Culture: Page 272

Whistory

For everything there is a season — especially in the Whiteaker

Culture

For six summers, volunteers of the Whiteaker Block Party have been hard at work adding the Block Party era to the neighborhood’s long and colorful history. The Whit has been home to indigenous people, farmers, families, hippies, anarchists, artists and small business owners — all folks who benefit from creative thinking. This thinking just might be the most continuous generational thread winding through this place that has seen many changes. Continue reading →

Pressing Matters

On-the-street printing press rocks Whit Block Party

Culture

When it comes to screen printing, Revaud Godwin only comes out at night. That is, unless it’s Whiteaker Block Party weekend. Then you can catch him on the street hard at work behind his press. Keep your eyes open for a man of shorter stature surrounded by T-shirts, working at a machine that looks kind of like a new-age catapult or something out of a Transformers movie. That’s Godwin. He is an old-school Whiteaker resident, enthused by the independent spirit and funky ambiance of the Block Party. Continue reading →

Pet Me!

Culture

The word pet has meant “a domesticated, fondled young animal,” “a spoiled child,” “offense at being slighted” or, a personal favorite, “breaking wind, fart,” according to philologist Leo Spitzer, who once wrote an entire essay on the etymology of the word.  Continue reading →

Hot Pets

Animals need to keep cool, too

Culture

It happens every summer. Someone makes a quick trip to the mall and leaves her dog in the car “just for a couple minutes.” But the lines get long, the minutes drag on and before long that car sitting in the sun has gotten unbearably hot. A Stanford University study shows that on a 72-degree day a car can heat up to 116 degrees in only an hour. Every summer dogs and even cats get heatstroke, and some die. Continue reading →

Mini Goats

Urban homesteading’s final frontier

Culture

Urban homesteading, backyard farming — call it what you will, the movement for self sufficiency and sustainable living is booming. In Eugene neighborhoods from the South Hills to the Whiteaker it seems like every other house sports a chicken coop or custom greenhouse. Soon, the most dedicated local homesteaders may be able to join ranks of urban farming trailblazers elsewhere who are exploring a new way of bringing the farm to the city: raising miniature goats.  Continue reading →

Labanies and Griffichons, Let’s Boogie!

Dogs hit the dance floor

Culture

Moving to the rhythm of musical composition is as intrinsic to most as breathing. We humans just can’t resist tapping our toes, drumming our fingers, flailing our arms and swaying our hips, and while we’ve all experienced moments of solitary dance that must remain exclusively behind closed doors, in public it still takes two to do-si-do. “Why not tango?” you ask. Well, some folks have partners that aren’t quite capable of showcasing their gancho. These are the people that dance with dogs. Continue reading →

Through the Looking Glass

Eyeing this weekend’s Oregon Country Fair

Culture

Nothing in this life is certain but death, taxes and the Oregon Country Fair. Here in Eugene, the Fair is part of our very atmosphere; it is the air we breathe. You can feel it coming weeks before it opens, wafting in the breeze like some hippie hurricane about to unleash its (not quite free) love on our stomping grounds. You can see it on the streets, with the increase of young seekers sporting ragged backpacks and dreadlocks and bare feet padding on broiling pavement. Continue reading →