The Mercury provides news and fun every single day—but your help is essential. If you believe Portland benefits from smart, local journalism and arts coverage, please consider making a small monthly contribution, because without you, there is no us. Thanks for your support!

GOOD AFTERNOON, PORTLAND! Saaaaay, if you get stuck inside by all this frosty weather we're having out there, you may want to spend your time wisely... by filling out the Mercury's SEX SURVEY! It has tons of sexy, fun questions to answer, and... who knows? It may even give you *ideas* on how to spend the rest of your evening! But before you get carried away, here's some only somewhat sexy NEWS.

IN LOCAL NEWS:

• Speaking of frosty weather, Portland is opening four emergency warming shelters at 8 pm tonight for those who won't be able to escape the frigid temps that are predicted to drop to a low of 23 degrees. 🥶 Look out for your houseless neighbors especially, and let's not forget that it was new Commissioner Rene Gonzalez who chose this point in this frigid winter season to stop his bureau employees from delivering life-saving tents and tarps to those who can't escape the weather. YOU VOTED FOR HIM, PORTLAND. (Don't make the same mistake twice!)

Four emergency shelters will open in Portland Wednesday at 8 pm as overnight temperatures plunge below freezing. https://t.co/FlHHayyuuR

— Portland Mercury 🗞 (@portlandmercury) February 22, 2023

• Speaking of snow-y stuff, it's really coming down as I write this, and the entire region is under a winter weather advisory, which could make for a slippy-slidey trip home for Portland commuters. Most of the lowland area is predicted to get up to three inches of snow by tomorrow, so be safe out there!

It's been two years since we've seen this much snow widespread in the metro area. 6-10" fell Valentine's Weekend 2021. Although that was freezing rain for south metro and valley. pic.twitter.com/Reuz2LGGV2

— Mark Nelsen (@MarkNelsenKPTV) February 23, 2023

• Today the City Council heard testimony on a new proposal from the city auditor that would allow Portlanders to vote for a "transparency watchdog" to make sure citizens know what the local government is up to—and the council not only tabled the resolution, but voted to put the onus on the auditor to review transparency practices? OMIGOD, I cannot wait to vote these people out!

After talking about how important transparency is to the city, Portland City Council voted to indefinitely tabled a proposal to create a transparency watchdog—then passed a surprise resolution directing the auditor to review transparency practices in the city. Story tk.

— Isabella Garcia (@isabellaaliciaa) February 23, 2023

Originally published by Underscore News.

When artist Jeffrey Gibson reflected on the 2020 social uprising embodied by the Black Lives Matter movement and activism for Indigenous rights in Portland, Gibson knew he could create something special.

Gibson, a citizen of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw who also has Cherokee ancestry, and Kathleen Ash-Milby, curator of Native American art at Portland Art Museum, saw an opportunity to use the vacant pedestals that once held statues of problematic and glorified presidents like Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt. They wanted to reclaim those spaces with visual rhetoric and performance.

Gibson and Ash-Milby, a citizen of the Navajo Nation, were surprised when 138 people showed up to a call for portrait subjects. With so many willing participants, Gibson and photographer Brian Barlow, spent three full days photographing children, distinguished elders, LGBTQ+ artists and activists.

“I didn’t tell anyone to bring anything; the only thing I asked of them was to present themselves the way they wished to be seen,” said Gibson.

Holy February, there’s new developments all over the place! Snuggle in and listen up, children!

This week we're excited (and pleasantly surprised) to consume two new releases involving Portland’s music scene: a film series starring Portland hip-hop artists, and a new song and performance video from indie pop band Small Million. Further down the road, Rico Nasty will pay the Roseland a much-needed visit this spring. 

MUST-SEE:

Can’t miss upcoming events.              

Small Million

Newly signed to Portland’s Tender Loving Empire, Portland-based indie pop band Small Million just released its first single under the label on February 7, titled “The Overkill.” What’s more? The band is playing a headliner show at Polaris Hall on March 4—that’s right around the corner. The creative merging of Ryan Linder and lead vocalist Malachi Graham is known for making deeply stirring, cinematic backdrops that are both epic and intimate (making the band’s oxymoron moniker make sense), and the two are fleshed out by drummer Ben Tyler (Small Skies), and Kale Chesney (Lo Pony) on bass and harmonies. A single liner note on BandCamp explains the song “is not about your fun night out but about stumbling home afterwards relentlessly churning on everything you overshared.” At the song’s peak, Graham emotively sings: “I’m drowning myself in the overkill, overkill/ Overnight at the club/ Overserved, sobered up/ Overcoat, in the cab/ Overplayed my own hand/ Overthought what I said/ It's a drug I regret/I regret I regret I regret.” For a tease of what that audience is in for, check out this stunning live performance video for “The Overkill” that dropped today, and was filmed and recorded at Portland recording studio The Rye Room. 
(Sat March 4, 8 pm, Polaris Hall, 635 N Killingsworth Ct, $13, w/ Les Gold & New Body Electric, tickets here)

CALLING ALL BOOZE LOVERS!

It's here! It's here! It's the triumphant return of the Portland Mercury's HIGHBALL! That's correct: We're currently in the middle of an ENTIRE WEEK (now through February 26) of specially crafted, original cocktails mixed by the best bartenders in town… and get this, they're only $8 each! 🤯 We've teamed up with the finest bars and restaurants in Portland—along with our cocktail-lovin' pals at Jim Beam—to bring you this one-of-a-kind booze-tacular! At each of Highball's locations, you'll find $8 specially crafted cocktails, and even better? They'll be available ALL DAY (not just during happy hour)! 

Want to take a sneaky peek at some of the GORGEOUS cocktails you'll be sipping during Highball? CHECK THESE OUT!

The Mercury provides news and fun every single day—but your help is essential. If you believe Portland benefits from smart, local journalism and arts coverage, please consider making a small monthly contribution, because without you, there is no us. Thanks for your support!

Good Morning, Portland! It is gently dusting snow at this very moment. Is it gently dusting snow where you are? How about some news?

IN LOCAL NEWS:
• SNOWING? WILL IT SNOW? IS IT SNOW? IS SCHOOL CLOSED? There seems to be a light dusting of frozen precipitation sticking at higher elevations in the Portland metro, and you know that means Portlanders are about to lose their dang minds.

• Mercury News Editor Isabella Garcia reported yesterday that Portland City Council will soon vote (today?) on whether Portlanders should be allowed to vote (this is confusing!) on the creation of a new city watchdog position. A Transparency Advocate would work to ensure the city follows public records laws, like following best practices for government transparency. Portland's city auditor supports this idea, but the Oregonian's Shane Kavanaugh reports the council is likely to vote against giving Portlanders the choice:

News: Portland's newly elected auditor, Simone Rede, wants the City Council to refer a ballot measure in May to create a new transparency advocate /watchdog —a proposal championed by civic & good government groups.

Council is likely to torpedo it tomorrow.https://t.co/DpqtctAa5O

— Shane D. Kavanaugh (@shanedkavanaugh) February 22, 2023

• Portland-area postal workers held a rally at the East Portland Post Office, on Monday, calling for raised wages and increased benefits. USPS worker unions are not allowed to go on strike, but an organizer with Communities and Postal Workers United told OPB's Alex Hasenstab that letter carriers are sometimes working 12 hours or more several days a week. 

• About that ECONorthwest study on Portland's doomed economy (financed by the Portland Business Alliance):

Once you get past business leaders describing life-saving pandemic restrictions as having "costs and benefits," there is a lot interesting in this story.
https://t.co/lTwFHjAvw6

— Ryan Haas (@ryanjhaas) February 22, 2023

The Mercury provides news and fun every single day—but your help is essential. If you believe Portland benefits from smart, local journalism and arts coverage, please consider making a small monthly contribution, because without you, there is no us. Thanks for your support!

Good Afternoon, Portland! There's a story I got from a Frank O'Hara book where the poet would order a highball on his lunch break—his recipe was: half something, half something else, and make it fast—but I can't remember what book it was in, or if it was just Lunch Poems. The Mercury's Highball week has way more on offer than something and something else. More than 30 bars and restaurants are serving up delicious, considered cocktails for just $8  all week long—check it out! Now onto the news.

IN LOCAL NEWS:
• Tomorrow, Portland City Council will vote on whether Portlanders should vote on the creation of a new city watchdog position. A Transparency Advocate would work to ensure the city follows public records laws, like posting meeting agendas and notes, and following best practices for government transparency. Portland's city auditor supports this idea, but government transparency is not exactly Oregon's style. Isabella Garcia has the story.

• Biketown is raising its rates! Members of the electric bikeshare service will see their fares go from $0.10 a minute to $0.15—and the rest of us are going from $0.20 to $0.30. Bike Portland has more.

• There hasn’t been a Bumbershoot music festival in Seattle since 2019, and that’s not just because of COVID. But this September, the weekend music fest will return to the Seattle Center under new production partner. The Stranger's Megan Selling has the details. Oh, there's wrestling now? Okay.

Portland City Council will decide Wednesday whether or not Portlanders should vote on the creation of a new city watchdog position responsible for ensuring the city is following public records laws, like posting meeting agendas and notes, and following best practices for government transparency. The proposal for a Transparency Advocate is supported by the city auditor and, if approved by council, would appear on the special election ballot in May.

"This is the unfinished business of the charter commission,” City Auditor Simone Rede told the Mercury. “In order for the public to have trust that our new form of government is developing as intended, we need to have clear channels for the public to be involved and participate in their government."

The proposal for the creation of a transparency advocate in Portland stemmed from the city’s Charter review process, during which a volunteer commission proposed amendments to Portland’s charter, which functions as the city’s constitution. The proposal was first pitched to the commission in June 2021, supported by transparency advocates with Open Oregon, ACLU Oregon, the League of Women Voters, and the Oregon chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. However, as the Charter Review Commission focused on overhauling the city’s form of government, the proposal to create a transparency advocate within the City Auditor’s office was not prioritized. When the commission voted on their final charter amendments in December 2022, commission members opted to refer the proposal to City Council for final determination, citing a lack of time to familiarize themselves with the specifics of the proposal. 

The 18th annual HUMP! Film Festival is coming! (lol) 

A brand new lineup of sexy, dirty, funny, kinky, hot, and weird short films will premiere at Revolution Hall on March 3, with showings every weekend through March 11. And tickets are ON SALE NOW! Why am I yelling? Because tickets are selling FAST, and we're already heading toward a sell out. So GET THOSE TICKETS NOW AND HERE!

What's that? You'd like me to calm down and tell you a few more enticing details? How's this: Check out the official 2023 HUMP! Film Festival trailer and lineup BELOW!

Nowhere—not even “climate-proof Duluth” or Buffalo—is safe from the ravages of climate change. Even seasonal-affective-disorder-inducing cloud cover can’t protect Portland from a now-annual wildfire season and the occasional devastating heat dome. But will the ravages of climate change eventually push Portlanders to safer locations?

After spending significant time in post-disaster communities across the United States—from California to Louisiana to Virginia—Jake Bittle, climate journalist and author of The Great Displacement: Climate Change and the Next American Migration, concludes that where we choose to live in the midst of ecological collapse is a question of belonging and economics. It’s a “fallacy,” Bittle says, to think that people move from climate change-affected areas once the perceived risk is too high. Rather, they stay until it’s too economically difficult to do so—or until they don’t have a house, period. To Bittle, that difference means the US won’t experience climate migration (people moving to safer places), but climate displacement: being pushed from place to place without a specific refuge in their sights.

My boyfriend of six months wants to try pegging and I’m down. But he wants “the whole experience,” which means sucking the dildo too. That raises a red flag for me. I know how this sounds before I even ask, so please forgive me if this question is insensitive. But does his desire to suck on the dildo indicate gay or bi tendencies? He says he’s not attracted to men, but he will sometimes make remarks about a “good looking guy” he saw. He also told me he had a threesome in his early 20s with a married couple and that the husband sucked him off. He says he hasn’t done anything like that since—and he’s had tons of sex and done a lot of freaky stuff. Is this a kink? Would this leave him wanting the real thing? He wants to get married and all that. Should I be concerned?

Wondering About Sexual Proclivities

I’m gonna crawl out on a limb here and assume your boyfriend has demonstrated—to your satisfaction—that he enjoys straight sex. Or opposite-sex sex, I should say, since not everyone who has “straight” sex is straight. Bisexuals have “straight” sex all the time; sometimes even gays and lesbians have “straight” sex, and not always under the duress of the closet. Just as some straights are heteroflexible, some gays and lesbians are homoflexible.

Anyway, I’m gonna assume...

Click here to read the rest of this week's Mini Savage Love (free-to-all).

The Mercury provides news and fun every single day—but your help is essential. If you believe Portland benefits from smart, local journalism and arts coverage, please consider making a small monthly contribution, because without you, there is no us. Thanks for your support!

Good morning, Portland! If you’re looking for a new place to drink this week, you’re in luck: The Mercury’s Highball Week is happening now! More than 30 bars and restaurants are serving up delicious cocktails for just $8 all week long—check out the goods! Now onto the news.

In local news:

• An independent review of a 2021 fatal shooting of a man in a mental crisis by the Tigard police found that the police’s lack of coordination led to a “chaotic tactical response.” Tigard police were responding to a mental health call where Jacob Macduff had locked himself in his car outside of his apartment. While trying to remove Macduff from the car, an officer said he felt threatened when he saw a knife in Macduff’s lap and proceeded to shoot him eight times. A grand jury found the officer justified in the shooting while the city of Tigard settled with Macduff’s family for $3.8 million.  

• It’s a cold one this week. Tuesday is expected to be rainy and windy (with a slight chance of thunderstorms in the afternoon) and Portland may see some snow overnight into Wednesday. The real kicker is the overnight lows, which hover in the mid- to low-20s for most of the week.

At Portland’s Robot Alley, droids and Stormtroopers speak to passersbyhttps://t.co/FtL5WwQaHq

Video by @EditorSwindler /The Oregonian pic.twitter.com/eCHx8UI5Tg

— The Oregonian (@Oregonian) February 21, 2023

The Mercury provides news and fun every single day—but your help is essential. If you believe Portland benefits from smart, local journalism and arts coverage, please consider making a small monthly contribution, because without you, there is no us. Thanks for your support!

Good afternoon, Portland! I hope you're celebrating President's Day appropriately (whatever that may look like... what does it look like?), and ready to tuck into some NEWS.

IN LOCAL NEWS:

• Progressives are out of luck at City Hall right now, but that could change when the council expands in 2025—and a new Candidate School debuting this summer, from the political action committee Our Portland, is designed to help teach potential progressive candidates and campaign workers what it takes to get elected. 

Eyeing the expansion of Portland City Council in 2025, former mayoral candidate Sarah Iannarone and Our Portland, a political action committee, are launching a school for prospective candidates this summer. https://t.co/NpxyEhCKEo

— Portland Mercury 🗞 (@portlandmercury) February 20, 2023

• New data provided by Multnomah County and reported by the Oregonian on Monday found that of the roughly 1,700 houseless Portlanders offered shelter during sweeps of encampments over the last ten months, fewer than one percent are permanently housed today. A really solid showing from our data-driven city government here. 

• Mayor Ted Wheeler declared that he's "made for this moment" in an Oregonian profile over the weekend, which presumably caused uproarious laughter and spit-takes around kitchen tables all over the city. 

We've combed through all of the events in our calendar to bring you this week's cream of the crop, which you'll find below, from Bruce Springsteen to An Evening with The Roots and from The Portland Mercury's Highball to Hillsbrew Fest.

MONDAY

FILM

Cléo from 5 to 7
Agnès Varda's Cléo from 5 to 7 is nothing if not a French New Wave masterpiece—it even includes cameos by Jean-Luc Godard and Anna Karina. The film blends vivid vérité and melodrama to follow a troubled pop star who wanders Parisian streets while awaiting the results of a biopsy.
(Hollywood Theatre, Hollywood District)

When former mayoral candidate Sarah Iannarone launched her second campaign in 2019, she still had plenty to learn about being a major candidate for public office. Some of the lessons were predictable. Others were not. 

“One of the first things that someone taught me when I was running for office was how to get fitted for a proper bra,” Iannarone said. “I didn’t even know that that was a thing.”

Judith Rizzio joined Iannarone’s campaign as a “style activist” that year, and one of her first directives in the role was to send the candidate to The Pencil Test, a boutique then located on NE Alberta St., with an assignment: buy two bras that fit.

The focus on Iannarone’s style didn’t stop there. Rizzio said that during the course of the campaign, which Iannarone ultimately lost to incumbent Mayor Ted Wheeler, the pair scrutinized everything from Iannarone’s glasses to the collars on her shirts to the size of her earrings.

“Wherever you are as a candidate, you are being looked at,” Rizzio said.