The Most Important Portland Culture News of the Week, From Best to Worst

Don’t show him your bicycle.

(Thomas Teal)

Top of the Hops

Every year, Willamette Week sponsors the state's only double blind beer tasting competition and celebrates the winners with the Oregon Beer Awards. Think of it as the Oscars of the local brewing industry. The winners were revealed Feb. 18 in a ceremony at Revolution Hall. Portland's Breakside Brewery took home gold in four categories, while other big winners included 10 Barrel and Von Ebert Brewing. See the complete list of winners and WW's editorial staff picks for the Beers of the Year in Brew, our annual guide to Oregon beer, available now.

Read more: Here's the Full List of 2020 Oregon Beer Award Winners.

untitled goose game

The Goose That Laid The Golden Game

The horrible goose is still reeking havoc in the video game industry. Last week, Untitled Goose Game took home top prize at the DICE Awards—considered "the Oscars of Gaming"—in Las Vegas. Along with Game of the Year, it also won Outstanding Achievement for an Independent Game and, for its titular anarchic waterfowl, Outstanding Achievement in Character. The game—in which players control a belligerent goose who systematically irritates the residents of a quaint English village—was created by small Australian developer House House and published by Portland's Panic Inc. In other Goose news, the game design made its way onto the Lego Ideas site, which the toy company uses to crowdsource plans for new products. If it's approved, you'll soon be able cause goose-y mayhem in plastic brick form.

Read more: Portland Produced "Untitled Goose Game"Won Big at the Video Game Industry's Equivalent of the Academy Awards.

The Goonies (Courtesy of Warner Brother; imdb.com)

New Goon Rising

The Goonies is getting a remake—sort of. Fox has ordered a pilot for a TV show about a substitute teacher who attempts to help three kids re-create the Oregon-filmed movie about treasure-hunting misfits frame for frame. It sounds like fodder for a wry comedy, but according to The Hollywood Reporter, which first reported the news, it's a drama. Sarah Watson, who penned several episodes for Parenthood and two for That's So Raven, will write the script, and Superbad's Greg Mottola will produce.

Read more: A TV Show About Three Kids and a Substitute Teacher Attempting to Remake "The Goonies" Is in the Works.

(Thomas Teal)

Fine Fest

Pickathon and GuildWorks have each been fined $12,500 by state regulators for safety violations that resulted in the deaths of two workers. Last August, two arborists were taking down Pickathon's main stage when the boom lift they were operating tipped over, killing them both. Oregon Occupational Safety and Health Division found that alarm devices on the lift had been disabled, and cited both parties. GuildWorks, a Portland fabric company that designed the canopy for the festival's main stage, was fined an additional $6,000 for failing to operate the lift according to the manufacturer's instructions.

Read more: Pickathon and GuildWorks Have Been Fined After an Investigation into the Deaths of Two Workers.

Small Pharaoah’s food cart owner Islam El Masry.

Bad Eats

The owner of a Portland food cart has been accused of using racist slurs against a customer less than two years after he was arrested for assaulting and slurring another customer. As first reported by The Oregonian, Darline Hill says Islam El Masry, owner of downtown falafel cart Small Pharoah's, called her the n-word Feb. 6 and told her to go somewhere else after she attempted to place a lunch order. Hill, who is black, said she threw a Gatorade bottle at El Masry out of frustration. She also logged a complaint with the Better Business Bureau and told WW she is weighing further legal action. El Masry was arrested in 2018 after an eyewitness filmed another altercation, in which he called a customer racial epithets, threw a bottle of Gatorade at her and sprayed her with Sriracha. The case was settled out of court.

Read more: Owner of Downtown Food Cart Accused of Using Racist Slurs Against Customer Two Years After He Was Arrested for Assaulting Another Patron.

Cyclist in Portland. (Natalie Behring)

Hide Your Kids, Hide Your Bikes

A Portland man was arrested Feb. 12 on charges that he rode away with a 12-year-old's bike and exchanged an envelope of napkins for another bike, with the pretense that the envelope was full of cash. In both incidents, the alleged culprit, James Adkins, responded to ads using a Facebook profile with his name and photo. Adkins, who lives in Southeast Portland, has an extensive arrest record in the Portland area, including an alleged attempt last December to shoplift $536 worth of merchandise from the Home Depot in Troutdale. He's since been released from jail and has a court date scheduled in March. Don't show him your bicycle.

Read more: An Alleged Serial Bike Thief Began a Recent Portland Crime Spree By "Buying" a Bike With an Envelope of Napkins.

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