Catch-Up Catch-All Blog Post of Doom! MusicfestNW, Dollhouse 2.3 “Belle Chose” and Oregon authors

The number of things I haven’t found time to blog about in the last few months — hey, it’s Best of Eugene, and a girl only has so many hours in the week! — is nearing moderately frightful but not yet epic proportions. I think it’s time for a Catch-All Catch-Up Post. It’s cleansing for one and all! And when it’s over, I can feel free to write about Wordstock and the men’s basketball team without guilt! MFNW! Continue reading 

MFNW Thursday: Portlanders & Scotsmen

You know what’s hard to come by during Musicfest NW? Time. Time to do anything like, say, blog. There’s plenty of time to stand around impatiently as the band before your favorite band seems to play forever and you’re stuck sweating and trying to sip a beer slowly, but when Frightened Rabbit goes on at 12:30 in the morning (in theory) and you, as a result, sleep in so late you almost miss lunch, well, shit, my friends, you run out of time. Continue reading 

Five Eugeneans Are Oregon Book Awards Finalists

Literary Arts has announced the finalists for the 2009 Oregon Book Awards, and five of them are particularly local: Miriam Gershow, Debra Gwartney, Bonnie Henderson, Barbara Pope and Leslie What are all among the finalists for this year’s awards. (Perennial finalist Deborah Hopkinson of Corvallis has already won; her book is the only contender in the children’s category.) Continue reading 

‘Legion’: God is Tired of Your Bullshit, Man. Plus: ‘Battlestar Galactica’ 3.0?

I’m not afraid to admit that I think Constantine is totally underrated. I might go so far as to say it’s one of my top three favorite Keanu Reeves movies. There’s something fascinating about stories that take certain supernatural elements of the Christian Bible REALLY literally — without any lions or elves or metaphorical Jesus creatures. I’m talking demons in the streets of L.A., but not in the Left Behind sense (these stories are only interesting when religion is key to the worldbuilding, but not part of the lesson plan). Continue reading 

Missives from Pickathon, Part 2

The circus is gone. The kids that remain are crawling the ground under the apple trees for green fruit, which they toss up onto the shading, stretched fabric. It’s at an angle, so the fruit always bounces back down. Every so often, a cry of “APPLE!” goes up. I haven’t figured out the rules of the game. Continue reading 

Missivies from Pickathon, Part 1

It’s a strange thing, driving to Pickathon. You’re in the middle of Portland, tied up in its highway knots; you’re driving south on 205, trying not to feel like you’re heading home from the airport; you’re turning off an an exit that quickly begins to feel frighteningly like Agrestic, all matching complexes with intimidating names. And then you’re in the middle of nowhere. Continue reading