We've got issues.
Camilla Mortensen is the longtime local editor of Eugene Weekly, the area’s alternative newspaper. The paper, which has been in print since 1982 (originally as What’s Happening) continues to print more than 27,000 copies a week in addition to its popular email newsletters and website. Camilla has a masters degree in folklore and mythology from UCLA and a doctorate in comparative literature from the University of Oregon. She has been a reporter and editor at EW since 2007 and teaches journalism at the UO in the mornings before heading to the Weekly’s office. She also teaches newswriting at Lane Community College and advises The Torch student newspaper.
Looking for things to do this weekend? After you ArtWalk come hear fellow EW staffer Alex Notman, a plethora of funny people and I tell naughty Christmas stories on Friday at Cozmic. Not only will we crack ourselves up, there will be wine, beer and food and it's a fundraiser for Planned Parenthood. Continue reading
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
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
Just because EW had early Tofurky Day deadlines does not mean you don't need to hear more about the Lane County Board of County Commissioners meeting today. They didn't just talk turkey and pilgrims, they talked animals and air. Animals Continue reading
God (and capitalism) is good; God (and capitalism) is great. Thank God (and capitalism )for the food we eat. It's the new conservative Thanksgiving grace. Ok I made that up. Continue reading
The recent debate on EW's Facebook page and blog about the Diablos poster led to a lot of conversations about race, fetishization and how we conceive of and portray Native Americans, African-Americans, race and whiteness. Continue reading
Word has gotten out that The Eugene Register-Guard is planning to move music and entertainment (Ticket) reporter Serena Markstrom to a news beat. Admitedly the R-G and EW have a friendly rivalry going on, and we cheerfully snark the daily whenever we can, but I don't know that we've ever snarked Serena* because, let's face it, she's good. Continue reading
It flows through the city; it flows past parks, gravel pits and buildings, but unless it’s rising up in a winter flood or we happen to glance down while driving over the I-5 bridge, the Willamette River rarely seems to flow through our minds. Eugene is a river city; the Coast Fork Willamette and the Middle Fork come together to the south and the McKenzie River, the source of Eugene’s drinking water, has its confluence with the Willamette to the north. Continue reading
Earlier this year Travis Williams of Willamette Riverkeeper was floating down the river near Halsey — 13 river miles south of Corvallis’ drinking water intake — when he noticed a murky, smelly patch in the river. Williams discovered the murky patch was the mixing zone for two pulp mills, Cascade Pacific Pulp and Georgia-Pacific Consumer Products. Williams and attorney Doug Quirke of the Oregon Clean Water Action Project (OCWAP) think that the dark effluent is in violation of the mills’ permit to pollute. Continue reading
Update: Diablos responded very quickly to the comments on its Facebook page and to EW's request for comment: Continue reading