It's the first long weekend of the year, and we've got plenty of suggestions for how to spend it, with events from Sophie Truax to Love in a F*cked-Up World: Dean Spade, plus opportunities to celebrate MLK Day like Don't Shoot PDX's 11th Annual Reclaim MLK March for Human Rights & Dignity. For more ideas, check out our guide to the top events of the week.

FRIDAY

FILM

Gone Girl // Ethereal Reflections Murder Mystery Party
Ethereal Reflections—the pop-up gallery collective hosting some of the buzziest wine nights, art shows, and reading parties in the city—seems to have the magic touch when it comes to events with a perfect cross-section of chicness and fun. A screening of cool girl takedown Gone Girl that's preceded by an actual murder mystery game with a bunch of strangers? I'm in!! If you're also a fan of fun, head to Tomorrow Theater for the experience, which should confirm my suspicions that murder is entertaining, sometimes. LINDSAY COSTELLO
(PAM CUT's Tomorrow Theater, Richmond, $15)

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Good Morning, Portland: Why do the birds continue to scream into the void, their voices broken and fragmented, dancing through the air like desperate whispers? Why do the stars flicker, cold, distant—alive above us? Don't they know that David Lynch has died? We are like the dreamer who dreams and then lives inside the dream. Let's hit the news.

IN LOCAL NEWS:
• Portland City Council created eight new committees yesterday, tasked with discussing city policy subjects like transportation and infrastructure, housing, arts, and the economy. Mercury reporter Taylor Griggs has more on why that's actually important.

• The Oregon DMV has debuted several "self-service express kiosks" in Fred Meyer stores around Portland (but not in Portland). Folks willing to fork over an additional $4.95 transaction fee can now renew their vehicle registration and print out new license plate stickers from a convenient supermarket chain everything store. And while Fred Meyers are only marginally less annoying to go to than the DMV, it seems kind of off that the state DMV is creating monopolized access in what are essentially Krogers. 

• Hot new werewolf movie Wolf Man hits theaters starting today. Why do you care? Because it was written and directed by Leigh Whannell, who wrote and directed the well-regarded The Invisible Man. Is it any good? And what does it have to do with that The Mummy remake starring Tom Cruise from 2017? Film critic Dom Sinacola explains.

Among the many changes to Portland’s city government, one of the most consequential—for both councilors and members of the public—is the introduction of council committees. These committees, which City Council members hashed out at a Wednesday evening meeting, will serve as the primary venue for councilors to “consider, develop, and recommend legislation.” They’ll also be the principal avenue for public engagement with proposed city policy. 

At a January 15 meeting, City Council voted to create eight new committees, each of which will consist of five members tasked with discussing city policy subjects from transportation and infrastructure, to housing, arts, and the economy. 

The council committees mark a break from the practices of Portland’s previous City Council, in which commissioners were assigned administrative oversight of city bureaus and offices. That’s no longer the case under the city’s new form of government, in which councilors’ roles are more akin to those of state legislators. Committees will allow the Council to carve out areas of focus.

Genre-bending trio Khruangbin brings their A La Sala tour to Bend this May. Seattle son Perfume Genius announced his seventh studio album Glory along with an upcoming tour this week. Plus, Coheed and Cambria & Taking Back Sunday will take over Edgefield on a Saturday in September. 

ON SALE FRIDAY, JANUARY 17

MUSIC

2025 Americana Harvest Fest: The Milk Carton Kids
Topaz Farm (Tues July 22)

2025 Americana Harvest Fest: Josiah and the Bonnevilles
Topaz Farm (Thurs July 24)

2025 Americana Harvest Fest: Horse Feathers
Topaz Farm (Thurs Aug 21)

Wolf Man is the latest remake in a culture haunted by remakes. Look only a few weeks back to Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu, an adaptation of F.W. Murnau’s 1922 Nosferatu, which was an adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, with key details and names altered to avoid legal action. Though Dracula entered the public domain in the ’60s—which allowed Werner Herzog and Francis Ford Coppola to interpret the book—Eggers remade Murnau’s work over Stoker’s novel, further recycling and recontextualizing a well-known story about a vampire buying real estate and pushing us further and further from the source. 

Eggers adapted an adaptation as much as he’s adapted our popular conception of the first adaptation—drawing on more than a century and countless iterations. Remakes of remakes of remakes; it’s enough to make anyone think there are no young stories anymore, only the increasingly grotesque transformation of the old.

So, with grotesque transformation in mind: Wolf Man is Leigh Whannell’s fourth film as writer-director. It’s also his second remake of a classic horror title, following 2020’s The Invisible Man, which was the first successful reboot of a Universal Monster property after the whole Dark Universe idea fell apart. Remember Tom Cruise’s The Mummy? From 2017? Probably not; it was such a colossal flop it completely extinguished all hope for a new dark ‘n’ gritty shared cinematic landscape for the Universal monsters. The studio course-corrected with Whannell and doubled down on keeping these new remakes self-contained.

Portland, if you love the Mercury's annual Burger Week, then you're going to flip ass-over-teakettle for our newest (and perhaps funnest) food week ever... the Portland Mercury's WIENER WEEK!

That's correct: For one short week (Monday, January 27 through Sunday, February 2), more than 40 (!) of the city’s boldest chefs will craft their most creative, flavor-packed wieners for just $8 a pop. And a special thanks from our pals at Zenner’s and Jim Beam for all their support!

Whether you like ‘em spicy, saucy, or piled high with unexpected toppings, we promise these buns will be packed with something new and exciting! 

Take a look at all those gorgeous wieners here! But before you set off on a glorious, full week of huffing down wieners, here are a few hot tips to keep in mind:

Who's ready to have some fun? Well, the Mercury is here to help with FREE TICKETS to see some of Portland's best concerts and events—our way of saying thanks to our great readers and spread the word about some fantastic upcoming performances! (Psst... if you want to say thanks to the Mercury, please consider making a small monthly contribution to keep us alive and kickin'!) And oh boy, do we have some fun events coming at ya this week! CHECK IT OUT!

• Enter to WIN FREE TICKETS to see Tim Heidecker on January 24 at Revolution Hall!

Visiting on The Slipping Away Tour, Tim Heidecker returns to Portland with The Very Good Band for a perfect evening of music and comedy. Comedian Kyle Mooney joins in support! Get your tickets now or enter to win a free pair of tix here!

Revolution Hall, 1300 SE Stark, Fri Jan 24, 8 pm, $39.50-$114.50, all ages

• Enter to WIN FREE TICKETS to see Shook Twins on January 25 at Aladdin Theater!

Dreamy folk duo Shook Twins joins forces with radiant indie outfit Glitterfox for a spellbinding coheadline at Aladdin Theater! This show is sold out, so enter to win a free pair of tix here!

Aladdin Theater, 3017 SE Milwaukie, Sat Jan 25, 8 pm, sold out, all ages

GREETINGS, BRAINY BOTTOM! It's time once again to put your brainy-brain to the test with this week's edition of POP QUIZ PDX—our weekly, local, sassy-ass trivia quiz. And in this edition, we're testing your knowledge on a variety of topics including local crows, the best name for a snow plow, celebrity bike rides, and your mom's fave clothing store WHICH IS CLOSING. (Hope she finds a new place to buy her mom jeans!) 👩‍💼🤔

READY TO START? Take this week's quiz below, take our previous pop quizzes here, and come back IN TWO WEEKS for a brand spankin' new quiz—going on vacay! (Having a tough time answering this quiz? It's probably because you aren't getting Mercury newsletters! HINT! HINT!) Now crank up that cerebellum, because it's time to get BRAINY!

 Create your own user feedback survey

If you’re reading this, you probably know the value of the Mercury’s news reporting, arts and culture coverage, event calendar, and the bevy of events we host throughout the year. The work we do helps our city shine, but we can’t do it without your support. 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's going to be chilly and cloudy today, so I hope you caught some rays yesterday. The sun should return over the weekend, but temperatures will stay low. Still, we're expected to remain in a dry spell for some time. Nice for taking brisk walks, bad for our foliage and preventing fire season. Let's get some more rain soon, IMO. 

Ok, here's the news.

A previous version of this story incorrectly stated the Government Transition Advisory Committee's Council staffing recommendations. The Mercury regrets the error.

"Kneecapped." "Defunded." "Not set up for success."

Portland's city councilors had blunt words to describe the budget bestowed on them by the prior Council.

The city’s new 12-person City Council voted Wednesday evening to increase their budget by nearly $4.6 million. The budget increase includes extra funding for the mayor’s office. Currently, each councilor has one dedicated staffer, and the council has nine shared staff. In a memo last year, Portland’s Government Transition Advisory Committee (GTAC) cautioned that one staffer per councilor would be inadequate. The memo noted that Portland "would have the lowest per-councilor staffing" of any peer city GTAC evaluated.

Councilors said the funds should cover the hiring of one additional staffer for each of them, allowing them to better serve constituents. The funds are unlikely to cover in-district offices, leaving councilors to continue working out of offices in City Hall for now. 

Well folks, if you’re reading this you’ve made it to 2025. This week we vehemently support the seasonal urge to be a hermit, unless you have a really good reason to leave the house. One such good reason includes an early-February charity event that’ll take the form of a live Revolutions Per Movie podcast taping, as well as a movie screening and Portugal. The Man mini-concert. Before that, get into two new music releases that deserve your attention—right Hear in Portland. 

MUST LISTEN: 

New release(s) from a Portland-relevant artist. 

“Move!” Keeks

On January 8, rapper & local ballroom star Keeks (formerly known as Maarquii) dropped her second single to come out under her new moniker to major streaming platforms. “Move!” addresses and claps back at the violence being committed against trans women around the country—typically at the hands of cishet men.  “I would really advise you hoes to leave the dolls the fuck alone,” says Keeks at the top of the song before getting into her first verse. Over an industrial beat by Snugsworth—generously peppered with distorted guitar—Keeks encourages other femme queens to defend themselves by any means necessary: “News flash: Aint nobody trickin’ him/ bitch come get your nigga from me and my bitches have to put the blick in him/ I’m a leave a sharp stick in him/ now your family is missing him/ I’m blowing a kiss to the casket/ I’ve about had enough of the racket.” In the chorus, Keeks urgently chants her plainly stated advisory: “Move, niggas getting violent/ These niggas ain’t okay/ These niggas getting aggravated and I’m trying to see another day.” In an Instagram caption promoting the single, Keeks wrote: “The election was so funny to me because either way nothing was going to change for trans women! I’m absolutely sick of the dehumanization, the sensationalist and harmful rhetoric, the whole lot [of] it. I don’t believe in fear mongering but I do believe in being realistic,” she says, adding “Dolls, it’s time to take note of the way we keep ourselves and each other safe and protected.” We concur.

The largest health care worker strike in Oregon history is continuing this week, with thousands of Providence nurses and a number of doctors taking to picket lines across the state. 

Health care workers began their strike on Friday, January 10. They have two central points of contention with Providence: staffing levels and compensation.

Providence, a nonprofit, Catholic health care organization, has dealt with several strikes in recent years, including in the summer of 2023 and last summer. This one, however, is notable for several reasons. 

Lunar New Year 2025
Lan Su's nearly month-long celebration of the Year of the Snake kicks off on Lunar New Year morning with an energetic lion dance; meet-and-greets with god of wealth caishen, boa constrictors, and a bearded dragon; and hongbao, lucky red envelopes enclosed with a special message for the first 500 visitors. If it's tough to swing a Wednesday morning, visit the garden throughout the month for cultural performances from local dance troupes, martial arts demos, crafts and calligraphy demos, and magical lantern viewing evenings. JANEY WONG
Lan Su Chinese Garden, Old Town-Chinatown (Jan 29–Feb 23)

If you’re reading this, you probably know the value of the Mercury’s news reporting, arts and culture coverage, event calendar, and the bevy of events we host throughout the year. The work we do helps our city shine, but we can’t do it without your support. 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!👋

Oh, hello! Would you like your personal love note to run in the print version of the Portland Mercury (available at 500 spots around town) for Valentine's Day? Then listen up, love bugs! Today (Wednesday, January 15) is your LAST CHANCE to submit your FREE Mercury Reader Valentine for your schmoopy-woopy (AKA sex pal)! But don't fret—we'll still accept and print your valentines online (AKA the internet) through February 15. And now? Here's your daily dose of bullshit (AKA NEWS).

IN LOCAL NEWS:

• After furiously backpedaling last month on his plan to require all city employees to stop remote work and return to their downtown offices at least four days per week, Mayor Keith Wilson is reviving his failed (and wrong-headed) scheme—but this time he's ordering 700 NON-union workers (who can't refuse his demands) to return to the office. Here's your reminder that the city seemingly cares more about the health of downtown businesses and "foot traffic" than employees who prioritize increased productivity, taking care of their children, and not sitting in their cars during impossibly long commutes that they don't get paid for. Anyhoo, our Courtney Vaughn has the details!

• And speaking of labor matters: It took four days of striking for Providence healthcare management to decide to resume negotiating with the roughly 5,000 doctors, nurses, and healthcare workers who walked off the job on Friday. Management hasn't negotiated with union reps since they called for the strike on December 30. Striking workers are asking for higher pay, better working conditions, and more sane nurse-to-patient ratios.

Open the overnight warming shelters asap.

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— Kat Mahoney (@kmahoneylaw.bsky.social) January 14, 2025 at 11:41 PM