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On Feb. 26, we wrote about Old Growth Ales, a local brewery that's aiming to expand its outreach and start producing its medicinal and botanical ales on a commercial scale. This week, Old Growth Ales made its fundraising goal of $20,000 on Kickstarter, with a total of 158 backers raising $20,361. See the jubilant victory post here. Continue reading
The gray whale cows and their calves are migrating north in good numbers this month. I finally visited the most fabulous place to watch whales: the shelter at the top of the Saint Perpetua Trail. The hike is very steep but a road allows one to drive up. Go early in the day, as the parking lot at the top is small. There are often volunteers with spotting scopes at the Cape Perpetua Visitor Center. They have information on how many whales are passing that day. Continue reading
Sitting in Sweet Life Patisserie in the Whiteaker, Aydian Dowling discusses the meaning of “going viral” — or gaining instant fame via the internet. “Once we hit 200,000 views on just the Buzzfeed page,” he says, “we were like, ‘What does it mean to go viral?’” He laughs. “I think when we break a million, we’ll say that we went viral.” Continue reading
The iconic space-age cartoon The Jetsons features a technologically advanced home, complete with a robot housekeeper and a home full of futuristic gadgets. The show first aired in 1962, and while houses still don’t brush your teeth for you or make breakfast with the press of a button, technology now enables us to do some advanced home control, like dimming your living room lights from miles away. Home automation systems have arrived. Along with compost, urban gardens and solar panels, they’re the future of sustainability. Continue reading
These days, you can grow apples without the hard work, responsibilities or space required by full-size apple trees. Cute and amazingly compact, columnar apple trees can grow up to 10 feet tall or higher while remaining barely 2 feet wide, and they can be spaced as close as 2 feet apart. The trees need minimal to no pruning, because the few side branches they produce grow vertically and can be removed, shortened or left to increase the crop. Continue reading
Warm summer days picking apples for homemade applesauce and canning with Grandma in a hot kitchen are memories Annika Parrott cherishes — ones she hopes to pass on to her daughters. Parrott is one of the many people living in Eugene who has turned back the clocks 100 years and started urban homesteading. An urban homestead is a household that produces a significant part of the foods, including produce and livestock, that are consumed by its family, with a focus on the family’s desire to live in a more environmentally conscientious manner. Continue reading
This week, visiting London professor Stephanie Jordan’s lecture “Rites of Spring: A Century of Tradition,” looks at Igor Stravinsky’s famous dance score, from its riotous premiere to its many creative permutations, at 1 pm Thursday, March 5, on the UO campus. And next week, Pablo Luis Rivera presents an interactive evening of music and dance, featuring Puerto Rican Bomba, a traditional musical style combining Spanish, African and Taino cultures, 7:30 pm March 12; $8-$12. Continue reading
Many of my colleagues wish 50 Shades of Grey had never been written. I wish it had been written thirty years ago. I’ve been doing BDSM since we called it S/M. (In the early ’90s, someone mashed together B&D for bondage and discipline, D/s for dominance and submission and S/M for sadomasochism to coin the acronym BDSM. I liked it better when it had fewer initials.) Continue reading
“You’re all a bunch of phonies” has long been one of punk rock’s favorite accusations. Providing a fresh and funny take on that old gripe are the firebrands from London, Ontario — Single Mothers. While first-gen punkers railed against flower power, Single Mothers take aim at the hipster, DIY and Etsy-crafter crowd, as well as any scene’s inevitable decline into self-parody. Continue reading