Year: 2012

Born to Gun?

Going concealed in Lane County

Culture

The pistol wasn’t the first gun given to me as a gift, but it was probably the most unexpected. My father usually gives books for Christmas, and that was what I was anticipating. Dad even disguised the gun by packaging it up to look like the box had a novel inside. Imagine my surprise when, thinking I was getting a copy of the latest Book of the Month Club selection, I pulled a .22 semi-auto out of the wrapping paper. My proud parent, dressed as Santa Claus for the occasion, had a camera at ready to capture the moment. Continue reading →

Letters to the Editor: 11-29-2012

Letters

THE POTTY DILEMNA We have 11 restrooms in downtown Eugene that the public can sometimes use: two below the Overpark (the only truly public restrooms), five at the library and one at the LTD station. The ones under the Overpark are not well maintained, have no stall doors, and are frequently locked at random times. People have speculated that these restrooms are closed because they need cleaning and no staff are available to maintain them. Continue reading →

Spielberg’s 13th Amendment

Film

Lincoln, contrary to what its name implies, is not a defining portrait of a man, though Daniel Day-Lewis’ performance as Abraham Lincoln is one of his defining roles. Stooped, quiet, introverted, exhausted, brilliant and prone to making his point via stories, Day-Lewis’ Lincoln is the calm center to a complex and flawed film about the 16th president — and about the role of politics in America’s terrible relationship with race. Continue reading →

Spendy Bash Planned for Retiring Fed Judge

News

Michael Hogan has stepped down after 39 years as a judge in federal courts, and the $100,000-plus privately funded retirement bash planned in his honor has been downsized at his request. The change in plans also follows a story in Willamette Week Nov. 21 that quotes Portland attorney Michael Esler saying “The ostentatiousness makes us lawyers look even worse than we already look.” Continue reading →

Slant 11-29-2012

Slant

• The city of Eugene’s budget woes are in the news, and the city has been polling residents about how to raise revenues. It looks like some proposal will go before council and maybe voters soon. The polling asks lots of questions about attitudes and it appears the city is looking at what the citizens are willing to do in terms of taxes and fees, and also testing various arguments and selling points to see if they have traction. Continue reading →

Sex Sells Cars?

News

Local car dealer Ridley's Rides is getting some attention from Ad Week and elsewhere  for its eBay listings that supposedly use the owner's daughter to sell cars, sexy-style. I notice that they don't use sexy pics for the station wagons.  Continue reading →

Activist Alert 11-21-2012

Activist Alert

• A beach clean-up day in the Florence area is planned for 10:30 am Sunday, Nov. 25, by the Surfrider Foundation. See oregon.surfrider.org/events or email jonandjaine@bmi.net or call (800) 743-SURF. • A petition From Cascadia Wildlands at wkly.ws/1e0 urges the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to maintain federal protections for wolves in the Pacific Northwest. Wolves, even those with collars, are being hunted and killed in Northwestern states. See more information at the Forest Web of Cottage Grove Facebook page. Continue reading →

Sex and the Surrogate

Film

The Sessions, a candid, gentle film about a paralyzed man’s quest to have sex, walks a tricky, balanced, grave and funny path that’s all its own. Struck by polio at a young age, Mark O’Brien (John Hawkes) lives mostly in an iron lung; he can get out for a few hours at a time, his assistant pushing him on a gurney. Three assistants are key in the film: Amanda (Annika Marks), a pretty young woman with whom Mark falls in love; Rod (Hawkes’ fellow Deadwood alum W. Continue reading →

Letters to the Editor: 11-21-2012

Letters

ANOTHER DEADLY WINTER When the Occupy Eugene site was closed in December last year, we went peacefully under the impression that certain promises made by our City Council would be followed through. We went under the false understanding that those who had no place to call their own would be taken care of, that they would not face another winter, sickness and probable death, alone on the streets without at least the option for a warm place to sleep. We thought that despite everything, we had made some small but solid victories. Continue reading →

Biz Beat 11-21-2012

Biz Beat

MECCA, the Materials Exchange Center for Community Arts, is expanding its store hours at 449 Willamette St., next to the Amtrak station. MECCA will now be open afternoons and early evenings, and will be celebrating its new hours with a public ceremony at 11 am Saturday, Dec. 1. Officiating will be MECCA Executive Director Jija Adrade and Slug Queen Sadie Slimy Stitches. The nonprofit store acts as a clearing house for scraps and discards that can be used creatively and sold at low prices to artists, teachers and others. Continue reading →