[Welcome to our second annual "SAY NICE THINGS ABOUT PORTLAND" issue! Read it online here, or if you like physical, paper-y things, you can find it in more than 50 locations all around the city!—eds]

Tired: Portland is weird. Wired: Portland is sexy! Inspired: Portland is CUTE! 

Sure, we’re a messy collection of normies, snobs, and freaks, but you better believe we’re adorable, too. Every last one of us. And some special citizens are cuter than most. They are the venerated… the squee-worthy… the very reason that the heart-eyes emoji exists. Friends, I present to you: Portland’s Cutest Creatures.*

Tamu the Baby Rhino

Tamu—whose name means sweetness—has been mostly out of public view since his birth at the zoo last December, but on the day I visited, they opened a gate to allow him space to frolic. Alas, he and his mom were afraid of the smell of their new scale used to weigh Tamu, so they stayed hidden. (Did you know rhinos are highly particular creatures? Now you do!) Zoo officials will keep letting him explore his habitat, and visitors can expect to see more and more of him as the weather warms up!

[Welcome to our second annual "SAY NICE THINGS ABOUT PORTLAND" issue! Read it online here, or if you like physical, paper-y things, you can find it in more than 50 locations all around the city!—eds]

Expand by clicking the pic or this link!

Aerosmith will walk this way on their Farewell tour and you won’t want to miss a thing! California-based regional Mexican quintet Fuerza Regida have also dropped dates for their Pero No Te Enamores tour. Plus, comedy longtimer Wanda Sykes will bring the laughs on her Please & Thank You tour, but expect more cutting cynicism than politeness. Read on for details on those and other newly announced events, plus some news you can use.

Tickets go on sale at 10 am unless otherwise noted.

ON SALE FRIDAY, APRIL 12

MUSIC

2024 Americana Harvest Fest: Rayland Baxter 
Topaz Farm (Fri July 26)

Aerosmith: PEACE OUT The Farewell Tour 
Moda Center (Thurs Nov 21)

The Airborne Toxic Event 
Crystal Ballroom (Sun Oct 13)

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 Imani Winds + Bodyvox on April 2 at The Reser! 

A wildly entertaining fusion of music and motion awaits! BEAUTIFUL EVERYTHING is an evening of inspiring music, audacious dance, jaw-dropping costumes, and rich video environments... a fully immersive and utterly unforgettable experience. Featuring the dynamic Imani Winds with Portland's dance darlings BodyVox for a co-production with Chamber Music Northwest April 19-21 at The Reser. Get your tickets now, or enter to win here!

Patricia Reser Center for the Arts, 12625 SW Crescent, Beaverton, April 19-21, various times, $14-$71, all-ages

• Enter to WIN FREE TICKETS to see Two Evils with Arlo & Kate on April 24 at the Siren Theater!

Looking for a hilarious, live comedy show where YOU can walk away with a fabulous PRIZE (or two)? You're in luck, because comedians Arlo Weierhauser and Kate Murphy are your hosts for the most diabolical, hilarious, and EVIL live game show in town: TWO EVILS! Join Arlo and Kate as they ask a series of truly evil questions, and it’s up to our special guest contestant (ZAK TOSCANI 😍) and the audience (who will vote on their phones) to decide between TWO VERY EVIL ANSWERS. Are there prizes? You bet your butt! Is there comedy? Oh, absolutely! Get your tickets now, or enter to win free tix here!

Siren Theater, 3913 N Mississippi, Wed April 24, $15, 18+

GOOD LUCK! Winners will be notified on Monday. Check back next week for more FREE TIX from the Mercury!

HOLA, BRAINIAC! 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 this week, your brain will be tested on spoiled rich locals, how Pioneer Courthouse Square came to be, and the fate of the greatest restaurant in the history of Portland (and winner of 27 James Beard awards)... BUFFALO WILD WINGS! 😁

But first, how did you do on the previous quiz? Pretty dang good! And let's hear it for the Oregon Zoo's Eddie the Slam-Dunking Otter who the majority of you rightly identified as the greatest animal athlete of ALLLLLL TIIIIIME! (Twiggy the Water-Skiing Squirrel is pissed.) 🐿

OKAY, TIME FOR A NEW QUIZ! Take this week's quiz below, take our previous pop quizzes here, and come back next week for a brand spankin' new quiz! (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!

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! Hope you loved yesterday's sun, because the clouds (and possible showers) return today with a high of 64. So stay inside and dream of the Mercury's PIZZA WEEK which begins this coming Monday, and will make you forget all about terrible weather with those delicious $3 slices! And now here's yet another seamless segue... into today's NEWS.

IN LOCAL NEWS:

• Portland City Council has voted in favor of paying nearly $167,000 to settle a lawsuit alleging that Mayor Wheeler and city officials wrongly withheld tens of thousands of communications between each other in violation of public records laws. Turns out these texts were delivered via iMessage which were unable to be archived by the city's current public records system, and this is important: "Despite signing a city agreement pledging not to use iMessage, Wheeler and others used the program for years, effectively shielding his communications from the public eye." And worse still, the city was able to settle this case without admitting any wrongdoing. BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

About 90% of all public testimony at today’s first budget hearing has been asking @tedwheeler @CommMapps @CommRubio @DanRyanPDX @CommissionerRG to keep their promise to fully fund and expand PSR, not cut it 80%. #SavePSR

Watch anytime on YouTube: https://t.co/ccywK5fYbs

— Friends of Portland Street Response (@FriendsofPSR) April 11, 2024

• Earlier this week, a Cowlitz County judge in Washington state overturned a ban on high capacity gun magazines, and in the 90 minutes before the state's Supreme Court could temporarily revive the ban, a Kelso gun store owner sold HUNDREDS of these deadly magazines to hundreds of customers. The ban is expected to get another hearing on April 17, and could be finally decided by the Washington Supremes. Naturally the gun shop owner is complaining that the state's ban is hurting his deadly weapon business—HOW DARE THEY??—and vows that if the ban holds, he'll take it to the Trump-friendly US Supreme Court (which could ensure that millions more innocent people and children are murdered for the enjoyment of an insecure person's hobby).

It’s starting to feel a lot like spring, and we’re basking in all the projects blossoming in our music scene. We recently had the pleasure of celebrating Jonny Cool’s contribution to Ella Mai’s single “DMFU,” which reached certified gold status last year. We're bumping Mat Randol’s new EP, The World Keeps Spinning, and also looking ahead to a 4/20 show at Jack London Revue featuring Julia Logue and BrandonLee Cierley. Let’s get into all of it Hear in Portland.

MUST SEE: 

Upcoming local event(s) featuring local artist(s). 

Julia Logue + BrandonLee Cierley

In early 2024, we applauded Welcome to Your Sunrise, the debut album from Portland-based soul singer-songwriter Julia Logue. This week we’re stoked to also recommend an upcoming show: Soul'd Out Presents Julia Logue + BrandonLee Cierley at Jack London Revue. At the heart of Logue’s jazz-inspired nine-track project is an breathtaking collection of songs where she asks a slew of introspective questions, working through things like self-doubt, her place in the world, her connection to others, and how to trust herself. Impressive vocal flourishes and guitar-led songwriting abound, and we’re obsessed with the ethereal and expansive album opener “Roam,” as well as the cheeky “See You Smile,” and the R&B-infused vocals on the poignant “Fort.” The show also co-headlines Tacoma-to-Portland saxophonist BrandonLee Cierley, who will no-doubt be performing tracks from his two-pack EP Thank You For Waiting. (Jack London Revue, 529 SW 4th, Sat April 20, 8 pm,. $20-180, tickets here, 21+) 

For a film that begins in 1910 during the Great Flood of Paris, The Beast feels achingly alive with the anxiety of existing in 2024. 

Based in part on Henry James’s 1903 novella, The Beast in the Jungle, about a man who believes his whole life is steered toward an impending catastrophe, the latest and tenth film by Bertrand Bonello finds that same “deep-seated feeling that something terrible will occur” in the heart of a woman named Gabrielle (Léa Seydoux), and bends eternity around it. Across three lifetimes, Seydoux plays a lovelorn woman who waits for doom. Whatever that doom is, it doesn’t matter; it might as well be the apocalypse. 

If that seems like the stuff of a great, sappy cinematic romance, it is, but the work of Bonello tends to refuse simple categories. The French multi-hyphenate (director-writer-composer) makes destabilizing films, ever-shifting emulsions of form and genre.

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's set to warm up a bit today, with a high of nearly 70 degrees. And you know what else is starting to warm up? Pizza ovens all around Portland in preparation for PIZZA WEEK, which starts on Monday. You're going to have a lot of ground to cover if you want to adequately indulge in all the offerings available to you this year.

Just be careful—as amazing as Pizza Week is, it can cause chaos amongst a person's relationships. My friend said that in their dash to eat as many $3 slices as possible last year, she and her Pizza Week comrades began to question the very foundation of their friendships. Trust me, you don't want to get into a screaming match on a stomach full of cheese, carbs, and Jim Beam. So plan ahead and prepare, but have fun.

Alright, I've said enough. And I'll say more, but about different stuff now. So keep reading if you're into that kind of thing.

It's not possible to perform Nassim the same way twice, but it's all too easy to spoil the show for those who haven't seen it. We're reminded of a challenge Artists Repertory Theatre laid down when they staged Red Rabbit White Rabbit, which is also by Iranian playwright Nassim Soleimanpour: "We dare you not to Google for more."

The surprise they were trying to keep is now common knowledge—or at least, it's in the brochure. The cast of Nassim changes with every showing. The script is always totally new to the performer onstage, and they read it for the first time as the production unfolds. This device began out of necessity, during a time when Soleimanpour couldn't leave Iran—he now lives in Berlin—but it has since become a main pillar of his work.

A co-production of Boom Arts and Portland Center Stage, Soleimanpour's tight, 75-minute Nassim has even more surprises for both its audience and its main stars. We don't recommend researching more about it, but we do have a few tips that would be fine to know.

I’m a woman in a new polyamorous relationship with a man who has a five-year-old daughter. He and his ex-partner split up a year ago and until two weeks ago, his ex wasn’t allowing him to see his child. However, once she learned of my existence, she suddenly changed her mind. I believe she’s letting him see his child now because she thinks this will drive a wedge between us. In reality, we’re both over the moon that he’s reconnecting with his daughter. Now here’s where I am going to ask for advice. My new boyfriend has recently begun exploring polyamory, and his ex doesn’t know I’m not the only woman he’s seeing. He’s not yet publicly out with the new woman, as it’s a recent thing, whereas we’ve been together more than six months. However, all three of us are getting along very well, and people in our social dance scene have started noticing. This dance scene is where his ex learned about me. Do you think that it’s safe for us to be open about his other relationship? Or do you think his ex will get angry and jealous that he’s enjoying life to the fullest and cut off contract with his daughter again?

Regarding A Vengeful Ex

GOOD MORNING, PORTLAND! It’s gonna be another day of mostly April showers today, with some afternoon sunshine coming out for a visit. It might be spring's okay-est weather, with a high of 62 degrees and a low of 39.

Let's dive into the headlines!

In LOCAL NEWS:

• A wave of Democrats and left-leaning voters across the country have been using the Democratic primaries to vote “uncommitted” or cast similar protest votes, in an effort to send a message to President Biden that voters disapprove of his handling of the crisis in Gaza. Oregon is no exception. Activists here are encouraging voters to write in “uncommitted” on their ballots this May, but there might be a snag with that plan. Oregon’s elections offices don’t allow them to tally votes for phrases written on ballots, only names of candidates who are running for office, but don’t appear on the ballot. Kevin Foster has more on the local plan and its implications.

  We've seen a wave of "uncommitted" voters in states across the U.S. and, as expected, folks are rallying for Oregon Dems to do the same in the May primary. But there might be a snag in that plan, due to Oregon's elections laws. https://t.co/fh5rXETnxD

  — Courtney Vaughn (@C__Vaughn) April 9, 2024

  Continue reading »

Following suit with states across the country, a coalition of over 20 activist groups have formed Uncommitted Oregon, a campaign pushing for a permanent cease-fire in Gaza by calling on Democrats to write in “uncommitted” in the next primary election, rather than casting a vote for President Biden.

The campaign echoes efforts in multiple states. Michigan’s Democratic primary saw more than 100,000 voters cast their ballot for “uncommitted” as a form of protest against President Biden’s policy in Gaza where more than 33,000 people have been killed. In North Carolina, “uncommitted” garnered 13 percent of the vote. On Super Tuesday, the same protest vote drew a whopping 19 percent in Minnesota.

But in Oregon’s May primary, state elections officials say the effort may not have the same impact. Democrats who forgo a vote for Biden will need to write in “uncommitted,” but the write-in vote is unlikely to show up in overall results.

TUESDAY

LIVE MUSIC

The Last Dinner Party
The Last Dinner Party is kind of like London's answer to MUNA. The five-piece band evokes their art-pop grandparents—Sparks and Kate Bush— with operatic vocals, theatrical piano ballads, and nods to their literary heroes. They do this, however, with the same humor and charm as the aforementioned artists. Their debut album, Prelude to Ecstasy, is a melodramatic pop feast with themes of queerness, sex, and gore. Don't miss an opening set from electro-pop artist Miss Grit. AV (Crystal Ballroom, West End)