Every summer, the Whiteaker Block Party (pictured, 8/3) seems to grow by another block. Check out our 8/1 issue for a rundown of the music, food, art and more that heat up the Whit in the dog days of summer. And don’t forget the Oregon Country Fair (7/12-7/14) and Eugene Celebration (8/23-8/25) for more awesome local culture. 

Right Here

Events in and around this town of ours.

June

Thursday, 6/6

Acoustic Music Jam Ages 50 & up, 9:30-11:30am every Thursday through Aug. 29, Campbell Community Center, 155 High St. $0.25.

Walk with Us, weekly self-led neighborhood walking group, ages 50 & up, 9:30-10:30am every Thursday, meet at Petersen Barn Community Center, 870 Berntzen Rd. FREE.

The first thing we noticed was the quiet. Even the wind seemed muted as it whipped through the tall grass. Five friends had traveled 340 miles east from Eugene to find the ghost town of Whitney, and now we stood at a dirt crossroad, reading a sign with a horse-drawn carriage painted next to a steam engine. “Rails of the Sumpter Valley R. R. reached Whitney Valley June 1, 1901,” we read, squinting in the hot July sun. “At one time 150 people called Whitney their home. When the railway was abandoned in 1947, the town closed down.” 

Climate experts insist we’d better reduce carbon emissions by 6 percent a year if we hope for a livable planet, but politicians continue to greenlight coal mining, fracking, oil drilling and a Keystone pipeline expansion that former NASA climatologist James Hansen says means “game over” for the atmosphere. 

 Most of my friends, if they discuss the politics of global warming at all, shake their heads in disgust, then in despair and, finally, with a statement of resignation along the lines of, “We are so screwed.”

Akickball outfielder hits the turf at Tugman Park in South Eugene. Play is halted while she’s carried to the sideline. Is it a twisted ankle — or worse? “Need some ice?” teammates ask. “Get her a beer — STAT!” responds a teammate helping her from the field. She ices down the calf cramp with a cold one, cracks it open and is soon sitting with her friends, laughing in the shade.

endurance |enˈd(y)o͝or-ns|

noun

• permanence, duration 

• the fact, power or ability of enduring an unpleasant or difficult process or situation without giving way: she was close to the limit of her endurance

• the capacity of something to last or to withstand wear and tear

It was bound to happen: A Eugene spoof of the zeitgeisty show Portlandia, called, of course, Eugenia. The viral video lays down the same beat-heavy opening music as its Portland inspiration with “Eugenia” spelled out in an identical gritty typeface in front of a city view of Spencer Butte, followed by downtown shots of the federal building, Voodoo Doughnuts, the bus station, Cowfish and finally City Hall.

Opponents of the city service fee on Eugene’s May ballot say it is a poor budgetary path for a laundry list of reasons: Its proceeds can fund a wide swath of expenditures or even be held in reserves; it’s unfair to poor people just above the low-income cut-off; it’s unfair to small businesses; it will charge a struggling nonprofit just as much as a Walmart; and EWEB’s board could vote not to collect it, leaving the city in a bind. Five out of eight Eugene city councilors oppose the fee.

In nature, colors communicate: Red means danger and avian mates are selected based on the hue of their feathers. In fact, when it comes to birds, the males almost always display brighter plumage and greater ornamentation than their female counterparts; think ducks, peacocks and birds of paradise. Charles Darwin concluded that sexual dichromatism (the color differences between sexes in species) is caused by an evolutionary-honed female preference for bright colors in males. 

Midwestern jewelry designer Kylie Grater doesn’t find her materials in a bead shop — the majority of her pieces are harvested “afoot” on nature ambles or hikes through knee-deep grass, whether that’s feathers, bones, stones or leather. The Kansas-born-and-bred Grater has brought her prairie-tinged line, Early Jewelry, to Eugene, where she features pieces at The Barn Light’s monthly The EUG Pop Up Shop in addition to selling online.

Under The Root

Antonieta Thurmond models Blushing Blumen Panties and Panoplies Prop Top and Kyrk Enstad wears Bountiful Briefs and Sentient Suspenders from Under The Root’s autumn/winter 2013 line: Johann von Goethe’s Faust.