News
Relax with Richard Lewis
Street Roots caught up with comedian Richard Lewis in advance of his performances at Helium Comedy Club this weekend. The veteran stand-up performer and now actor on “Curb Your Enthusiasm” leaves no neuroses unturned, from his life in recovery to his relationship with death. Here’s an excerpt from the interview available now in Street Roots:…
Relax with Richard Lewis—the comedian sits down with SR to talk stand-up and sobriety
A lot has changed since Richard Lewis first hit the comedy scene in 1971, but Lewis’s onstage persona has stayed point-on: neurotic, obsessive and cathartically using fodder from his life on the analyst’s couch. Performance as therapy. Therapy as performance. Lewis spent many years ignoring, and then facing his multiple drug and alcohol addictions. Now,…
Oregon’s legislature grapples with racial equity
Last month on Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday, a coalition of advocacy organizations presented findings from Facing Race: the 2013 Oregon Legislative Report Card on Racial Equity. The report is designed to help legislators better understand how to address troubling racial disparities in the health and well-being of Oregon’s communities. Oregon’s racial and economic gaps…
What the Trans-Pacific Partnership means for Oregon
The Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, a free trade agreement among Pacific Rim nations, is possibly the biggest story you’ve never heard of. That’s partly by design. The United States and the eleven other countries negotiating what is the largest trade deal in history have done so behind closed doors, without media scrutiny, and without public…
For the Record: Feb 14-27, 2014
Number of chicken wings sold by Fire on the Mountain on Super Bowl Sunday: 25,653 Percent drop in Seattle-area 911 calls during the Super Bowl: 31 Percent rise in Seattle-area 911 calls after the Super Bowl: 75 Dollars per container the Port of Portland will pay Hanjin Shipping to keep calling on Portland: 20 Days…
Don’t just listen to music — UseMusic
Ezra Holbrook has already made a name for himself in Portland. He is a a founding member of the Decemberists and has collaborated with numerous Northwest artists. He’s currently planning a second record with his current band, The My Oh Mys. Holbrook, with years of experience playing fundraisers for organizations, such as the music nonprofit…
City Hall surplus draws pitch from Housing Bureau
After years of austere budgets, City Hall has scraped up some extra cash for the upcoming budget cycle. Some of it could go to building affordable housing, aiding homeless individuals, helping distressed renters and other initiatives. In December, the Office of Management and Finance announced that revenue streams for the city were picking up, generating…
Poetry & Art
Soup Can Sam: Feb 14-27, 2014
Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 18) Let your smile be the extra layer of fleece in your sensible shoes this month! Stay warm inside and out! Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) Don’t get paranoid about all of the white vans you’ll begin seeing toward the end of the month. Just go about your business like normal. Aries (March…
Athens 2021 A.D.
In stark contrast to the ancient city that once flourished with ideas and commerce, today there is only the exchange of small arms fire and artillery shells within the city center, as the soldiers check their weapons. Reloading clips, stocking grenades, adjusting helmets and armor becomes ambient noise; a sort of requiem for the tight…
Opinion
Celebrating Valentine’s with marriage equality
I met my wife of 22 years, Dianne Rodway, through an advertisement in The Willamette Week. We met on Friday night, went bike riding on Sunday, and have been together ever since. We decided to get married about three weeks later while at a wedding in Southern Oregon. I remember thinking I’d like to marry…
Coming home—the horror young soldiers endure on our modern battlefields
Every war has its after-war,” writes David Finkel, “depression, anxiety, nightmares, memory problems, personality changes, suicidal thoughts.” In the recent “Thank You for Your Service” and 2009’s “The Good Soldiers,” Finkel shows us what he means by providing extraordinarily vivid and wrenching accounts of the people among us who are living “after war.” Perhaps half…
The dynamics of race and its impact on real social work
The topic of race and social work is a conversation that could take many paths. We could discuss the dynamics for professionals of color in Portland (and the sad trend of emigration from Portland); or the experience of people of color within our dominant culture organizations. Instead, I would like to focus on what I…
A job well done deserves a statewide encore
When the snowstorm ended and the ice thawed — there was a lot to celebrate. During the snowstorm, a coordinated emergency effort led by the Portland Housing Bureau and others brought together an army of city and county workers and volunteers to do outreach for people experiencing homelessness and poverty. The Portland Police and Fire…
Vendor Profiles
Vendor Tony Boone is on the beat
On the chilly afternoon when we spoke, Tony Boone was about to go to Canby for three days where he has a job making clothes at an old friend’s house. He doesn’t think of it as work though. “It’s a vacation,” he tells me. Over the next few days, as Portland freezes to the bone…
