It’s About Time – September 2015

September is usually the best month for hiking in the Cascades. The trails are free of snow, and both tourist and mosquito levels have diminished. This year has become a down year for hiking, however, with the extended drought bringing on our worst fire season ever. Ever! We all hope that the rainy season will begin soon after the equinox instead of its usual start sometime in October. Continue reading 

Badass Burlesque

SuicideGirls brings its deliciously freaky boudoir romp to the McDonald Theatre

BlackHeart Burlesque hits up Eugene Sept. 17

Combine Planet of the Apes, The Simpsons, electronic duo Disclosure and 20 burlesque dancers in silver bikinis and monkey masks — and you get the Blackheart Burlesque, a SuicideGirls show set out to beat back traditional beauty standards.   Fourteen years ago, Selena Mooney, aka Missy Suicide, came up with the idea for a website that would showcase alternative beauty, not conforming to the ubiquitous standard of blonde hair and big boobs pushed by the media.  Continue reading 

Living in the Slimelight

Eugene’s new SLUG queen raises awareness for the rights of the disabled

Mark Roberts

Decked in sequins, wearing deep shades of purple and draped in iridescent green fabric, Mark Roberts is so radiant he might be faintly visible from Earth’s moon. Peering out from under the wide brim of his battered leopard-print fedora through a pair of wide, silvery lenses, he says: “I’ve always been kind of a shy person.”  Roberts’ life took a peculiar turn Friday, Aug. 14, when members of the Society for the Legitimization of the Ubiquitous Gastropod (SLUG) crowned him Eugene’s 33rd SLUG queen.  Continue reading 

Take Me to the Chapel

Living in Lane County can be a charming mix of city culture and country life. For example, a short drive west from the city of Eugene is Our Daily Bread Restaurant in Veneta. Located in a renovated ’40s-era church, Our Daily Bread is a full-service restaurant offering home-style comfort with a fine dining twist.  The vintage atmosphere of the church offers intriguing nooks for intimate conversation or open space for a family-style, communal experience. You may even chat with a server who attended the church as a young girl. Continue reading 

Above Board

Tiny Tavern is dead. Long live Tiny Tavern. With the protracted death rattle and final expiring sigh of the Whiteaker’s seediest bar now just another piece of Eugene folk history, the question “what will become of Tiny’s?” has at last been answered: It will be a restaurant, of course. Continue reading 

Irish Gem

Walking through the dense, cherry-wood front door of The Pint Pot Public House, you’re greeted by many things: the sound of bagpipes, the smell of hearty spices, snug armchairs in dimly lit corners, stacks of board games and smiles from welcoming strangers.  Immediately, your eyes are drawn to writing in chalk atop the bar: “May your home always be too small to hold all your friends.” And while The Pint Pot may be small, its collection of patrons is brimming. Continue reading 

To Bake Is  Human; To Cupcake, Divine

When Aaron and Mariah Kastrava acquired The Divine Cupcake in early May, they were ready for a challenge. Previously, the married couple had planned to open a coffee house, but when an opportunity for something sweeter arrived, they went all in.  After closing its store in west Eugene in 2012, The Divine Cupcake (which existed for nine years under previous ownership) operated principally as an online business, and the Kastravas understood this going in.  Continue reading