show and less time waiting in line. N E I L F E R G U S O N .

3330 SE

3701 SE

BELMONT

HAWTHORNE Willamette Week OCTOBER 11, 2023 wweek.com

17

SAMANTHA KLOPP

JONATHAN EIG BEST-SELLING AUTHOR OF

King: A Life

October 17, 2023 at 7pm Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall Featuring a Q&A with Rukaiyah Adams and Kerry Tymchuk Scan to purchase tickets now!

LITTLE DRAGON AT ROSELAND THEATER

Roseland Theater 8 NW 6th Ave., 971-230-0033, roselandpdx.com.

ohs.org/eig 18

Willamette Week OCTOBER 11, 2023 wweek.com

Spookiest Claim to Fame: As Starry Night in the 1980s, the Roseland was part of Larry Hurwitz’s nightclub empire. Hurwitz sold the venue in 1991, but not before the disappearance of his publicity agent, Tim Moreau, in 1990. Hurwitz was suspected of murdering Moreau in a dispute over counterfeit John Lee Hooker tickets and, in 2000, was convicted and sentenced to 12 years in prison. With good behavior, he got out in eight.

Best Haunting: Moreau is said to still haunt the Roseland. Strangled, his body was never found, although Hurwitz and an accomplice said they buried Moreau on the Washington side of the Columbia Gorge.

Best Off-Book Concert: On April 30, 2002, Prince came to the Roseland after midnight for an impromptu

jam session. It was an aftershow to his performance at Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall (part of his One Nite Alone… Tour). He would return to the Roseland in a formal capacity in 2013 for two sold-out evenings, for which the theater was painted purple.

Best Spot for Crossing Paths: On occasion, fans can have meet-and-greets with artists at the back gate. In 2019, Yungblud graced fans with his presence and did an impromptu signing, but it can be hit or miss. That same year, Yelawolf, as if expecting such a reception, sneaked out the front instead (though DJ Klever was more amenable to meeting fans at the back).

Best Time Saver: Bring bills. The bar is cash only, and the wait for the venue’s lone ATM can be up to half an hour.

Best Trick: If you have standing-room tickets, snag an open seat and wait for someone to kick you out, baseball game style. Often, you’ll be left alone.

ERIC ASH.

COURTESY MILAGRO

GET BUSY OCT. 11-17

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

just north of Lincoln City, is a two-plushour drive for most Portlanders. But this weekend, the organization brings the art to you. Now in its 29th year, the Sitka Art Invitational is one of the Pacific Northwest’s largest and longest-running juried showcases, which will feature works by more than 100 artists in a variety of mediums. All of the pieces were inspired by nature, so if you find that paintings of the Pacific Ocean or herds of elk are particularly soothing, then this event is for you.

Oregon Contemporary, 8371 N Interstate Ave., 541-994-5485, sitkacenter.org. 11 am-5 pm Friday-Sunday, Oct. 13-15. Free.

Suggested donation $7-$10.

LISTEN: Shout for Joy!

The Portland Baroque Orchestra is celebrating its 40th year as well as new artistic director Julian Perkins, who is bringing the hype by promising a lineup of “life-enhancing concerts” this season. After the last few challenging years, sure, we’ll take a spiritual boost in the form of Vivaldi and Caravaggio. Things get started with this performance, which includes music by both Handel and Bach. Our only request?

More harpsichord!!! Kaul Auditorium at Reed College, 3203 SE Woodstock Blvd., 503-222-6000, pbo.org. 7:30 pm Saturday and 3 pm Sunday, Oct. 14-15. $36-$71.

GO: Haunted Taft: Ghosts and Legends of the Oregon Coast

TAKING UP ARMS: Milagro honors the women who fought alongside men during the Mexican Revolution in this year’s Día de los Muertos production.

LISTEN: Consider This With Casey Parks

Oregon Humanities, the nonprofit affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, presents the first conversation in its 2023–24 Consider This series featuring Casey Parks, former Oregonian reporter and current contributor to The Washington Post. The journalist and author of the 2022 book Diary of a Misfit will explore gender and sexuality by discussing national issues, including the wave of new state laws targeting LGBTQ+ rights, and her own experience with coming out in her rural Louisiana hometown in 2002. Alberta Rose Theatre, 3000 NE Alberta St., 503719-6055, albertarosetheatre.com. 7 pm Wednesday, Oct. 11. $15 general admission, $30 conversation starter.

WATCH: Portland Film Festival

Take a break from the disappointing big-budget, CGI-driven Hollywood flicks and opt for a wide selection of stories told through an independent lens. Founded in 2012 and dubbed “one of the coolest film festivals in the world” by industry magazine MovieMaker, this year’s Portland Film Festival features more than 80 screenings, which you can also access for free at home if you’re a Comcast sub-

scriber. The director of programming, who worked his way through more than 4,000 submissions, says two not-to-miss movies that made the cut are American Dreamer, a dark comedy starring Peter Dinklage as a frustrated college professor who forms an unlikely bond with an ailing widow played by Shirley MacLaine, and Lynden, a documentary about the titular Washington town and its residents as they clashed over COVID policies, the Black Lives Matter movement, and national politics. Various locations. Festival Hub at 1105 NW 11th Ave. and McMenamins Kennedy School, 5736 NE 33rd Ave., portlandfilm. org. Various times Thursday-Monday, Oct. 12-16. Free-$199.

WATCH: Las Adelitas

Milagro Theatre’s 28th annual Día de los Muertos production focuses on the brave women who challenged gender norms by fighting alongside men during the Mexican Revolution. While that might sound like a somber topic, the adelitas (who were also referred to as soldaderas) are here reimagined as spirits who take a busy movie producer on a journey through the past, present and future, Dickens style.

Before or after the play, be sure to visit the altar Milagro has set up for the event,

which pays tribute to some of the women who sacrificed their lives during the war.

Milagro Theatre, 525 SE Stark St., 503236-7253, milagro.org. Preview at 7:30 pm Thursday, Oct. 12. 7:30 pm Thursday-Saturday, 2 pm Sunday, Oct. 13-Nov. 5. $20-$30.

WATCH: /SLASH/

The Reformers—a local experimental arts collective that in past years has celebrated Halloween by turning everything from a garage to a van into a haunted hell—return this season with /SLASH/, an homage to gruesome ’80s cult horror films. Since the theme this time around is scary movies, it’s only appropriate that the immersive experience takes place inside Movie Madness. The whole thing culminates with a screening of the group’s first slasher short.

Admission to each show is capped at 25 people, so be sure to secure your tickets now. Hollywood Movie Madness, 4320 SE Belmont St., thereformerspdx.com/contact. 7, 7:45, 8:30 and 9:15 pm Friday-Saturday, Oct. 13-14 and 20-21. $25. 15+.

SEE: Sitka Art Invitational 2023 The Sitka Center for Art and Ecology, a happy little artists commune nestled in the forest adjacent to Cascade Head

Take the stroll, if you dare, and hear stories that should frighten and delight during a walking tour of Lincoln City’s Taft district.

While probably best known by tourists as the very south end of town where Mo’s overlooks Siletz Bay, this area is teeming with history—some of which apparently doesn’t want to remain in the past. You’ll learn about everything from a ghost schooner to Bigfoot sightings to the spirits of bootleggers still haunting area bars, and more. The approximately 1-mile tour lasts 90 minutes and is conducted rain or (moon)shine, life or death. Tours depart from the Sapphire Center, 4844 SE Highway 101, Lincoln City, hauntedtaft.com. 7 pm Saturday, Oct. 14, 21 and 28. $25, $50 VIP. 8+.

WATCH: Waymakers

Portland has long embraced its women’s sports teams—from the Thorns on the pitch to the Fire on the basketball court.

However, the Oregon Ravens—a full-contact women’s football team—hasn’t gotten quite as much attention as those other franchises. Which is why you should go watch Waymakers, a new documentary about the 50-plus players on the roster, which includes moms, a doctor, a dancer, a clothing designer and a law enforcement officer. The film explores their compelling stories as well as how they’re paving the way for young girls interested in athletics.

Revolution Hall, 1300 SE Stark St., 971808-5094, waymakersthemovie.com. 8 pm Monday, Oct. 16. Free.

SEE MORE GET BUSY EVENTS AT WWEEK.COM/CALENDAR Willamette Week OCTOBER 11, 2023 wweek.com

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FOOD & DRINK

Top 5

Hot Plates WHERE TO EAT THIS WEEK.

1. PALOMAR

Editor: Andi Prewitt Contact: aprewitt@wweek.com

CO U R T E SY PA LO M A R

Hope for Amaro Nearly six months after opening, Grand Amari offers plenty of its titular liqueur as well as a range of pastas and proteins with mixed results.

BY A N D R E A DA M E WO O D P H OTO G R A P H S BY M I C H A E L R A I N E S

959 SE Division St., #100, 971-357-8020, barpalomar.com. 5-10 pm Tuesday-Friday, 10 am-2 pm and 5-10 pm Saturday-Sunday.

All good things must come to an end, which, in the Pacific Northwest, means that many patios close down once the rainy season gets underway.

While you may not have access to Palomar’s rooftop pop-up Tocayo for the next six months, the Cuban restaurant is using the seasonal shift to relaunch weekend brunch. Chef Ricky Bella’s new menu includes everything from a Frita McMuffin to a guava French toast soaked in Coco Lopez cream of coconut to a Benedict with roasted pork belly. And since Palomar knows how brutal those brunch lines can be, it offers reservations so you can skip the wait.

2. BULLARD TAVERN

813 SW Alder St., 503-222-1670, bullardpdx.com. 4-10 pm Sunday.

Given the fact that Bullard’s burger will set you back nearly 30 bucks, the Woodlark Hotel restaurant’s new $39 Sunday Supper Dinner is a bargain that shouldn’t be missed, especially since it’s a limited-time offer (albeit one that’s redundantly named). The three-course special features a mixed green salad with blue cheese crumbles and hazelnuts; a smoked half-chicken served with fresh tortillas, guac and salsa verde; and an ice cream sundae. You can add a $39 bottle of wine to that if you really feel like splurging. The best part: A portion of the proceeds raised from the dinners goes to the Maui Strong Fund to help victims of the devastating August fire.

Grand Amari, as a restaurant, is like some people you know (and have probably broken up with): says all the right things, but only follows through about half the time.

This new Italian spot, which was billed as having an “unapologetically traditional approach” to the cuisine in a press release announcing the May opening, is helmed by Jessica Hereth from Olympia Provisions and restaurateur Nate Tilden (Clyde Common, Bar Casa Vale), and promises many things to draw in a hungry lady such as myself: Think fried anchovies, a full bar cart of bitter amari, house-baked focaccia, and more handmade pastas than you can shake a fork at.

And yet, after eating there on several occasions, I can’t put my finger on to whom I’d recommend Grand Amari. That’s not because it was bad (although there were some big misses; more on that in a bit), but more like it was fairly expensive for what amounted to just a nice meal.

3. PAPA HAYDN

701 NW 23rd Ave., 503-228-7317, papahaydn.com. 5829 SE Milwaukie Ave., 503-232-9440. 11:30 am-10 pm Wednesday-Sunday.

Whether you love Portland dessert institution Papa Haydn or simply great bargains on meals out, you’ll want to swing by one of the business’s two locations at some point during October. The brand turns 45 this year and is partying like it’s 1978, with throwback menu items and prices to match.

Special entrees will only cost $12(!) and these are full portions of dishes like chicken Genovese, torta rustica and currywurst. Featured desserts, including sachertorte, marjolaine and chocolate marquis, are a mere seven bucks.

4. GEORGE’S CORNER TAVERN

5501 N Interstate Ave., 503-289-0307, georgescornertaver.wixsite.com/my-site. 10 am-2 am daily.

At the corner of North Interstate Avenue and Killingsworth Street for nearly a century, George’s is like the longtime character actor you are always happy to see. And like a good ensemble player, George’s has a little something for everyone: a solid whiskey list, a killer back patio, Jell-O and pudding shots, and super-friendly service. And perhaps George’s best (un) kept secret is its fried chicken and jojos, which give Reel M Inn a run for its money. A three-piece basket with a jojo upgrade will run you $18, and arrives hot and juicy. The proportions of potato and bird aren’t as freakishly gargantuan as those at our Southeast Portland fave, but they’ll arrive in minutes, rather than hours.

5. LUCKY HORSESHOE LOUNGE

2524 SE Clinton St., 503-764-9898, luckyhorseshoeportland.com. 4-11 pm Monday-Thursday, 4 pm-midnight Friday-Saturday, 4-10 pm Sunday.

Rally Pizza owners Shan Wickham and Alan Maniscalco purchased this Clinton Street Theater-adjacent bar in spring, swapping out the venue’s quasi-Western theme and replacing it with Italian-inspired cocktail lounge vibes. The food menu reflects Maniscalco’s Italian American upbringing, and you can now get a number of those dishes for a discount thanks to a newly launched happy hour. Your best bets: an Olympia Provisions salami and provolone sandwich ($8) and a Monday-only, 10-inch Neapolitan-style pizza with rotating toppings ($12).

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Willamette Week OCTOBER 11, 2023 wweek.com

That’s often the case for hotel restaurants—this one is off the lobby of the Hotel Grand Stark in the inner eastside—but I guess with the firepower behind it I was hoping for more.

Let’s start with the good, though. A grass-fed, porcini-rubbed rib-eye ($40), served with fresh horseradish grated so fine it was like spicy snow, was one of the best steaks I’ve been served in a minute. Cooked to a beautiful medium rare, the mushrooms boosted the umami of the meat to an 11. The leftovers didn’t make it to the next day.

The pastas were also solid choices. Cacio e pepe ($22), the current darling of the carbohydrate world, is appropriately peppery, cutting the rich pecorino sauce.

A pappardelle ($26) was rolled out so thin that I swear you could see your dining companion through those wide noodles. Still, they supported a simple tomato

sauce with pork, sugo alla contadina, well. Stick with those over the more expensive bucatini with a squid ink sauce ($31), which was fine but not worth the extra cost.

The service was good, and the cocktails all feature bitters. The signature martini ($16) is delicious with the addition of Finocchietto, a savory fennel digestif.

Top 5

Buzz List WHERE TO DRINK THIS WEEK.

1. PONDEROSA LOUNGE & GRILL

10350 N Vancouver Way, 503-345-0300, jubitz.com/ponderosa-lounge-country-bar. 9 am-midnight Monday-Wednesday, 9 am-2 am Thursday-Friday, 8 am-2 am Saturday, 8 am-midnight Sunday.

In WW’s 2018 Bar Guide, we called the Ponderosa the “crown jewel” of Jubitz, which is more of a miniature city than a truck stop in far North Portland. The lineup of country music performers is as solid as it was back then, and now the rowdy lounge is hosting a six-week Battle of the Bartenders, in which teams of two will go head to head March Madness style every Wednesday beginning Oct. 18 (7-9 pm). Judges will score competitors based on their signature drinks and knowledge, but audience support is also factored in. Sounds like the makings of a scene from Cocktail, so consider us in. This week, watch live music or the cornhole league.

2. SANDY HUT

1430 NE Sandy Blvd., 503-235-7972. 11:30 am-2:30 am daily.

We should all aim to be this much fun when we’re 100. The Wolf’s Den, the Sandy Hut, or the Hut of Huts is an idealized version of a midcentury bar and restaurant. The restored Hirschfeld mural, cozy booths and padded bartop add vintage flair, while a slushy machine, Big Buck Hunter and pinup calendars keep things from getting too fancy. The crowd is a mix of folks who’ve managed to survive the bar’s zhuzhing up by new ownership in 2015 and whatever counts for a hipster these days. No matter the name or the state of the interior, the bartenders will not stand for any of your lip but will be generous with the pours of liquor, essential for any top-tier dive.

3. GREAT NOTION BREWING

Various locations, greatnotion.com. Hours vary.

Halloween has definitely evolved into a monthlong celebration, much like Christmas, so you better get your themed drinking on right out of the gate.

And we’re not talking about pumpkin beers. Great Notion has produced its largest lineup of brews with spooky season names to date, including Orange Screamsicle, similar to the Creamsicle IPA only stronger and sour; Possessed, a strong tart ale with flavors of pineapple and black cherry; and Boo Berry Muffin, which tastes like the breakfast cereal its named after.

You can find those beers in Great Notion’s four area taprooms, as well as unique scary-themed drops every Friday through October.

4. HOLMAN’S BAR & GRILL CHRIS NESSETH

THAT’S AMORE: The cacio e pepe and pappardelle are particularly good options at Grand Amari.

For an extra $5 you can have one that’s been aged in a clay amphora, like I did, but I’m not sure what the difference is.

The real fun is the amari cart, which is wheeled to your table to pair with dessert. For $21, pick your own flight of three from the huge list to sample, or get a little guidance from the server, who turned us on to a few new fernets we’ve never had.

One night, the focaccia ($4) offered everything you would want from the decadent bread—wide air pockets, crisp tops, and generous flakes of sea salt. On another, it was underdone—stodgy and soggy.

Weirdly, Grand Amari is one of the only finer dining establishments where frying the ingredients seems to make them worse: Every fried thing we tried was bland.

Like, “Live, Laugh, Love” bland. So bland that even a German would reach for spices.

Perhaps this was most sad-making with the pork Milanese ($40), a breaded cutlet that literally fell flat on the plate. I say this is particularly sad because Olympia Provisions’ whole thing is pork. It’s strange that it only

appears in one pasta dish, this entree, and as a $30 or $45 salumi plate. Olympia Provisions is currently marketing its pasture-raised pork program; I saw an incredible chop on special at the Southeast location.

More of that at Grand Amari, please.

The same went for the fried anchovies. I was so excited to get them, and then the fried lemons served alongside ended up having more flavor. A seasonal special of fried squash blossoms filled with buffalo mozzarella were nothing puffs.

Portland has had so many hotel restaurants that have been a resounding success; Tilden’s own Clyde Common, formerly located at downtown’s Ace Hotel, was part of the first wave of restaurants that made Portland’s food scene what it is. Grand Amari has a few of the building blocks for greatness, but still has some growing to do.

EAT: Grand Amari, 509 SE Grand Ave., 503-894-8135, grandamaripdx.com. 5-9 pm Sunday-Thursday, 5-10

15 SE 28th Ave., 503-231-1093, holmanspdx.com. 8 am-2:30 am daily.

Holman’s is one of those bars where everyone knows your name—not because you are a regular, but because they are all off-duty bartenders and servers from other places you frequent. During our visit just days after it reopened following a long renovation, there was a murderer’s row of alcohol distributors, brewery reps and bussers lined up on the stools like they never left, even though the place closed for more than three years, initially due to the pandemic. The remodel may have slightly elevated the aesthetics, but the drink specials are still dive-bar cheap, including $2.50 well whiskey pours and tallboys during Tightwad Tuesday and $4 tumblers of Jameson every Monday.

5. TAIJI TEAHOUSE & CAFE

310 NW Davis St., 503-997-3261, taijiteahouse.com. 11 am-4 pm Monday-Saturday.

There is at least one entrepreneur who believes peace and tranquility can be found in Old Town Chinatown. In mid-August, Eric Arthur opened Taiji in the space that used to house Pearl Zhang’s Red Robe Tea House, which we long praised for serving “one of the finest Chinese pots of tea on either side of the river.” Zhang retired in 2021, but before she did, Arthur broadened his knowledge of gongfu tea through her and the shop—and he’s essentially reviving the essence that she brought to the establishment along with her exceptional and detailed tea ritual.

pm Friday-Saturday.

Willamette Week OCTOBER 11, 2023 wweek.com

21

PERFORMANCE

SHOWS OF THE WEEK

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

Jeremy Wilson

BY J AY H O R TO N @ h o r t l a n d

Jeremy Wilson, founding frontman of ’90s alt heroes Pilot and ’80s garage legends Dharma Bums, largely stepped away from the stage a dozen years ago. Yet ever since the late-life diagnosis of his underlying cardiac issues emphasized the desperate need for an organization dedicated to easing the medical concerns of working musicians, he has worked tirelessly, raising funds for the foundation that bears his name.

The absolute respect and goodwill engendered by the JWF Musician Health & Services Program’s good deeds guarantee a murderers’ row of elite PDX performers eager to take part in such annual marvels like this weekend’s tribute to George Harrison, which features 30 local luminaries (including Kris DeLane, Lael Alderman, Matt Cadenelli, and Wilson himself on “Run of the Mill”).

As the Mark Bowden-helmed production (which will cover much of All Things Must Pass and selected favorites from Harrison’s Concert for Bangladesh) neared its final rehearsal, WW spoke to Wilson about the health of Portland’s music industry and its artists.

WW: HOW’D THIS ALL START?

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Willamette Week OCTOBER 11, 2023 wweek.com

Say it with me now: “There’s a horse in the hospital!” Listening to Kool Keith is an experiment in disbelief. He says things few other rappers would dare to say, making up characters (Dr. Octagon, Dr. Dooom, Black Elvis) and batshit world-building scenarios with the intellectual-goofball brio of George Clinton emerging from the mothership. All the while, he’s stayed resolutely true to his golden-age roots, rarely deviating from the formula of a mad genius spitting the wildest shit you’ve ever heard over fantastic beats. The Get Down, 615 SE Alder St., Suite B. 8 pm. $23. 21+.

TUESDAY, OCT. 17:

BUT THE PROGRAM GOES DEEPER THAN JUST BENEFIT CONCERTS?

Well, for years we had zero money and needed to do individual fundraising every time somebody would get in a pickle. We also realized that we didn’t need to ask the whole community over and over again to pay off these huge medical bills.

That’s where navigation helps us help the artist find the financial aid available through the hospitals and different other larger organizations. We focus on making sure they don’t lose their home or have their phone cut. So our average grant’s about $1,500, but the services can average tens of thousands of dollars. They work with us for three to six months, and we make sure they receive immediate assistance then help get them stable.

Things like GoFundMe mean well, of course, but raising a lot of money for someone and just handing it over can get really complicated. If you’re on the Oregon Health Plan based on income, you’ll get kicked off as soon as $30K drops in your bank account all of a sudden, you know what I mean?

IF MEMORY SERVES, YOU FOUND AN EYE FOR A BLINDED DRUMMER.

Not a drummer. He was more of a music promoter, only a part-time musician. He actually got the eye from the Lions Club or one of those associations, but we were part of his network during rehabilitation to be able to see again—just taking care of bills can be vital in that sort of recovery scenario. We help with everything from broken bones all the way through hospice.

“Serene” is the word for Tav Falco, whose laid-back Southern drawl wanders through the primitive hell-cat rockabilly songs of his band Panther Burns. Though perhaps best known for his association with cult power-pop band Big Star, the 78-year-old is a one-of-a-kind cult figure: more thoughtful and cerebral than many of his psychobilly progeny, as inspired by tango and obscure European philosophy as he is by blues and ’50s rock ’n’ roll.

Dante’s, 350 W Burnside St. 9 pm. $13.

21+.

WEDNESDAY, OCT. 18:

ANY ROCK STARS GO THROUGH THE FOUNDATION?

About 90% or more of the people that we work with would prefer to remain anonymous, but we’ve helped a couple musicians who are pretty high profile in Oregon. Everybody knows [Hazel frontman] Pete Krebs. We helped [Northwest alt icon] Scott McCaughey with an Artist Relief campaign during the year-plus recovery from his stroke.

You’d think a guy that played in R.E.M. would be [financially] set and not need that kind of thing, but most musicians are side players struggling like the rest of us. You can have a pretty major career and still lead a middle-class life, you know?

SEE IT: The 3rd Annual George Harrison Celebration will be held at Revolution Hall, 1300 SE Stark St., 971-8085094, revolutionhall.com. 8 pm Saturday, Oct. 21. $39.

All ages. A portion of the proceeds go to the Jeremy Wilson Foundation Musician Health & Services Program.

It’s no wonder Portland legends The Dandy Warhols and Texas psych miscreants The Black Angels are getting together; both descend from the dark side of ’60s psych rock, where death is the ultimate trip and cold cynicism trumps hippie platitudes. The Angels might be a bit more extreme than the more song-oriented Dandys, but the two will no doubt be knee deep in comparing Velvet Underground bootlegs backstage. Roseland Theater, 8 NW 6th Ave. 8 pm. $39.50. All ages.

COURTESY OF THE DA N DY WA R H O L S

Jeremy Wilson: The foundation has been around since August of 2010.

I started developing health issues around a congenital heart condition that I didn’t know about until turning 40 years old. It was very intense— four heart surgeries in a three-year period—and I was just getting my feet on the ground after eight or 10 years of feeling really awkward.

Somehow, the word got out and, independently of anything I did, people started to rally for me. I was humbled, and it really fucking changed my life. There was a big benefit show at Doug Fir, and the community came out to try and help.

I entered the building, stood in one spot, and never moved, because a line formed of friends and old and new fans coming one by one to give me a hug for four straight hours while the musicians performed.

I’d been able to get health insurance, but during that first surgery, I was already starting to be taxed from donations given to me at the concert. I learned a lot and came up with the idea of forming a 501(c) (3) to make a general fund raising money for musicians so that funds are there when the next person needs help.

Over the years, it’s turned into an actual program with two phases.

We provide financial assistance grants during medical challenges— and, even more importantly, social workers to navigate the health care system on behalf of artists and their families to find other forms of financial aid.

SUNDAY, OCT. 15:

C O U R T E S Y O F TAV FA L C O

As his foundation preps its annual George Harrison Celebration, the Pilot founding frontman discusses his quest to ensure Portland musicians have health care.

BY DA N I E L B R O M F I E L D @ b r o m f 3

COURTESY OF KOOL KEITH

NORMAN EDER / COURTESY OF T H E J E R E M Y W I L S O N F O U N AT I O N

HOTSEAT

W H AT TO S E E A N D W H AT TO H E A R

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

LORAINE JAMES AT POLARIS HALL

BY R O B E R T H A M

The backdrop for U.K. electronic artist Loraine James’ criminally underattended set was looped camcorder footage of a tower block. The wandering camera had a How To with John Wilson-like intent, capturing little details of life in and around the building: a line of laundry waving in the breeze, a small piece of foil escaping from the closing garage door of a convenience store, wandering pigeons.

The modest visuals did have some intent.

Unless I’m mistaken, the building on screen was the tower block where James grew up in North London, serving as a reminder of just how far this young artist has moved beyond those humble origins. Here she was, 5,000 miles from home, hunched over a laptop, a small keyboard, and a pair of sound modules, dousing 75 or so stalwart fans in waves of smeared beats and pixelated drones.

The hourlong performance played out like a well-rehearsed experimental DJ set. Under James’ expert control, the intensity and momentum of the music grew steadily throughout, culminating in flashes of drum and bass and broken beat jazz. And it all built to a crescendo that brought to the mind’s eye a warped AI re-creation of The Great Wave off Kanagawa.

As for James, she was all business. Dressed simply in a sweatshirt and jeans with a thin gold chain dangling around her neck, she stayed focused on her instruments. She didn’t owe the humble audience anything at all, but what she gave us encompassed the body and aroused the senses.

OWEN CAREY

COURTESY OF LORAINE JAMES

OWEN CAREY

SHOW REVIEW CULTURE

Last Rites A nameless heroine confronts death in Corrib Theatre’s production of Woman and Scarecrow.

BY M O R G A N S H AU N E T T E

Who are we when we’re about to die? At the end of our life, when nothing remains but the undiscovered country, how will we meet the Reaper? Will we be stoic or scared? Among friends or alone? Tearful at a life lost or grateful for our time on this earth?

The answer is likely all of the above to one degree or another. However, in the case of Woman and Scarecrow (written by Marina Carr and staged by the Corrib Theatre), death is met with spite and rancor aimed at the living who failed us. It’s a pessimistic look at the decidedly bitter end, but it hits on uncomfortable truths that make it ultimately a rewarding experience.

Our story follows the Woman (Kerie Darner), who is in the last stages of an undefined terminal illness and awaiting her demise in her bed. She has conversations with her husband of three decades (Jason Glick) and the aunt who raised her (Maria Porter), but the Woman’s most constant companion is Scarecrow (Ashley Song), her longtime verbal sparring partner.

The play never specifies what exactly Scarecrow is (she lands somewhere between conscience, imaginary friend and guardian angel). Her role is to help the Woman prepare for the end, although Scarecrow’s advice is ignored just as often as it is channeled.

As the Woman reaches for positive memories before passing on, Scarecrow, who perfectly recalls the Woman’s life, reminds her how much her relations have hurt her.

There’s a lived-in chemistry between Darner and Song that feels real and electric, and their spats are the moments when the show really sings.

For better or worse, Woman and Scarecrow seems to land on the latter’s point of view, as the Woman’s relations are all toxic in their own ways. Auntie Ah is a devout Catholic capable of devastating emotional warfare, the husband is a philandering lout who struggles with basic empathy, and they both seem to blame the Woman for letting herself die.

The Woman also has eight children, but it’s telling that none of them puts in an appearance during the story. The play is firmly about the Woman airing her grievances, striking out at the people who dominated her life and drained her like leeches.

Moments of dark comedy are peppered throughout Woman and Scarecrow (particularly when the title characters rib each other like siblings), but Carr’s script is dripping with venom for the thankless pair our heroine wasted so much love and affection for.

Again, the play is not the most pleasant to watch, but the commitment of the actors and the touches of magical realism keep the story engaging. It may be a tale of vitriol

and regret, but it’s also deeply human, and therefore worthwhile.

It’s appropriate that the Corrib chose to stage Woman and Scarecrow during the spookiest month of the year, as it often plays like a horror story in between moments of domestic drama. The action takes place entirely in the Woman’s bedroom and there are moments when it’s lit and staged like a scene out of The Exorcist: dark and foreboding, with the added twist of an unknown presence groaning and rattling in the wardrobe.

Despite the Woman’s best efforts, her fear of death is always waiting in the shadows of her mind.

Death may be a release for the Woman: a way for her to finally be who she wants and make her own decisions, even if they are her last. It’s a bleak trip to the final rest, but one that movingly explores the trap of living exclusively for others. When all is said and done, no one makes it out alive, but Woman and Scarecrow asks us to examine what decisions we make along the way—and how we might set ourselves free.

SEE IT: Woman and Scarecrow plays at Alberta House, 5131 NE 23rd Ave., 503-389-0579, corribtheatre.org. 7:30 pm ThursdaySaturday and 2 pm Sunday, through Oct. 29. $15-$35.

Willamette Week OCTOBER 11, 2023 wweek.com

23

MOVIES

GET YOUR REPS IN

You’d be hard-pressed to find a film covering more historical tumult than Farewell My Concubine, a deeply felt blurring of the line between art and performer.

Director Chen Kaige’s masterwork follows two Chinese opera performers—played by Leslie Cheung and Zhang Fengyi—over nearly 50 years as they fall in and out of love, prominence and purpose.

It’s been a long road for Farewell My Concubine’s 4K restoration.

Though the film was lauded on the international festival circuit, the Chinese government initially banned (and then recut) it due to its gay protagonist and depiction of the Communist Party during China’s Cultural Revolution. And for its U.S. release, Harvey Weinstein chopped 20 crucial minutes.

Yet Farewell My Concubine can now be seen as intended—expansive, wounded and epic, with an immersive and mythological sense of the characters’ predestination.

Cheung and Zhang’s characters were born to play their roles in the titular opera, and they’ll live it through the final note. Cinema 21, Oct. 13-15.

ALSO PLAYING: 5th Avenue: We’re All Going to the World’s Fair (2022), Oct. 13-15.

Academy: Killer Klowns From Outer Space (1988), Oct. 13-19. The Wolfman (1941), Oct. 13-19. Cinema 21: Taxi Driver (1976), Oct. 14.

Cinemagic: Splash (1984), Oct. 12.

Clinton: Lair of the White Worm (1988), Oct. 12. Frankenhooker (1990), Oct. 13. Green Room (2015), Oct. 14. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 (2011), Oct. 16. Hollywood: Shaun of the Dead (2004), Oct. 12. Nowhere (1997), Oct. 13-19. Friday the 13th (1980), Oct. 13, 14, 16 and 18. The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), Oct. 14-15.

Rosemary’s Baby (1968), Oct. 14.

Friday the 13th Part 3 (1982), Oct. 14, 15, 17 and 19. Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984), Oct. 15-17 and 19. Urotsukidōji: Legend of the Overfiend (1989), Oct. 15.

Return of the Living Dead (1985), Oct. 16. Macario (1960), Oct. 17.

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Willamette Week OCTOBER 11, 2023 wweek.com

COURTESY OF MICHAEL TURNER

IMDB

Farewell My Concubine (1993)

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

screener

Memory Made Real Documentary filmmaker Michael Turner chronicles the life of his grandmother, a Holocaust survivor, in Monument.

BY R O S E WO N G

Following World War II, more than a hundred thousand Jewish Holocaust survivors immigrated to the United States. They became teachers, artists, nurses, husbands and wives—and one survivor was documentary filmmaker Michael Turner’s Grandma Lici, who kissed his head and gave him his first camera in high school.

When Turner was 12, Grandma Lici returned to her Hungarian hometown and led the creation of a monument to honor the town’s slain Jewish community, including her mother and sister who died in Auschwitz. But Grandma Lici never talked to her grandson about the monument or the war, and he didn’t know how to ask. Then she died in 2010.

“I felt [her death] gave me permission to ask all the questions I hadn’t asked,” Turner, who will attend Cinema 21’s Oct. 18 screening of the film, tells WW. In Monument, Turner travels with his camera to Sárvár, Hungary, and visits the monument, which was built on the grounds of a historic castle where his grandmother strolled on Saturdays with her family when she was a girl. The film features a collection of archival footage, including home videos of Turner’s boyhood in his grandmother’s house, the early years of his own daughter’s life, and interviews in which Grandma Lici, whose name was Alice Craig, recalls the suffering she experienced at Auschwitz.

Turner dedicated Monument to his grandmother and his 7-yearold daughter, Osa. He says the 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue shooting that killed 11 people catalyzed the film, making him wonder how he would explain the world to his daughter, teaching her to live well in spite of antisemitism and hate. He sought insight by turning to his grandmother and the story of his family’s survival.

“The coolest part of making the film was how close I felt to my grandma,” Turner says. “It felt like I was spending time with her.”

The Holocaust wiped out Sárvár’s Jewish community—and the few Jewish records that survived Nazi burnings were kept in Sárvár’s neighboring town, Szombathely, where few Jewish people remain.

In the film, Turner meets Sándor Márkus, the Szombathely Jewish community president. He tries to help Turner find his grandmother’s birth records, but he only has documents of births up to 1923 (Craig was born five years later).

András Csillag, a Jewish heritage tour guide whose family were also victims of the Holocaust, accompanied Turner in his nine days in Hungary. They visited the Memorial for Victims of the German Occupation in Budapest, which features an eagle descending to attack an angel. The eagle represents Germany and the angel symbolizes Hungary.

Critics say that monument attempts to rewrite history and obscure Hungary’s complicity in the Holocaust as a German ally. So the Jewish community created a counter-monument in front of the government’s memorial—old shoes, flowers, and laminated handwritten stories of friends and family who died in the Holocaust.

In the film, Turner also visits the ghetto where his grandmother and her family were held. Csillag tells him that the ghetto will soon reopen as a hotel, and there is no signage memorializing the building’s bitter history.

Monument is Turner’s attempt to access the parts of his grandmother he previously couldn’t, to retrieve and preserve her in art. The trip to Hungary allowed him to answer some of the questions he had about her past, but he admits leaving feeling somewhat disappointed.

One scene perfectly embodies Turner’s complex emotions: when he and Csillag visit the house and bakery where his grandmother grew up and find it inhabited by a non-Jewish family.

“As much as I wanted to see all these places, what I wanted to see was my great-grandfather in the bakery, the girls playing in the courtyard, my grandma looking through family photos, telling me stories,” Turner narrates in the film. “Things that were really, truly gone.”

In Monument, Turner draws a parallel between the erasure of Jewish history and culture in Hungary and the systematic destruction of Native American communities in America.

“I also live on land back in the U.S. that was forcibly evacuated before my time,” he says in the documentary. “How often do I think of family, friends, communities that are no longer there? At home there are no pictures of them, no memorials.”

Monument also shows Csillag and Márkus organizing a 25th anniversary service for the monument that Craig created. Márkus makes a speech in front of the monument about one of the most important Hebrew words, zākar, meaning “remember.” He reminds the few attendees to remember what happened to the people they love and why it matters.

Turner says he regrets not asking his grandmother about the Holocaust while she was alive. Still, making the film deepened his connection with where and whom he came from (he hopes to have a screening of the documentary in Sárvár and bring his daughter).

Monument, though tonally static and sluggish in pace, is a precious family memento and an important close-up of the Holocaust’s impact on one family’s unfolding story.

SEE IT: Monument screens at Cinema 21, 616 NW 21st Ave., 503-223-4515, monumentfilm.org. 7:15 pm Wednesday, Oct. 18. $10-$12.

VERTICAL

TOP PICK OF THE WEEK

Hanna and Liv (Julia Garner and Jessica Henwick) also live above this pub. They are truly not in Kansas, uh, Canada anymore.

As subsequent scenes showcase the local charm and the desert’s vastness, Green plays with genre as much as her audience.

Is this about to be The Australian Chainsaw Massacre? Or wait, no…Eat Pray Love? That spectrum, though, is dependent on Hanna and Liv’s fluctuating feelings of safety, and The Royal Hotel is constantly noting how the bar owner (Hugo Weaving) does and doesn’t contribute to his employees’ security. One drunken night’s ally is the next night’s enabler—and Liv might enjoy a 24/7 rager while Hanna’s discomfort coils ever tighter. In the end, there’s no chain saw, but the onslaught of threat—tangible, perceived, what’s the difference at a certain point?—fries your every last nerve ending into red Outback dust. R. CHANCE SOLEM-PFEIFER. Bridgeport, City Center, Living Room, Vancouver Mall.

STRANGE WAY OF LIFE

SHE CAME TO ME There’s no way to describe the plot of She Came to Me—moody opera composer (Peter Dinklage) falls for lusty tugboat captain (Marissa Tomei)—without it sounding like a joke. Yet somehow, writer-director Rebecca Miller finds earnest emotion amid joyous absurdity, fashioning a tender romantic drama with a few acidic flourishes. Looking dapper beneath a mountainous goatee, Dinklage stars as Steven, whose in-the-works opus is marred by a “temporary blockage.” The cure?

Capt. Karina Trento, whose fearsome sexual powers inspire him to write an opera about a murderous, ax-wielding siren of the high seas. Weaving a web of mythic coincidences, Miller intertwines Katrina and Peter’s affair—he’s married to Patricia (Anne Hathaway), a therapist—with a subplot about two young lovers (Evan Ellison and Harlow Jane) forced apart by a statutory rape allegation from a racist stenographer (Brian d’Arcy James). Parts of She Came to Me are as uproarious as Miller’s Maggie’s Plan (2015), not least of all Patricia’s funny, moving quest to become a nun. Plan, however, was merry and mocking, whereas She Came to Me is a purehearted paean to true love, be it vibrant and youthful or weathered and real. A climactic elopement aboard Katrina’s tugboat is like something out of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and like the Bard, Miller (yes, she’s Arthur’s daughter) reveals tender humanity through flights of fancy. Are we all just composers and captains looking for love? If so, the joke’s beautifully on us. R. BENNETT CAMPBELL FERGUSON. Clackamas, Fox Tower.

BOTTOMS

Imagine Superbad led by an all-female, mostly lesbian cast of characters and you can picture Emma Seligman’s Bottoms, which stuns in its originality and hilarity. Best friends PJ (Rachel Sennott) and Josie (Ayo Edebiri) have one goal for the upcoming school year: sleep with the hot cheerleaders they’ve been pining for.

Through a gut-busting comedy of errors, the pair start a self-defense club as a ruse to get closer to their crushes, a premise packed with blink-and-you’ll-miss-it comedy (before the audience can finish laughing at one joke, Sennott and Edebiri have delivered another horribly hilarious line). Be warned: The humor isn’t for the faint of heart. Bottoms doesn’t adhere to the #GirlPower comedy rule book (in one scene, a group of girls all slowly raise their hands when Sennott asks, “Who here has been raped? Even gray-area stuff?”). But if you can handle the edgy jokes that would get a Tumblr user canceled in a heartbeat, Bottoms will make you laugh until you cry in the best way possible. R. ALEX BARR. Fox Tower, Studio One.

THE CREATOR

In The Creator, there’s much ado about a child-shaped AI superweapon named Alphie (Madeleine Yuna Voyles).

Yet the film’s actual secret weapon is Gemma Chan (Crazy Rich Asians, Eternals), who plays a pro-AI activist named Maya. There she is, standing on a beach in a streaming white dress, drawing you into her serene anguish as easily as a planet ensnares a moon. No wonder the memory of her haunts Joshua (John David Washington), an American soldier who married her during an undercover operation in

Asia. Treachery and tragedy parted them, but five years later, a pair of elite warmongers (Allison Janney and Ralph Ineson) present Joshua with a cruel pact: Help slaughter Alphie and he’ll be reunited with Maya. Hailed as the liberator of a race of oppressed androids, Alphie looks like a religious icon; when she uses her powers to obliterate military tech, she presses her hands together, as if in prayer. You get the feeling that director Gareth Edwards (Rogue One) would be happy to let the entire film drift into the realm of prayers and dreams, given his love of moody flashbacks and his noncommittal handling of the action scenes. Edwards isn’t great with actors either—Washington, who was sharp and tender in Tenet and BlacKkKlansman, here seems hazy and uncertain—but he has created an impressively hushed, serious meditation on humanity born from machinery. The Creator may not fully come to life, but at least it understands that life, in all its forms, is precious. PG-13. BENNETT CAMPBELL FERGUSON. Academy, Bagdad, Cedar Hills, City Center, Eastport, Fox Tower, Joy Cinema, Laurelhurst, Living Room, Lloyd Center, Pioneer Place, St. Johns, St. Johns Twin, Studio One, Wunderland Milwaukie.

FLORA AND SON

Irish filmmaker John Carney returns with another music-based drama, following Once (2007), Begin Again (2014), and his best film, Sing Street (2016). Eve Hewson (Bono’s daughter!) gives a breakout performance as Flora, a vulgar and irresponsible mother living in Dublin with her teenage son, Max (Orén Kinlan). The two struggle to connect, but that changes once Flora finds an acoustic guitar and

songwriting brings them together. Carney checks his usual storytelling and character boxes here, even if Flora is a more sour and obnoxious character than audiences are used to from the director. Thankfully, Hewson fills this firecracker with life and anchors the film even as it starts to feel flimsy. Kinlan, on the other hand, gets little to do as Max, but Jack Reynor (as Flora’s ex, Ian) and Joseph Gordon-Levitt (as her guitar teacher, Jeff) shine in supporting roles. Flora and Son may be Carney on autopilot, but the film is sweet and features a standout scene where Flora and Jeff perform a song called “Meet in the Middle” on a rooftop. Surprise, surprise: The filmmaker who introduced us to Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova and can still make musical movie magic. R. DANIEL RESTER. Apple TV+.

THE ROYAL HOTEL

Director Kitty Green’s follow-up to her acclaimed #MeToo office drama The Assistant (2020) fully arrives during its first bartending scene. Two young women— American tourists who say they’re Canadian—are slinging drinks on their first night temping at a remote Australian mining bar.

In Green’s hyper-observant style, it’s a disquieting ecosystem: leathery men yelling dirty jokes, fighting, leering, shouting for swill from all 270 degrees of the bartop.

At just over a half-hour, it’s tempting to consider Strange Way of Life an episode of an old Western quasi-anthology broadcast from an infinitely queerer universe. Made under commission from Saint Laurent, Pedro Almodóvar’s soulful, frothy amuse bouche could’ve easily glided along familiar tropes with the droll grace of seafoam suede-bedecked Silva (Pedro Pascal), who crosses paths with Sheriff Jake (Ethan Hawke) for the first time since their extended south of the border fling decades ago. Though Almodóvar famously opted against helming Brokeback Mountain two decades ago, echoes of that film swirl about SWoL’s tale of the aging gunslingers’ heated reunion. Blessedly, customary dithering over social stigma and repressive barriers are blithely evaded in favor of true mano a mano passions fueling climactic duels. At its Cannes premiere, Almodóvar teased that SWoL could be a prelude to an eventual feature, but however charming the protagonists, extending the narrative further would almost certainly engender diminishing returns. As Jake foresaw all those years ago, even the most alluring entanglements between intrinsically mismatched partners can prove over time all too easy to quit. R. JAY HORTON. Cinema 21, City Center, Movies on TV.

ELEVATOR GAME

The latest horror film from director Rebekah McKendry (Glorious, Psycho Granny) is based on the real-life online phenomenon in which people attempt to travel to another dimension by using an elevator and a specific set of rules.

Gino Anania portrays Ryan, a teen whose sister disappeared months earlier after playing the eponymous game—and in an attempt to track down his sibling, Ryan talks a myth-busting group into participating in the ritual (alas, none of them is prepared when they come up against the deadly “Fifth Floor Woman”). The film’s core concept works fine in short form, but as a feature, the idea feels stretched thin. And while the Fifth Floor Woman is admittedly creepy in appearance, her story is surrounded by horror tropes like contorting bodies, salt circles and nursery rhymes. Like an elevator itself, Elevator Game is a functional machine that provides an instantly forgettable ride. NR. DANIEL RESTER. Shudder.

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 OCTOBER 11, 2023 wweek.com

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TRUE SCENES FROM THE STREETS! @sketchypeoplepdx

26

Willamette Week OCTOBER 11, 2023 wweek.com

by Jack Kent

JONESIN’

FREE WILL

B Y M AT T J O N E S

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

ASTROLOGY ARIES (March 21-April 19): The Indigenous Semai

people of Malaysia have an unusual taboo. They try hard not to cause unhappiness in others. This makes them reluctant to impose their wishes on anyone. Even parents hesitate to force their children to do things. I recommend you experiment with this practice. Now is an excellent time to refine your effect on people to be as benevolent and welcoming as possible. Don't worry—you won't have to be this kind and sweet forever.

But doing so temporarily could generate timely enhancements in your relationship life.

TAURUS

(April 20-May 20): Taurus author Shakespeare reshaped the English language. He coined hundreds of words and revised the meanings of hundreds more. Idioms like “green-eyed monster” and “milk of human kindness” originated with him. But the Bard also created some innovations that didn’t last. “Recover the wind” appeared in Hamlet but never came into wide use. Other failures include, “Would you take eggs for money?” and “from smoke to smother.” Still, Shakespeare’s final tally of enduring neologisms is impressive. With this vignette, I’m inviting you to celebrate how many more successes than flops you have had. The time is right for realistic self-praise.

GEMINI

ACROSS 1. Cinema showing 5. Antibacterial body wash brand 9. Push a product 13. Actor Stonestreet 14. Heavenly figure 16. Ash, for one 17. Message that you missed an entire state at your door while out for a stroll?

20. Familial-sounding U.K. trip-hop group that once enlisted DJ Shadow, Thom Yorke, and Mike D

52. 2009 movie with a 2022 sequel

25. Head out from the airport

53. Scientist's workplace

26. Rescue financially

54. Chef's cutting gadget

27. 2022 World Cup winner (abbr.)

56. Near an open flame or eating holes in my sweater, probably?

63. Thor's father

30. Submit, as an absentee ballot

64. Accumulated, as a bill

31. Pointer finger

65. Rug stat

35. "For what reason?"

66. Simon of "Hot Fuzz"

37. German white wine

67. Largemouth fish

40. Exch. purchase

68. Coin with a Lincoln profile

21. UT campus

DOWN

22. Tagline intoned gruffly in many Halloween horror movie trailers

1. Not so many 2. Savings plan option

25. Had regrets

3. Word before Jon or Wayne

29. Where purple dinosaurs are ground into powder?

4. Rod who wrote the 1974 #1 hit "Seasons in the Sun"

32. Poi-making need

5. Bread that often contains molasses

33. Writer Roxane of the short story collection "Difficult Women" 34. "A Prayer for Owen _ _ _" (John Irving novel)

28. Homer Simpson grunt

6. Part of IHOP 7. "The Night of the Hunter" screenwriter James

41. Reason for OT 43. Relatively tame (but dizzying) Disneyland ride 45. Forensic letters 46. Arcade game with fastmoving arrows that (gasp) turned 25 this year, for short 48. Fencing weapon 49. Airport runway surface 51. Breakfast sandwich meat 54. "Electra Woman and _ _ _ Girl" ('70s series) 55. Promises to pay, for short 56. Short trip

35. Place on a scale

8. "Superman" archvillain Luthor

36. _ _ _ Lanka

9. Walked with confidence

58. Drag accessory

10. Edwardian or Elizabethan, e.g.

59. Key above Caps Lock

11. Cariou who played Sweeney Todd on Broadway

61. X, on a clock

38. Vow at an altar 39. Measure from an annual checkup, perhaps 40. Unemotional one 42. Singer-songwriter Frizzell

12. Something to stand on

44. Like 39, 49, 59, you get the idea

18. Native to a particular region

47. It may be signaled with a whistle 48. German connecting word that's, like, the height of a human?

50. Captain Kangaroo player Bob

15. Put a tag on

19. Word fragment (abbr.)

22. "Notorious" SCOTUS member of the 2010s 23. Remote control battery size

57. Lyric verse

60. Minecraft resource 62. Fedora, e.g.

last week’s answers

(May 21-June 20): I hope beauty will be your priority in the coming weeks. I hope you will seek out beauty, celebrate it, and commune with it adoringly. To assist your efforts, I offer five gems: 1. Whatever you love is beautiful; love comes first, beauty follows. The greater your capacity for love, the more beauty you find in the world. —Jane Smiley. 2. The world is incomprehensibly beautiful—an endless prospect of magic and wonder. —Ansel Adams. 3. A beautiful thing is never perfect. —Egyptian proverb. 4. You can make the world beautiful just by refusing to lie about it. —Iain S. Thomas. 5. Beauty isn’t a special inserted sort of thing. It is just life, pure life, life nascent, running clear and strong. –H. G. Wells.

CANCER

(June 21-July 22): I read a review that described a certain movie as having "a soft, tenuous incandescence—like fog lit by the glow of fireflies." That sounds like who you are these days, Cancerian. You're mysterious yet luminous; hard to decipher but overflowing with life energy; fuzzy around the edges but radiating warmth and well-being. I encourage you to remain faithful to this assignment for now. It's not a state you will inhabit forever, but it's what's needed and true for the foreseeable future.

LEO

(July 23-Aug. 22): The published work of Leo author Thomas de Quincey fills 14 volumes.

He inspired superstar writers like Edgar Allan Poe, Charles Baudelaire, Nikolai Gogol, and Jorge Luis Borges. Yet he also ingested opium for 54 years and was often addicted. Cultural historian Mike Jay says de Quincey was not selfmedicating or escaping reality, but rather keen on “exploring the hidden recesses of his mind.”

He used it to dwell in states of awareness that were otherwise unattainable. I don’t encourage you to take drugs or follow de Quincey’s path, Leo. But I believe the time is right to explore the hidden recesses of your mind via other means.

Like what? Working with your nightly dreams?

Meditating your ass off? Having soul-altering sex with someone who wants to explore hidden recesses, too? Any others?

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Virgo journalist H. L

Mencken said, "The average person doesn’t want to be free. He wants to be safe." There's some truth in that, but I believe it will be irrelevant for you in the coming months. According to my analysis, you can be both safer and freer than you've been in a long time. I hope you take full advantage! Brainstorm about unexpected feats you might be able to accomplish during this state of grace.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Libran philosopher

and writer Michel Foucalt aspired to open up his readers’ minds with novel ideas. He said his task was to make windows where there had been walls. I’d like to borrow his approach for your use

WEEK OF OCTOBER 12

© 2023 ROB BREZSNY

in the coming weeks. It might be the most fun to demolish the walls that are subdividing your world and keeping you preventing free and easy interchange. But I suspect that’s unrealistic.

What’s more likely is partial success: creating windows in the walls.

SCORPIO

(Oct. 23-Nov. 21): More and more older people are transitioning to different genders.

An article in The Guardian (tinyurl.com/GenderMeaning) describes how Bethan Henshaw, a warehouse worker, transitioned to female at age 57. Ramses Underhill-Smith became a man in his 40s. With this as your starting point, I invite you to re-evaluate your personal meanings of gender.

Please note I’m not implying you should change your designation. Astrological omens simply suggest that you will benefit from expanding your ideas. Here's Scorpio singer Sophie B. Hawkins, a mother who says she is omnisexual: "My sexuality stems from an emotional connection to someone’s soul. You don’t have to make a gender choice and stick with it."

SAGITTARIUS

(Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Sagittarian author Mark Twain said that in urgent or trying circumstances, uttering profanities “furnishes a relief denied even to prayer." I will add that these magic words can be downright catalytic and healing—especially for you right now. Here are situations in which swearing could be therapeutic in the coming weeks: 1. when people take themselves too seriously; 2.when you need to escape feelings of powerlessness; 3. when knowit-alls are trying to limit the range of what can be said; 4. when people seem frozen or stunned and don't know what to do next. In all these cases, well-placed expletives could provide necessary jolts to shift the stuck energy. (PS: Have fun using other surprises, ploys, and twists to shake things up for a good cause.)

CAPRICORN

(Dec. 22-Jan. 19): In Roman mythology, Venus was goddess of love, desire, and beauty. Yet modern science tells us the planet Venus is blanketed with sulfuric acid clouds, has a surface temperature of 867 degrees Fahrenheit, and is covered with 85,000 volcanoes. Why are the two Venuses out of sync? Here’s a clue, courtesy of occultist Dion Fortune. She said the goddess Venus is often a disturbing influence in the world, diverting us from life’s serious business. I can personally attest to the ways that my affinity for love, desire, and beauty have distracted me from becoming a hard-driving billionaire tech entrepreneur. But I wouldn’t have it any other way. How about you, Capricorn? I predict that the goddess version of Venus will be extra active in your life during the coming months.

AQUARIUS

(Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Thousands of heirloom food species are privately owned and hoarded. They once belonged to Indigenous people but haven't been grown for decades.

Descendants of their original owners are trying to get them back and grow them again—a process they call rematriation—but they meet resistance from companies and governmental agencies that commandeered the seeds. There has been some progress, though. The Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin has recovered some of its ancestral corn, beans, and squash. Now would be a good time for you Aquarians to launch your own version of rematriation: reclaiming what was originally yours and that truly belongs to you.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): I like Piscean poet Jane Hirshfield's understanding of what "lies at the core of ritual." She says it's "the entrance into a mystery that can be touched but not possessed."

My wish for you right now, Pisces, is that you will experience mysteries that can be touched but not possessed. To do so will give you direct access to prime riddles at the heart of your destiny. You will commune with sublime conundrums that rouse deep feelings and rich insights, none of which are fully explicable by your logical mind.

Please consider performing a homemade sacred ritual or two.

Homework: What burden are you too attached to? Newsletter.FreeWillAstrology.com

24. "Have a sample"

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