Pinching pennies this month? We got you! There's still plenty to do this weekend on the cheap, from The Portland Mercury's Highball to the Workers for Shoofly Bake Sale and from Sandler in the Park to the Mt. Tabor Art Walk. For more suggestions, check out our top event picks of the week.

FRIDAY

FILM

Josie and the Pussycats Bingo
Cult cinema drag starlet Violet Hex will venture out from her typical stompin' grounds at the Clinton Street Theater to host this screening of Josie and the Pussycats, a film that is more emblematic of 2001 aesthetics than practically anything. ("If I could go back in time, I would want to meet Snoopy.") This Tomorrow Theater screening will up the ante in everyone's favorite way: through a game of bingo. Don't forget your daubers, girlies. LINDSAY COSTELLO
(PAM CUT's Tomorrow Theater, Richmond, $15)

If you appreciate the Mercury's interesting and useful news & culture reporting, consider making a small monthly contribution to support our editorial team. Your donation is tax-deductible. 

Good Morning, Portland: We're looking at some classic Portland weather for the weekend: Clouds and rain. Temperature highs in the low 60s and mid-40 degrees at night. Sounds like a great time to enter a log lady contest.

IN LOCAL NEWS:
• Portland's skyline arguably hit the market yesterday as both the PacWest skyscraper and Big Pink (aka US Bancorp Tower) are up for sale.

• So, back in 2015, Portland City Council adopted a Vision Zero resolution, promising to end traffic fatalities and serious injuries on city streets by 2025. WEELP it's 2025, and we're nowhere near that. In fact, traffic crash deaths hit a 30-year high in 2023. To commemorate the 10-year anniversary of Portland's Vision Zero commitment, Councilor Tiffany Koyama Lane is bringing a resolution to double down on the city's pledge to end traffic fatalities. Taylor Griggs has the deets.

• Arts organizations across the state have been reeling from sudden and confusing cuts to National Endowment for the Arts grants that they had been promised. Yesterday the Oregon Humanities Council filed a suit against DOGE, seeking a ruling to block the cuts.

• Mike Schmidt, Multnomah County's former district attorney, is starting a podcast and taking on the name his lobbyist detractors People for Portland emblazoned across the city: The Schmidt Show. After losing the 2024 May primary election to Nathan Vasquez, Schmidt completed his term and moved on to a position as general counsel for the Urban League of Portland. He told the Oregonian he has no plans to monetize the podcast and will focus on positive local news stories [insert Journalist thousand yard eye roll]. In traditional podcast form, Schmidt will host interviews in his parents’ guest bedroom.

Just about 10 years have passed since Portland City Council first adopted a Vision Zero resolution in June 2015, setting the goal to eliminate traffic deaths and serious injuries on the city’s streets. At the time, city leaders said that even though it didn’t set target dates to accomplish its goals or dedicate funding to the mission, the Vision Zero resolution represented more than just words. 

Today, Portland is further from reaching its Vision Zero goals than it was a decade ago. In 2024, 58 people were killed in traffic crashes on Portland’s streets. That number represents a decrease from the record high set in 2023, when 69 people were killed, but is still much higher than the average number of deaths during the first few years after the Vision Zero resolution was adopted. 

To Councilor Tiffany Koyama Lane, these deaths are not just tragedies—they’re policy failures. Next week, Koyama Lane will introduce a resolution to reaffirm Portland City Council’s commitment to the Vision Zero plan, hoping to mark the 2015 resolution’s tenth anniversary as a turning point for the city’s response to traffic violence. 

Pavement has always been a band of uneven proportions. Forever on the precipice of the big time, the group never appeared to try hard enough, to want to be understood enough, and their creative output—off-kilter indie rock that sounded both revolutionary and unintentional—was always a little too much.

They helped define a decade of independent music, but couldn’t seem to move past fringe notoriety. Part earnest experimenters, actively working against the mainstream, and part saints of slackerdom, to whom fans have built deeply ironic reliquaries, Pavement meant something to many, and everything to some.

As Jason Schwartzman says to actors playing the band—in Range Life, the mock biopic that makes up one fourth of Alex Ross Perry’s prismatic new music doc, Pavements—“I know you want to give that 100 percent of that 50 percent you think you might be able to give.”

Text your group chat and make a plan to grab tickets to these newly announced shows before they sell out! “Telepatía” songstress Kali Uchis kicks off her tour in Portland this August. What was that? Lorde will bring ultrasounds to the Moda Center. Plus, the X Ambassadors pay a visit to the Crystal Ballroom for the 10th anniversary of their debut album.

ON SALE FRIDAY, MAY 16

MUSIC

Allan Rayman
Hawthorne Theatre (Wed Oct 15)

Anamanaguchi – The Buckwild Tour
Wonder Ballroom (Sat Sept 6)

Beach Fossils
Wonder Ballroom (Wed Sept 17)

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 Alex Edelman on June 21 at Aladdin Theater! 

One of the most critically hailed comedians of his generation, Alex Edelman is best known for solo shows that blur the line between his stand-up comedy roots and narrative-driven storytelling. Don’t miss a new hour of stand-up from Alex Edelman! Get your tickets now or enter to win a free pair!

Aladdin Theater, 3017 SE Milwaukie, Sat June 21, 7 pm, $47.83-$78.89, 13+

• Enter to WIN FREE TICKETS to see Faun on June 27 at Aladdin Theater! 

Fusing ancient sounds with modern music, FAUN has released 11 studio albums to date, reached platinum status, and topped the German charts. Enjoy their rousing pagan folk when the Munich-based veterans visit on the "World Hex" Tour! Get your tickets now or enter to win a free pair!

Aladdin Theater, 3017 SE Milwaukie, Fri June 27, 9 pm, $43.73, all ages

• Enter to WIN FREE TICKETS to see Coffee and Cigarettes May 25 at Tomorrow Theater! 

Coming to the Tomorrow Theater: Enjoy cocktails & mocktails from Roseline Coffee, a discussion about the lives of coffee pickers, and a screening of Coffee and Cigarettes—Jim Jarmusch’s star-studded cult classic! Get your tickets now or enter to win a free pair!

Tomorrow Theater, 3530 SE Division, Sun May 25, 3:30 pm, $15, 21+

GOOD LUCK! Winners will be notified on Monday, and check back next week for more FREE TIX from the Mercury!

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!👋

First let's look at that WEATHER: Expect another cloudy day, with occasional sunbreaks and perhaps even a shower or two later in the afternoon. In other words, a damn-near perfect day to cuddle up with the Mercury's HIGHBALL WEEK! Consider it, won't you: delicious, creative cocktails made by 41 of Portland's best bartenders, and only $10 each! But don't dilly or dally—Highball ends this Sunday! (Now let's check to see if the world is ending with help from today's NEWS.)

IN LOCAL NEWS

• Even though they do not provide enough shelter beds for the estimated 7,000 houseless people to sleep in, Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson announced that the county will no longer hand out tents to the homeless, except in cases of extreme weather. According to the county, “As additional shelter and affordable housing capacity becomes available, the community’s need for tents should diminish”—however, currently the county and city are only providing 3,000 shelter beds for the nearly 7,000 houseless residents... and with extreme weather now happening at any time of year, I would say that we're not exactly at the point where "diminishing need" is taking place.

• RIP to the Oregon Zoo's absolutely adorable (and snack-loving) red panda, Moshu (AKA "Sir Snacks-a-Lot"), who passed away at the very old age (for red pandas) of 13-years-old. 😭 Moshu has reportedly experienced heart problems over the past year, and his caretakers had taken to "softening his favorite biscuits to make snack time easier," and "ramps were added throughout his habitat for easier climbing." 😭  The zoo has lost two other animals to old age in the last month, including Strike the cheetah and Tilly the river otter. 😭 According to Rachel Ritchason, the zoo’s deputy director for animal care, “Moshu inspired millions of people and brightened so many lives.” 😭😭😭 He will be missed. 

In 1905, Portland held a four-month, World’s Fair-size celebration to commemorate the Lewis and Clark Expedition, unveiling as an attraction a log cathedral that housed exhibits on local wildlife and artifacts. This was the Forestry Building, and it burned to the ground in 1964. What we know now as the World Forestry Center opened less than a decade later, when civic leaders made it their mission to rebuild the lumber-loving structure as a neighbor to the Oregon Zoo.

Often overlooked for flashier Washington Park attractions—like the zoo, the Japanese Garden, even Hoyt Arboretum—World Forestry Center still works to draw visitors to its woodsy, lodge-like Discovery Museum. To this end, they have secured a log of interest, the log of Twin Peaks’ Log Lady.

While she wasn’t a lead character in David Lynch’s surreal drama, townsperson and soothsayer Margaret Lanterman (Catherine Coulson) became an immediate fan favorite. The character's story actually bears a poetic parallel to the World Forestry Center’s rise from the ashes as Lanterman’s lumberjack husband was killed in a fire, a tragedy from which she salvaged a log that becomes her source of insight. The Log Lady was more Oracle of Delphi than town weirdo. Or maybe she was both.

Speaking onstage at the Hollywood Theatre, Mississippi Records co-founder Eric Isaacson recalled hearing the sound of Yo La Tengo’s Ira Kaplan digging through boxes, searching for a recording made 20 years ago. Isaacson had called him to gauge interest in releasing the band’s score for Kelly Reichardt’s Oregon-made 2006 micro-budget masterpiece Old Joy on vinyl. “If I’ve got the master tape, we can do it,” he remembered Kaplan saying. 

Until February, Yo La Tengo’s spare, drifting soundtrack—featuring session guitarist Smokey Hormel—had resided inconspicuously within They Shoot, We Score, a 2008 compilation of music the band wrote for films. But as of February 28, an expanded version now stands on its own, re-emerging in its most vivid form thanks to a remaster and vinyl pressing by Mississippi Recs.

Described by Isaacson as “the fastest record deal ever achieved,” no more than 12 minutes passed from the moment the label’s project coordinator Sam Wenc pitched the idea to when Isaacson had secured the blessings of Reichardt, Kaplan, and Georgia Hubley and agreed to put out the score. In another sense, though, this release has been 20 years in the making, which fittingly embodies the film’s central act of looking backward and gently taking stock.

If you’re reading this, you probably know the value of the Mercury’snews 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! We're in for temperatures in the mid-60s with a good chance of rain throughout the day. Thank you to all of you who removed your bike fenders when it was sunny—seriously, we need the rain, so keep it coming. 

Also, it's HIGHBALL WEEK, meaning you can get a really yummy $10 cocktail from a variety of establishments around Portland. Some suggestions: For something fruity and sweet, check out the Cabana Boy at Hey Love. The Nutty Professor at Swine Moonshine & Whiskey Bar is perfect for people with refined palates or those who can pretend to enjoy whiskey and bitters for the sake of their dark academia aesthetic. Then there's the Ojisan Frank at Toya Ramen & Bar, which looks like an amazing, delicious innovation— what the Mercury's food and drink weeks are all about! Finally, the white Negroni highball at The Pour House looks good, and probably gets you pretty toasted.

Drink responsibly, my friends. Now, here's the news.

In writer-director Paul Schrader’s Grand Guignol of white guy shame, 1979’s Hardcore, George C. Scott is Jake VanDorn, a middle-aged small business owner from Grand Rapids, Michigan who must travel to California to rescue his teenage daughter from the porn industry. A boring and arguably pathetic man, he leaves the Midwest for the West Coast, propelled by desperation into a nightmare he could have never anticipated. 

Jake’s mind-bending culture shock is maybe best encapsulated in one scene, early in the film, when the deeply religious man is shown an X-rated film starring his daughter. Immediately, Jake’s face becomes a throbbing knot, his torment accentuated by the projector’s flickering light. He claws at his skull, hoping to relieve the pain of his mind being torn asunder, unable to grasp how little control he has over the bleak, unforgiving vastness of the cosmos. “Turn it off!” he hollers, over and over—this is the helpless plea of an Extremely Michigan Man rendered impotent by existence. It’s very funny.

Tim Robinson looks a lot like Scott in Hardcore. A Detroit native who made his way through Second City Chicago before joining the cast of Saturday Night Live, Robinson has based much of his career around embodying Midwestern-coded nobodies constantly begging the universe to turn off. And, as the co-creator of Detroiters and I Think You Should Leave, he seems to understand the existential quandary of Extremely Michigan Men more than most.

Jesus, it’s already mid-May! Time’s not linear but this year is just whizzing by! I hope everyone kissed their mammies, buried the hatchet, or were able to do something nice for themselves on Sunday! Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, and birthdays are celebrations of life that—even if you don’t get on with your parents or dislike being the center of attention—carry with them a certain connective, nourishing energy that can should be harnessed as we continue roasting marshmallows over the fires of a million burning Teslas. 

P.S. The Mercury will be relaunching our Spotify channel soon! Give it a follow and keep your eyes peeled for the official launch with tons of playlists updated on the daily! 

P.P.S. Happy birthday to our very own Robert Ham—wish him many returns and check out some of his stellar writing!

It was announced this morning—May 13, 2025—that the Portland Trail Blazers are up for sale. This is part of a long term plan by the owner of the NBA franchise, the Paul G. Allen Estate, to sell all of its sports holdings, fully moving its assets into the philanthropic sector. 

I’m a 33-year-old gay man in a big city. I am currently in a five-month relationship with a wonderful, sweet man who loves me very much. I love him too. Prior to this I was in a throuple for three years. That relationship was toxic. I was the new addition to the throuple, and I was more in love with one of them. There were a lot of jealousy issues, and a lot of hurt that took me a long time to get over when I finally moved on. Truthfully, even when that relationship ended, I was still very much in love with my main partner from that throuple. Our sexual chemistry was unlike anything else, and the deep passion we have for each other was unmatched. But we did break up. And I spent a lot of time healing. And now I met this wonderful man.

My main ex from the throuple — the one I loved most — just reached out to let me know that he and his other partner broke up and he wants me back. All of a sudden, my ex is telling me how much he loves me, how much he wants me, and how he wants to be my only partner — all of the things I would’ve killed to hear him say a year ago. I now find myself torn between my new boyfriend, who has done nothing wrong, and my ex, a man I love so much and have this INCREDIBLE sexual chemistry with but who really hurt me. It should be noted that I am incredibly submissive in bed, and although my new partner tries to be dominant, it doesn’t come naturally to him. My ex was fantastic in that role. And if I’m being honest, I have to admit that that kind of sexual play is something I need in a relationship. I’m torn and don’t know what to do. I don’t want to hurt anyone, but find myself in the impossible position of choosing between two people I care deeply about. Help!

Tormented Over X In Chicago

“When the gods wish to punish us, they answer our prayers.” — Oscar Wilde

You spent three years in a throuple that turned toxic — or maybe was toxic from the start — and when it ended, all you wanted was for the one guy you loved (most or at all) to choose you… and he didn’t. So, you did what people are supposed to do when a relationship ends: you moved out, you moved on, you met someone else. And now the relationship gods have decided to fuck with you: the man you wanted is single and now he wants you and only you — so, your prayers have been answered, but a year too late.