Le Journal

Welcome to "Team Portland." by Wm. Steven Humphrey [What follows is one of the many merry articles in the Mercury's Winter Guide 2025. Find a print copy here, subscribe to get a copy mailed to you here, and if you're feeling generous this holiday season, support us here.—eds.] This just in: 2025 has been a real shit show. Trump’s reign of incompetent terror has already eclipsed the ham-fisted attempts of his first presidency—which was a dictatorship on training wheels. But! There is a weird silver lining here: Thanks largely to the recent thoughtless actions of King Fool, Portland is suddenly feeling itself again. Apparently it took a demented despot to get everybody in Portland back on the same page, following a pandemic and a summer-long series of racial justice protests that caused the city’s millionaire class to lose their got-damned minds. If you’ll remember—and I’ll never forget—the city’s right-leaning business leaders, politicians, and other self-proclaimed “centrists” spent the better part of the early 2020s forming cynical political action committees, writing disparaging op-eds in national publications, concocting slanted push polls, and basically doing everything in their power to convince the world that Portland was a shithole. But now? These same people—including the terminally tone-deaf Oregonian editorial board—suddenly just looooooove Portland again, and are even showing begrudging support for shutting down the city’s ICE facility and protecting immigrants from Trump and his masked kidnappers. The anti-Portland rants have slowed, the tourists (no longer scared for their lives) are returning, and for the first time since before the pandemic, these same millionaires (who love tax breaks more than their grandmothers) are exhibiting a smidgen of civic pride. Okay… so are we supposed to be grateful now? While it’s a slight relief not to be fighting enemies from without and within, there is one truth in the universe: I’m an unforgiving, vengeful bastard when crossed. I will never forget (or forgive) the havoc these wealthy, self-centered “leaders” manufactured and then unleashed on our city. I mean, c’mon… where do you think Trump got the idea to label Portland a “burning hell hole”? It didn’t just pop into his disintegrating mind, it was handed to him on a silver platter, courtesy of two straight years of local crybabies and their incessant belly-aching about tax hikes, boarded up windows, houseless people, and any attempts at police reform. It’s so tempting to imagine or hope that these same crybabies have finally recognized the error of their ways—that they are finally ready to “Say Nice Things About Portland” and ask for a kumbaya moment. Unfortunately for them, we’re not so gullible. The same unbridled greed that capitalized on the Portlandia trend of the mid-2010s, building unsustainably expensive apartments, thereby forcing artists and creatives into the burbs or completely out of town (or onto the streets) is absolutely still there, bubbling beneath the surface. You see it in misleading headlines disparaging our new 12-person city council. You see it in ridiculous attempts to blame a county commissioner for an attack outside a public library. You see it in Mayor Wilson bowing to the pressure to criminalize houselessness. You see it in the words written by former alternative weeklies that increasingly endorse candidates who lean more to the right than left. You see it in the Portland Metro Chamber’s (FKA Portland Business Alliance) efforts to endanger our city by enabling Zenith to store their explosive oil and fuel next to the waterfront (an environmental disaster waiting to happen when the Big One hits). My point is this: We need to be less worried about the incoherent blatherings and threats of the president, and more alert to the enemies within. Trump will eventually be gone, one way or another. Despots come and go. But the bad actors of capitalism have been working their asses off in Portland since the…

When darker months hit, so can seasonal affective disorder. Here’s how to deal. by Courtenay Hameister [What follows is one of the many merry articles in the Mercury's Winter Guide 2025. Find a print copy here, subscribe to get a copy mailed to you here, and if you're feeling generous this holiday season, support us here.—eds.] Every fall, it happens. The first moment you can feel hot air escaping through your air ducts, the smell of warmed-over spring and summer dust filling the room. That’s when you know it’s coming: winter in Oregon. According to weatherspark.com, in Oregon, “the cloudiest part of the year begins around October 7 and lasts for 8.1 months.” The website says it so casually. EIGHT MONTHS OF GRAY, OREGON. DEAL WITH IT. Not to brag, but it doesn’t bother me. Which isn’t to say I don’t get depressed—I am one dysthymic bitch. It’s just not because of the rain. In fact, I’m more depressed in the summer because of all the under-boob and back-of-knee sweat. But I realize I’m an outlier. Almost anyone you talk to in Oregon mentions winter as something you must survive, and research backs that up. According to Oregon State University, 25 percent of Pacific Northwest dwellers self-report a lower mood in the winter, with 10 percent experiencing seasonal affective disorder (SAD)—twice the US average. We Oregonians are a SAD people. SAD is depression that generally occurs during the fall and winter months. Why it happens is not fully understood, but it appears to be related to lower production of serotonin and melatonin in response to reduced daylight hours. Symptoms include decreased energy and motivation, weight gain due to increased appetite, social withdrawal, anxiety, and generally riding a serious bummer. (Women who have experienced these symptoms during perimenopause or menopause understand the hellish havoc a lack of certain hormones in the body can wreak. Respectful hat tip to serotonin and melatonin.) If you’re a person who struggles with SAD, or just a persistent low mood during these months, most ways to fight it involve going against your instincts to lolligag and socially withdraw. I know that’s not what you want to hear, but this is tough love, Oregon. (Not, like, “federalize the National Guard without the governor’s consent” tough love, but tough nonetheless.) Here are a few tips for beating down the SAD beast: Schedule more social time during winter months, not less. To elevate your mood and combat feelings of hopelessness and loneliness, you must try to stay connected to your chosen people—those folks who remind you that you’re loved and cared for. After my last relationship ended, I was deeply depressed. The single most powerful choice I made was to go against my instinct to hibernate and proactively schedule more time than ever with my friends. I had a magnetic dry-erase calendar on my fridge that I filled with multiple play dates every week of the month, and it made all the difference. Yes, there was one girls’ night when I started crying over a beautiful selection of charcuterie while a very resourceful friend surreptitiously ordered two bottles of bubbly from GrubHub, but that was the only time shit got really dark. (Another respectful hat tip to resourceful friends who stick around during the hard stuff.) Note: If you have social anxiety, notice whether you’re draining your social battery or getting “social hangovers”—you might leave a hangout feeling fatigued, irritated, or disconnected, instead of healed by the power of love and friendship. If this is true for you, lower the number of social connections you’re scheduling. Crawl out of that cozy-ass bed and exercise more. Again, I know this goes against your instincts, but remember how SAD’s hallmark downturn in mood may be associated with decreased levels of neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine? I’m sorry to say that exercise increases both of those fuckers. The good news is that exercise doesn’t have to mean a high-energy Zumba…

In the organization’s new theater, animated production Everest tells a harrowing true story. by Lindsay Costello [What follows is one of the many merry articles in the Mercury's Winter Guide 2025. Find a print copy here, subscribe to get a copy mailed to you here, and if you're feeling generous this holiday season, support us here.—eds.] "This building gets us closer to the people,” says Portland Opera artistic director Alfrelynn Roberts. She’s showing off the organization’s new location, occupying three floors in downtown Portland’s World Trade Center complex. After the 2024 sale of its longtime southeast home base, Portland Opera announced a strategic decision to move across the river in early 2025. Continued activation of downtown Portland is important to Portland Opera, and its new location makes them a nucleus. “Everything that happens on the waterfront is visible here—the Starlight Parade, the Portland Marathon,” says marketing and communications director Christina Post. “We’re hoping to activate our plaza space during these and other events. Our outdoor opera program, Opera a la Cart, could be set up on the plaza.” One set plan connects Portland Opera with the upcoming Winter Light Festival, held February 6-14, 2026. An opera singer will kick off each night of the festival, belting from Portland Opera’s new balcony to a crowd in the plaza below. ”So iconic Portland,” Post adds. Additionally, the organization’s new offices bring opportunities for rental and collaboration. Post describes the music library as “tremendous,” and the space’s sound booths are bookable for private rehearsals and coaching. Portland Opera still plans to hold its larger performances within the theaters at Portland’5—”different locations mean different audience reach,” Post explains—but the organization’s new 200-seat theater will host niche, interesting works that might draw a smaller crowd. In mid-December, they’re presenting an immersive showing of Opera Parallèle’s Everest, described by the San Francisco company as a “graphic novel opera.” Projected on the theater’s three walls, Everest unfolds through the voices of talented singers, like mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke and tenor Nathan Granner. Opera Parallèle recorded their movements along with their vocals, then illustrator Mark Simmons and cinematographer David Murakami translated those motions into emotive animations. Roberts and Post describe Portland Opera’s production of Everest as interactive. You’ll want to bring a jacket, because the World Trade Center Theatre will be chilly and scattered with fake snow. With a 50-minute runtime, Everest is also a low-stakes operatic work for the unfamiliar, and appropriate for viewers over 12—”you won’t see anyone fall off a glacier,” Post explained. That said, it’s a harrowing (and true) story. Composed by Joby Talbot with libretto by Gene Scheer, Everest’s fragmented, flashback-heavy tale follows three mountaineers as they summit Earth’s highest mountain in the spring of 1996, one of its deadliest seasons on record. Only one of the men made it down. Following two sold-out shows—last season’s The Shining and The Juliet Letters, based on the Elvis Costello album—Portland Opera has seen audiences respond to contemporary takes on the art form. “Surviving in a post-pandemic art world means finding different ways to speak to different people,” Roberts said of Everest’s unorthodox approach. “Ultimately, we want to tell a story that resonates.” Everest shows at Portland Opera’s World Trade Center Theatre, 121 SW Salmon, Fri Dec 12-Sun Dec 21, $56, tickets at portlandopera.org, 12+.

A new exhibition at Portland gallery Lumber Room compiles corporeal works by Louise Bourgeois and Isabelle Albuquerque.  by Lindsay Costello [What follows is one of the many merry articles in the Mercury's Winter Guide 2025. Find a print copy here, subscribe to get a copy mailed to you here, and if you're feeling generous this holiday season, support us here.—eds.] The myth of feminine hysteria didn’t start in a Victorian sanatorium. Long before Freud heard about it and thought it sounded super legit, ancient Greek doctors imagined the uterus as a restless “wandering womb,” traversing the body and wreaking emotional havoc. In The Wandering Womb at Lumber Room, Los Angeles-based artist Isabelle Albuquerque revives and digs into that old myth. Her drawings and figural sculptures share space with multimedia works by modern art matriarch Louise Bourgeois.

Twenty-four of Portland's best cozy-weather soups—how many will you devour? by Andrea Damewood [What follows is one of the many merry articles in the Mercury's Winter Guide 2025. Find a print copy here, subscribe to get a copy mailed to you here, and if you're feeling generous this holiday season, support us here.—eds.] Portland is a bountiful haven for delicious, cozy-weather soups. So we've gathered 24 (and where you can find them) in this convenient, bingo-style card. How many can you eat before spring arrives? Click here to download so you can play along!