Buskirk-Chumley Theater
Friday, November 15, 2024, 8 – 9:30pm

Another Round is Indiana University's premier all-male a cappella group. Established in 1996, Another Round has entertained audiences in Bloomington and beyond for over two decades. By pairing their rich harmonies with their signature sense of humor, Another Round puts their audiences in the middle of a truly unique entertainment experience. Their chemistry and showmanship leave you with a feeling of hometown charm unique to the group's beloved Bloomington, Indiana. Join us for a night of music you will not forget!

Presenter: Another Round
Contact: BCT Box Office, boxoffice@buskirkchumley.org
Cost: $14 - $24
Ticket Phone: 812-323-3020
Ticket Web Link: buskirkchumley.org…
Communities: Bloomington

Virtual Zoom event
Thursday, November 14, 2024, 7 – 8:30pm

Sycamore Land Trust and Citizens’ Climate Lobby Indiana present a free lecture and Q&A with Dr. Richard Phillips “From Tree Tops to Deep Roots: The Role of Eastern Forests as Carbon Sinks.” We’ll discuss how eastern forest ecosystems serve as important carbon sinks that can help mitigate rapid climate change, and explore above- and below-ground processes in forests and how they contribute to the land sink for carbon. Dr. Richard Phillips is a Professor of Biology at Indiana University, Bloomington, Director of the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Graduate Program, and Science Director at IU Research and Teaching Preserve.

Presenter: Sycamore Land Trust and Citizens' Climate Lobby Indiana
Contact: Kate Hammel, Communications Director
Cost: Free
Ticket Phone: 812-336-5382
Ticket Web Link: sycamorelandtrust.org…
Communities: Bedford, Bloomington, Brown County, Columbus, Franklin, French Lick/West Baden, Greencastle, Greene County, Greensburg, Greenwood, Indianapolis, Kokomo, Martinsville, Seymour, Spencer, Statewide, Terre Haute
More info: sycamorelandtrust.org…

The John Waldron Arts Center
Thursday, November 14, 2024, 5:30 – 7:30pm

Come to the Table celebrates individuals who inspire peaceful conflict resolution, and this year’s guest speaker is the multi-talented Ellise A. Smith!

Using her photography (#VisualActivism), spoken word, and storytelling, Ellise will share powerful experiences that uplift marginalized voices and show us how to break down barriers to create meaningful change. She will challenge us to listen with intention, building bridges and restoring hope.

Please join us for lively companionship, thought-provoking conversation, delicious food, and a great venue! All while raising funds to help the Community Justice and Mediation Center strengthen and expand conflict resolution work in our community!

Presenter: Ellise A. Smith
Contact: Liz Grenat, CJAM Executive Director
Cost: $75.00
Ticket Phone: 812-336-8677
Ticket Web Link: cjmc.betterworld.org…
Communities: Bedford, Bloomington, Brown County, Columbus, Franklin, French Lick/West Baden, Greencastle, Greene County, Greensburg, Greenwood, Indianapolis, Kokomo, Martinsville, Seymour, Spencer, Statewide, Terre Haute
More info: cjamcenter.org

Auer Hall, Simon Music Center
Thursday, November 14, 2024, 5 – 6:30pm

Ik-Hwan Bae was professor of music in violin and chamber music at the IU Jacobs School of Music from 1999 until his passing in 2014. He was born in Seoul, Korea, and made his professional debut with the Seoul Philharmonic at age 12. He studied with Ivan Galamian at The Juilliard School and was busily engaged in concertizing and teaching throughout his career.

More info: events.iu.edu…

IU Auditorium
Wednesday, November 13, 2024, 7:30pm

Theo Von grew up in the stray animal belt of southern Louisiana. He was a child there and became an adult slowly there. Now, he's bringing a night of standup to the IU Auditorium stage this fall.



He can be seen and heard weekly on his widely popular podcasts that garner millions of listens and views a month This Past Weekend and King of the Sting.



Theo’s new comedy special Regular People was filmed at the historic Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee and is now streaming on Netflix.



In the Spring of 2020 Theo completed his two year Dark Arts Tour, which took him across America, Australia, and Europe, and another country. He’s currently on the road with his Return of the Rat Tour.



If you want to know how Theo is doing he is probably doing the best he can, which varies.



He currently resides in Nashville and Los Angeles.

Ticket Web Link: am.ticketmaster.com…
Communities: Bedford, Bloomington, Brown County, Columbus, Franklin, French Lick/West Baden, Greencastle, Greene County, Greensburg, Greenwood, Indianapolis, Kokomo, Martinsville, Seymour, Spencer, Statewide, Terre Haute
More info: www.iuauditorium.com…

Unitarian Universalist Church
2120 N. Fee Lane
Bloomington, IN 47408
Wednesday, November 13, 2024, 7 – 8pm

SING FOR JOY is a performance based community choir that welcomes all singers including the other-abled, and those living with dementia. This concert highlights the music of the 1960's. The choir will be supported by rock band musicians, feature soloists, and small groups. There will be a guest appearance by the Quarryland Men's Chorus.

Presenter: SING FOR JOY! Choir
Contact: Sandra Freund
Cost: Free
Communities: Bedford, Bloomington, Brown County
More info: www.facebook.com…

Ford-Crawford Hall, Simon Music Center
Monday, November 11, 2024, 8:30 – 9:30pm

More info: events.iu.edu…

Buskirk-Chumley Theater
Monday, November 11, 2024, 7:30 – 9:30pm

More info: events.iu.edu…

Waldron Auditorium
Sunday, November 10, 2024, 4 – 5pm

A musical “tail” that will bring the house down

There are two sides to every story, and when the Big Bad Wolf takes the stand in Piggsylvania’s Trial of the Century, he finally gets his say. But whether he’ll get a fair trial in a corrupt piggy court is anyone’s guess. Will the pigs’ splashy show make a puppet out of justice, or is the wolf’s song and dance about a sneeze gone wrong all razzle-dazzle? Enter the jury box and help decide the fate of Big ‘n’ Bad in this musical adaptation of the hit children’s book. Fun for all ages! *This is a sensory-friendly performance

Presenter: Constellation Stage & Screen
Written By: Robert Kauzlaric, Paul Gilvary, and William Rush
Directed By: Mitchell Ward
Cost: $15
Ticket Phone: (812) 336-9300
Ticket Web Link: seeconstellation.org…

Metz Carillon, Arboretum Gazebo
Sunday, November 10, 2024, 4 – 5pm

More info: events.iu.edu…

DePauw University Green Center, 600 S. Locust Street, Greencastle, Ind.
Sunday, November 10, 2024, 3 – 5pm

VINEGAR TOM
Thurs.–Sat., Nov. 7–9 • 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, Nov. 10 • 3 p.m.
Green Center, Moore Theatre

In an isolated, 17th-century rural village a woman’s lover claims she is the devil. Her mother curses at a neighbor. Crops are failing, livestock are dying, and family tensions are brewing. An herbal healer offers help with a pregnancy, and the betrothed daughter of a prosperous landowner refuses to marry. Doctors claim she’s insane and tie her up. Behind it all is the titular Vinegar Tom, a stealthy cat often seen lurking about, boldly plundering barns and milk sheds. Could he be a witch’s imp or the devil himself? Finally, a witch hunter arrives, and no woman is above suspicion.

Presenter: DePauw University
Contact: Suzanne Hassler
Written By: Caryl Churchill
Directed By: Ron Dye
Cost: General Admission: $10; Seniors, Youth and All Students: Free
Ticket Phone: 765-658-6733
Ticket Web Link: dpugreencenter.eventbrite.com
Communities: Bloomington, Brown County, Columbus, Franklin, Greencastle, Indianapolis, Martinsville, Spencer, Terre Haute
More info: www.depauw.edu…

24 N Washington St
Sunday, November 10, 2024, 2 – 4pm

The Owen County Civic Theatre presents "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever," a heartwarming and hilarious Christmas classic. In this fun-filled production, a couple attempts to stage a church Christmas pageant, but things take a wild turn when the unruly Herdman kids are cast. These “inventively awful” children bring chaos and unexpected charm to the traditional Christmas story, creating plenty of laughs and touching moments.

Adapted from the bestselling Young Adult book by Barbara Robinson, this show has become a beloved holiday favorite across the U.S. It offers great roles for both children and adults, with a mix of Christmas carols and loads of laughter—a perfect way to kick off the holiday season!

If you’re looking for something fun and festive to enjoy with the family, this would be a great event to catch.

For anyone interested:
Event Date: November 8-10
Event Times: Friday 7p, Saturday 7p, Sunday 2p.
Location: Historic Tivoli Theatre, 24 N Washington St., downtown Spencer, Indiana
Doors Open: 40 minutes before showtime.
Admssion: $15 adults / $10 students / $5 youth 13 & under

Presenter: Tivoli Theatre
Contact: Andrea White
Cost: $15 adults / $10 students / $5 youth 13 & under
Ticket Phone: 8127148137
Ticket Web Link: ticketing.useast.veezi.com…
Communities: Bedford, Bloomington, Brown County, Columbus, Greene County, Martinsville, Seymour, Spencer, Terre Haute
More info: www.spencertivoli.org

Waldron Auditorium
Sunday, November 10, 2024, 1 – 2pm

A musical “tail” that will bring the house down

There are two sides to every story, and when the Big Bad Wolf takes the stand in Piggsylvania’s Trial of the Century, he finally gets his say. But whether he’ll get a fair trial in a corrupt piggy court is anyone’s guess. Will the pigs’ splashy show make a puppet out of justice, or is the wolf’s song and dance about a sneeze gone wrong all razzle-dazzle? Enter the jury box and help decide the fate of Big ‘n’ Bad in this musical adaptation of the hit children’s book. Fun for all ages!

Presenter: Constellation Stage & Screen
Written By: Robert Kauzlaric, Paul Gilvary, and William Rush
Directed By: Mitchell Ward
Cost: $15
Ticket Phone: (812) 336-9300
Ticket Web Link: seeconstellation.org…

Plus, Nils Frahm and More Event Updates for October 31 by EverOut Staff

It’s Halloween! Treat yourself to tickets to see Tyler, The Creator on his Chromakopia tour. Country pop princess Kelsea Ballerini has also announced a stop at Moda Center next spring. Plus, Berlin-based pianist, composer, and producer Nils Frahm will set up his elaborate vintage gear at the Schnitz. Read on for details on those and other newly announced events, plus some news you can use.

ON SALE FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1

MUSIC

Amyl and The Sniffers: Cartoon Darkness Tour
Crystal Ballroom (Mar 25, 2025)

Ashe: The Trilogy Tour
Revolution Hall (June 17, 2025)

Daily Bread – Flash Flood Tour
Wonder Ballroom (Mar 22, 2025)

Allee Willis was your favorite artists’ favorite artist decades before Chappell Roan. Allee Willis was a truly fascinating, wildly-creative artist who worked almost exclusively behind the scenes. She was your favorite artists’ favorite artist decades before Chappell Roan. Allee Willis: creative force behind the Friends TV Show Theme, Dangerous Woman to Soviet newspapers Allee Willis: Creative Force, Dangerous Woman, Queer Songwriter Behind Friends' Theme Further Proof That Friends Is Queer-Coded by Melissa Locker

Whether you watched the show or not, you can probably hum the theme song to Friends. Do you know who wrote it for the Rembrandts? And "September"—the Mercury's second favorite song—do you know who co-wrote that with Earth Wind and Fire's Maurice White?

Not to sound like a weird TV pitchman, but what if I told you they were written with the same person. Specifically,  Allee Willis—who was once dubbed “the most dangerous woman in the world” by Pravda, the the official newspaper of the prelapsarian Soviet Union.  

Willis is the star of a new documentary, The World According to Allee Willis, which celebrates its Oregon premiere at the QDoc Film Festival on November 16. The doc is worth your time to burnish your bar trivia skills, but also because Willis was a truly fascinating, wildly-creative artist who worked almost exclusively behind the scenes. She was your favorite artists’ favorite artist decades before Chappell Roan.

Willis had insisted on documenting her life, since 1978, long before reality TV was a thing, so there's plenty of her archival video found in the film. "I've always known that my final art piece would be someone putting together the trail I've left behind," she says in one clip. 

In 2019, Willis died at age 72, and director Alexis Manya Spraic became responsible for following that trail. Spraic intersperses the footage with a cavalcade of famous faces—Paul Reubens, Lily Tomlin, Cyndi Lauper, Pamela Adlon, Paul Feig, Sex and the City director Michael Patrick King, Devo’s Mark Mothersbaugh, as well as—somewhat inexplicably—billionaire Mark Cuban. Their interviews confirm that Willis really was a Hollywood power player, even if you don’t know her name.

Raised in Detroit as Alta Willis, the artist admits that growing up in the shadow of Motown influenced her work. She also did a stint in New York where she wrote her one and only album, Childstar, which had “great reviews and zero sales.” Eventually Willis moved to California because “if she was going to starve to death, she was going to do it in the sun.” ["Not me!" -Portland creatives.]

Willis lived on welfare in that sun, until "Godmother of Soul" Patti LaBelle heard her music, and kickstarted Willis’ songwriting career. Then came Earth Wind & Fire and “September,” the track that made Willis a songwriting star.

"Allee said she was lucky to meet us. We were lucky to meet her, too,” the group's bassist Verdine White says in the film. “That was life-changing for all of us.”

Earth Wind & Fire followed the success of "September" by co-writing another hit “Boogie Wonderland” with Willis, helping her become the music industry’s go-to “rock doc” who could fix up a song and turn it into a hit. 

Courtesy of Magnolia Pictures

In addition to being a wildly successful songwriter, Willis was also an art director and set designer, creating the backdrops for Debbie Harry music videos, among others. She continued to collaborate on songs, behind the scenes, and won both a Grammy and a Tony for her work on the musical The Color Purple.  The Friends theme was nominated for an Emmy, but didn't win.

While Willis was able to find professional success, that never quite translated into financial solvency. She also faced challenges in her private life—partially because she was queer at a time when it was extremely difficult to be open and out. She struggled with loneliness for much of her life, Lauper says during one of the film's interviews.

Willis did eventually find love, and then had to contend with the near-universal struggle of balancing work, creativity, and her personal life. When you’re looking at The World According to Allee Willis, it's a wild,  wonderful, and sometimes painful view, but well worth watching.

The World According to Allee Willis screens as part of QDoc Film Festival at Hollywood Theatre, 4122 NE Sandy, Sat Nov 16, 4:30 pm, $12, tickets here. Some streaming starting Nov 22. Visit alleewillisdoc.com for more.

Portland All Souls River Procession, Family Dinner, and More Cheap & Easy Events Under $15 by EverOut Staff

We hope you're not too tired from Halloween partying because there's plenty of fun events to hit up this weekend, from The 4th Annual Portland All Souls River Procession to The People's Court's Camp Crystal Lake Halloween Party and from the Family Dinner benefit concert to a Diwali Festival. For more ideas, check out our guide to the top events of the week. P.S. Daylight Saving Time ends on Sunday—don't forget to set your clocks back!

FRIDAY PARTIES & NIGHTLIFE

Camp Crystal Lake at TPC Halloween Party
For the uninitiated, Camp Crystal Lake is the name of the kids' camp attended by serial killer Jason Voorhees in the Friday the 13th film series. This Friday, it’s the theme for a night of Halloween revelry at recreational sports spot The People's Courts. I expect there’ll be a lot of hockey masks and camp counselors in the costume contest—as well as creeping around the 48,000-square-foot facility during the scavenger hunt, so prepare for jump scares. Bring your friends for an evening of themed drink specials, photo ops, and lighthearted competition: bocce, corn hole, and disc golf are included in your ticket, but it'll be an additional cost if you want to get some pickleball games in. SHANNON LUBETICH
(The People's Courts, Madison South, $12 regular admission/$25 for pickleball)

Sabrina Carpenter, Cyndi Lauper, and More by EverOut Staff

November is here, which means a deluge of holidays are coming your way, from Election Day to Veterans Day to Thanksgiving. Plus, it's Native American Heritage Month and the first round of festive winter events are coming down the pike. Of course, there's also the usual array of concerts, festivals, food & drink events, and tons more. As we do every month, we've compiled the biggest events you need to know about in every genre, from Sabrina Carpenter to Cyndi Lauper and from World Vegan Month to PLUS PLUS: PAM CUT's New Annual Festival.

FILM

PLUS PLUS: PAM CUT's New Annual Festival
I have to hand it to PAM CUT. Although virtually everyone clowned on their name change (they were formerly known as Northwest Film Center), the organization's revamp of a decrepit, one-time adult movie theater has been thrilling to see. Tomorrow Theater offers a consistent slate of screenings supplemented with artsy programming, and their new annual multimedia festival, PLUS PLUS, will offer more where that came from. Throughout November, drop by for parties, art happenings, and community events—I'm stoked for talks with Ani DiFranco and Titus Kaphar, special screenings, and collaborations with local art-makers Carla Rossi, Violet Hex, DJ Anjali, and woo-woo. LINDSAY COSTELLO
Tomorrow Theater, Richmond (Nov 1–Dec 1)

Sabrina Carpenter, David Sedaris, and More by EverOut Staff

There's plenty of first-rate events to check out this week, from The Official Portland Mercury Election Watch Party to Sabrina Carpenter's Short N’ Sweet Tour and from Kumoricon to An Evening With David Sedaris, but first, make sure to VOTE! And for a look at the month ahead, check out our November events guide.

MONDAY LIVE MUSIC

Dehd
Chicago-based indie-rock trio Dehd, who Pitchfork has dubbed "as much a rock band as they are a viable alternative to Red Bull," is coming to town to support their new album, Poetry. The album sounds like the sonic interpretation of the summer season with warm guitar riffs and bouncing percussion that evokes running down a beach to catch the ice cream truck. Don't miss an opening set from Brooklyn-based art-punk band Gustaf. AUDREY VANN
(Wonder Ballroom, Eliot)

Worried? Try putting your head deep into this garbage gossip can for a few minutes. by Elinor Jones

Hello, and welcome back to the Trash Report! Like many people with mental illness, my home is a reflection of what is happening with the ol' brain—when depression is in the driver's seat, my house gets messy; when anxiety is calling the shots, the palace is pristine. And friends, being ONE DAY away from yet ANOTHER "most crucial presidential election of our time," I am literally out of things to organize! There is no more dust. I'm ironing? Your girl is not okay. I love this column for an excuse to look at something besides another very frightening poll, so let's get to the trash!

Make it Stop

As this election plummets to its final resting place, Kamala Harris has collected endorsements from such luminaries as Cardi B, Bad Bunny, Eminem, Jennifer Lopez, Harrison Ford, and most of the Avengers.

I do believe that, despite this, she will win https://t.co/cOU7ZeWAKa

— Chase Mitchell (@ChaseMit) November 3, 2024

The most recent celebrity to come out for Trump was none other than the the famously antisemitic Mel Gibson, who shared his support only after Trump's Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden, which goes to prove just how much of a Nazi rally that definitely was.  

Feud Reports

On a recent episode of his podcast, Ted Danson apologized to Kelsey Grammer for carrying a grudge since they worked together on Cheers. Grammer graciously accepted the apology. But I am not graciously receiving this "gossip." What happened?! What was the argument about? Why do this on a podcast without giving us the tea? This is the same kind of bullshit "this is not who we are" 2016-era dignity that no longer is the vibe. We're petty now! Tell us who was mean! Danson went on to say "I feel like I missed out on the last 30 years of Kelsey Grammer." What celebrity planet was Ted Danson living on because I feel like the rest of us have seen far too much Kelsey Grammer in the past 30 years. Streaming services were basically invented to avoid reruns of Frasier. 

In much more interesting feuds, Martha Stewart alluded to one between her and fellow kitchen and lifestyle guru Ina Garten. Garten had claimed in her recent memoir that the women drifted apart after one of them moved to Connecticut. Stewart agrees that the rift had to do with a move, but it was Stewart moving into a federal prison. I would imagine it could feel complicated to be a public figure being friends with a felon, but I can guarantee that if one of my friends went to jail for a non-violent crime I wouldn't stop talking to them! I'd probably talk way too much to them, in fact. I just have so many questions. If Martha Stewart and I had been friends who fell out and she later reflected on it, she would be like "Elinor was there for me when I was in jail, but she was too there for me, and wouldn't leave me alone, and I was sick of talking about prison toilet wine, so that's when our feud started."

Targeted Anecdotes

The long-awaited sequel to The Gladiator is coming out soon and I could not have less interest in going to see it! That is, until Pedro Pascal revealed that he and Paul Mescal kissed in one take of a fight scene, and that might be the take they used in the movie, and I guess I'm going to go see Gladiator 2 now. Have the Wicked PR folks considered floating a rumor that Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande kiss instead of hawking a green and pink version of every product on God's green earth? (And is there a pink earth? There probably will be soon!) 

At this point is there a category of merchandise that doesn’t have a Wicked tie-in? I’m half expecting my gynecologist to ask whether I want a pink or green speculum.

— Anika Chapin (@AnikaChapin) October 31, 2024

Love is Dead

Channing Tatum and Zoe Kravitz have allegedly called off their engagement after three years together, and just days after Tatum finally ended his years-long divorce saga with ex Jenna Dewan. This makes me think that Zoe Kravitz for sure never thought that Tatum's divorce would ever be finalized when she said yes to that ring. Tatum has been spotted around New York City smoking cigarettes, but holding them in a way that makes me think he hasn't smoked before; starting smoking at 44 is hilarious, but also very hot and chic!

In other rebound choices, Gisele Bunchen revealed that she is pregnant with her third child, which will be her first since getting divorced from Tom Brady, and the first with her boyfriend, who is also her longtime Jiu-Jitsu instructor. Tom Brady is reacting to it like any normal 30-year-old woman and posting Fleetwood Mac lyrics to his Instagram which is the most I've ever liked him. 

On Loss in the Modern Era

Helen Mirren recently waxed poetically about tragic losses of beloved icons, specifically Kurt Cobain, and specifically that Kurt Cobain's early demise in the 90s meant that he never got to experience the magic that is a GPS system. Iconic music producer Quincy Jones passed away just yesterday. He would have seen GPS. Does Helen Mirren not think this is as sad of a loss, because at least he died with the immense satisfaction of having watched a little dot that represented his car being driven towards a destination, thus making it a full and worthwhile life? Helen Mirren has yet to comment. 

Trash Pandas In the News

A Sam's Club in Maryland had to shut down last week due to a racoon breaking into their bakery. A statement from the store read "after attempts to locate the raccoon were unsuccessful, Sam's Club representatives were advised best practices to properly capture the animal." Which means that during the initial attempts to capture the animal, they had no idea what the best practices were, and it must have been so funny. Imagine that raccoon's surprise to learn that there is a way to eat croissants, pre-trash? Going back to garbage pastries after that has got to be a bummer. Anyway, as the kids say, "in da clerb we all fam," but the clerb is a Sam's Club. Sam's Clerb, as it were.

Okay, I just realized there's a bookshelf in my office that I haven't yet reorganized and if I don't do that right now it will make it so college-educated women in Michigan won't turn out in numbers, which makes a lot of sense when you think about it. I hope you get through the next few days okay. If you process stress by being around people, the Mercury is going to hold an election night party hosted by the more extroverted of us. Meanwhile, we indoor kids will be live-blogging as the night goes on, so check back here if that's something you can handle. Thank you for reading and for voting and for being cherished members of the dumpster pile. 

Nervously,

by Anonymous

Thinking about the martial art group I almost dedicated my life to. The secret trump group they invited me to around 2018. The guy I trained with playing devil’s advocate about the George Floyd situation. He owns a school now and a moderately successful YouTube channel. Even got promoted as in rank. My teacher might not have been an overt bigot, but his friends were. I almost brought my kids into this group. I more focused on my own rank and acting like I was some kind of hero in an action movie. I didn’t fully see it when I started, but the signs were there. I was young and I thought I was building a career. I am ashamed that I put so much time and effort into being part of this group. Almost twenty years. At my peak, I was probably just a bully. Just an idiot with an ego. Like they taught me. Through this fist art, one gains nothing but regret.

by Mercury Promotions

Look, nobody wants to be alone on election night—so why not spend it with the Mercury, two of our fave stand-up comics, and all your friends?

The Merc, along with our pals at Mississippi Studios are hosting an election night watch party TONIGHT, Tuesday, November 5, with special guest hosts, comedians Alex Falcone and Shain Brenden! Both are former winners of the Portland's Funniest Person contest as well as the Mercury's Geniuses of Comedy, and as the results roll in on the big screen, Falcone and Brenden will be entertaining everyone with hilarious comedy, spicy political takes, and welcoming some very special surprise guests as well!

Best of all, our election night party is FREE—so grab your friends and show up for a night of (hopefully) celebration for our first woman president and lots of laughs.

The Official Portland Mercury Election Watch Party—hosted by Alex Falcone and Shain Brenden

Tuesday, November 5, 6:30 pm

Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi

FREE (21+ only)

All the parties, all the results, and all the election night DRAMAZ! by The Mercury Election Strike Force

[EDITOR'S NOTE: Good evening, fellow fingernail chewers! It's ELECTION NIGHT in America and here in Portland, and as always the Mercury Election Strike Force is on the job and ready to give you the information you crave! Stick with us this evening as we report the local/national results you want, while also visiting various candidate parties around town to get a vibe and snack check. That said, here's an important thing to remember: Ballots that are mailed and postmarked by 8 pm tonight will still need to be counted, and it may take days for the final results to be tallied in certain races. However, we should have a pretty good idea where most races stand after the first ballot drop at 8 pm, and many races could be decided as soon as tomorrow. Yours truly (Wm. Steven Humphrey) will be joined by fan favorite Elinor Jones to provide election results and (often sassy-ass) analysis, while Mercurians Courtney Vaughn, Taylor Griggs, Suzette Smith, and freelance photog Sean Bascom will be traversing the town, interviewing candidates while also reviewing and scarfing down various party snacks. In short: IT. WILL. BE. FUN. AND. OCCASIONALLY. NERVE. WRACKING. Scroll down to read our latest dispatches, and LET'S MAKE SOME DEMOCRACY, PORTLAND!]

UPDATE 10:45 PM

We're wrapping this edition of the election live blog for tonight, but be sure to tune in tomorrow morning for Good Morning, News, where we'll give you the latest updates on all the local and state races. All that said....

At this moment in time, Kamala Harris’ path to victory is getting increasingly narrow. So if we wake up in the morning and the worst has happened, it’s important to remember that we in Portland are incredibly lucky and privileged to live here and to be surrounded by people who care about the welfare of others. It will be up to us to knock the dust off our butts, get back up on our feet, and start protecting those who will be persecuted by a possible Trump administration. And there are a lot: Folks in the LGBTQ+ community, undocumented immigrants, women and their bodily autonomy, and that’s just to name a few.

We can look into the darkness and choose to hide there, or we can do like we did in 2016 and rise up. You can bet that’s what we here at the Mercury will be doing. We consider it a privilege to be able to stand up for the voiceless and fight against the rising tide of hatred. We’ve been doing it for the past 24 years, and there is absolutely no way we’re going to stop now.

But we will need your help, because now there are millions of people across the country who will need your assistance as well. We can do it together, because we’ve done it before and we know what it takes. Cry, scream, yell, and grieve—and then get a good night’s sleep. Because tomorrow, we’re going to need that roaring fire that burns inside each of us to continue protecting those who need it most. We believe in you. You are strong enough to face the road ahead, and we’ll be right there beside you. I'll see you tomorrow.—WSH

UPDATE 10:35 PM

Evening wrap-up: We won’t see additional results for the Portland city races this evening, but we do know that Megan Moyer was elected as the new Multnomah County commissioner for District 1 and Shannon Singleton will represent District 2 on the County Board of Commissioners. Singleton bested former Portland mayor Sam Adams, while Moyer beat Vadim Mozyrsky for her seat.

At the city level, trucking company owner Keith Wilson took a strong lead in the Portland mayor’s race. Tuesday night’s preliminary results show Wilson leads with 63 percent, after 19 rounds of elimination. Current City Commissioner Carmen Rubio is a distant second, picking up 37 percent in the 19th round of tabulation. Tuesday’s early results show Rene Gonzalez, a city commissioner running for mayor, did not advance to the 19th round.

In City Council District 1, Candace Avalos, Loretta Smith and Jamie Dunphy are leading after 17 rounds of tabulation.

In District 2, current City Commissioner Dan Ryan, along with candidates Sameer Kanal and Elana Pirtle-Guiney each picked up 25 percent after 23 rounds of elimination, putting them all in the lead.

District 3 also saw Tiffany Koyama Lane, Angelita Morillo and Steve Novick each pick up 25 percent of the votes after 32 rounds.

Similarly, in District 4, Olivia Clark, Mitch Green, and Eric Zimmerman each pulled ahead with 25 percent of votes counted by 8 pm.

Multnomah County is scheduled to release another update on Portland’s ranked choice voting races at 6 pm Wednesday.—CV

UPDATE 10:07 PM

As more votes roll in for the county races, Shannon Singleton has increased her lead above Sam Adams for the District 2 MultCo County Commissioner seat, sitting at a roughly nine point advantage. Meghan Moyer in District 1 is almost 20 points above Vadim Mozyrsky, and the Oregonian has called the race for her. We won’t be getting more city results tonight, so you’ll have to hold tight on that until tomorrow.

Meanwhile in the state races: Tobias Read, Elizabeth Steiner, and Dan Rayfield are also maintaining their leads for their respective state offices. Read has expanded his and is now beating his Republican opponent by about 12 percent.—TG

UPDATE 10 PM

Back to national stuff: I seriously debated whether or not to participate in this live blog tonight because I knew it would be so stressful, but I also knew I’d be looking at a device anyway, so why not contribute to the noise? And I guess I’m kind of a journalist, but I’m mostly a person and a mom and I’m extremely worried and sad and having a hard time looking at these numbers. As of right now, 633,944 people who live in the same state as me are fine with fascism and women losing bodily autonomy and working people getting their necks stomped on. That’s not fun for any of us.

The House of Representatives is looking to flip blue, though. This is good, in case Harris ekes out a win and Trump tries to steal it. Anyone ready to tuck in for the long haul? Because that might just be what happens. (I am not ready.)—EJ

UPDATE 9:45 PM

As of 9:30 pm, the Oregon Secretary of State page is reporting 48% turnout of all registered voters. Granted, Oregon has an exceptionally high voter registration thanks to our awesome motor voter program, but 48%?! In this economy?!? That number might still change. I hope it does.

And nationally, they’ve called Georgia for Trump. The rest of the battleground states are still too close. This sucks, and I hate it. 

Alcoholic beverages consumed: Four-ish

Cigarettes smoked: One (I quit in 2015. Dumb move.)—EJ

UPDATE 9:32 PM

One of Oregon's biggest races this year is the contest between incumbent Republican Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer and her Democratic challenger, Janelle Bynum, in the state's 5th District. We knew this race would be tight, and that still looks to be true, though Bynum has a 2 percent lead over Chavez-DeRemer at the moment. But with only about 60 percent of the votes counted at this point, there's a lot that's still up in the air, and we may not know the results of this race immediately. With the Republicans just nabbing a majority in the U.S. Senate, it's more important than ever for Democrats to take over as many House seats as possible, so national eyes will be on Oregon to see if Bynum can maintain her lead.—TG

UPDATE 9:30 PM

Results are coming in hot on state races! Republican Steve Bentz is handily carrying Oregon’s 2nd District, while Democrats Suzanne Bonamici, Maxine Dexter, Val Hoyle, Janelle Bynum, and Andrea Salinas are leading in Districts 1, 3, 4 5, and 6, respectively.—EJ

UPDATE 9:28 PM

As far as state races go, here's a quick update. About half of all Oregon ballots have been counted so far—so there's the possibility of change here. Democrat Tobias Read has a pretty nice advantage for Secretary of State, ahead of Republican candidate Dennis Linthicum by about 10 percent. Democrat Elizabeth Steiner has a roughly five point advantage to Republican Brian Boquist for the state treasurer seat, with Mary King (from the Working Families Party), who's sitting at almost six percent of the vote, likely taking some Democratic voters. Dan Rayfield, the Democrat vying for the Oregon AG position, has a roughly six point lead over his Republican opponent, Will Lathrop.—TG

UPDATE 9:25 PM

Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson made an appearance at the Portland For All/Working Families shindig. District 3 candidate Chris Flanary is also here. Flanary says even if they don't win, they're not going anywhere. District 3 seats will be up for election again in two years. A sentiment conveyed earlier by a speaker here seems to be the new prevailing mood: "No matter what happens, all we have is each other."

People are now leaving in droves. By far the coolest feature of this election party has been a color changing panther statue.—CV

Color changing panther statue for mayor. COURTNEY VAUGHN

UPDATE 9:15 PM

Democratic Party of Oregon is holding a big soiree in the basement of the Hilton Hotel. The main affair is happening in a large ballroom that—as seems to be tradition—has very little signal, so of course the hallway is a madhouse of glad handing.

A couple TVs are broadcasting CNN’s presidential coverage—LOOKS BAD—and there are folks watching these in concerned semi-circles.

Inside the ballroom itself, a variety of Democratic politicians are celebrating state wins, like Tobias Read and Maxine Dexter.

Snacks-wise what I’m seeing at this time a few robust veggie platters and charcuterie platters that the chefs of Reddit would respect. There’s a full bar—several full bars—but they’re constrained by drink tickets, not open for the loosening of anyone who made it through the not-insignificant security.

Senator Jeff Merkley takes the stage and is still hopeful that Kamala Harris will win. He’s hopeful Democrats can win big tonight, then get to work on reforming the systems that are set up to benefit the powerful.

He introduces Sen. Ron Wyden, pumping his fists behind him onstage, and we briefly wonder—not for the first time—if someone will ever make a buddy comedy about the two of them.

Wyden delivers remarks that feature the phrase “full court press” repeatedly. Protecting the rights of women—full court press! Civil liberties for all, including LGBTQ+ people—full court press! Getting the people at the top to pay their fair share—full court press! And a full court press to “protect our democracy from those plotting in plain sight to end it.”—SS

Dems at the Hilton. SUZETTE SMITH

UPDATE 9:10 PM

Meanwhile at mayoral candidate Carmen Rubio's party at the Sports Bra, it's a packed house with the crowd elbow to elbow across the room. Rubio is chatting and moving through the room from family to friends to campaign team. Mixed vibes all over. People cheering for Democrat wins in Oregon and Washington, while other barely holding back tears as they watch Trump maintain his lead. Local election energy is high though.

State Rep Bob Nosse introduces Rubio for a speech. She congratulates everyone for engaging with local politics, thanks her family and team, and ends by saying, "We deserve leadership that looks like us, that takes Portland forward for all of us. Let's hang in there for Portland."—SB

Mayoral candidate Carmen Rubio. Sean bascom Rubio thanks her many supporters. SEAN BASCOM

UPDATE: 9 PM

Just arrived at the Mercury’s election party at Mississippi Studios. I wouldn’t say the mood is somber, necessarily, but it’s also not exactly celebratory. Many people’s eyes are on screens—their phones and the big one playing MSNBC loudly for all the hear. With so many races and states that are too close to call, will we remain in a state of limbo all night? Only time will tell.—TG

Let the nail-biting commence. taylor griggs taylor griggs

UPDATE 8:55 PM

At the District 1 candidate party at CORE food carts on 82nd Ave, candidate Steph Routh has been buzzing around the party of about 50-75 people. "I'm just glad people are here!" says Routh.

Sean Bascom

City Council candidates Candace Avalos, Timur Ender, David Linn, Joe Allen, Metro Councilor Duncan Hwang, and their teams all chatting and in good spirits. Former city commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty arrived with former Oregon BOLI commissioner Dan Gardner in support of Avalos.

Winner of the "Cutest Picture EVER" award. Sean bascom

A documentary film crew—focused on the 2024 elections—was covering the event as well, as community organizers Donovan Scribes and Zoe Pilafas chatted with Routh, Avalos, Hardesty, and others. Pilafas says, "East county matters the most to us. It's the strongest place Portland can focus on equity. It's where you should be if you give a shit."

Candidate Timur Ender remains upbeat: "We ran a great campaign, hustled hard, and the rest is up to the voters."—SEAN BASCOM

UPDATE 8:50 PM

Oregon is voting on a handful of state measure as well, and I’m surprised to see that voters have rejected Measure 117, which would have made ranked choice voting an option statewide. I personally enjoyed ranking my choices when I filled out my ballot, even though the sheer amount of bubbles was initially very overwhelming. People could have gotten used to the bubbles. Babies don’t like bubble baths at first, but they come around. Alas, Oregon voters will never know the bubble lyfe. Voters also rejected Measure 118, which would have granted a universal basic income of $1,600 to every Oregonian, an idea which sounds kinda fun but like... why? However, Measure 115 did pass, which means lawmakers can now impeach other lawmakers. Yay! I love an impeachment. So chic. Very West Wing-esque.—EJ

UPDATE 8:30 PM

There are two Multnomah County Commissioner seats up for grabs, and here are the latest preliminary numbers: For the District 1 seat, Meghan Moyer has a substantial lead (57% so far) over perennial candidate Vadim Mozyrsky (at 42%)—but who knows? Maybe for Vadim, the 37th time running for office will be the charm.

Meanwhile in the District 2 race, Shannon Singleton holds a hilarious lead (53%) over former mayor Sam Adams, who I'm surprised was likable enough to garner 46%. Yes, I'm a bitch, deal with it.—WSH

It appears Portland is on the verge of electing its third consecutive guy who looks like Charlie Hales as its next mayor. (Charlie Hales began the streak in 2012). https://t.co/eM79arkSmH

— Señor Eder Campuzano ???????? (@edercampuzano) November 6, 2024

UPDATE 8:26 PM

In District 4, early results show Olivia Clark in the lead, followed by close races among Mitch Green, Eric Zimmerman, and Eli Arnold. Back on scene at the Portland For All/Working Families Party gathering, candidates have disappeared, at least for now. Supporters and campaign volunteers are loading up to-go boxes of food. Some are nervously hovered around a TV showing presidential race results.—CV

UPDATE 8:23 PM

Meanwhile in national news: I got a little gloomy in my last post, but now that polls have closed on the west coast, those blue and red maps are looking a lot less terrifying. Oregon is called for Harris, as is California. Phew. In other races, Democrat Sarah McBride is projected to win an open seat in Delaware to become the first trans person in Congress, and Democrat Andy Kim won the New Jersey senate seat vacated by the slick-palmed Bob Menendez, which makes Kim the first Korean-American in the Senate. Here in Oregon, Janelle Bynum is leading incumbent Republican Lori Chavez-DeReremer by a paltry 2%, but that race is nowhere near called yet. It’s a real mixed bag tonight, folks.

My cat Sprinkles seems to have picked up on my anxiety and is sitting in his emotional support slipper. —EJ

"I'm staying right here until inauguration day." elinor jones 

UPDATE 8:20 PM

Early results are rolling in. In District 1, Candace Avalos is gaining notable momentum as the top vote getter. In District 3, Tiffany Koyama Lane, Angelita Morillo and Steve Novick appear to be leading. Raucous applause and cheering rang out at The Get Down when the early results for District 3 were announced.—CV

UPDATE 8:15 PM

Eric Zimmerman (D4) and Sam Adams (MultCo D2) arew looking over preliminary results at T.C. O’Leary’s on Alberta. No definitive mood shift as the results roll in. People struggling to read the ranked choice results.

Taylor Griggs

I would also like to note that there’s a six-piece Irish band playing at T.C. O’Leary’s, seemingly unaffiliated with the campaigns hosting parties here. Hearing them play has been helpful to my nervous system, but makes it hard for the campaigns to follow results on TV. The Adams and Zimmerman campaigns have moved into another room in the bar to watch the TVs. 

Taylor Griggs

Seems like I should’ve stayed at the Wilson campaign party! Early results show him with a major lead. Unclear how things will shift, but I bet the mood is even better over there now than it was a half hour ago. —TG

UPDATE 8:10 PM

Okay, the first results of the evening are in, and as a reminder, THESE ARE VERY PRELIMINARY, so chill out y’all! Let’s start with the mayoral race. So far mayoral candidate KEITH WILSON has a commanding lead (63%) over the rest of the pack with CARMEN RUBIO coming in second with 37%. Rene Gonzalez is not even on the board. 

And here are the preliminary 8 pm results for the City Council races (reminder that each district is electing three people):

DISTRICT 1: Candace Avalos is currently tied at 25% with Loretta Smith, and Jamie Dunphy pulling up the rear in third with 21%.

DISTRICT 2: It’s currently a three-way tie in District 2 between current commissioner Dan Ryan, Elana Pirtle-Guiney, and Sameer Kanal.

DISTRICT 3: Another three-way tie in D3 between Angelita Morillo, Tiffany Koyama Lane, and Steve Novick. 

DISTRICT 4: Olivia Clark, Mitch Green, and Eric Zimmerman have 25% each in their battle to represent the West Hills, downtown, and Sellwood.

Stand by for state results next!—WSH

UPDATE 7:53 PM

I keep feeling all sorts of hope for this country, but Texas was AWFULLY QUICK to determine that Ted Cruz won his reelection to the US Senate. Florida handily approved a statewide ban on abortion after six weeks (which, as a reminder, is not six weeks of being aware of a pregnancy, but six weeks after the first day of a person’s last period, which is often before they even know they are pregnant, and is functionally a total ban on abortion). And Iowa, which gave all of us libs a jolt of unexpected happiness when pollster Ann Selzer said it suddenly leaned Harris, has gone to Trump. Polls are still open on the West Coast, but I am prematurely not okay. Perhaps another vodka tonic will fix things? I’m gonna try. —ELINOR JONES

UPDATE 7:50 PM

There are plenty of election night parties this evening, and while it's equally exciting and nerve wracking, it's important to remember that the local City Council and mayoral race results tonight will be VERY preliminary. Stay patient! A large group is partying at The Get Down, where Portland For All and Oregon Working Families Party are co-hosting an event for several progressive candidates. It's a lively scene. District 3 City Council candidate Angelita Morillo is mingling. Khanh Pham is making her way around the room. District 2 candidate Michelle DePass is also here. A few speakers from each org are talking about the importance of what Portland is doing to transform the city's local government. The bar is open and the excitement is palpable.—COURTNEY VAUGHN

Getting down at The Get Down. COURTNEY VAUGHN

UPDATE 7:45 PM

Hey everybody! Your old pal Steve Humphrey here, holding down mission control in the Mercury’s election night live blog. THINGS TO LOOK OUT FOR TONIGHT: Ranked choice voting is taking center stage in this year’s election, particularly in the races for City Council, mayor, and city auditor. (Simone Rede was the only person running for auditor this time around, so I guess she’s RANKED #1!! ????) Thanks to a rather lackluster lineup of mayoral candidates (I’m sorry, but it’s true), I bet it was difficult for people to rank more than three—but at least we all know who we shouldn’t have ranked, right? Stay tuned for the first ballot results drop of the night, coming up in under 15 minutes.—WM. STEVEN HUMPHREY

UPDATE: 7:40 PM

The party for mayoral candidate Liv Østhus, AKA Viva Las Vegas, is at Bunk Bar in Southeast Industrial. We’re here just as it’s opening, but both Østhus and her campaign manager try to give me snacks and drinks. The cocktails are pretty enticing, but we have much left to do.The Mercury described Østhus as a political newcomer that nevertheless ran a serious campaign. We ask her if this run signals her intention to join politics permanently—regardless of tonight’s results. She describes the campaign as another step in her arts career and practice, which has felt like a series of vocations, as much as she moved between different facets of her life—stripping, musicianship, writing, and even being a mother. “I felt called to it,” Østhus says, of local politics. “People are craving new types of leaders, visionary ones. Look at this campaign, run with entirely volunteer support until a few weeks ago. I ran against three sitting commissioners! Ultimately, it’s harder to resist a calling than to follow it.” At this point, a crew of supporters from Mary’s—the downtown strip club where Østhus works—arrives, and the room’s energy skyrockets. We part ways with Østhus, and she tries to feed us once more before we leave.—SUZETTE SMITH

Liv Østhus says "cheers" to the democratic process. Suzette smith

UPDATE: 7:30 PM

Mayoral candidate Keith Wilson is having his election party upstairs at Old Town Brewing. Wilson has run a very competitive campaign against some big names and the crowd here has a lot of energy. He told me part of the fun is that we don’t know what we’ll find out tonight. “We’re just here to celebrate. We ran a great campaign with a lot of great people,” Wilson said. —TAYLOR GRIGGS

Rustic, log cabin vibes at Keith Wilson’s party. taylor griggs

UPDATE: 7:20 PM

A couple dozen people are currently at Old Town Brewing on NE MLK for District 2 city council candidate Nat West’s party. People are eating pizza and drinking beer, as to be expected at this establishment. Overheard West make a crack to former Mercury/current OPB reporter Alex Zielinski about the infamous “bowls of popcorn” from Knute Buehler’s election party when he ran for governor. We’ve got a Mercury liveblog reader, folks! West’s energy is upbeat. “I did what I wanted to do,” he says. “I got at least two first-place votes.” (He pointed to himself and his wife.) Everyone is seemingly avoiding paying too much attention to the multiple TV screens in the building, broadcasting presidential race results. —TAYLOR GRIGGS

Taylor Griggs

UPDATE: 7:15 PM

Hey, everybody! I’m Elinor Jones. Usually they keep me over in the humor area, away from real news, so my inclusion in tonight’s lineup of writers really underscores the YIKES! of it all. Some results for the Presidential election are already up, and it looks scary, because the red states seem to count the fastest; it will be a while before we have good information on that front, and if you ask if that will stop me from refreshing every news site every minute, the answer is no! 

I’ll mostly be keeping eyes on the results coming out of Oregon’s 5th Congressional District (which encompasses the area directly to the southeast of Portland, including parts of Clackamas, Multnomah, Linn, and Marion counties) where Democrat Janelle Bynum is hoping to unseat Republican Lori Chavez-DeRemer. Chavez-DeRemer is a mega MAGA Republican. Bynum is a sitting state Representative, having beat this very same Chavez-DeRemer twice for that seat. 

I was first introduced to Bynum when she was a guest on my favorite podcast Lovett or Leave It and she was delightful AND hilarious—a winning combo if you ask me! If you need 14 minutes of entertainment to kill time before the big results start pouring in, here's a video I highly recommend.—ELINOR JONES

by Wm. Steven Humphrey

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. 

As we wake to face a repeat of authoritarian rule, I wanted to share something I wrote last night during our election live blog:

We can look into the darkness and choose to hide there, or we can do like we did in 2016 and rise up. You can bet that’s what we here at the Mercury will be doing. We consider it a privilege to be able to stand up for the voiceless and fight against the rising tide of hatred. We’ve been doing it for the past 24 years, and there is absolutely no way we’re going to stop now.

But we will need your help, because now there are millions of people across the country who will need your assistance as well. We can do it together, because we’ve done it before and we know what it takes. Cry, scream, yell, and grieve—and then get a good night’s sleep. Because tomorrow, we’re going to need that roaring fire that burns inside each of us to continue protecting those who need it most. We believe in you. You are strong enough to face the road ahead, and we’ll be right there beside you. 

Now, let's look at the news.

IN LOCAL ELECTION NEWS:

• While we can expect more results to drop from Multnomah County elections, the current leader for mayor of Portland (and by a wide margin) is trucking company owner Keith Wilson. That said, Multnomah County officials say that up to 50 percent of the votes have yet to be counted, which could throw a lifeline of hope to second place candidate Carmen Rubio, and probably won't be any help at all to distant third place challenger Rene Gonzalez, har-har hardy-har-har. (While we may fear for the intelligence of half the country, at least the majority of Portland knew enough to "#Don't Rank Rene.")

Per prelim results Tues (subject to change):

Wilson got 36% of 1st-choice votes, nearly 2x that of Gonzalez or Rubio.

Our Oct poll (30% undecided) showed RG 23% of 1st-choice, Wilson 18%.

Many thought RG would get up to 35%.

Instead, he cratered.https://t.co/05C4hPAi6J https://t.co/kOJ4jLaBVO

— Shane Dixon Kavanaugh (@shanedkavanaugh) November 6, 2024

• In the race for a new—and hopefully greatly improved—Portland City Council, here are the current leaders (expect another ballot drop from the county at 6 pm tonight) in each district... as described with emojis:

DISTRICT 1 (East Portland): Candace Avalos ????, Loretta Smith ????, and Jamie Dunphy ????.

DISTRICT 2 (North Portland): Current City Commissioner Dan Ryan ????, along with candidates Sameer Kanal ????, and Elana Pirtle-Guiney ????.

DISTRICT 3 (Central and Southeast Portland): Angelita Morillo ????, Tiffany Koyama Lane ????, and Steve Novick ????.

DISTRICT 4 (West Portland/Downtown/Sellwood): Olivia Clark ????, Mitch Green ????, and Eric Zimmerman ????.

In short, our newest city council so far has a progressive majority, which will be especially helpful in facing the next four years of YOU KNOW WHO ????.

• Meanwhile there were two races of note for Multnomah County Commissioners: Megan Moyer was elected as commissioner for District 1 and Shannon Singleton will represent District 2 on the County Board of Commissioners. Moyer defeated Vadim "I'll run for any office that will have me... what do you mean they won't have me?" Mozyrsky, while Shannon Singleton (who is soundly beating Sam "Second most unlikable politician in town" Adams) will most likely represent District 2. Another big progressive win.

• And how did the state measures fare? As of this morning, Measure 115 (allowing the Oregon state legislature to impeach and remove awful elected politicians) is winning big, 63 percent to 37 percent. Measure 116 (giving an independent commission the power to set salaries for some state lawmakers) is most likely a "no," and is leading the "yes" vote count by 10 percent. Measure 117 (implementing ranked-choice voting for state and federal offices) is sadly a big "NO" after being defeated 60 to 40 percent. The nice, but misguided Measure 118 (establishing a minimum tax on certain corporations, with the proceeds going toward a $1600 tax rebate for all Oregonians) went down in flames 79 to 21 percent, and Measure 119 (making it easier for cannabis workers to unionize) is also a probable "YES," currently leading the "no thank you's" by ten percent.

• As expected, it was a good night for Democrats running for state office, with Tobias Read winning Oregon Secretary of State, Elizabeth Steiner taking the state treasurer position, and Dan Rayfield snapping up the Attorney General spot. And while Dems Maxine Dexter, Andrea Salinas, Val Hoyle, and Suzanne Bonamici won their races for US Representative, the most closely watched federal contest in the state is still nail-bitingly close: Dem Janelle Bynum currently leads GOP darling Lori Chavez-DeRemer by two percentage points.

Stay tuned to the Mercury over the next few days, as more election results are solidifying! And don't forget to check out our Election Night Live Blog for all the blow-by-blows from last night's rollercoaster of events.

IN OTHER LOCAL NEWS THAT IS ALSO IMPORTANT:

• Well, this is some bullshit: In a blatant attempt at impotent, political grandstanding, Commissioner (and mayoral loser) Rene Gonzalez and fellow stooges Mingus Mapps and Dan Ryan are scheduled to vote tomorrow to sink the current homelessness agreement it has with Multnomah County—and even more inexplicably insane—they don't even have a backup plan to replace it. Oh, but wait... there's more: This ridiculous, thoughtless stunt will cost the city $40 million that we don't have. (The new city council cannot arrive soon enough.) Our Courtney Vaughn has the infuriating details. 

• In a very different way to spend election night, two people were arrested and their cars towed following a street racing takeover event in North Portland. (Apropos of nothing, I voted for Tokyo Drift as my fave Fast & Furious movie.)

IN NATIONAL ELECTION NEWS:

• Well fartz, here we go again: Convicted felon and twice impeached former president Donald Trump defeated Kamala Harris (in case you didn't hear). And while the GOP also held on to the Senate (Jeeeeesus Ch-rist!), the House is still a toss-up and we won't hear for awhile about who won the presidential popular vote—though cash money says it'll be Kamala. And while I'm certain we'll all be hearing a lot of "blame game" antics today, try to resist pointing fingers at fellow Dems. The blame lies alone with those who refuse to educate themselves or be educated, and who let fear and racism rule their existence. Don't be one of them.

Donald Trump — the twice impeached former president, Jan. 6 coup leader, convicted felon, adjudicated sexual abuser, and man who mismanaged the 2020 economic implosion and coronavirus disaster that killed more than 1 million people in this country — has convinced American voters… pic.twitter.com/9cd0luvTFF

— Rolling Stone (@RollingStone) November 6, 2024

• Abortion was also on the ballot last night, with pro-abortion activists winning in seven states (Arizona, Colorado, Maryland, Montana, Nevada, New York, and possibly Missouri), while three other states (Florida, Nebraska, and South Dakota) kept their draconian bans in place.

• The best headline of the day so far: "Sarah McBride becomes the first out transgender person elected to Congress." ????????????????

• In less-than-optimal election headlines: "Texas Sen. Ted Cruz will win reelection and defeat Democrat Colin Allred, CNN projects." "The world's right-wing leaders celebrate Trump's win — but America's allies hint unease." "Trump legal team planning to move swiftly to get all criminal cases brought to a halt." And possibly the most obvious headline of the day: "Racism, sexism partly to blame for Harris defeat."

They want you to feel powerless and surrender and let them trample everything and you are not going to let them. You are not giving up, and neither am I. The fact that we cannot save everything does not mean we cannot save anything and everything we can save is worth saving.

— Rebecca Solnit/joy is a strategy (@RebeccaSolnit) November 6, 2024

• And finally... let's cleanse that timeline with some good news that—a new baby hippo is in town! (Cold comfort... but right now I'll take it.)

Moo Deng? Who deng? Introducing… Haggis ????????????????????????????

Otto and Gloria have welcomed an ADORABLE pygmy hippo calf! She is doing well, but we’ll be keeping the hippo house closed for the time being so that our expert keepers can keep a close eye on mum and baby at this sensitive time ???????? pic.twitter.com/ceGtARuzyR

— Edinburgh Zoo (@EdinburghZoo) November 4, 2024

by Anonymous

Rene Gonzalez lost! He's not the Mayor, he's not on city council. He's just some douche at your kids soccer game complaining about the homeless now. That dude is out of our lives! Horray!

by Suzette Smith

The Mercury provides its readers with interesting and useful news & culture reporting every single day. If you appreciate that, consider making a small monthly contribution to support our editorial team. If you read something you like, something you don't like but are glad to know about, and/or something you can't find anywhere else consider a one-time tip. It all goes in the same pot and it all goes to the editorial team. Thanks for your support!

Good Morning, Portland! We're still "turning and turning in the widening gyre" over here, and we may be for quite some time.

IN LOCAL NEWS:
• Last night's round of election results arrived without any notable changes in the Portland City Council races. News editor Courtney Vaughn writes: "With Keith Wilson securing the mayor’s seat the day prior, results in City Council districts largely held firm."

• While the national election results have been [understatement incoming] pretty distressing, local races are lined with silver. The Columbian reports Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez has maintained her lead over far-right, perennial challenger Joe Kent. The Oregonian has a good breakdown of the race and history of Gluesenkamp Perez's hard-fought win.

• PCC Automotive Service Technology Program instructor Jay Kuykendall has been named this year's Educator of the Year by the North American Council of Automotive Teachers, Portland Tribune reports. "Kuykendall oversees the auto shop lab and teaches engine performance classes, along with elective courses like Subaru U, electrified vehicles and light-duty diesel."

• Beloved local coffee chain Jim and Patty's Coffee announced earlier this week that it will close its remaining two locations, in Beaverton and in Portland, on November 11. "Thank you all from the bottom of our hearts for your support..." owner Patty Roberts wrote. "Now I will need to find a job. If anyone has any ideas for an old lady who has been off the job market for over 40 years, let me know!" ???? For more backstory, check out this Mercury piece about the struggling coffee shops from October.

• There was once a time in Portland when one could easily—well, depending on connection issues—rent a cheery little blue and white hybrid car to drive. The little smart cars were great for unforgiving rain showers and surprisingly solid in the snow. Car2Go merged with Reachnow in 2018, then tanked in 2019. In 2021, Free2Move announced it would drop a "fleet of 200 Jeep Renegades" for Portland consumers to rent, but the cumbersome cars departed once more in 2023. This week MSN reposted that story from 2023, so some people have been letting us know about it. Sorry about MSN, and this all happened last year. Still fun to revisit this tweet:

so let me get this straight

car2go joins sharenow, while reachnow becomes reachnow pic.twitter.com/gJi7R6YZ8e

— Cabel Sasser (@cabel) March 4, 2019

• Politicians are politicians, but I find Sen. Jeff Merkley's vibe calming:

          View this post on Instagram                      

A post shared by Senator Jeff Merkley (@senjeffmerkley)

• Every week, the Mercury gives out free tickets to local shows and this week we've got sweet tix for Reverend Horton Heat, Des Demonas, Karina Rykman and moooore—check'm out and win with our Free Ticket Thursday giveaway!

IN NATIONAL / INTERNATIONAL NEWS:
• I can't immediately find who said this, but I think it's a valid concern: As we watch the transition back to a Trump administration presidency, the cabinet appointments are probably going to feel like being repeatedly punched in the face. President-elect Donald Trump named Florida strategist Susie Wiles as his White House chief of staff on Thursday. Wiles has run his political operation for nearly four years, making her one of the few people to survive at his side for any length of time. What's Wiles deal? Nepo baby. Ronald Reagan campaign staffer. Wiles has been credited with putting Rick Scott in Florida's governor’s office. Associated Press has a nice, long profile on her this morning. Is she going to tear the tampon machine out of the White House bathroom again? We're watching.

• A Biden administration initiative known as “Keeping Families Together” was struck down by a Texas-based US District judge yesterday; Judge J. Campbell Barker argued that the Biden administration had overstepped its authority with its attempt to lessen barriers to citizenship for undocumented immigrants married to US citizens.

• Soccer fans did violence again, but this time it might be motivated by cultural and political friction. NPR reports that "leading political figures in the Netherlands have condemned the violence that followed a match between a Dutch team Ajax and Tel Aviv's Maccabi. According to NPR, "Dutch police said 62 people have been arrested following several clashes." Amsterdam mayor Femke Halsema described local men seeking out Israeli fans on scooters. Dutch police chief Peter Holla said fans of Tel Aviv Maccabi had "set a Palestinian flag on fire in the city and attacked a taxi." Dutch authorities have banned demonstrations through the weekend.

• Happy Martian New Year... soon! In Scientific American Phil Plait writes: "Why would anyone pick November 12 as New Year’s Day for Mars? And why does our official reckoning of Martian time set the eons-old Red Planet only in its 38th year? The answer involves a combination of natural cycles and the human need to impose order via somewhat arbitrary timekeeping—pretty much like on Earth."

• And now we part—wishing a fine weekend to my naysayers and hatchet men in the fight against violence.

Frybread Fest, Gobble Up, and More Cheap & Easy Events Under $15 by EverOut Staff

Well Portland, it's been a hard week and there are difficult days yet ahead. Take care of yourselves and each other this weekend. If you're looking for something to do to take your mind off things, we're recommending events from Frybread Fest to John's Marketplace 25th Anniversary Celebration and from Gobble Up to Northwest Animal Companions' Cat Adoption Fair. For more ideas, check out our guide to the top events of the week.

FRIDAY COMEDY

Small Fruits - Queer Comedy
I am a strong believer in a cute little night out, and this, dear reader, fits the bill. Hosted by "dynamic duo" No Sex and the City, whose lackluster love lives must give them a lot of time to practice their improv skills, Small Fruits invites attendees who are "navigating perpetual singlehood or basking in newfound love." It promises to be fun, gay, and "leave you smitten," which seems ideal. Plus, Small Fruits features a roster of local, "delightfully humble queer improvisers." Humility isn't a trait I typically look for in comedians, but sure, why not? LINDSAY COSTELLO
(Kickstand Comedy, Ladd's Addition, $10-$15)

Ahead of the hardcore band's sold out show at Revolution Hall, Johnny Whitney and Jordan Blilie tell us what the group's intense, abstract song lyrics really mean. by Suzette Smith

Like any fan of Seattle hardcore band the Blood Brothers, I have found myself at a show, pressed up against a wall of people, shouting the wrong lyrics to their songs. For instance, on their hit "USA NAILS" there's a hook where you think you're singing a cheer-style "one, one, and two!" but the lyrics are actually: "These pigs locked me up to see what color I'd rot into!"

The energetic screamo group was active from 1997-2007, during which time they released five critically-acclaimed albums, completed several European tours, and even played a set on Jimmy Kimmel Live, overcoming the reservations of the show's freaked-out producers. Perhaps the best indicator of their success is the fact that their US reunion tour—which hits Portland on November 12—is completely sold out.

Ever ones to cut the bullshit, Blood Brothers don't have a new record; they're playing the fucking hits. Still, the tour is timed with Epitaph's anniversary reissue of one of their biggest albums Crimes (2004) on vinyl.

When we sat down to talk to Johnny Whitney, who fronts the band with fellow singer/screamer/guttural whisperer Jordan Blilie, he noted that plenty of lyrics websites list incorrect verses for Blood Brothers songs. "It's hilarious how wrong some of them are," Whitney said. "The lyrics on Spotify are not even close to what I'm actually saying. Just buy the fucking CD, and look it up. Come on, people."

We spoke with Whitney and Blilie separately, over sprawling phone calls that we have organized into this piece. For clarity, we're listing their responses together, as we seek to get into the nitty gritty of this group's  danceable, screaming-nightmare material.

Blood Brothers in San Francisco, on the first night of their reunion tour. They were incredible. Photo by Suzette Smith Jordan Blilie (left) and Morgan Henderson (right) Suzette Smith

Foremost, Whitney and Blilie both began by gushing about the other three members of their band: frenetic drummer Mark Gajadhar, vigorous guitarist Cody Votolato, and ultra-versatile bassist Morgan Henderson, who is currently best known as a member of Fleet Foxes.

Related: Multi-instrumentalist/Ultramarathoner Morgan Henderson Is Busier Than You

"I cannot fucking believe that I got to work with these guys," Whitney says. "I just took all those things for granted at the time. Everybody was, and still is, coming from totally different places [musically], but there was always something really special about all of us together that was there from the moment that we started."

PORTLAND MERCURY: Johnny, I've always gotten the impression that you're the major force behind the lyrics.

JOHNNY WHITNEY: I came up with the majority of the lyrics, but it certainly was collaborative between Jordan and I. I would freewrite as much as I could, to have material to draw from, and going back to those notebooks kept things as free and fresh and not contrived as possible. The drawback of that approach is the lyrics are very abstract and hard to parse direct meaning from, but that's also kind of the point. I found myself writing about the absence of answers, or the absence of concrete truths that you can hold onto.

A lot of times, my process would center around coming up with a cool idea: a song name or some common refrain that we would want to work into a song, like "Burn Piano Island, Burn." Something that has a hook or conveys an image or feeling. Then we would reverse engineer the lyrics from that.

JORDAN BLILIE: I would absolutely say that I felt like Johnny was the driver, and for good reason. He's really good. When you see someone who is in a flow state, you do your best to accentuate and collaborate, to help mold and shape and add your pieces. It was always stuff that I was really excited to dig into. It was just that rich and that vibrant. The challenge for me was what can I add to it, you know? It always pushed me to try and come up with the most creatively-inspired stuff that I could.

You two have such an engaging stage style. People would call it sassy, but that has always felt like a description from people who have never been to a play and can't recognize theater. Do either of you have a background in theater arts?

WHITNEY: I wanted to be a child actor—I actually auditioned for that movie Blank Check (1994). Actually, a year after Jordan and I met, we were both in a Jr. High production of Alice in Wonderland. He was the Mad Hatter, and I was the Mock Turtle.

BLILIE: Why would you say that? [Laughs]

Jordan Blilie (left) and Johnny Whitney (right) Suzette Smith Jordan Blilie screams on the tour's first night in San Francisco. Suzette Smith

"USA NAILS" was such a hit, and it involved a phone number everyone could scream. How did that come to be?

WHITNEY: The name and the "1-900-USA-NAILS" comes from the chain nail salon, but we reverse-engineered it into a song about somebody using their one phone call from the county jail to call a phone sex line. It's the idea of loneliness, disaffection, and parasocial relationships with things that exist solely for their own profit or gain.

And yet it's also danceable. There are these moments live where you have an audience of people shaking their asses and shouting "to see what color I'd rot into!" Did you start with that idea and work backwards, or just jam it into that moment of the song?

WHITNEY: At that time, the band would all sit together in a room and have a kind of song tribunal about how each part should go. Then, at some point, we'd have a semi -finished version and [Jordan and I] would just try to fit lyrics to the songs. Especially on Burn, Piano Island, Burn. Some of those songs needed an editor so bad, right? I wouldn't change a thing about it, but looking back, there are parts where it sounds like everybody's playing a different song at the same time, but it kind of works, right? And for the lyrics, sometimes we just had to make it work.

That wasn't the first time Jordan whispered his lyrics in a guttural tone, but it's one of the more emblematic, right? How did that start?

BLILIE: By necessity—I don't have much of a range, you know? I have this weird baritone. Very early on we were drawing from crust punk, where you just have two voices screaming. And we didn't put a whole lot of thought into even what the other person was doing. But then, as we continued to develop, the stuff became more complex, and there was more room for different sorts of shadings of what we could do vocally. So it was just finding out: What is it I can do other than scream at the top of my lungs?

WHITNEY: Jordan's part at the end just works right? He was very inspired by Jarvis Cocker.

BLILIE: Yeah, you can trace that right back to Pulp. If you listen to any Pulp song, there's gonna be some whispery storytelling, with the compression cranked up so you can kind of hear every lick of the lips.

<a href="https://thebloodbrothersofficial.bandcamp.com/album/burn-piano-island-burn">Burn, Piano Island, Burn by The Blood Brothers</a>

BLILIE: Some of my favorite moments of writing with Johnny are the ones that we would where we would crack each other up.

Can you give an example?

BLILIE: Every lyric of "Guitarmy." We really got a kick out of the idea of opening our major label debut with the words, "do you remember us?" Because of the audacity, the absurdity of it.

So you guys all started this band when you were in your teens.

BLILIE: Yeah, we started when we were like, 15-16.

Are there any lyrics that have not aged well, in your opinion?

BLILIE: I'm sure they're the ones that we're not playing. [Laughs.] This question reminds me of something one of my professors said. It was my first class at UCLA, Queer Lit from Walt Whitman to Stonewall. In class discussions my fellow classmates would critique writing from the 1800s for not satisfying certain criteria, and our professor would say: You cannot look at the text backwards. You have to look at it forwards. You can't apply current day criteria to something that was written when that criteria didn't even exist. You have to engage with it in the context of when it was written. I don't think anything we wrote is in a canon warranting that level of examination, but it's useful nonetheless. It's a way for me to remind myself that I was 20, and I had the tools of a 20-year-old. It helps me to not beat myself up too much about it.

WHITNEY: There's a story behind this. When we were doing the song "Camouflage, Camouflage" on Young Machetes, Jordan and I were going back and forth on the lyrics. He was like, "Yeah, I'm great with all this." But he put a line through one verse, where I say: "All the girls in Montreal are smashing skateboards in the street." And I was just like: Fuck you, dude. I'm gonna keep this in. But he was right, because it sounds stupid, and it's like, really horny and makes me want to light my skin on fire. So I'm changing it to something else, probably something different every night.

Johnny Whitney (left) holds a crowd member's hand for support. Suzette Smith The crowd supports Johnny Whitney while he sings. Suzette Smith 

I wonder about imagery in Blood Brothers' songs that seems to be responding to beauty standards at the time. Like, in "Ambulance, Ambulance" you've got this blistering segue to the chorus: "What is love? / What is scam? / What is sun? / What is tan?"

WHITNEY: That's a double meaning. Because it's like tan—like suntan—but also tan is a blah color, right? It's like the color of a dentist's office wall. If you think of the idea of love being something that could feel on-fire, passionate, the color of a dentist's office wall is the opposite. Although, tanning does come into play in a lot of our lyrics. I've noticed as well.

Or on "Beautiful Horses" the lyrics are "gallop into your romance novels / dance atop heavy pectorals."

BLILIE: I think we were seeing an increasingly vapid culture, and we were trying to dig into that—dig into: What does it do to someone when they're bombarded by these sorts of images and messages? There was a lot of that in that writing; I can't say specifically with "Beautiful Horses," but I think "Trash Flavored Trash," would probably fit under that umbrella.

<a href="https://thebloodbrothersofficial.bandcamp.com/album/crimes-bonus-track-version">Crimes (Bonus Track Version) by The Blood Brothers</a>

In "Rats and Rats and Rats for Candy" there's an ongoing narrative of rats living inside a woman. It's like a play. There are characters. And the rats eventually chew out of her and try to find a new body to live in. I wondered if that was also about beauty standards or body dysmorphia?

WHITNEY: That song, it's about that, but it's also about manipulation, right? Not to get too personal, but I grew up with somebody who weaponized being sick—faked being sick—for their entire life in order to manipulate people and extract something they needed out of them. The character in that song is kind of a victim, but like a siren at the same time. They're trying to lure somebody in.

Is that person the rats, or are they Candy?

WHITNEY: The rats are in Candy. I mean, it's both.

What about "The Shame?" Your group resonates so much with "everything is gonna be just awful / when we're around" that you're putting it on t-shirts 20 years later. What does it mean?

WHITNEY: The whole premise of that song is having to sell yourself—how to commoditize yourself. It's about how you function in a capitalist society. You sink or swim by your ability to market yourself, make yourself desirable—whether it be in relationships, job market, blah blah blah. I've always been repulsed by that and was especially at the time we wrote it, which was in Venice Beach, while we were recording Burn, Piano Island, Burn. It was the longest time I'd ever been in LA, and that's the epicenter of being a self-salesman. That line encapsulates the feeling of being sold something. And you're in a position where, in order to survive, you have to be your own salesman.

Salesmen show up in other songs, like "The Salesman, Denver Max." That's another one that almost feels like a short story.

WHITNEY: I initially cribbed the idea for that song's lyrics from the Joyce Carol Oates short story, "Where Are You Going? Where Have You Been?" It follows a narrative of a very dangerous, predatory man in the process of stalking and kidnapping somebody. “Denver Max” was a huge, uncomfortable gamble for me, because I wrote the entire song on my acoustic guitar, recorded it to a 4-track, and then played it for the guys—totally expecting them to hate it. It was really daunting to try to contribute as a songwriter; Cody, Morgan, and Mark are such talented musicians. I think they may have hated it; I don't really remember how we ended up recording it. It was nobody's favorite thing, but we just tracked it, and it sounded great and worked.

Have you read anything by playwright Caryl Churchill?

WHITNEY: Never heard of her.

"Live at the Apocalypse Cabaret" has a lyric in it that reminds me of her play Far Away, which has a scene of milliners making hats for people to wear at a public execution, so I always felt a symmetry there, because of the lyrics "the cross-eyed map of the afterlife is knitting tiny neck ties." 

WHITNEY: I'm going to be super honest, the songs that I'm the most familiar with the lyrics of, at this very moment, are songs that were going to be playing, because I've been rehearsing them. But I do remember, with that song, we were trying to be funny without being silly. Like, a cross-eyed map is a map that makes no sense, where you don't know where you're going. Knitting tiny neckties are noose ties. It's like dressing yourself up for death, right? It's trying to dress up something that's really heinous and horrible and incomprehensible, and also trying to navigate that, through a map that makes no sense.

At this moment you have cracked my understanding of a play you haven't even read. But I digress, I've read that "Celebrator" was a direct response to Toby Keith's "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue."

BLILIE: That pumped up patriotism felt gross when taken in context with the images and much of the information that we were seeing come out of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Is that why there are so many mentions of amputated limbs on Crimes?

BLILIE: The bulk of Crimes was trying to engage with war so that's where you get a lot of that grizzly imagery.

Related: The Blood Brothers Set Expectations Ablaze at Last Night’s Surprise Black Lodge Show

Well, personally, it's so nice that you're touring right now. Blood Brothers are great for when you need to scream, but you can't. You can scream along to the Blood Brothers in your head, or out loud at a show.

BLILIE: I'm glad that we could be of service, in that regard. It's hard for me not to go into a really bleak mindset when I look at our current political landscape. I find myself equal parts enraged and terrified. And there are times when I have to just close all news down. I guess it is a good time to get up and scream.

The Blood Brothers play Revolution Hall, 1300 SE Stark, Tues Nov 12, 8 pm, SOLD OUT, all ages.

by Anonymous

If there was a thing that took human form, that spoke in a garbled mimicry of human speech, that masked it's strange pallor and foul odor, that was human-like, but devoid of human love and compassion, that made the desperate and weak it's minions, that was a black hole for attention of any sort, that destroyed everything it came near and turned neighbor against neighbor and family against family... What would its name be?

by Wm. Steven Humphrey

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! ????

Who's had a busy weekend of actively IGNORING all the spectacularly bad takes following last week's election? Wow, these so-called Democrats are the only people I know who, instead of blaming the actual people involved, love kicking each other in the scrabble bag when they're disappointed. Even worse, a few of these bad actors are saying we should have capitulated to the white supremacists and the hateful half of the country that voted for Trump... as if that would have somehow changed the outcome? LOL! Make a note, friends... despite the fact that a sizable part of the nation is in thrall of a convicted felon/cult leader, we should NEVER water down our ethics or sense of justice to appease people who want the rest of us (and especially marginalized communities) to stop existing. If you absolutely must blame someone, try focusing your ire on those who refuse to properly educate themselves and have lost their moral compass. Our pathway is UP—the rest of 'em can either keep up or get the fuck out of the way. 

And that's your Monday Morning Mini-Rant™—now, let's look at some NEWS!

IN LOCAL NEWS:

• Local election update! Now that only a very few votes (4,000 as of Saturday) are left to be counted, I think it's safe to say "OH, HELLO THERE!" to our newest incoming mayor, Keith Wilson, and our new city council, which is as follows: District 1: Candace Avalos, Loretta Smith, and (probably) Jamie Dunphy (waiting for the final count to clarify that one); District 2: Elana Pirtle-Guiney, Sameer Kanal, and current City Commissioner Dan Ryan ????; District 3: Steve Novick, Tiffany Koyama Lane, and Angelita Morillo; and District 4: Olivia Clark, Mitch Green, and most likely Eric Zimmerman... or possibly cop Eli Arnold (neither are great). In any case, that right there is a majority progressive council, with a few Portland Business Alliance puppets thrown in—which in theory should make the ever-conniving big business/realtor community happy, but rest assured they'll be pulling some anti-democratic shenanigans before you know it. Keep an eye on 'em! ????

Portland: Our new mayor Keith Wilson shows encouraging signs on transportation, above all his obsession with observation and data. Good profile by Jonathan Maus at Bike Portland.

bikeportland.org/2024/11/07/p...

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— Jarrett Walker (@humantransit.bsky.social) November 10, 2024 at 12:56 PM

• In other good election news, in the hotly contested (and way too close) Oregon's 5th Congressional District race, Democrat Janelle Bynum scored a win over Republican incumbent Lori Chavez DeRemer, flipping the US House seat from red to blue! While there is currently a narrow path to victory for House Democrats, it's still very tight—so at this moment, every Democrat win counts. (And in case you missed it, in Washington state, Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez is the presumptive winner in the 3rd Congressional District, beating out dipshit MAGA candidate Joe Kent.)

• In the first baller move of his administration, mayor-elect Keith Wilson allegedly pressured current city commissioners Rene Gonzalez, Mingus Mapps, and Dan Ryan into dropping their theatrical stunt to end Portland's homelessness services agreement with Multnomah County. As our Courtney Vaughn reported, the three crybaby candidates were threatening to end the deal with the county, even though it would cost the city $40 million to do so. But according to Ryan—who is now furiously backpedaling on his bonehead decision—Wilson called the trio, and "made it clear that he would like us to take that off the table.... So out of respect for the new mayor, it just was good manners." HAAAAAAAAA! Right. Or maybe it was that Gonzalez and Mapps' run for mayor just blew up in their faces, and Ryan was left alone in the wilderness holding this particular bag of shit. In any case, an absolutely embarrassing way to end their obstructive, but mostly useless term—and I am here for it! ????

• The Portland Trail Blazers suffered an absolutely crushing defeat to the Memphis Grizzlies last night... 134-89? OUCH. Terrible shooting, poor defense, and a harsh 23 turnovers reportedly had the normally stoic coach Chauncey Billups reportedly issuing this post-game message to the players: “Anybody that sleeps well tonight, you’re a loser. It’s just that simple." Once again, with feeling: OUCH.

• Today in death: Pioneering climate scientist Warren Washington—who grew up in Portland—has died at the age of 88. Washington is credited with developing early models of global warming. Also, longtime Blazer radio announcer Brian "Wheels" Wheeler has died after an extensive illness; he was 62.

Ahead of the Blood Brothers' sold out show at Revolution Hall next week, we spoke with the band's two frontmen about the group's intense, abstract song lyrics. ⁠ We did not expect: Their shared theater history. The influence of Pulp's Jarvis Cocker.

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— Portland Mercury (@portlandmercury.bsky.social) November 8, 2024 at 12:26 PM

IN NATIONAL/WORLD NEWS:

• Despite exciting Democratic wins in Oregon and Washington, Republicans are getting closer to keeping control of the House, which after capturing the senate would mean that many of Trump's evil schemes could become a reality. Currently the GOP is four congresspeople away from securing the necessary 218 seats; the Dems are at 203. ????

• Trump has chosen former ICE director Tom Homan to serve as his “border czar,” as the incoming president ramps up his plan to launch "the largest deportation operation in the nation’s history" (without presenting a plan on how it can be done or the billions it will cost us now and in the future). The recently elected convicted felon has also picked longtime loyalist/minion Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York to become the next US ambassador to the United Nations. Stefanik is a staunch supporter of Israel and their genocide, and has pushed for ending relief to war-torn Palestinians. The only potential good news here: Taking Stefanik out of her current job could lead Republicans into losing the House.

This is not great

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— Molly Jong-Fast (@mollyjongfast.bsky.social) November 11, 2024 at 7:49 AM

• In escaped monkey news: Twenty-four out of 43 monkeys who escaped a South Carolina research lab last week have been recovered—and staff has eyes on another "sizable" group. Locals are being advised to avoid touching the monkeys, and instead call 911. (Take it from someone who briefly lived there, South Carolina hates it when you touch your monkey.)

Your body, my choice

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— Berit Glanz (@beritmiriam.bsky.social) November 11, 2024 at 2:23 AM

• Toymaker Mattel has apologized for accidentally including a porn website address on packaging for dolls from the upcoming movie Wicked. The company is advising parents to either throw away the packaging or obscure the web address before kids accidentally stumble on to any "Two Witches, One Cup" videos. (On a scale of one-to-ten, how mad are you at me right now? I'm at, like, a seven.)

• And finally... a visual representation of what will happen to the economy five minutes after Trump takes office:

@vehiculeracing -caniparkhere? #boat ♬ original sound  - VÉHICULE

by Elinor Jones

What's happening Trash Pandas? Welcome back to the Trash Report. I am Elinor Jones and I am not doing well! Lucky for us, things have been shitty often enough and recently enough that we can disassociate and do our silly little activities. How fortunate we are to live in times that challenge us! JK! I hate it!!

Elections Trash

Well my friends, I guess we didn't coconut hard enough, because Donald Trump is headed back to the White House. A lot of people will have a lot of thoughtful breakdowns in the coming weeks and months about what went wrong, but it seems pretty obvious to me that we live in a country that hates women—Black women especially—and they like Trump. It sucks, but usually the simplest explanation is the correct one. Ad buys in Pennsylvania or door knocking in Michigan wouldn't have changed the fact that people hate women and like Trump, and even if they didn't totally love Trump, they were at least more comfortable with him in power than with a woman. Democrats spent a billion dollars to try to educate voters on why Trump is bad, but it didn't work; people know he's bad, they just don't care, or they like that part about him. They like how Trump talks more than they like the way Democrats talk, especially Democrats who are women. This handwringing about like "oh, if only people understood the real issues" and like: no. We're past that. Issues don't matter. Not only do people not care, but it also makes Democrats even less likable when we're trying to scold them over to our side. During one of my spirals I realized how weird it is that there isn't even a phrase like "owning the libs" for chuds? Like, us bullying them into silence or an embarrassing hissy fit isn't even on the damn table. Why is that? What are we doing? In hindsight the best messaging of the entire campaign was when everybody laughed at J.D. Vance for fucking a couch; if we could have had more like that in play instead of Liz fucking Cheney reminding us that Kamala Harris is pro-military and celebrities who will never worry about money insisting that Biden's economy is good, actually, we probably could have could probably have gotten some people (who voted only off vibes) to like ours better, although probably not enough to convince people not to hate women. As you can tell, I am very, very angry! Most of it is directed at Joe Biden. He should have run in 2016, he should not have run in 2020, he shouldn't have attempted a reelection campaign this year, and then he should have dropped out faster when the writing was on the wall after the debate in June. End rant. (For now. There's still a lot of juice in this tank, and it's gonna be a loooong four years.)

Portland: Inspirational!

Trump promised RFK Jr a role overseeing health in his new administration, and the first order of business floated is removing fluoride from our nation's drinking water. This captured headlines for its absurdity. "Why in the world would we not take such an easy and impactful action to help everybody, but especially poor children, have healthier teeth? What anti-science freakshows would take issue with fluoride in the water?" "Wow, yeah, totally," said the city of Portland as we pulled our shirt collars up around our faces and sought an immediate exit from the conversation. Being part of a Venn diagram where one circle is RFK Jr. and the other circle is Portland and the middle part is "fluoride = bad" is not a good look for us.

In other news, fans allege that someone attending a recent Sabrina Carpenter concert squatted and peed in the middle of the pit before the show started. Knowing that Carpenter had just played in Portland, when I saw the headline about someone being gross at a show, I immediately assumed that it happened here. I was wrong—it was San Francisco—but that is the kind of national news I'd like our city to make and not "RFK Jr approves of Portland's municipal health initiatives." Let's go back to "Portland Sucks." Nationally, it's an easier place for us to be.

Wicked Merch

The thing that might divide my family this Thanksgiving is not politics—we are all aligned there, thank God—but whether we should first see Moana 2 or Wicked. We are leaning Moana 2, mostly because this Disney sequel is shockingly not the one unleashing inescapable product tie-ins everywhere I look. Speaking of which, the folks at Mattel did so by putting a link to a porn site on the packaging for some Glinda and Elphaba dolls and had to apologize and issue a recall. LOL. I can imagine the exhausted and overworked marketing associate who's trying to stave off sleep by occasionally watching some adult content and deliriously copy-pasting the wrong link. Look, you mass produce 10,000 different green and pink items, you're bound to screw up something.  

In other Wicked news, director Jon Chu missed the LA premiere because his wife went into labor and gave birth to a baby girl. The baby is the couple's fifth; a full three of those five children were born during the development and filming of Wicked. His wife may have told him she was proud of him, but her body was clearly saying "no sir, we are not doing that anymore." And she feels like five kids is plenty, but knows that Wicked 2 is only a year away and is debating whether a sixth baby could keep that press buzz out of their family life.

AOTY When?

Grammy nominations came out last week, and women came out on top. Imagine if Kamala Harris won the White House during the same week that Beyoncé became the most nominated artist in Grammy history? We could have been so happy, and so annoying. Etsy would have gotten absolutely filthy with throw pillow bearing feminist catchphrases. This column would have been damn near unreadable, even more so than usual. The gods took a look at us American women as our souls threatened to leave our bodies with how badly we (at least most of us) needed a win, and said "they simply cannot have both things" and went with Grammys instead of the presidency, which isn't the direction I would have gone, but I am not a god. Yet.

Fugitive Animals

A passenger got video of a raccoon falling out of the ceiling at La Guardia airport in New York City. La Guardia had just been named America's Best Airport, taking the coveted spot that PDX usually holds, and you know what? I agree. We simply need more raccoons. Trash Pandas: assemble.

Meanwhile down in South Carolina, 43 monkeys escaped a research facility and are currently on the loose. Authorities are advising residents to lock their windows, and I would definitely have a hard time doing that. I think they would like me. It's like how at Yellowstone they have to put up all the signs advising people not to approach bears. While I understand the reason for the signs, I also believe that I am a person who a bear would allow to pet it. I think monkeys would feel the same way. Any other indoor kids read Summer of the Monkeys? It's a book about a circus train that derailed and a bunch of monkeys got loose and they finally trusted one young man to return them to captivity. I think I could be that young man. Call me, South Carolina. 

I'm gonna be honest, Trash Pandas: I could keep writing this column all night. I didn't want to start working on it, but as I've been writing, and reflecting, and trying to put words to all the big things I feel, I have to admit that Doing Something does feel better than doing nothing, even though doing nothing is so tempting. We may not have fluoridated water, and we may not be pissing on the floors at arena concerts (yet), but we have each other, and I'm very grateful for that.

Togetherly,

Amy Sedaris, QDoc Film Festival, and More by EverOut Staff

Stay busy with some of the many top-notch events happening this week, from Amy Sedaris to the QDoc Film Festival and from BrewLights at the Oregon Zoo to opening weekend of the Portland Winter Ice Rink. And check out our November events guide to see what the rest of the month has in store.

MONDAY READINGS & TALKS

Amy Sedaris
Referring to someone as "whimsical" feels vaguely off-putting, but I'm not sure there's a better word to describe Amy Sedaris—the host of the Emmy-nominated series At Home with Amy Sedaris was just as comfortable making raisin necklaces and popsicle stick buddies as she was gutting a fish. Although the series was canceled after three seasons, I look back on it fondly as a reflection of my early pandemic days, when making sense of the world meant baking a sourdough bread loaf shaped like a mermaid (true story). Find out what Sedaris is cooking up next at this live talk, moderated by "professional nervous person" Courtenay Hameister. LINDSAY COSTELLO
(Revolution Hall, Buckman)

Tell Me More has regularly turned to Alfredo Corchado for insight on Mexico. He gives host Michel Martin one last look into his reporter's notebook.

For the final program, host Michel Martin speaks with Neil Minkoff and Maria Cardona about the biggest political stories of the week.

Jean Brodie, Minerva McGonagall, Violet Crawley: Maggie Smith embodied these memorable roles on stage and screen. NPR's Scott Simon has a remembrance of the actor, who died yesterday at the age of 89.

NPR's Scott Simon wishes we could text them back when politicians message us asking for campaign donations.

NPR's Scott Simon remarks on the legacy of Ethel Kennedy, widow of Robert F. Kennedy. She died Oct. 10 at the age of 96.

Global pandemic treaty negotiators are hashing out cooperation plans this week and considering rushing the process out of fear that the Trump administration would pull the U.S. out of negotiations.

NPR's Michel Martin talks with Edward Whelan of the Ethics and Public Policy Center about President-elect Trump's influence on Senate Republicans' selection of a new majority leader.

The crypto industry was the largest corporate donor to this year's elections. Now it has a crypto-friendly president headed to the White House, while critics worry about the fallout for consumers.

Voters really don't like inflation. In fact, whenever there's a sustained jump in the cost of living, the party in power often pays a price.

Major flooding events are increasingly common across the U.S., but homeowners looking for flood insurance will find few choices. The main providers of flood insurance is the U.S. government through the National Flood Insurance Program, or NFIP. But even though the NFIP is one of the only flood insurance games in town, it's drowning in debt. On today's episode, the NFIP's struggle to stay afloat.

Related listening:
Hazard maps: The curse of knowledge (Apple / Spotify)
When insurers can't get insurance
Flood money

For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

Music by Drop Electric. Find us: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Newsletter.

Event date: November 21, 2024
Event Time: 11:00 AM - 02:00 PM
Location:
Fontana City Hall - Flex Room
8353 Sierra Ave
Fontana, CA 92335
Description:
Learn about the five key factors that impact your credit, along with an additional element that holds equal importance to the other five.

In acknowledgment of Women’s History Month Basic Black presents a Women’s Roundtable. This special presentation will be a conversation on the issues and concerns of women of color coming out of the political landscape in this presidential election year. In addition to the wealth income gap and health care reform, we’ll dig deep on issues such as reproductive rights, women of color in political life, and setting the "women's agenda.'"

Our panel this week:

Callie Crossley, host and executive editor, The Callie Crossley Show
Anita Hill, Professor of Social Policy, Law and Women's Studies, Brandeis University
Lani Guinier, Bennett Boskey Professor of Law, Harvard Law School
Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz (MA-2nd Suffolk)
Kim McLarin, Assistant Professor of Writing, Literature and Publishing, Emerson College

Monday March 19th, Professor Anita Hill co-hosts "Disrupting The Script: Raising To Legal Consciousness Sexual Assaults On Black Women." Click on the image to learn more.

This week on Basic Black: In the wake of the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin, a look at Massachusetts' "stand your ground" proposal and recent efforts to pass or block the legislation. Also, the pending Supreme Court decision on the Obama administration's health care reform legislation: however they decide, what are the political ramifications for President Obama's re-election campaign and the impact on communities of color.

Our panel:
- Callie Crossley, host and executive editor, The Callie Crossley Show
- Kim McLarin, author and assistant professor of writing, literature, and publishing, Emerson College
- Peniel Joseph, professor of history, Tufts University
- Phillip Martin, senior reporter, WGBH Radio



(Image source via Creative Commons: xtopalopaquetl)

(Originally broadcast April 20, 2012)
The Basic Black panelists sit down with playwright Kirsten Greenidge to discuss her new play The Luck of the Irish, currently playing at the Huntington Theatre through May 6. When an upwardly mobile African-American family wants to buy a house in an all-white neighborhood of 1950s Boston, they pay a struggling Irish family to act as their front. Fifty years later, the Irish family asks for "their" house back. Moving across the two eras, The Luck of the Irish explores the complex impact of racial integration in Boston and the universal longing for home.

In conversation:
- Callie Crossley, host and executive editor, The Callie Crossley Show
- Kim McLarin, assistant professor of creative writing, Emerson College
- Phillip Martin, senior reporter, 89.7 WGBH Radio
- Kirsten Greenidge, playwright, The Luck of the Irish

Originally broadcast on April 27, 2012

Tonight, with "Riding The T," we continue WGBH News' weeklong focus on the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority. Our discussion explores the significance of the MBTA in communities of color. Later in the show, our conversation digs deep into the deluge of racist tweets from Bruins fans towards Joel Ward, the black player from the Washington Capitals who scored the winning goal, thus ending the Bruins march towards the Stanley Cup.

In conversation:
- Latoyia Edwards, anchor, New England Cable News
- Kim McLarin, assistant professor of creative writing, Emerson College
- Phillip Martin, senior reporter, 89.7 WGBH Radio
- Marvin Venay, co-founder of Think Politics and Executive Director of the Massachusetts Black and Latino Legislative Caucus

(Originally broadcast May 11, 2012)

President Obama surprised the world yesterday when his stance on same-sex marriage finished "evolving" and he came out in support of it. Will his position hurt or help his chances at re-election? How will it affect his relationship with black clergy? Will it alter his support in the black community?

Our panelists:
- Callie Crossley, host and executive editor, The Callie Crossley Show
- Kim McLarin, author and assistant professor of creative writing, Emerson College
- Phillip Martin, senior reporter, 89.7 WGBH Radio
- Lionel McPherson, associate professor of philosophy, Tufts University

(June 8, 2012)

The recently published Trotter Review examines political gains made by African American politicians at the beginning of the 21st century. Also, specific essays on why Boston has not elected a black mayor while the city of Denver has done so twice, and how Deval Patrick has served the interests of black communities while not alienating the larger population.

Our panelists:
- Latoyia Edwards, anchor, New England Cable News
- Kim McLarin, assistant professor of writing, literature and publishing, Emerson College
- Phillip Martin, senior reporter, 89.7 WGBH Radio
- Ravi Perry, political science professor
- Kenneth Cooper, editor, The Trotter Review

Originally broadcast on October 26, 2012:

The deadline is fast approaching on a federal mandate for the Boston City Council to pass a plan that reorganizes the city’s voting districts. But there seems to be no clear consensus among council members, nor among many in Boston’s communities of color, on how to do it. The mayor has already vetoed two maps. A coalition representing African American, Asian, and Latino voters has vowed to sue if they are unsatisfied with the council's solution. Emotions are running high, and only ten days remain.

Our panelists:
- Latoyia Edwards, anchor, New England Cable News
- Phillip Martin, senior reporter, 89.7 WGBH Radio
- Kevin C. Peterson, executive director, New Democracy Coalition
- Alejandra St. Guillen, executive director, Oiste
- Sean Daughtry, political action chair, Boston branch, NAACP

Relevant links:
As deadline looms, state of play in redistricting
Gintautas Dumcius, Dorchester Reporter, October 26, 2012

Group pitches alternative voting maps to city council
Jeremy Fox, Boston Globe, September 29, 2012

More city council redistricting maps with Consalvo and Yancey verbal sparring
David Ertischek, Roslindale Patch, October 4, 2012

Redistricting map passes despite objections form Communities of Color Coalition and councilors of color
Mark Liu, Chinese Progressive Association, MySouthEnd.com, August 29, 2012

Boston City Council Census and Redistricting Committee


(Image source: FreeFoto.com)

Originally broadcast December 7, 2012.

If no measures are taken, in less than a month the United States will "fall off the fiscal cliff." Among other things, this means that the Bush tax cuts and the payroll tax cut will expire, extended unemployment benefits will end, and Medicare would lose nearly $11 billion from its budget. Many experts believe that going over the cliff would lead to another recession. What does this mean for people of color? The middle class? The poor?


Our panel:
- Latoyia Edwards, anchor, New England Cable News
- Peniel Joseph, professor of history, Tufts University
- Phillip Martin, senior reporter, 89.7 WGBH Radio
- Kim McLarin, assistant professor of writing, literature and publishing, Emerson College
- Jeffrey Taliaferro, associate professor of political science, Tufts University