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Cirque Du Eugene!

If you didn’t catch Cirque Du Soleil when they came through town last year, there’s no need to fret.

Crazy Like A Foxygen

William Kennedy

LA-based Foxygen takes your dad’s classic rock LP collection, consumes it and filters it through their ADHD brains, regurgitating 2012’s Take the Kids Off Broadway or 2013’s We are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace and Magic — big, sloppy, messy records referencing everything from the Rolling Stones to the Kinks to the Mysterions.

Something Wicked This Way Comes

Vanessa Salvia

There’s a sweetness inherent in the name Bent Knee ... a marriage proposal on bent knee, an apology on bent knee, Prince Charming holding the glass slipper on bent knee. But all that sweetness goes out the window when Courtney Swain starts singing “I Don’t Love You Anymore.”

The Push of Men

Brian Palmer

If you want to get creative, sometimes you have to isolate yourself. At least that’s what the Seattle-based indie rock band Ivan & Alyosha did when creating their full-length debut, All the Times We Had.

Winter Sleeps in Summer’s Arms

Alex Notman

When EW caught up with The Horde & the Harem (THATH)’s Ryan Barber, he was in heaven. Well, at least music heaven for the hip-and-up-and-coming as well as the hip-established: South by Southwest.

Who Got Game?

Dante Zuñiga-West

I recently took a short drive north to interview Donny Adair, president of the Afro-American Hunting Association. Adair is a Pacific Northwest outdoorsman who’s hunted everything from burly southern whitetail deer to the wild turkeys of Eugene.

Gerbils? Again?

DEAR READERS: I’m off this week. To tide all of your hot and/or kinky and/or sore asses over, here’s a column I wrote 15 years ago. Some newer readers might’ve missed this column when it originally appeared — some of you who were still in grade school, diapers, or amniotic sacs back in 1998 — so I’m rerunning it now because I still get questions about “gerbiling” on a daily basis.  — Dan

 

Letters to the Editor: 3-21-2013

TEACHERS OUTVOTED

The recent controversy around the common schedule in District 4J’s middle and high schools is a reflection of a bigger problem in the district. The process of centralization and standardization has been going on for several years but has dramatically accelerated recently under the new superintendent. 

Oz the Dull and Terrible

Molly Templeton

Once upon a time, I was an Oz purist. Not for the 1939 movie, though I liked it well enough, but for L. Frank Baum’s books, which I read until they were ragged. The first time I saw the cover of Wicked, Gregory Maguire’s novel about the Wicked Witch of the West, I stopped dead, thinking: One does not do that to Oz.

Bursting at the Seams

Shannon Finnell

For a market that doesn’t include any sardine vendors, the briny fish is often thrown into descriptions of the Saturday Lane County Farmers Market: “People are packed in there like sardines.”

“I think the site has been a real problem,” Jack Gray of Winter Green Farm says. He says they could sell more produce if they could just have a little more room. Plus, the crowded walkways might be discouraging some potential customers. “Basic accessibility is really bad for families or anyone with physical disabilities of any sorts,” Gray says.

4J Board Faces High ‘Level of Skepticism’ to Schedule Change

Anne Bridgman

Eugene’s 4J School Board agreed last week to convene a work session this week to address issues that have arisen over moving all district high schools to a common 3x5 schedule. The proposal to address the schedule change came after the Eugene Education Association (EEA) asked the board to postpone the move, citing opposition by a majority of high school teachers, and more than two dozen parents, teachers and students spoke against the change at a packed meeting. The board also addressed the latest budget shortfall projections and proposed cuts to services in a number of programs.

Coal Train Slowing at Port?

Camilla Mortensen

The recent announcement that two foreign investors have pulled out of the International Port of Coos Bay’s coal export proposal doesn’t mean the coal train plans have been entirely derailed. The announcement leads to even more questions, says Bob Ferris, executive director of Cascadia Wildlands, one of several Lane County groups working to stop the fossil fuel exports. 

Critics of City Fee Getting Organized

Ted Taylor

Claiming support from both liberals and conservatives, a small group of Eugene citizens has organized a Political Action Committee (PAC) to campaign against Ballot Measure 20-211, the proposed fees for city residences and business that will be on the ballot in May. 

Citizens for Truth, Justice, and the American Way (CiTJAW) has a website at votenocityfee.org and the PAC directors are Bonny Bettman McCornack and Paul Nicholson, both former city councilors. David Monk is the treasurer.

DeFazio Defends the Nation’s Wolves

Amy Schneider

Although only 46 wolves live in Oregon, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) recently recommended the removal of gray wolves from the protection of the Endangered Species Act in the lower 48 states. 

Lane County Area Spray Schedule 3-14-2013

Jan Wroncy

• Rosboro LLC, 746-8411, plans to hire Western Helicopter, 503-538-9469, to aerially spray Velpar DF and/or Transline on 97 acres in the Coast Range near the headwaters of Swartz Creek and South Fork Ferguson Creek. See ODF notice 2013-781-00226.

Liberals Support Logging Plan?

Camilla Mortensen

Lane County has been feeling the pinch of budget cuts, and the conservatives on the County Commission have proposed a tax levy to fund jails. When it comes to Congressman Peter DeFazio’s plan to split some of Oregon’s public forests into a timber trust and a conservation trust, the controversy comes from all sides of the political spectrum. A resolution has been introduced into the Oregon Legislature that would support the timber plan.

Marine Reserve Coming to Coast Near You

Shannon Finnell

Between climate change, pollution and resource depletion, the coastal areas have a lot to plan for. Oregon is preparing for these challenges by establishing five small marine reserves to preserve habitat and to monitor ecological and biological changes. Cape Perpetua south of Yachats is the closest marine reserve to Eugene. Conservationists are hoping that the marine reserves will help keep populations of fish and other species within the reserve high and potentially keep surrounding populations buoyed via a spillover effect. 

Pollution Update 3-14-13

Doug Quirke

Oregon DEQ sent Georgia-Pacific Chemicals a warning letter Feb. 19 for exceeding the limit for total phenols in its Clean Water Act discharge permit by 200 percent at its Eugene facility on Hwy. 99 during November. Georgia-Pacific blamed the high level on laboratory error, but DEQ could not find supporting evidence for this claim. According to DEQ, phenol is toxic to many aquatic organisms, and DEQ has referred this violation to its Office of Compliance and Enforcement for formal enforcement.

Slant 3-14-2013

• A PAC has been formed to oppose the flat fee measure that will be on the May ballot in Eugene (see our news story this week). This could prove to be a fascinating debate, raising all sorts of wonkish issues that are normally ignored by the public, and alas, even by the media. It’s good to see former councilors Bonny Bettman McCornack and Paul Nicholson back in the fight and asking tough questions. And it’s not too early to ask: What will happen if this measure fails and somehow money is found or reallocated to maintain CAHOOTS or Sheldon Pool or branch libraries?

Activist Alert 3-14-2013

• The Oregon Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the case of Haugen v. Kitzhaber during its annual visit to the UO School of Law. The arguments will take place at 10:30 am Thursday, March 14, in room 175 of the Knight Law Center, 1515 Agate St. in Eugene. The proceedings are open to the public, a capacity crowd is expected and an overflow room will be available. Video of the proceedings will be available on the law school’s website later in the day.

Carlos Barrera

Paul Neevel

A native of Mission, Texas, Carlos Barrera traces his family history back to Spanish colonial times in the mid-1600s. “Half the town is related to me,” he says. “The Rio Grande River is three miles away.” After earning a bachelor’s in fine arts from Pan American University in nearby Edinburg, Barrera became an electrician and an electrical contractor. He worked three years in Austin, then 21 years in the San Francisco Bay Area. “I was the go-to person for historical renovation,” he says.

War Dead 3-14-2013

In Afghanistan

• 2,170 U.S. troops killed* (2,169)

• 18,311 U.S. troops wounded in action (18,299)

• 1,316 U.S. contractors killed (1,316)

• 12,793 civilians killed (12,793)

• $619.9 billion cost of war ($618.1 billion)

• $183 million cost to Eugene taxpayers 

    ($182.5 million)

 

 

In Iraq

Ways and Drones

Tony Corcoran

When we did PERS reform in 2003, we didn’t attach it to the budget as severely as you’re seeing in this 2013 version of the Hot Air Society. It’s stunning to see both parties and two branches of state government simultaneously tying the funding of education, public safety and human services so tightly to one target.

Faraway Fishtank

Alex Notman

Fishtank Ensemble’s lead singer Ursula Knudson likes to play music at the edge of the world, whether that’s breaking out her violin in the rural pockets of Maine or twangin’ on her hand saw at the tip of the heel of the boot of Italy.

Game On!

Kevin Piaskowski

Monday nights are usually reserved for recovering from a big weekend or loathing the realities of a new week. At The Barn Light, however, Mondays take on a new meaning: game night.