Lane Monthly April 2015 by Lane Monthly

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Earth Day turns 45 P34 Local Businesses Feed Chefs’ Night Out P22 Shakespeare Staycation P50 Eugene Saturday Market

A Photo Essay

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Everything begins with a great teacher!

“We love Pacific University candidates because we know they are prepared to meet the challenges of being a teacher…” —Shari Furtwangler, Principal at Two Rivers-Dos Riós APPLY Today - Graduate and Undergraduate Teacher Licensure Programs - General and Special Education

Pacific University—Eugene 40 E. Broadway in downtown Eugene 541-485-6812 | teacheug@pacificu.edu | pacificu.edu/teach

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contents publisher

Free Press Publishing Editor in chief

Suzi Steffen

this month

editor@lanemonthly.com

Creative Director

Andrew von Engel

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Graphic designers

Terri Sheets Marjorie Collins

Letter from the Editor.......................................... 5 Elijah Brostow State park .............................. 6

Contributing Photographers

Chefs’ Night Out dishes for hunger .......................................... 22

Eugene Johnson, Ayden Unruh, Joanna Bartlett, Vanessa Salvia

Eugene Saturday Market Returns ................................................. 8

Chef’s Night Out Participant Guide ................................................ 24

Lane United 7X7 Tourney ........................ 11

Wanderings with Joey .................................... 25

Illustrators

Lane Events Calendar ................................... 12

Rigel Ross, Lawrence Tripoli, Julia M. Brown

Saving Peter Cottontail................................... 27

Junction City Invests in Business .........14

Get Well(ness) ....................................................... 29

Social Media/Marketing

Be a Joiner with the Obsidians ............. 16

Kicking It Kid Style.............................................30

marketing@lanemonthly.com

Track Town Breakdown ..................................17

Hiking with Kids....................................................31

Rob English crafts a perfect fit............... 18

Dirty Laundry............................................................ 32

Pedaling through Life with Bike Friday ................................................... 19

Spring back into Gardening........................36

Veselina Karakoleva

Contributing Writers

Serena Markstrom-Nugent, Vanessa Salvia Joey Emil Blum, Mary McCoy, Joanna Bartlett Anthony Johnson, Tracy Keyser Evergreen Nutrition, Melissa Hart Will Rubin, Linda Wallace Trunell, Donna Taggart, Alan Sylvestre, Gabrielle Kesler Zane Miller, Happie Hippies, Kristin Bartus and Mandi Harris

Growing Local ....................................................... 37 Seniors and Mary Jane...................................40

Rock Opera Tommy with the Eugene Ballet......................... 46 The Music of Times ..........................................49

Oregon Staycation at the Shakespeare Festival ................................50 Rick Bartow: The Work of a Lifetime ................................55 First Friday Eugene and Florence ........................................................... 57 Writer’s Corner........................................................ 62 Crossword................................................................... 63 Lane County Reads: Literary Redemption..........................................65 Introducing our Lane Monthly Horoscope..................................................................66

Advertising Contact

Michelle Naidoo

michelle@lanemonthly.com

Lane Monthly 1430 Willamette Street, Box 622 Eugene, OR 97401 ◆ 541.228.9644 sales@lanemonthly.com marketing@lanemonthly.com

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Printing

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Spring Sip 26

Living in the Lane 6

Obsidians 16 4

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Pedaling through Life 19

editor’s letter By

Suzi Steffen

y neighborhood tree branches are fluffing out with tiny yellow-green leaves and impossibly bright blossoms, crashing full-bore into spring as I write this note. The two East Coast residents I just talked to are making jealous noises after their harsh winter, and indeed, I feel grateful to be able to hop on my tricycle and head out without needing several layers and studded bike tires. One of the most glorious things about living in Lane County is, of course, our opportunity to be outdoors. This winter has been particularly mild, and as we head into even warmer weather, I am appreciating Joanna Bartlett’s story about the Obsidians, Melissa Hart’s story about hiking with kids in Lane County and our features on local bike creators and bicyclists by Alan Sylvestre and Vanessa Salvia. Think about how to get or stay well, too, with our first column by Zanne Miller. As we go to press, Eugene’s Earth Day celebration is hanging in the balance with the official one cancelled but a wonderful group of community volunteers trying to revive it – stay tuned to local media and our Twitter feed for more updates. Meanwhile, we’ve offered you 45 tips for you for the 45th anniversary of the first Earth Day – and we look forward to your contributing more ideas on our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram feeds (or by email to editor@lanemonthly.com). And we are pleased to celebrate all that is the original, the colorful, the glorious Saturday Market, born the same year as Earth Day. Speaking of the outdoors, soccer is one sport that this editor fiercely adores. I’ll be spending some of my April in Portland at Thorns soccer games, and I’ll no doubt see some of you at Timbers games as well. So, it’s fantastic to see Will Rubin writing about the Lane United Football Club getting underway for its second season and also to check out all of the opportunities for kids’ soccer out there in Joanna’s roundup.

April also throws us firmly into gardening weather in all of our climate zones, and Joanna, that versatile writer, once again shows us how to make the most of this month while Ayasha Thurman tells us about meeting our farmers and opportunities to get vegetable boxes. Even though our county is great, sometimes we need (and want) to travel. Serena Markstrom Nugent takes us on what could have been a trip from hell with her family while I urge you to get down to Ashland for some plays as we kick off our series about what’s in a day’s drive from Lane County. Meanwhile, our local towns have their own theater going on, and Mary McCoy previews Cottage Grove’s Les Mis.

e are blessed with much culture in Lane County. Vanessa Salvia profiles many of the restaurants in FOOD for Lane County’s brilliant Chefs’ Night Out, and Kristin Bartus gives us some local cocktail suggestions for spring. I go into rehearsal to check out the world premiere of Eugene Ballet Company’s Tommy: The Ballet. Mandi Harris gives us some book ideas for the rainier days of April. We talk to Rick Bartow, the artist whose retrospective is being mounted in the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, and Avner Dorman, the composer-in-residence at the Eugene Symphony this month. And this month, we feature poet Donna Taggart, whose moving work takes pride of place in our creative writing area. I am pleased to help add all of these writers, stories, photos and celebrations of Lane County to our media scene. If you have story ideas or pitches, ideas for photo essays or feedback on our stories, please email me at editor@lanemonthly.com. To talk about advertising or getting a Lane Monthly near you, check with our sales manager at michelle@ lanemonthly.com. We look forward to your thoughts and to seeing you again in May!

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Living in the Lane

Elijah W Bristow State Park

ith longer warmer days upon us, April is an excellent time to gather up your family and friends and head for the park. One park you won’t want to miss is Elijah Bristow. This State Park is open year round and is located in Dexter on the Middle Fork of the Willamette River in Eastern Lane County.

The park was named for one of the first pioneer settlers in Lane County and is comprised of 847 acres of scattered meadows, woodlands and wetlands. Two reservable group picnic areas, and numerous first come, first serve picnic sites provide plenty of opportunity relax and enjoy nature.  Salmon and steelhead trout abound during annual runs in one of the few stretches of the lower Willamette with fast-moving white water. Unique wildlife nesting and habitat areas fill the park’s islands and sloughs. Channel Lake, a land-locked river channel that meanders through the park, eventually empties back into the Willamette and provides habitat for Osprey, great blue heron, bald eagles and beaver. Elijah Bristow is also home to several threatened species, including the Western pond turtle and the Oregon chub. A dense canopy of broadleaf and evergreen trees with a lush understory of shrubs and herbaceous plants provides an excellent area for nature study and outdoor education.

lijah Bristow has more than 10 miles of trail for hikers, mountain bikers and equestrians. Part of the trail system includes a portion of the Eugene to Pacific Crest trail. A separate equestrian staging area with a picnic shelter, bbq’s, tables, water and a restroom make Bristow a favorite destination with local riding clubs. Kayakers and canoeists will appreciate a new access trail to the river for the start of their journey on the Willamette River Water Trail.

Whether you’re seeking a short walk, kayaking, birdwatching, picnicking, biking, or hiking, Elijah Bristow State Park is an excellent choice when spending the day in Lane County’s great outdoors. Reprinted with permission from Oregon State Parks

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Let’s Go

with Oregon State Parks

re you looking for an outdoor adventure and something new for you and your family? Perhaps canoeing on the Willamette River or kayaking on placid Estacada Lake? Taking tent poles in hand and learning how to pitch a tent at Wallowa Lake? Ever wonder what it takes to play disc golf? Want to look through a telescope and view Saturn? Or take a hike to some breathtaking views of Oregon? Have an interest in learning more about birds? Maybe you’ve thought about getting started with one of these activities but you don’t know where to start. No need to wait any longer. Attend a Let’s Go program or event! Offered at various state parks, you and your family can learn the basics of paddling, camping, disc golfing, hiking, birding, fishing, cycling and more, and gain the skills and confidence to get out there on your own.

All activities are guided by Oregon State Park rangers who are excited to teach you the basics of bird identification or how to navigate the water in a canoe or kayak. They have plenty of tips to share for sticking to the trail and they will share their astronomy expertise or show you great techniques for tossing a disc. They’ll also provide you with gear for the day. You bring your personal items such as sunscreen, water and snacks. Let’s Go is open to everyone. For some activities, you do need to be a certain age – at least 8 years old for birding and paddling and disc golf. Hiking is open to all and some pets, as long as there is an adult along. Camping is a family activity open to ALL ages. Check out oregonstateparks.org for your next adventure.

The Jazz Station is a concert venue and art gallery providing guests and members a place to meet and mingle and enjoy live music, local wines, beer and ciders during performances. “All Ages” venue • 100% Membership A project of the Willamette Jazz Society

Upcoming Events:

Jacob Zimmerman Quintet Saturday, April 4, 8-11pm $8 ($6 members/students with ID) Seattle-based classic bebop quintet. Concrete Loveseat with Cynthia Valentine Saturday, May 2, 7-8:30pm TWO SHOWS!

7pm, $15 ($12 members/students with ID) 9pm, $10 ($8 members/students with ID) Check out our website for schedules of events, advance sale of tickets, and membership information or call 458-205-1030 LEAVE A MESSAGE and someone will reply. Hours of Operation: Tuesday Night Advanced Jam Session 7:30-10:30pm Thursday night events, 7:30-10:30pm Friday and Saturday night events, usually 8 -11pm Website: www.thejazzstation.org l a n e

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The First, And Still The Best, Saturday Market

Happy 46 to a Eugene institution

n any given Saturday between April and mid-October, Eugene host’s the country’s longest running open air crafts market. Now entering its 46th year, the quintessential Eugene Saturday Market offers visitors the opportunity to enjoy live music, browse and purchase handmade wares and sample a diverse array of food, all while mixing among locals, out of towners and the community of artists and staff who make

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up the colorful organization. Originally founded in 1970 by Lotte Streisinger, the market was created with the intention of providing artisans the opportunity to sell their crafts or home grown products directly to the public and to provide an outlet for an abundance of local produce that could be sold directly to consumers. Subsequently, it also had the effect of revitalizing a dying downtown that was in need of attention.

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oday’s market includes nearly 300 regular vendors who pay a membership fee and $10 per week plus 10% of their sales to participate. The overall economic contribution to our local economy is large, with $2.5 million in sales annually. The organization that began on a rainy day with 29 vendors has grown to be a profitable cornerstone and cultural hub within our community.

The longevity of the market is a testament to its success and has become a model for other cities who wish to start up a market of their own. Within Oregon, the Eugene Saturday Market owns the “Saturday Market” name but sometimes gives permission to other cities to use it, if they agree to adhere to “the maker is the seller” basic guideline.

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By Will Rubin

A Tournament for the Aces Lane United FC hopes to kick up some support—and fun—with a preseason tourney for all comers

esidents of Lane County received their introduction to semiprofessional soccer last year as the Lane United Football Club played its inaugural season in front of a spirited group of core fans dubbed the “Red Aces.”

Now with the 2015 Premier Development Season fast approaching and the recent acquisition of Eugene’s Civic Stadium by the Eugene Civic Alliance, Lane FC is looking to capitalize on soccer’s momentum in Lane County with a preseason 7-on-7 soccer tournament over the weekend of April 18 at the Willamalane Events Center in Springfield. “We like to get the adult soccer players in the area involved in soccer,” said Lane FC media coordinator Chris Burke. “We’d love for them to know more about us, and we know there’s a large adult soccer scene around here. We just think it’s a great way to get that community together in a pretty relaxed atmosphere.” The tournament costs $250 per team with a recommended minimum of 10 players and a maximum of 14. With an open division for both men and women as well as a co-ed bracket and one designated for men over the age of 35, there’s room for as many as 72 teams to play a guaranteed minimum of four games, according to team marketing officer Josh Schwartz. Lane FC modeled a number of aspects of its first community tournament after similar events held in Salem and around Portland, including the price point, which Schwartz says has proven a challenge.

We like to get the adult ‘soccer players in the area involved in soccer,” said Lane FC media coordinator Chris Burke…we know there’s a large adult soccer scene around here. We think it’s a great way to get that community together in a relaxed atmosphere.

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— Chris Burke Without giving a specific number, Schwartz said there are still plenty of open spots available. He attributes some of that to not only the cost of signing up but the inherent challenges of launching a new event within a still-new organization. “In the first year of anything, it’s always difficult to gauge the level of commitment within the community,” Schwartz said. We wanted this tournament to open ourselves up to the possibility of new fans as well as to our Red Aces. Right now it’s 50-50 with newcomers and our established fans.” This month’s tournament will be the second major community event put on by Lane FC. Along with the team’s primary sponsor, Oakshire Brewing, Lane FC hosted a soccer-golf tournament last August at Eugene’s RiverRidge Golf Course. Oakshire has also hosted watch parties for Lane United and other soccer matches including last summer’s World Cup at its location in Eugene’s Whitaker district, and will be a featured beer vendor at the tournament The soccer-golf event was sold out, according to Burke, and showed him the viability of a bigger event such as the 7-on-7 tournament.

“It was the only day in July and August that it rained, and people still had a blast,” Burke said. “The tournament was completely full on the course, but we’re hoping for nice weather this time around so people can have fun for a weekend, have some healthy competition and enjoy a nice weekend of soccer.” The tournament also promises to be a familyfriendly event despite there being no official outlet for kids to compete in the tournament (they are allowed to join a team with waiver signed by a parent or guardian). With multiple playgrounds on the Willamalane grounds as well as the promise of refreshments and even some free space on the turf fields from time to time, the hope is for the tournament to become a family affair. In the meantime, Burke’s goal is to see people come out and to, whether it’s because of the promised beer garden, food carts or the action on the field, kick Lane FC’s 2015 season off in style. “Assuming we got enough people to come out and to enjoy it and have a blast, it will be a fantastic event, and I hope people come out and experience it,” he said. “I’m not trying to say we would rely completely on word of mouth to increase the profile of the tournament, but that would absolutely happen if people come out and have a fun time.” The first home game at Willamalane is May 8. Season ticket packages are $64 for adults and $32 for youths; single-game ticket prices are $10/$5. For more information on Lane United FC and its first 7-on-7 community tournament, visit laneunitedfc.com; find the Red Aces on the group’s Facebook page at facebook.com/groups/LUFCRedAces. Will Rubin is a senior at the University of Oregon’s School of Journalism and Communication. He covers Duck athletics for DuckTerritory.com and can be found on Twitter @_WillRubin. l a n e

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eventscalendar

april Downtown Eugene’s First Friday ArtWalk Guided Tour Apr 03 Friday, 5:30 - 8 p.m. Location: The Jazz Station, 164 W Broadway, Eugene, Admission: Free See page 57 for details

Free First Friday at the Museum of Natural and Cultural History Apr 03, Friday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m Museum of Natural and Cultural History, 1680 E 15th Ave, Eugene Admission: Free Current exhibits Include, EXPLORE OREGON, ROAD TRIP! THE ROADSIDE GEOLOGY OF OREGON, HIGHLIGHTS OF THE JENSEN ARCTIC COLLECTION, SITE SEEING: SNAPSHOTS OF HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY IN OREGON.

Courtesy of Eugene Cascades and Coast time activities, followed by a traditional Easter egg hunt! Held indoors at the park. This event is limited to the first 50 children, ages 2 - 7. Pre-registration is required.

Easter Egg MEGGA Hunt at Willamalane Center Apr 04, Saturday 9:30 a.m. - 12 p.m. Location: Lively ParkAddress:6100 Thurston Rd, Springfield, OR 97477Admission:$5 Join the MEGGA HUNT at Lively Park and hunt for your share of more than 20,000 eggs and prizes! Hunt times are prompt, so be punctual. Ages 5 and under; 9:35 - 11:15 a.m. Grades K - 1; 10:15 a.m. Grades 2 & 3; 11:15 a.m. There is also a Sensory Friendly Egg Hunt for grades 1 - 5, starting at 11:40 a.m.

Apr 07, 2015

Apr 03, Friday, Library 6 p.m. Location: 100 W 10th Ave Admission: Free Tap your toes or get up and dance at a free concert by The Texas Toasters! This high-energy Western Swing band features twin steel guitars, swingin’ fiddle, and driving rhythm. Their blend of hot musicianship, strong vocals, and tight arrangements makes this band one of the Northwest’s most exciting voices in its genre.

Times:Tuesday, 6 p.m.Location: Hult Center for the Performing ArtsAddress:7th & Willamette St, Eugene, OR 97401Admission:$65 - $90 Eugene’s finest restaurants team up to present the 25th Annual Chef’s Night Out at the Hult Center for the Performing Arts. Enjoy delicous food and sample premiere wines and microbrews. Chef’s Night Out is a benefit for FOOD for Lane County, with 100% of ticket proceeds going to support this cause. Join the table!

Family Music Time at Eugene Public Library

“Once Upon a Mattress” Children’s Theatre

Every Saturday in April :10:15 a.m.

Apr 10- Apr 12, 2015 Friday, 7p.m.

Eugene Public 100 W 10th Ave, Eugene, Free Kids and families are invited to sing and dance their way into the weekend at Family Music Time every Saturday in April! On April 25, elementary school teacher Bryan Reed will really make learning rock!

Bunny Eggstravaganza April 04, Saturday, 10 - 11:30 a.m. Location: River Road Park & Recreation DistrictAddress:1400 Lake Dr, Eugene:$7 Don’t miss the egg-citement as trained leaders provide games, crafts and other spring a p r i l

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GloryBee Annual Bee Weekend 2015 April 10th: 9:30am – 5:30pm Saturday, April 11th: 9:00am – 4:00pm 29548 Airport Rd, Eugene, Friday, This two-day community event is packed with beekeeping education, distribution of live bees, live demonstrations, honey sampling, onsite food vendors and additional activities. Meet the 2015 American Honey Queen and learn from Bee Girl!

25th Annual Chef’s Night Out

The Texas Toasters at Eugene Public

The City of Coburg is officially a part of The National Arbor Day Foundation Tree City Program that encourages community forestry enhancement. Join fifth graders from the Coburg Community Charter School and participates in new planting. Additional volunteers are welcome. This annual event is followed by barbeque and recognition!

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Saturday, 2 p.m. & 7 p.m.; Sunday, 2 p.m. Florence Events Center 715 Quince St, Florence, OR Admission: $8 - $16 Contact: 541.977.1994 Directed by Melanie Heard, this musical comedy is an adaptation of the Hans Christian Anderson’s age old fairy tale, “The Princess and the Pea.” The show will be performed by a talented cast of students from elementary age to high schoolers. Presented by Children’s Repertory Workshop.

Hairspray! Apr 10, 2015 – Apr 26, 2015 Friday, 7 p.m.; Saturday, 7 p.m.; Sunday, 3 p.m. New Hope Center Auditorium: 1790 Charnelton St, Eugene Admission: $15 - $21 It’s 1962 in Baltimore, and the lovable plussize teen Tracy Turnblad has only one desire - to dance on the popular Corny Collins Show! When her dream comes true, Tracy is transformed from social outcast to sudden star!

Little Wonders at the Museum of Natural and Cultural History Friday, 10:30 a.m. University of Oregon Museum of Natural and Cultural History,1680 E 15th Ave, Eugene Admission: $5 Contact:541.346.3024 Learn and play! You and your child are invited to join us for stories, crafts, museum exploration, and more. This month, we’ll learn all about seeds and plants and the different ways we use them. Each participating family gets 10% off museum store purchases (15 percent off for museum members).

Come to Dexter Lake this Saturday for the Collegiate Covered Bridge Regatta. This is a race for collegiate fours and eights, as well as open 1x and open 2- events. All races will use our fully buoyed, 7-lane, 2000m course. See you there!

A Night For Sight 2015 Benefit Concert Apr 11, Saturday , 8 p.m. The John G.Shedd Institute for the Arts:868 High St, :$25 - $100 :541.434.7000 The 3rd annual, no-holds-barred benefit concert for the World Vision missions of longtime friend, philanthropist, and world health activist Dr. John Haines will be a rotating carnival of over 20 musicians and six bands!

Collectors West Gun Show Apr 11, 2015 – Apr 12,:Saturday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m., Sunday, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. 796 W 13th Ave, Eugene, : April Fool’s 3D Archery Shoot Apr 11, 2015 – Apr 12, :Saturday, 8 a.m. - 3 p.m.; Sunday, 8 a.m. - 3 p.m: Cascadian Bowmen :91714 Poodle Creek Rd, Noti,:$15 for adults; $10 for youth; under 11 are free Enjoy two days of 3D archery on nearly two miles of trails through the beautiful Coast Range. Kitchen will be open for breakfast and lunch.

Color Me Rad 5K Run Apr 11, Saturday, 9 a.m. - noon Valley River Center 293 Valley River Center, Eugene: $15 - $35 Wear white to this technicolor blast of a 5k run! Throughout the run, you will be coated with color bombs of blue, green, pink, purple and yellow until you come out like a tie-dyed hippie. See you on the other side! Register today.

Tommy the Ballet by the Eugene Ballet Company

Arbor Day in Coburg

2015 Collegiate Covered Bridge Regatta

Apr 11, 2015 – Apr 12, Saturday, 7:30 p.m.; Sunday, 2 p.m.

Apr 10, Friday

Apr 11, Saturday, 9 a.m. - 3 p.m.:

See page 46 for a review and details

Coburg Chamber of Commerce : 91069 Willamette St

Dexter Lake & Lowell State, Pengra Rd, Lowell: Free for spectators

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10th Annual DisOrient Film Festival Apr 17, 2015 – Apr 19, Friday - Sunday Bijou Art Cinemas: See page 53 for details

2015 Florence Community Health Fair Apr 17, 2015 – Apr 19 : Friday, noon; Saturday, 1 p.m.; Sunday, 7:30 a.m Florence Events Center:715 Quince St, Florence :Free On Friday, enjoy a free lunch and kick off the Community Health Fair at the Florence Events Center. Participate in a free Adult CPR/First Ait/AED class, and peruse health booths, see exercise demos, play games and win prizes, all weekend long! Attendees are encourages to bring food items for the Food Share drive.

An Evening with Bill Maher: Live Stand-Up Tour Apr 18, Saturday, 8 p.m. Silva Concert Hall at the Hult Center for the Performing Arts: 7th Ave & Willamette St, Eugene For more than 20 years, Bill Maher has set the boundaries of where funny, political talk can go on American television. His combination of unflinching honesty and big laughs have garnered him 32 Emmy nominations. Maher started his career as a stand-up comedian in 1979, and still performs at least fifty dates a year in Las Vegas and in sold out theater across the country.

Emerald City Roller Girls Derby Bout Apr 18, 2015 Saturday, 6 p.m. Lane Events Center:796 W 13th Ave, Eugene, OR 97402Admission:Advance, $12; Door, $15; Kids Under 6, Free Join the crowd and cheer on the Emerald City Rolller Girls in game 2 of the A/B/C travel season! Bones will crack and skates will roll as the ECRB C Team takes on the Willamette Kidney Thieves. Stick around and catch the ECRG All Stars vs Rose Home Team! Don’t miss this Emerald City event.

Willamette Cascade Model Railroad Club Show & Sale Apr 18– Apr 19: Saturday & Sunday: Lane Events Center 796 W 13th Ave Eugene: $6Contact: The 27th Annual Cascade Model Railroad Club swap meet and train show returns to the Lane Events Center in Eugene. Children under age 8 enter for free when accompanied by a paying adult. Toot toot!

U of O Chamber Choir Concert in Cottage Grove Apr 19, :Sunday, 3 p.m: St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church:1301 W Main St, Cottage Grove: Free The University of Oregon Chamber Choir will give a concert at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church that will feature sacred and secular music, both old and new. The concert is free, but there will be a free-will offering to help out with the choir’s expenses for an upcoming festival in Germany!

Metropolitan Choral Festival at the Hult Center for Performing Arts Apr 21, Tuesday, 7:30 p.m Silva Concert Hall at the Hult Center for the Performing Arts:7th Ave & Willamette St, Eugene, $5 Approximately 600 students from 14 area high schools enjoy an evening of rehearsing two mass pieces of literature with a great conductor, culminating in an evening Gala Concert that is open to the public.

10th Annual McKenzie River Wooden Boat Festival Apr 25, Saturday, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. Eagle Rock Lodge: 49198 McKenzie Hwy, Vida:Free A parade of boats celebrates the history, form and function of the wooden white water boat invented on the McKenzie River. View over 50 drift boats originating here. Exhibits, presentations, activities and vendors commemorating the world famous McKenzie River Drift Boat will be onsite at the Eagle Rock Lodge all day.

Save the Bee 5K Run/Walk Apr 25, :Saturday, 9:30 a.m.-1 p.m: Richardson Park Campground: 25950 Richardson Park Rd, Junction City Admission:$15 - $32 Save the Bee 5k Run Walk Fern Ridge Make a BEE-line to the Finish! This run, in partnership with GloryBee Honey, is dedicated to increasing awareness of our favorite pollinators and ALL proceeds go to Save the Bee programs.

Cinema Pacific Adrenaline Film Project

dr. Joe Martin, Dr. martiN, DDS, dds, PC pc general geNeral DentiStry deNtistry

geNtle cariNg service flexible treatmeNt plaNs coNveNieNt scheduliNg wedNesday after hours appoiNtmeNts available

Apr 27 :Monday, 2- 9 p.m. UO Campus, Eugene, OR 97401Admission:Free Part of the week-long Cinema Pacific Film Festival, today kicks off an intensive three-day film production workshop.

Now acceptiNg New patieNts most insurance accepted

1400 executive pkwy, 310, eugeNe 541.485.4646 l a n e

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By Linda Wallace Trunnell

Flexible Junction

The Lane County town that kick-starts entrepreneurs

hanks in part to a federal program providing local governments with flexible loan mechanisms and a local business wanting to expand, the city of Junction City has for the past 30 years been providing entrepreneurs with low interest loans to kick-start their businesses and spur community development.

program in Oregon, says the CDBG program can be used for several purposes that are consistent with HUD’s national objectives. Microenterprise is an eligible purpose. In many cases, she stated, the grant is awarded to the local community college that houses the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) that serves the surrounding community. The name Revolving Loan Fund is derived from the fact that as loans for projects are repaid, new projects are funded, revolving from one borrower to the next. Presently, many counties across the U.S. are utilizing specific pools of grant funding to set up RLFs and leverage limited resources to most effectively support their local communities. According to Stephen Dignam of Lane Council of Governments, several other nearby cities including Oakridge, Cottage Grove and Veneta have created similar types of loans in the past to encourage business creation.

The Junction City Revolving Loan Fund (RLF) was born from a state-run Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) received from the US Housing and Urban Development (HUD) program. In 1983, at the request of a business looking to finance a major plant expansion in the city, Junction City applied for the block grant. The grant program, according to City Recorder Kitty Vodrup, “included specific criteria for developing a revolving loan fund for loans to private industry to maximize creation of new employment for individuals who have low or moderate income, and for administration of the program.” Upon successful completion of the grant application and establishment of the RLF, a business loan of approximately $350,000 was made to Country Campers, now known as Country Coaches. The plant expanded and created many jobs. That benefited the Junction City area, and the subsequent loan payments and interest from that business loan became the seed money for future loans. Paulina Layton of the Infrastructure Finance Authority, the agency that manages the HUD/CDBG 14

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The types of businesses targeted for loans by Junction City are: • manufacturing or industrial production • research and development activities • development or improved utilization of natural resources • tourist facilities • other businesses, including publishing and broad casting, retail, or technology based businesses Loans made under the terms of the Junction City RLF program will normally fall between $25,000 and $200,000, except in the case of microloans, which may be from $5,000 to $25,000. Business owners and entrepreneurs can request loans for a myriad of uses, including acquisition of land or machinery, development of real estate, improvements to commercial or industrial facilities or working capital needs. Junction City’s RLF criteria states that interest rates will be set no higher than the current earnings from the Oregon Local Government Investment Pool plus 5 percent with a minimum interest rate set at 5 percent. Interest rates are fixed over the life of the loan. Businesses that apply for RLF must match those funds at 50 percent. According to Vodrup and the loan criteria, individual loans may vary from the

loan portfolio standards in a case where significant economic benefit is available by assisting a particular business. Loans will generally be made on a subordinated basis which lowers the risk for commercial lenders and generally acts as an incentive to encourage their participation. Jason Knope, director of public works and interim Junction City administrator, said the RLF has been very successful, even given the recent economic downturn. He said the loan “took a hit” in 2008, as did most businesses and financial institutions, and that the fund amounts and businesses utilizing it ebb and flow over the years, but that currently there is just over $1 million dollars in the fund, with a half dozen businesses taking advantage of the loan opportunities. Ron Lee, president/CEO and one of the original founders of Country Coach in the mid-1970s, said he thinks the RLF program serves a need in the community for businesses requiring loans in that $25,000 to $200,000 range. Lee left the very successful Lane County business several years ago, but after the company liquidated in 2010, he came out of retirement to open an updated version of Country Coach that provides service, parts and consignment sales of the high-end motor homes. Now that the recovering economy has boosted recreational vehicle sales again, Lee is looking once more to expand production for the manufacturing end of the business. Although he is looking to various private sources for what could be several million dollars in loans, Lee and Country Coach recently received another loan from the fund that it helped establish. His hopes are that expansion of the business will once again provide many jobs in the Junction City area, as it has in the past. In this case, the name ‘revolving’ seems certainly appropriate. ▲ For more information on Junction City’s RLF and a checklist of how to apply, visit their website, JunctionCityOregon.gov and look under Departments & Services.

Want to start a business or grow the one you have? Lane Small Business Development Center, a service of LCC, is at your service with classes and workshops to help you succeed in every stage of your business. Lane County residents may choose from a variety of courses including, First Steps in Business, Franchising, a Co-Founders Boot Camp, SBA Loan Briefing, Business Basics, and Marketing, to name a few.

ap up • Bi BiM B So e e TS h c iM K • nS • hoT po io T p o BuBBle Tea n ia r VegeTa

To learn more contact: 541.463.6200 or check out their website at LaneSBDC.com

noodlebowlrestaurant.com 11:30am-9:00pm Mon.-Sat. • 860 Pearl • 686-1114 l a n e

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Obsidians by Joanna Bartlett

To Get Outside More and Eat More Desserts, Be A Joiner Enjoying the great Oregon outdoors, all life long

f you want to stay active, make friends and learn about your natural environment, consider the Obsidians. As Eugene’s oldest outdoor club—it’s been around since 1927 —the Obsidians welcome people of all ages into their fold of more than 400 members. Most members are in their 50s and 60s, says hike leader, Janet Jacobsen, who welcomed hikers new and old on a Wednesday conditioning hike from the Amazon Creek headwaters to the top of Spencer Butte. “But our youngest member is 4 years old,” she says. “He’s the president’s son.” Jacobsen, a member since 1973, has led the weekly Wednesday morning hikes for the past two years. At a hike in mid-March, the dozen or so folks on the hike said they’d joined the club after moving to Eugene or retiring. They looked for ways to connect with people and enjoy the outdoors and found a home with the Obsidians. A few were native Oregonians, but many came from far-flung locales: Texas, Florida, Connecticut, Arizona and even England. One of the newest members, David Lodeesen, joined earlier this year. “I like fitness in general,” he says. “I like to move. I used to be a runner but gave

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up running 10 years ago. I didn’t want to be a couch potato.” So he took up hiking—and snowshoeing and cross country skiing. Like Lodeesen, many members do more than one Obsidian activity. There are lots to choose from: hikes ranging from easy urban walks to overnight backpacking adventures, bike rides, kayaking and rafting trips, cross country skiing, snowshoeing, mountain climbing, short and long bus trips and monthly potluck dinners. Craig Molitor, a retired long-haul truck driver who grew up on a ranch in Cottage Grove, enjoys hiking and bus trips with the Obsidians. ”I’ve always liked the outdoors. They know all these interesting, different places to hike,” he says. Last fall, Molitor went on a bus trip to Death Valley in Eastern California’s Mojave Desert. He was paired with a retired minister as his roommate. While they had different outlooks on life, they became friends and requested each other as roommates again for this year’s bus trip to Yellowstone National Park. He also likes to attend the monthly potlucks. “You meet interesting people,” he says. Plus the food is good, members say. m o n t h ly

(Tip: If you like some devilled eggs, get them on your first pass through; there won’t be any left by your second.) The club is known for its famed desserts as well. Carla Cooper enjoys hiking with her husband, David, and joined the Obsidians last year after they retired. The pair are training for the 192-mile Coast to Coast Walk in England this summer with two other Obsidian members. “It’s a fun group. I like getting out in the mountains, and there’s a measure of safety going out in a group,” Cooper says. “They’re a very welcoming bunch of people.”

Obsidians events in April April 1

Amazon Headwaters 6.2-mile hike

April 3

Ridgeline 10-mile hike

April 4

Finley Wildlife Refuge hike

April 6

Basic Mountaineering Course

April 7

Old Town Bandon Birding bus trip

April 8

Amazon Headwaters 6.2-mile hike

April 9

King’s Valley hike

April 10 Mt. Pisgah 7.5-mile hike April 11 Yachats to Waldport 7-mile hike April 12 Mary’s Peak 7-mile hike April 12 Talking Stones 5.5-mile hike April 15 Amazon Headwaters 6.2-mile hike April 17 Marion County/Ankeny Wild biking trip

They also know a lot about the natural world they enjoy so much. “A lot of the Obsidians know all about the trees, birds and flowers,” Cooper says as Jacobsen points out the first trilliums of the season and nearby calypso orchids.

April 18 Goodman Creek 8-mile hike

“These are also known as fairy slippers,” Jacobsen says as this reporter stops to snap a photo and get a quick breather before heading ever on, up the trail.

April 24 Potluck dinner with John Muir Trail

Photos by Carla Cooper

April 18 Angel’s Rest 4.6-mile hike April 19 Eagle Creek 6.6-mile hike April 22 Summer Trips Leader Orientation class April 22 Amazon Headwaters 6.2-mile hike April 23 Birding Wetlands 14-mile bike ride presentation by Bob Welch April 24 Ridgeline 12-mile hike April 25 Brice Creek/Trestle Falls 11-mile hike Obsidians events are open to members and nonmembers. Find out more and register online at www.obdisians.org.

Tracktown Breakdown Tracktown is a huge wheel with different organizations made up of passionate supporters of the sport that make up the spokes. Many major organizations help make Eugene into Tracktown. That list partially includes the University of Oregon,

The Oregon Track Club, TrackTown USA and The Eugene Marathon. Additionally there are numerous clubs and smaller organizations devoted to the sport that play vital and supportive roles in the community. They all work together to preserve and extend the strong track and field heritage of our state and community. Together they develop the sport and provide opportunities for every level of participation from emerging to elite and amateur to professional while contributing a substantial economic engine for the city, county and state, and also creating strong international recognition for Eugene. Runners of every age and level are encouraged to participate at several events throughout the season. Spectators in the area will enjoy the opportunity to watch world-class athletes compete at Hayward Field, an iconic venue in track and field. All of these events offer opportunities to compete or volunteer. We encourage our Lane County readers to come out and see what Tracktown has to offer.

Trac ktown 2 0 15 Eve nts Cale n dar April 11—Pepsi Team Invitational, The University of Oregon, U of O and Invited Colleges. @Hayward Field Contact U of O. goducks.com April 16-18—The Oregon Relays,The University of Oregon, Premier Pro/ Collegiate/High School Teams. @Hayward Field, Contact U of O. goducks.com April 26th—The Hayward Classic, Oregon Track Club Masters, Premier meet for Masters Divison Competitors, @Hayward Field Contact Oregon Track Club Masters. haywardclassic@gmail.com May 8—The Oregon Twilight, The University of Oregon, Invitational Meet for All Athletes, @Hayward Field. Contact U of O. goducks.com May 10—The Eugene Marathon, Half Marathon and 5K Run by Eugene Marathon, Open to all ages and levels, Held in all of Eugene. Contact Eugene Marathon. info@eugenemarathon.com 877-345-2230. May 21-23—The Oregon High School Track and Field Championships, Sponsored by the OSAA (Oregon School Activities Association) @Hayward Field Contact OSAA 888-838-6722 May 29/30—The Prefontaine Classic, Oregon Track Club, The “Pre” as it is best known, is certainly the most prestigious track and field competition in the United States and the World. It is part of The Diamond League Circuit, which is a series of professional track and field competitions held around the world for only the most elite athletes. @Hayward Field. Contact runnerspace.com

Outdoor Track and Field Championships, this is like the Olympics for people under 20 years old. This meet determines who represents the US in Bejing China for the IAAF (International Association of Athletic Federations) World Juniors Championships. @Hayward Field. July 4—Aquafina OTC Butte to Butte 10K Run, 5K Run and a 4.5 Mile Walk, Oregon Track Club, Open to all ages and levels. As the name says, from Spencer’s Butte to Skinner’s Butte in Eugene. Contact 541-484-9883 All Comers Meets, Oregon Track Club. As the name suggests, open competitions for all ages and levels in all events. Wednesdays are for 13+, Thursdays are for ages 1-12. @Hayward Field. Truly a remarkable opportunity to compete for the sheer joy of it at one of the world’s greatest track and field venues. 541-343-7247. July 1,8,15,22,29 August 2,9,16,23,30

Other significant track and field happenings Tracktown Tuesdays, a free monthly event presented by the Downtown Athletic Club (DAC) to connect local track and field athletes and the sport to the citizens of Tracktown. Social Hour 6pm. Showtime 7pm. April 7, May 5, June 2. Contact Downtown Athletic Club 541-484-4011.

June 10-13—NCAA and the University of Oregon, our national collegiate championship meet, with qualifying athletes from colleges throughout the United States. @Hayward Field. Contact goducks.com June 24-28—USATF (United States of America Track and Field) Junior

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photo: Keng Yong Ho

performance travel bikes. There were plenty of other companies making folders but they weren’t proper bikes. With Bike Friday, it’s a bike first and it happens to fold.” When the Massachusetts company went under, English became a “bike bum.” “Traveling around the world, riding here and there,” he says. “Riding here and there” fails to convey just how much riding and racing he actually did. He won or placed in numerous races, including four wins for 12-hour mountain bike races. He lived and worked as a guide in the Canary Islands and Japan, toured the United States, New Zealand, Australia and Europe.

Ready for Bike Friday

Crafting Custom Bikes is a Perfect Fit for Rob English

By vanessa salvia English Cycles is Rob English, about us imagewinner of Best in Show at the 2013 North American Handmade Bike Show. Custom bicycles built in Eugene, Oregon, USA since 2009.

rafting fine custom bicycles turned out to be the perfect career for Rob English, a cycling champion who got into mountain biking and road racing at a young age and then studied mechanical engineering. English, 37, grew up Southeast England. “Where I grew up there was a big forest back of the house so I started mountain biking at age 13 and that’s what I did for a long time,” he says. He studied mechanical engineering at Cambridge and found a job but wasn’t happy. He then moved to Massachusetts to work for a bicycle start-up. While in the U.S., he acquired a Bike Friday bike. Bike Friday, located in Eugene, hand-builds folding, travel and cargo bikes. “I thought it was a great concept,” English says. “No one else was making

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English took his Bike Friday bike to Australia, and communicated with the company about the trip. He also shared his resume. The company responded with a job offer, but it took nearly 3 years for him to be ready to accept it, and then an additional 18 months to acquire the work visa. He started working for Bike Friday in Eugene in 2006 as the company’s engineer. “I wasn’t prepared to settle for not working in the bike industry, so I held out until I found what I wanted,” he says. Bike Friday allows employees to use its shop for their own projects, so English began building a custom bike for himself to use in time trials, which are individual races against the clock. “Time trialing is all about aerodynamics and getting your bike into the most aerodynamic position,” he says. “I have long arms and need some customization on a bike frame to get into the right position. I never had a bike that really fit me very well, so I

built one and won the state champs on it in,” he says. He built his time trial bike in 2008, and followed that up with state championship wins in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2014. “That was quite satisfying, to build a better mousetrap as it were,” he says. “Having done that, a couple of friends asked me to build them frames, and I built myself a couple more. I put a website up and didn’t do any promotion other than word of mouth. I still had a full time job, so I could let it grow organically.” After working with Bike Friday for six years, he gradually transitioned into his own company, English Cycles, which officially launched in 2009. He makes fully custom folding bikes, cargo bikes, kick bikes, even a tandem recumbent that will pack into two suitcases. He’s had a waiting list for 2 years now.

Recovery from injury He built his 100th bike last summer, which was also a milestone for a different reason. Last July, English ran off the road in a road race and hit a tree at 40 miles per hour. “My left arm is paralyzed,” he says. “That’s still slowly coming back. I’ve got full use of it, but it’s weak.” He’s still able to ride and work, but it does slow him down. He says he also may not do any more mass-start races because of that injury. He and Misha, his wife of seven years, live in Eugene’s countryside and run a bed and breakfast called Velo out of their home. “Velo stands for vegetarian, eco, local and organic, and it’s also French for bike,” he says, “so it fits with the theme of the place.” Rob and Misha, who founded Morning Glory Café in Eugene before completing law school, are vegan and car free. “We do everything by bicycle, so for me that means going to pick up the oxygen acetylene tanks in the bike trailer to putting full bike boxes on the trailer to ship,” he says. “I just count it as training anytime I ride into town.” English currently rides 15 to 20 hours each week—it’s a one-hour trip just to go to the market. He builds all of his bikes in the home’s attached garage and just built a fitting studio for local customers, although he accepts orders from across the globe. He’s traveled all over the world, but he’s happy to call Oregon home. “The riding is amazing,” he says. “It’s a shame there’s not more mountain biking that’s accessible from in town, but the road riding is so good I can ride right out the door from here.”

One of his favorite comments is that a good ride has a positive elk-to-car ratio. “I can do a 7-hour ride and see four cars,” he says. “It’s tremendous.”

English Cycles (541) 683-3556 englishcycles.com

Velo Bed and Breakfast (541) 844-5102 velobandb.com

Pedaling through Life

By Alan Sylvestre

Bike Friday founder Alan Scholz views biking not as a hobby, but as a way of life

rom the winding roads of Oregon’s Highway 101 to the climbing passes of the Cascades, biking has always been at the core of Lane County lifestyle. Being car-free, while still having the ability to travel has always been the pulse that keeps the heart of Lane County pumping.

One Lane County-based company is embracing this ideology, creating collapsible bikes, fit to the exact specifications of each rider.

Scholz says Bike Fridays have been taken to every continent, minus Antartica. “Honestly, it’s easier for me to tell you where our bikes haven’t been,” Scholz says. He said that one of his favorite stories was getting a phone call from a loyal customer that he used a Bike Friday to ride across Finland.

Customization is the key to making this

happen, according to marketing manager John “Raz” Rezell. When a new customer enters the store, Bike Friday employees interview the customer about what plans are for the bike and customize it for to fit the customer’s exact needs.

Bike Friday was founded by brothers Alan and Hanz Scholz, with the mission of building bikes that fit a riders body, riding style, and lifestyle. To these two brothers, it’s genetic. They come from deep biking roots that they claim are a part of their genetic make-up. “I’ve been in the bicycle industry since the 1970s,” Alan Scholz said. “And my daughter was raised in the industry, and is now the president and general manager.” But what separates a Bike Friday from a traditional stock bike? The difference: Bike Fridays can be folded up into a suitcase, making these bikes the ideal travel companion instead of your car.

“The best way to think about it is that our

bikes are made to make cycling to be more convenient, depending on what people do with their lifestyles,” Scholz says. “If you want to travel around the world, they can do that. If you want to travel around Oregon, they can do that. The uses for our bikes are almost limitless.”

Although the reach of his company is worldwide, Scholz feels Bike Friday embodies the culture of Lane County.

“Eugene is really a place where if you don’t want to own a car, you don’t have to,” Scholz says. “That’s why we’ve really tried hard to specialize in creating custom-made bicycles for those in the Lane County area at affordable prices.”

For a low-end model, Scholz says you can purchase a Bike Friday for around $600. But even high-end models only run around $1,500. “I’ve really tried hard to ensure that we can create bikes for anyone who wants one,” Scholz says. “I understand the want and need in Oregon to be car-free, so I’ve tailored my business to accommodate that.”

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Come in for a Visit and Take a Ride Motorcycles | Bicycles | Scooters | Electric Bicycles

Infinito CV, Bike of the Year

Check out our specials on facebook

Mention this ad for aÂ Free Topeak Mini Morph bicycle pump with bike purchase during April. (541) 431-7300 | 407 W. 11th | Eugene, OR 97401 | e-wheelworks.com Hours: Monday-Saturday 10:00 am-6:00 pm; Sunday Closed

Kidical Mass

Join the Cargo Bike Revolution!

Offers families the opportunity to ride the streets

e want our rides to be comfortable for families just starting out and biking on city streets for the first time but we don’t shy away from traffic just because kids will be riding. There is comfort in numbers, not just on a group ride like this but also in the day to day world of riding in the city. A ride like this is meant to help families feel that comfort by having a group to ride with and hopefully they will incorporate it into their daily transportation choice.

Some of our basic guidelines:

Haul-a-Day

■ Personal responsibility (obey traffic laws and no group

movements through stop signs and lights)

Don’t get caught napping

■ Have fun! ■ Go get a treat (like ice cream) ■ Have fun! ■ Outreach to families via non-bikey means (schools, grocery

stores, PTOs, etc.)

■ A short FUN route that doesn’t involve busy streets but utilizes

a mix of residential streets (hopefully bike boulevards or traffic calmed) and off street paths

■ Some ‘street presence’ so we are seen and recognized out there ■ Get the kids involved! Have them do artwork, tell their friends,

and most importantly- come to the ride! (we’re working to get a PSA made up by kids!)

Source: Kidical Mass

Email us if you have comments, suggestions, or questions! info@kidicalmass.org

Kidical Mass Eugene! Sat, April 18, 1pm – 3pm

University Park (24th & University) (map) Celebrate our 7 year birthday with a ride from University Park to the EWEB Plaza on Earth Day. This ride is happening after the Confident Cycling for Families Class being held at Roosevelt Middle School 9am-Noon

Basic Info: A family fun ride with trailers, trail-a-bikes, Xtracycles, tandems, oh my! We’ll ride legal, safe, and hoot it up. Helmets are heavily encouraged (and legally required for the tikes) http://www.kidicalmass.org

There’s a movement afoot in Eugene, sparked by inspiring individuals who prefer Human Power to fuel their passion for life. The Cargo Bike is their chariot to freedom. Bike Friday’s non-folding Cargo Bike the Haul-a-Day is Alan Scholz’s latest creation to help assist cyclists to pursue

their dreams. It’s a natural progression from his first invention, the Burley Trailer. The Haul-a-Day is an agile, light Cargo Bike that starts at 33 pounds with an adjustable frame so it can be shared by riders from 4-foot to 6-4. Come test ride one and join the revolution today!

Friends & Neighbors Save The Scholz family is proud to call Eugene its home, and offers special pricing and savings for people who live in Oregon and can pick up their Bike Friday at our Factory. Come visit us for a test ride on the Fern Ridge Bike Path. We’re confident you’ll enjoy the ride.

New World Tourist

Bike Friday Factory Showroom 3364 W. 11th Avenue Eugene, Oregon

SPRING HOURS Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Saturday noon-4 p.m.

BIKE FRIDAY

The Haul-a-Day is also available at: Arriving By Bike 2705 Willamette St.

Our Family serving Families since 1992 800-777-0258 // BikeFriday.com l a n e

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FOOD

by Vanessa Salvia

Lane County Businesses Contribute to Wipe out Hunger at FOOD for Lane County’s “Chef’s Night Out”

here is no single solution to hunger in Lane County, but FOOD for Lane County’s annual Chefs’ Night Out fundraiser aims to take a big bite out of the problem.

Each April, Eugene’s Hult Center is transformed into a venue for more than 50 restaurants, caterers, microbreweries, distilleries and wineries to set up temporary booths serving drinks, small plates or bite-size helpings of food. Attendees purchase a ticket for admission and are then free to wander the Hult Center from the upper mezzanine to the lower level, helping themselves to as much food and drink as they wish. This year marks the 25th anniversary of the event. Tickets cost $75 or $90 for early entry, which allows attendees to get a head start on sampling. The participating food and beverage providers donate their time and the items they serve. “Because we have such generous sponsors, we’re able to keep 100 percent of the ticket sales to directly meet the needs of people who are hungry in our community,” says Dawn Marie Woodward, FOOD for Lane County’s events and media relations coordinator. The event got its start when well-known restaurateur Mike West wanted to do something about hunger. “Mike West started Chefs’ Night Out when he decided to hold the first dinner 25 years ago in 1991,” Woodward says. “He was co-owner of Cafe Zenon at the time and decided to host a dinner one weekend inviting his friends and people from the community and the proceeds went to hunger relief.” The event grew so quickly that in the third year, he moved it to the Hult Center. Twenty restaurants

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hosted that event with 250 people attending. “Now we have 50 or 60 restaurants participating and almost 1,000 people attend,” Woodward says. The event is a significant portion of FOOD for Lane County’s annual budget. “Over the years, Chefs’ Night Out has raised $1.5 million for hunger relief, which is the equivalent of 4.5 million meals,” Woodward says. If Chefs’ Night Out sells out, which it regularly does, it brings in $80,000, or the equivalent of 240,000 meals. While that seems like a lot, FOOD for Lane County provides about 6.7 million meals a year— that’s how great the need is in our community. It seems hard to believe that hunger would be such a problem in an area of the country with so many gardens, farms and orchards supporting local food. And that’s partly why the area’s chefs are so committed to helping with this event. Ed King, CEO and co-founder of King Estate winery, supports Chefs’ Night Out as Title Sponsor. Since 2011, King Estate has also been the Wine & Dinner Sponsor for FOOD for Lane County’s Empty Bowls Dinner & Auction in the fall. Prior to the sponsorship, King Estate provided the wine for the event. King served on the FFLC Board from 2004 to 2007 and has been involved in various ways over a 20-year period. His estate’s gardens have provided the food bank with potatoes, and they regularly donate fruit. “Beneficiaries of these meals actually include a large number of children, elders and disabled,” he says. “I would argue that part of the measure of a society is the equitable treatment of those who are least able to fend for themselves, in a non-judgmental environment.”

It’s such a great ‘opportunity to get the word out and help feed people.

’

King supports FOOD for Lane County in part also because they are efficient in delivering a lot of help per dollar received, thanks to an army of volunteers. FFLC “really represents our community taking direct action to take care of community members who indicate they have need,” he says. The food and beverage providers who participate all know that they are tackling hunger in our community, and they feel strongly about the subject. Of course, Chefs’ Night Out is a lot of work for the participants, but it’s also fun. And because they get to interact directly with 1,000 or more attendees, it’s a great way to showcase their menus. The participants compete for awards and bragging rights, such as Best Vegetarian Bite, Best Savory Bite, Best Sweet Bite and Best Presentation & Hospitality Award. The name of the overall Best Bite Award was changed to the Mike West Best Overall Bite award in honor of his passing (he died in 2011) and the commitments he made to fighting hunger. “This year his family is also contributing to a $2,000 culinary award for a Lane Community College Culinary Arts student because they believe it is important to support the chefs of the future,” Woodward says.

Lane Community College “We’ve been doing Chefs’ Night Out for over 10 years now, and the last six years we’ve won awards and the students get so excited,” says Lisa Benson Aherin, an instructor in the Culinary Arts & Hospitality Management program at LCC. “For them to work so hard and to get that recognition has been a highlight.”

Lane Community College excels at presentation. They’ve won Best Sweet Bite in 2012 and Best Presentation & Hospitality in ’09, ’11 and ’14. “Our theme for 2014 was ‘The Science of Food,’ where we focused on molecular gastronomy,” Benson Aherin says. “The students wore lab coats and we had decorations of beakers and flasks. We had three food offerings, a pork belly sous vide with a smoked hay BBQ sauce, a deconstructed gin and tonic infused with elderflower liquor—the gin and tonic was actually spherical and popped in your mouth—and orange ‘creamsicles’ made with liquid nitrogen.”

thing that is normally used in a sweet application, such as vanilla, and using it in a savory application. Students also plan to do the reverse and use something that is normally used in a savory application in a sweet.

There are up to 100 culinary arts students and up to 50 hospitality students enrolled at LCC. “Many of our students come from humble beginnings and weren’t really exposed to food or going out to eat, so giving them the chance to develop their palate and their culinary sense of the world but also giving back to the community from which they came definitely feels like a full circle experience,” Benson Aherin says.

Cornucopia

The students get to talk to the public, meet other chefs and potentially network for a job. “It’s a well-rounded experience for everyone,” she says. “As a chef myself, it’s super fun to get to hang out with our peers, but for the students, we want them to have the opportunity to roam around and see what everybody else is doing to get inspired because this is their future career.” LCC’s theme this year is “Opposites Attract.” The group will be flipping expectations by using some-

LCC’s Renaissance Room Culinary Arts and Hospitality Management Program students test their curriculum in the Renaissance Room, with full service menu that changes seasonally and to support the focus of study. www.lanecc.edu/culinary/renaissance-room

“Chefs’ Night Out is a great event! We love it because it does several things,” says Eryn Derderian, Cornucopia’s catering sales manager. “It’s unfortunate that we have so much abundant food growing here but there’s still so much hunger, so that’s one of the things we as a company really love about it. It’s such a great opportunity to get the word out and help feed people.” Cornucopia focuses its catering menu on what’s local and abundant, sustainable and organic. “I’ve been in catering 20 years now and we have some of the best food available locally of anywhere,” Derderian says. “We focus on menus that really represent what’s great around here, which is cheese and vegetables and fruits.” Chefs’ Night Out is a good marketing opportunity,

The Wild Duck team dishes out small bites at Chef’s Night Out. Photo courtesy of FOOD for Lane County.

Palace Bakery’s cupcake display from Chef’s Night Out. Photo courtesy of FOOD for Lane County.

Since 1941

Honoring Earth Day 764 Lincoln St., Eugene OR 97401 • (541) 485-6984

with Special Savings on Wool Carpets Now through April 30th

Organic | Vegetarian & Vegan | Breakfast & Lunch

Morning Glory Café 450 Willamette St. | 7:30am–3:30pm Every Day morninggloryeugene.com | 541-687-0709

764 Lincoln St., Eugene OR 97401 • (541) 485-6984 l a n e

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particularly for caterers, with 1,000 plus people sampling their offerings. “But it’s also a fun event for us to go mingle with other restaurant owners and food people in town,” Derderian says. “I think the general consensus is it’s a fun night. Catering is a hard job and this is a night when everybody gets to just enjoy each others’ food and company.”

Cornucopia (two locations plus catering) Corny’s on 17th | 295 W 17th Ave. (541) 485-2300 The Corn on 5th | 5th and Pearl (541) 485-2676 | www.cornucopiaeugene.com Cornucopia Catering | (541) 485-2300 ext. 2 www.eugenecatering.com

Koho Bistro

Koho Bistro opened its doors with new ownership in December 2011 and has quickly climbed to the top of the Oregon food scene. Chef Jeff Strom was Iron Chef Oregon for 2012 and 2013, and last year Koho Bistro won 2 awards at Chef ’s Night Out. “We won Best Savory Bite award for our alderwood smoked sablefish, fennel vinaigrette, charred broccoli aoli, potato and nori blini,” says Angela Chan, Koho Bistro’s general manager and owner. “We also won the People’s Choice Award. The other bite we made was toasted black pepper macaroons with carrot/rhubard curd, with rhubarb and pink peppercorn gel.” Koho Bistro has participated in Chef ’s Night Out each year since opening. “Jeff and I are both active in the community and participating on different boards and advisories,” Chan says. “FOOD For Lane County is a very important one. I used to volunteer there prior to opening Koho and we wanted to continue to help such an amazing organization. Plus, Chef ’s Night Out is not only for a good cause it’s also so much fun. It’s nice for Jeff to get to see people enjoy his food because he is always in the kitchen. It’s a privilege to be able to take part in one of the largest events that helps benefits the needy.” This year Strom will prepare two bites. One will be a Cattail Creek lamb neck roulade with wild stinging nettles, heirloom freekeh (a grain) and umami steak sauce. For a sweeter bite, Koho will offer a vegetarian black garlic panna cotta with honey lemon crumble. “Nobody should go hungry,” Chan says. “My dad grew up very poor in China and there was never enough food for everyone. Even to this day when our relatives get together, the first thing that’s asked is, ‘Have you eaten?’ Food brings people together; it’s one of our basic needs.”

house, a restaurant he owned from 1977 to 1997. In February of 1996 he helped opened the Wild Duck Brewery. He and his brother opened Mac’s Restaurant and Nightclub and catering in 2002. “It’s a great event, and of course there’s no greater need than helping folks who aren’t getting enough to eat,” McCallum says. “As people who feed people for a living, it’s a natural for us to support FOOD for Lane County and their efforts to help eradicate hunger here in our community. Mac’s hasn’t completely decided on its menu for this year, but the restaurant will for sure serve Reuben sliders. “We make a killer Reuben sandwich,” he says. “It’s piled high with corned beef, of course. It has sauerkraut and Swiss cheese but it also has bacon on it and a nice stone-ground horseradish mustard sauce.” McCallum says the gourmet mac and cheese from past years is so popular that he may serve that again. “We make it with gorgonzola, jack and parmesan,” he says, “and I’m telling you it is one of the best you’ll ever have.” Events like this do offer valuable exposure to restaurants and other service providers such as caterers, and McCallum says he has “definitely” had people come into the restaurant as a result of tasting Mac’s food at Chef ’s Night Out. There is, however, a fair amount of cost that goes into participating. Each restaurant will serve more than 1,000 samples of each item it chooses to prepare, and restaurants pay for that as well as the staffing for their booths and any decorations or serviceware. “That cost,” McCallum says, “is offset by the knowledge that we’re assisting people who aren’t getting enough food.” Mac’s Restaurant & Nightclub 1626 Willamette St. | (541) 344-8600 www.macsatthevets.com

FOOD for Lane County’s Chef’s Night Out

100% of ticket sales benefit FOOD For Lane County Tuesday, April 7, 2015; 6:30 pm $75, general admission 6:30 pm entry $90, early 5:30 pm entry Tickets available at the Hult Center box office, online at hultcenter.org and by phone at 541-682-5000.

Koho Bistro | 2101 Bailey Hill Rd. (541) 684-8888 | www.kohobistro.net

Mac’s Restaurant and Nightclub Pat McCallum has participated in Chef ’s Night Out since the first event 25 years ago with The Tree24

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The Mac’s at the Vets team is ready for service at a past Chefs’ Night Out. Photo courtesy of Pat McCallum.

2015 Chefs’ Night Out “Because we have such generous sponsors, we’re able to keep 100 percent of the ticket sales to directly meet the needs of people who are hungry in our community,” says Dawn Marie Woodward, FOOD for Lane County’s events and media relations coordinator.

Contributing Businesses The participating food and beverage providers donate their time and the items they serve. Cornucopia Catering Cousin Jack’s Pastys Ninkasi Brewing Co. Ax Billy Grill/DAC Bendistillery Cafeto Coffee Capitello Wines Cookie Conscious Hop Valley Brewing Rodeo Steakhouse & Catering Share Small Plate Bistro Wild Duck Café & Catering Belly Season Cellars Agate Alley Bistro Bates Steakhouse & Saloon Deschutes Brewery Genesis Organic Juice Full City Coffee King Estate Winery LCC Culinary Arts Program Mac’s Custom Catering Mac’s Restaurant & Nightclub Marche’ Provisions MLK Culinary Arts & Catering Oakshire Brewing Oakway Catering Palace Bakery

Plank Town Brewing Company RainSong Winery Red Wagon Creamery Silvan Ridge Winery Soup Nation Sweet Life Patisserie Agrarian Ales Biancalana Pork Growers Big Foot Beverages Café Soriah Chateau Lorane Falling Sky Brewing & Deli Fisherman’s Market Hard Times Distillery J. Scott Cellars Noble Estate Vineyard & Winery Party Downtown Billy Mac’s Bar & Grill Claim 52 Copo Beverage Co. Sprout! Regional Food Hub Baker Butcher Buster’s Main Street Café Koho Bistro Excelsior Inn & Restaurant Membrillo Latin Café Mountain Rose Herbs

n Greek mythology as adapted from Egyptian mythology, Isis had a son, Harpocrates, who is most depicted holding his finger to his lips. He is the god of silence, shushing the world so his mother can do her work. Not every thought needs expression. n

Six months later, I left to live with relatives in the Northwest and continued my subliminal quest for silence. n

But it wasn’t always so. Before

When I was 8, my family moved from a yet

unspoiled rural suburb to the “The City That Never Sleeps,” that is, New York. In our new home, there was no darkness and no frogs, turtles or snakes filling the marshes surrounding our home. It felt alien and inhospitable and certainly lived up to its reputation for its boast of insomnia with light and sound 24 hours a day.

the saturation of the Industrial Revolution, life included the songs of birds and insects. A blacksmith’s hammer would have been piercing while the extraordinary sound of a symphony orchestra

the sun rose, I wrote a poem about nothing being immortal in the silence that seemed to envelop the universe. It was comforting to be small in the world. The second silence was in the middle of the Bering Sea while I was being transferred from one ship to another. The sea was choppy, and it was easier to lower me onto a circle-shaped life raft than to risk tying two boats together. Once I was in place on the raft, the first ship departed. Though I saw the new ship on the horizon, for 20 minutes I was alone in a place of extreme solitude, awestruck by the loneliness of where I was. It was not without some trepidation that I sat there, but it was a deep time of awareness about my insignificance in the world. It’s funny that I remember it as silent. My brain tells me there must have been the sounds of the ocean. Maybe the power of solitude is that it quiets both experience and memory.

Slash Burns, Snowstorms and Seeking Silence

My second-story bedroom window looked down on a reservoir that had the illusion of being a lake but was a lifeless expanse of water surrounded by a fortified barbed-wire fence. It was, by New York standards, a good neighborhood, situated on the edge of the city where there still was light and space, a far cry from the urban compression of the inner city. There were even parks with trees and pigeons.

WANDERINGS WITH JOEY

That all changed when we moved to a more dense neighborhood and the sounds multiplied. Starting with the pre-dawn alarm clock of garbage collection, the days filled with endless police and fire sirens, delivery trucks, neighbors’ arguments and simply the general din of a city the size of a small Oregon town but packed with 8 million people. I discovered that the only tranquility came around 4 a. m. when, fortunately, the metallic clatter and clang of the Woodlawn (4) elevated subway became a mournful comforting sound worthy of accompanying an Edward Hopper painting. At age 11, I began waking at 4 a. m. each day to write: I wrote a lot of poems between 4 and 5 in the morning. During high school, I took to sleeping in two shifts so I might take advantage of the quietest hour of the day. Snowstorms were another time of silence in the city. Snow could gently bring the city to a delightful standstill, blanketing the filth and subduing what was normal. Motion stopped. The city that never slept had long ago lost its natural identity, but softened by snow, in silence, it offered a glimpse of what it might have been 400 years earlier when, estimates say, there were fewer than 10,000 native people inhabiting the city of 8 million people. What was once a fertile river ocean confluence was now a buzzing hive of pavement, wires. My fondest memory of the city is when, at age 19, I walked in a midnight silence through a fresh, heavy snow a few weeks after my mother died. It was a comfort to be reminded that nature once again held sway.

by Joey Emil Blum would have been miraculous. It’s not that I have any great desire to elude a saber-toothed tiger or slither out of the primordial ooze, but at least it would have been quiet. For most of the Earth’s existence, if you needed a little silent meditation, it was available. Working in the U. S. Forest Service one summer on the Olympic Peninsula, I experienced my first profound silence. It was a wet year, which meant that instead of fighting wildfires, we performed controlled slash burns of logged-off units. As a member of the tanker crew, my job was to keep water pumping through the hoses to the crews working the fire’s perimeter so that the fire could not escape the boundaries of the unit. After prepping and then burning a 60-acre unit above the Dosewallips River drainage for nearly 24 hours, finally, we shut down the thrumming pumps in the predawn darkness. As smoke wafted from the remaining embers, a silence fell over the unit. I gazed into a magnificent panoply of stars above and tiny dancing flames below. When

The greatest noise I know

comes from my own mind. Three years ago, I spent 10 days at a silent meditation training. My friends did not believe that it was possible for me to sit without speaking, but forsaking talk was a comfort. The biggest challenge was what went on in my mind during the first three days of sitting. What a surprise that the first three days of silent sitting 12 hours a day were like hearing the loudest concert I ever attended, Edgar Winter’s White Trash Band, playing between my ears. Fortunately, each day after that, my mind settled, and the world became much quieter. I have always sought silence so that I might live free from the prompts and pressures of society. I believe that part of our instinctual being needs to walk the planet alone and experience solitude away from the herd of the expanding numbers of humanity. Perhaps Harpocrates’ godly “shush” worked in ancient Greece, but try shushing the world today. Try shushing the mind-numbing clatter that but a few hundred years ago didn’t even exist. Today our harried lives are driven by the constant demands of a culture endlessly seeking our attention. Our society is one of constant stimulation. Noise emanating from our countless machines and devices, partners in our technological environment devoid of darkness or silence, overwhelms the human dignity of solitude. We are lucky to live where there remains the space and settings to experience silence. And in doing so, perhaps we will hear that which is eternal and makes us human: a grand silence overpowering the chatter and torment of the modern world. When is the last time you experienced silence? Please share your silent moment with me if you wish: joey@lanemonthly.com

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eventscalendar UO Repertory Dance Company Friday, April 17 at 8:00pm Dougherty Dance Theatre The University of Oregon’s Repertory Dance Company (UORDC) will present its annual spring concert, the UO’s capstone dance event of the 2014-15 academic year.

Cantus Vocal Ensemble rounds out ChamberMusic@Beall season

Eugene Symphony - Beethoven’s Pastorale

Sunday, April 12, 3 p.m.,

Apr 16, Thursday 8 p.m.

Beall Concert Hall, Frohnmayer Music Building

Hult Center for the Performing Arts, 7th Ave & Willamette St, Eugene

The University of Oregon’s premier ChamberMusic@Beall concert series—known throughout Oregon for bringing renowned live chamber musicians to the ears of Willamette Valley music-lovers—will end its 2014-15 season on a (literal) high note with an April 12 appearance by the Cantus Vocal Ensemble.

The concert will include original compositions by Music Director for Dance Christian Cherry and John Craig. A centerpiece work for this year’s UORDC is “Muse: Longing and Belonging,” a new work by company member Rachel Matthews and

The first choral group featured by the ChamberMusic@Beall series in several years, Cantus has become famous for its intellectually, emotionally, and musically rich performances of music ranging from the Renaissance to the 21st Century. One of America’s top-selling recording artists and regular guests on Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion, Cantus performs more than 60 concerts a year, touring both nationally and internationally. $39, $33, $28, $17; reserved seating. Reserved-seating tickets are available in advance from the Hult Center (541-682-5000) or the UO Ticket Office (541-346-4363).

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Friday, April 24 at 7:30pm Soreng Theater, Hult Center for the Performing Arts Join the award-winning UO Opera Ensemble under the direction of Dr. Karen Esquivel for a tale of witches, candy, faith, and retribution. Engelbert Humperdinck’s version of the Brothers Grimm classic fairy tale “Hänsel und Gretel,” performed in German with Englishlanguage supertitles, is perfect for families and opera lovers alike. Audiences will find themselves transported by the production’s ear-catching melodies and lush romantic orchestration, not to mention a story filled with real-life drama, magical forests, and fun for all! $15 general admission, $12 senior citizens, $7 students, Tickets are available at the door or in advance from the UO Ticket Office (541-346-4363) or Hult Center (541-6825000)

Prior to the Cantus concert, UO-trained musicologist Lindsey Henriksen will offer attendees a free pre-concert “Musical Insights” talk at 2:10 p.m. Acclaimed as the premier men’s vocal ensemble in the United States, Cantus will perform a program of choral pieces from around the world, a marvelous blend of composers and styles in a widely varied and masterful program. Titled “Anthem,” the concert will include works by Gustav Holst, Leoš Janáček, Richard Rodgers, Robert De Cormier, and Stephen Hatfield, as well as folk and traditional tunes spanning the globe from Bali to Japan to Australia. Also to be included is “When we Sing,” a world premiere by Rosephayne Powell.

Family Friendly Opera at the Hult: University of Oregon Opera Ensemble presents “Hänsel und Gretel”

For more Lane County Events visit eugenecascadescoast.org

Beethoven’s Symphony paints a picture of simple country folk in a pastoral setting dancing, cowering in a thunderstorm, and giving thanks for its passing. Israeli-born composer Avner Dorman’s Astrolatry draws its inspiration from the boundless night sky, as well as Middle Eastern percussion sounds with rock’n’roll, enveloped in orchestral magic. Excitement abounds! Admission:$17 - $59

SEA - Quartetto Gelato Apr 17, Friday, 7 p.m. Florence Events Center, 715 Quince St, Florence For nearly two decades Quartetto Gelato has won the hearts of audiences worldwide with their unique blend of musical finesse, pyrotechnical solos, blazing gypsy show pieces and multi-instrument mastery. Admission: $10-30 Contact: 541.997.1994

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Department of Dance chair Jenifer Craig, that honors Matthews’ mother, the choreographer Mary Bonasera Matthews. The concert will also feature works by dance faculty members including Jenifer Craig’s “Step One,” Brad Garner’s “Except for One,” Rita J. Honka’s “Requisite Resolve,” Walter Kennedy’s “Babel,” and Shannon Mockli’s “The Rhythm Breakdown;” as well as “Hatch” by MFA candidate Faith Morrison. $10 general admission, $5 students and seniors. Tickets are available at the door or in advance from the UO Ticket Office, 541-346-4363

pets of lane county

By Gabrielle Kesler

Saving Peter Cottontail Rabbit Rescue and Adoption

t happens every spring. Families go out and buy an adorable baby bunny or two at the local pet store. She’s soft and he’s fluffy, the kids name the bun Peter or Hester, and everyone adores the bun for a while. Then the family starts to get bored. Peter starts to get bigger and maybe just isn’t cute as he once was. Hester starts to get more aggressive. So the family drives the rabbit to Greenhill Humane Society or drops it off in a secluded part of their neighborhood park, where it’s promptly dismembered or where it meets another unfixed rabbit, and they breed like…well, rabbits.

the animal was living in, a home with screaming hyperactive children and little room for exercise, she began to wonder about the need for rabbit rescue and rehabilitation services. After Alex did some research, she and her mom opened Red Barn Rabbit Rescue in February 2009.

…anyone thinking ‘about adopting

a rabbit needs to start by reading up on rabbit care and behavior.

’

Most surrendered or abandoned rabbits are bought on a whim. What the buyers often do not know is that during their adolescent stage, rabbits get a rush of hormones that changes their behavior completely. “They’re so cute and cuddly from 3 to 6 months,” Heather Crippen says. “You think this is the greatest thing ever, and then those hormones hit, and you have the bunny from hell.” Surrendering your rabbit to a shelter is one thing. But abandoning it just anywhere? Bad idea. But people like Heather and Alex Crippen, the mother/daughter duo who run Red Barn Rabbit Rescue in Creswell, and Barbara Ray, the rabbit specialist at Greenhill Humane Society in Eugene, who serve as rabbit rescuers and rabbit resources for Lane County, have other plans. “Our goal is to find them great homes,” Heather Crippen says. Heather and Alex run Red Barn Rabbit Rescue out of their home, located down a long stretch of country road and surrounded by farmland on all sides. Frogs croak loudly in the distance as you step into their driveway. The story behind Red Barn’s beginning starts with a 13-year-old Alex Crippen intent on breeding rabbits for 4-H. She found a young doe (female rabbit) through Craigslist, but when she went to pick her up and saw the chaotic and stressful environment

“Be responsible about how you rehome your animal,” says Barbara Ray, who sees plenty of surrendered rabbits at Greenhill. “Don’t just let it loose in a park or dump it somewhere in the country.” Greenhill Humane Society takes in up to 40 rabbits in a year, Ray says. She adds that anyone thinking about adopting a rabbit needs to start by reading up on rabbit care and behavior. Greenhill takes in mostly owner-surrendered rabbits, but Red Barn, being a rescue, often has more special needs cases. The Crippens’ process of rehabilitating and finding homes for their rabbits is a long-term commitment. Many of the rabbits that they take in will never be adoptable because of disabilities or behavioral problems. Nutmeg, a small brown doe, will probably have stay at Red Barn, for instance. She was brought to the rescue center with severe ear mites that were eating

away at her skin and causing her to seize with pain. After this problem was cleared up, the Crippens discovered that Nutmeg also has a neurological disorder that causes her to twist her body into what Heather describes as a kidney bean shape. She has to be on daily anti-inflammatory medication. “She’s our $9 million rabbit,” Heather Crippen says. With other rabbits, their road to recovery and adoption most often entails simply building trust with humans. A rabbit that bites, scratches or attempts to attack a person is usually just scared. “We’re proud of our successful adoptions,” Heather says. One of the many reasons that rabbit rescuers encourage adopting an adult rabbit from a shelter is because it will be spayed or neutered. This not only helps reduce the overpopulation problem, but also helps improve behavioral issues. Adopting also allows shelters to provide a safe place for another rabbit or small animal that might have been euthanized otherwise. But owning a rabbit isn’t all kicks and nose twitches. Something Heather and Alex always tell potential adopters who come to Red Barn looking for a new pet is, “We’re here to talk you out of owning a rabbit. If we can’t do that, then you’re probably ready.”

Still interested? Red Barn Rescue: www.redbarnrabbitrescue.org Greenhill Humane Society: green-hill.org. Contact the Crippens info@redbarnrabbitrescue. org or Barbara Ray at 541-689-1503. Reminder: Greenhill’s Bark in the Park is May 16. Register at the website.

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Help for Seasonal Allergies Spring is here and summer will soon follow bringing long days of sunshine, warm weather and amazing natural beauty as an abundance of flowers and trees awaken from winter slumber. But if you suffer from hay fever it can diminish your enjoyment of the season. Here are a few tips from Evergreen Nutrition that can help you enjoy the natural beauty around us.

allergic rhinitis and sinusitis. Nettles are rich in minerals and chlorophyll and have long been used to treat bronchitis and asthma. This time of year, take freeze-dried nettle leaves for their antihistamine action.

Histamine. The very word can make allergy

sufferers run for cover. But histamine is not all bad. It’s necessary for cell division, healthy digestion and achieving orgasm. However, while in the throes of an allergic reaction it’s antihistamines that will put a smile on your face.

QUERCETIN: A NATURAL ANTIHISTAMINE QUERCETIN is a bioflavonoid found in a variety of foods. It helps to stabilize cell membranes, making mast cells less reactive to allergy-causing antigens and decreasing the release of histamine. In addition, it helps to alleviate asthma, allergic rhinitis and sinusitis. Quercetin has other immune benefits, too, since it is effective against detrimental fungi and viruses. Quercetin works synergistically with BROMELAIN, an anti-inflammatory enzyme that breaks down foreign proteins like allergy-causing antigens, and VITAMIN C, which inhibits the release of histamine. NAC (N-Aceytl-L-Cysteine) breaks up mucous and supports the liver, which is working harder during an allergic response.

NETTLES CAN HELP, TOO Research has shown that freeze-dried NETTLES (Urtica dioica) can alleviate troublesome allergy symptoms such as itchy eyes, ears and throat,

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HOMEOPATHIC REMEDIES Homeopathy is based on the Law of Similiars which means if something can make you sick, it can also cure you. These remedies help bring our bodies into balance (homeostasis) without unpleasant side effects. They are very safe and effective and generally do not interfere with other medications.

ADDITIONAL ALLERGY ALLIES There are also some less-well-known, but very effective, allergy allies. VITAMIN E helps by lowering IgE levels, PYCNOGENOL strengthens cell membranes, thereby reducing histamine release from mast cells, and THYMUS EXTRACT normalizes immune reaction.

ALSO OF NOTE The challenge of coping with histamine during an allergic reaction is very hard on our adrenals, liver and digestion. If you suffer from seasonal allergies, it is helpful to reduce stress, eat better, which might include adding digestive enzymes at meals, and be kind to your liver. With the return of the warm, sunny weather it’s a pleasure to be outdoors. If allergies are preventing you from enjoying it to the fullest, give these products a try, and step outside and have some fun.

By Zanne Miller

Let’s Get Well(ness), Wellness! The word gets tossed around a lot these days, and it may be getting a bit dull from overuse.

ellness formula vitamins, workplace wellness, health and wellness, wellness coaches: The industry commands trillions of American dollars each year and is, according to several different sources, one of the fastest growing. What does it mean to be well? How does one achieve a state of wellness? When I was studying to be a marriage and family therapist, I was introduced to the Wellness Wheel. Credited to Dr. Bill Hettler, co-founder of the National Wellness Institute, it has six dimensions: emotional, occupational, physical, spiritual, intellectual and social. Other versions expand this to eight or 10 or even 12 dimensions. How to get to six, eight, or, for the really ambitious among us, 12 dimensions of wellness? The National Wellness Institute suggests that “wellness is a conscious, self-directed and evolving process of achieving full potential.” I especially like the self-directed piece of that; all healing begins within. Still, self-directed or not, it may be helpful to have a coach. I asked a friend who’s a wellness coach to tell me more about what one does. Vanessa Truett, MPA, CNPM calls herself a Transformational Life Coach. A coach, Truett says, is “someone who helps you focus on getting out of life what is important to you (even when you don’t know what that is yet!) and gives you the tools to keep doing this long after your final session.” A coach can help you define goals, formulate a plan, provide structure, encouragement and support and “walk the journey with you” until you’re confident enough to do it yourself.

at different times of our lives and is very personal,” she says. “One must consider many things, such as culture and personality, when developing an action plan. The main goal is to cultivate a sense of inner peace.” That inner peace, she says, can override our instinctual fight or flight responses, but getting there doesn’t have just one path. Truett recommends that people who want to practice wellness more in their lives do three things: They should develop a “board of directors” for support, create a personal mission statement for health and, finally, write an action plan. Obtaining wellness, she says, is “a holistic journey that cannot be addressed by just one provider.”

Wellness is a conscious, self-directed and evolving process of achieving full potential.

Considering the many wellness centers out there in Lane County, forming a board of directors should be simple enough. Balance and peace of mind sound good to me. I might be ready to write my mission plan. How about you? Zanne Miller, MS, MFT, QMHP is a writer, editor and mental health therapist living in Eugene (although her preferred titles are mother, daughter, sister and friend). She welcomes your questions, comments and ideas for future columns to zanne@mind.net

“Wellness is a journey that means different things

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By Joanna Bartlett

Kicking it Kid Style in Lane County Youth soccer teaches lessons on and off the field

here’s more to kids playing soccer than getting good exercise. While running up and down the field is certainly a benefit, so are the many useful lessons kids learn about life on and off the field.

“On the surface, it’s obviously great exercise,” says Joel Andersen, Commissioner of the Lane Youth Soccer Association (LYSA). “We do a fun activity kids want to do. It’s wonderful the way their hearts and minds open up. It’s a wonderful tool because the kids are having fun and they don’t even realize they’re learning.” Some lessons are obvious. Kids learn good sportsmanship and how to work with others on a team. They learn that everyone on the team, regardless of gender or ability, has value. “On any team, no matter the gender, you’re always going to have some players that are stronger and faster and some players that are smarter and better at controlling the ball,” Andersen says. “I might be able to run faster and be heavier, but that doesn’t make me superior. You’re quicker and can control the ball better, so you have value, too. You’re different, but you have a lot of good qualities.” Bev Smith, Executive Director of Kidsports, agrees. “The lessons we learn in the classroom are sometimes more magnified on the field of play. Sometimes you don’t have control over things you’d like 30

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to have control over: how the other team will play and behave, what the official will call or not call,” Smith says. “What are those things we can control and work on better for next time?” Kids also learn grit while they’re out on the field. “Being outside is important for kids, even in Oregon when it rains. They learn a lot of resiliency being out in these conditions,” Smith says. “It provides opportunities for kids to get out there and make decisions. It develops their lungs and hearts and brains.”

When we train our ‘coaches, we tell them that on the surface we’re teaching soccer, but in reality we’re teaching life lessons.

’

Soccer is a social sport—not just for the players, but for their families as well. Another benefit of soccer is the community that forms around teams and their families. Andersen says every season he sees community build around the league and its teams. “It’s a wonderful thing. All the people come together and we talk about our soccer family,” he says.

“We want to have coaches that are interested in winning, but there are so many important life lessons on the other side of it. How do you react to a late goal that causes your team to lose?” Smith says. “You sometimes play your best game and still lose. Sometimes you play really poorly and you win. As a coach how do you impart those lessons?”

“We’ve built this great community of friends and families that creates such a fun atmosphere, win or lose,” says Kelli Matthews, mom to a Kidsports soccer player. Her husband, Michael Graves, is a volunteer coach.

While every team wants to win, how do you keep competition in youth sports from getting too fierce? LYSA offers a no-pressure atmosphere for kids to learn and play soccer, encouraging good sportsmanship along with competitive play.

All the coaches for LYSA and Kidsports are volunteers. Both organizations are nonprofits, focused on providing a fun and competitive sports experience for children in Lane County. LYSA helps around 500 kids from age 4 to 19 play soccer each year, and Kidsports fields up to 3,000 players in the same age range.

Smith notes that it’s the parents who usually have the most emotional investment in the game. But the best thing a parent can say to their child after a game—no matter how they play – she says, is, “I love watching you play.” n

Training their coaches well is a big part of helping kids be successful in soccer and life. “When we train our coaches, we tell them that on the surface we’re teaching soccer, but in reality we’re teaching life lessons. Soccer is just a tool we use,” Andersen says. Kidsports has a similar philosophy—what Smith calls a double goal in their coaching education.

For more info: Kidsports www.kidsports.org 541-683-2374 LYSA laneyouthsoccer.org 541-484-1149 Both organizations offer scholarships.

Hiking With Kids: For very young children, she recommends Spirit and Moon Falls near Cottage Grove. “There are very short trails to both waterfalls,” she says. “It’s a fun little toddle.” For older kids, she suggests Brice Creek Falls; the Upper Trestle Creek Trail loops to the upper falls with a path that allows hikers to walk behind it. She also likes the 6-mile loop that includes Sahalie and Koosah Falls up Hwy 126 on the McKenzie River. Plenty of adventure-worthy sites appear along the long drive, from the bird-lover’s 1.25 mile loop around Walterville Pond to the old growth forests and lava fields of the 5-mile Clear Lake Loop Trail.

Lane County’s trails offer families endless adventure

By Melissa Hart

hree years ago, Erica Milkovich and her daughters — then 5 years old and 1 — explored the paths around Elijah Bristow State Park and picked late-season blackberries. As they moved from a wooded area into a grassy field, they spotted some odd-looking rocks and moved in for a better look.

“But then I started to realize,” she says, “that the rocks were kind of undulating. As we continued to walk closer, this gigantic male elk lifted his head and sort of snorted at us.” Knowing that fall is a bad time to antagonize a buck, she quietly backed away from the animal with her daughters, walked to the parking lot and drove home. “We were very happy that we got to tell the tale of seeing the elk,” she says, “and that nothing more exciting happened.” Hiking in Oregon promises excitement over all four seasons, across a wealth of landscapes. Want to walk behind a waterfall? Trek past osprey and eagles to the beach? Ramble through old growth past mushrooms and lichen and banana slugs? Lane County’s got you covered.

Reward them with Waterfalls Bonnie Henderson, author of Best Hikes with Kids (Mountaineers, 2007), believes that the ideal way to inspire children into the outdoors is to provide them with a reward in the form of a waterfall. “They’re so dynamic and dramatic,” she says of the numerous falls around the county. “It’s a lot to ask of young kids who are new to hiking to go a long distance without any payoff. A waterfall is a great payoff — something worth hiking to.”

Henderson says that parents don’t need to be knowledgeable about the names of every plant and flower. “The whole point,” she says, “is for kids to discover for themselves. Let them explore, stop and look at fun stuff.” One of the most important things she learned as a new mother was to do her aerobic workout separately from a hike with her young son. “Then you’re not doing it to reach your target heart rate,” she says. “The hike is at the kid’s pace.”

Make Art on a Mountaintop Painter and teacher John Holdway agrees that you can’t set out on a hike with children hoping to reach some lofty goal. “I want to make it a pleasant experience,” he says about hiking with his 8-year old son, Henry. “I don’t want to torture him.” They often pack up hard-bound sketchbooks and watercolors and head for the top of Mount Pisgah or Spencer Butte to paint. On the way, Henry tells stories about trolls. He’s been hiking his whole life, beginning — as many Lane County kids do — at Dorris Ranch in Springfield. The ranch offers a flat public walk by the Willamette River, easily navigable with a stroller. Before his son grew gung-ho about hiking in the rain, Holdway used to dress him in a rain suit and boots so he could splash in the puddles. “If I wanted to go for a hike, and Henry didn’t,” he recalls, “I might read a Grimm’s fairy tale called ‘Iron John,’ and then we’d go to the river to look for the character.” Holdway acknowledges the attraction of water … especially on a hot day. For years, he and Henry have headed in the summer to Hendricks’ Bridge off Hwy 126, where they swim in the river and paint. “He likes to bring his sketchbook and make notes,” Holdway says. “It just feels magical.”

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ooking sharp in white and navy striped shorts and a bright orange polo style onesie, our baby was ready for his first flight. We expected to be in Maui by the evening after a short layover in San Francisco. My brother would be waiting at the airport in Hawaii with an infant car seat. We were ready for a week’s worth of family time and tropical adventure. United Airlines had other plans for us. We spent the day 15 minutes from our house trapped at the Eugene Airport in an eight-hour delay. This might sound horrible, but as it turns out, our baby is better at life than many grown-ups. Initially they reported the delay as 30 minutes, but that was the first of many stalls in the form of sweet-talking intercom updates.

No one took enough pity, however, to offer up their place in line. It took us an hour to get a hotel voucher. Quinn slept on his dad through the line. The Holiday Inn’s king-sized bed couldn’t come fast enough, but first we had to travel sans car seat in a cab. We just never factored leaving SFO by car

The broken fan was beyond the ability of the local mechanic, so another mechanic flew in from San Francisco. Once he arrived, he fixed the issue in 10 minutes, and after 45 minutes of “paperwork,” four of the original passengers of the full flight, including us, actually made it onto the plane. By then Quinn had taken several cat naps, chewed on the laptop cords of his parents and strangers alike, gone through security twice - and acquired a red rash all over his little body, presumably from carpet chemicals. Sometimes you have to choose chemicals over a squirmy baby who could turn on you at any moment.

We got to SFO at midnight to find agents

helping thwarted fliers at a pace slower than a baby’s first poops after starting on solids. More than once I saw an adult’s woe-is-me countenance turn to one of deep pity for us when they saw Quinn. “I might not be getting to Copenhagen today,” one of these worldly yet disappointed individuals might think, “but at least I don’t have a baby.”

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She sat down and woke the baby with her purse. “Is the baby going to stay with you?” she asked with a southern accent as he started to cry. “Yes,” I said. The baby will be staying with the food source, I thought.

The flight attendant found a volunteer who

would move, and we worked our way back 10 rows to our new seats, Quinn with his face bright red and crying the whole time.  I felt like a prisoner on a public trash crew and tried not to look at any of the other passengers. I wanted to assure them the baby had done great on other flights and would not be crying the whole time. How would you feel if a giant purse descended from the heavens, knocked you on the head and jarred you from your first nap of the day?

Two other flights to San Francisco boarded and left. Our plane had mechanical difficulties, but there was no mechanic to be found. Eventually we boarded, and then they kicked us back off because of a broken bathroom fan. At the gate, Quinn enjoyed looking out the large windows, drinking breast milk, snacking on cheese and crawling around on what to him must have seemed to be the biggest living room in all the land.

highlights and wore lots of jewelry and a large purse.

Flying, with Baby with

Serena Markstrom Nugent into our plan. That was the worst part of the ordeal. The Holiday Inn front desk worker, also an expert in baby nutrition, gave 9-month-old Quinn a bag of Lays BBQ potato chips, and we headed to our room with five hours to sleep before returning to the airport. That flight went smoothly. Quinn charmed everyone around him with his lack of crying and smiling eye contact with every stranger. We finally got to Maui to visit family, including my effervescent 2-year-old niece. We had a nice time. On the way home, our intrepid hero United assigned us seats five rows apart. The couple in my husband’s row didn’t want to be split up, nor did the couple by me, who arrived last. They looked like so many Maui vacationers. The woman had short dyed brown hair with blond

I kept my eyes on my husband, Shaun, and after what felt like an eternity in shame, we got to our seats. After some nursing, the baby was at least smiling again and reeling in nearby passengers. He was in good spirits until he started donkey kicking Shaun in the leg and writhing madly while feasting on my nipple like a pig at a trough. I imagined Highlights Lady in Shaun’s seat and sort of wished she was there to accept each highpowered baby foot blast. But the flight would have been wretched without my husband next to me to scratch my elbow when I was using my extremities or keep my apple juice upright on the tray table. For an hour, Quinn slept on his dad’s chest. When he stirred, I nursed him until he fell back asleep. I used his stuffed owl as a pillow and draped my legs over Shaun, wedging myself into the corner between the seat and the arm rest.

Before I was a mother, I could never sleep on a

plane. This position might have hurt my bony back, and I would have been too aware of the passenger next to me to relax. But I was oddly comfortable. Quinn slept for two more hours, and I got in a good nap, too. In my tiny makeshift nest, cozy with my family in what should have been an unpleasant situation, I finally understood why I hadn’t dropped the back fat I gained while pregnant. n

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45 ways to celeb You’re already pretty recycling-oriented and a bunch of you love to use transit, car-sharing services, bikes and other low-carbon alternatives to cars. Many people garden, buy vegetables through a local farm, eat many vegetarian meals and buy local. And in Eugene, shoppers have had a year of not getting plastic bags at the grocery stores and pay a nickel for each paper bag. Here are some other tips to make the 45th anniversary of Earth Day one that everyone – kid and older adult, people who walk and roll and…

Start where you are, and do what you can. It’s the only way to go! No need to get overwhelmed. Direct your energy toward taking care of yourself, your neighbors, local community spaces, the town or city you live in, your region – none of us can do everything, but together, one step at a time, we can accomplish a lot. Take time to look

at the planet. People old enough to remember the first image of the Earth from orbit know that the ability to see the entire planet made a lot of folks eager to figure out ways to work together and take care of the big blue marble – visibleearth.nasa. gov is one great place to start!

b Go macro for the county. Who grows food here? What’s our watershed? What kind of power runs our electricity, our heat, our cooking fuel? b It’s fun to learn more about the water

we drink! The EPA has a super site that shows your ’shed: cfpub.epa.gov/surf/ locate/index.cfm

b Sign up for Paddle Oregon, a four-day float up the Willamette that runs August 21-25 this year. Registration should be up in mid-April at www.paddleoregon.org. b If Paddle Oregon seems intimidating, check out local classes in canoeing, kayaking, paddleboarding, swimming and more. The City of Eugene Recreation Department (www.eugene-or.gov/recguide) and Willamalane Parks & Rec (willamalane.org/) have a number of classes, camps and trips for kids, for adults and for seniors, and adaptive recreation as well. The City of Florence offers some classes as well; call (843) 665-3253 for more info. b Do you always pack your grocery bags but leave them in the car? Move them closer to the front seat, or set an alarm on your phone to remind you to take them in. In Eugene, you’ll save money as well as helping the planet. b When you’re buying food for the week,

consider adding more local food - fruits, vegetables, grains and beans, seafood from local boats, meat from local farmers. Many stores label local food with something extra, and if you live near one of our many farmers’ markets, you’ll also know where the food comes from.

Speaking of

drinking water, drink tap water, carry your own water bottle and, if you love carbonated water, snag a system that will help you carbonate the water from your tap.

b Consider joining Willamette Riverkeepers (willamette-riverkeeper.org) and/or our wonderful local McKenzie River Trust (mckenzieriver.org).

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If you want to level up even more, learn to can and preserve your food. That way, you can buy local, in bulk, in season, and have the taste of that vibrant food all year long. Check out the Master Food Preserver classes at the OSU Extension extension.oregonstate.edu/ lane/food_safety for more details and tips.

b Get to Know Your Farmer at your local farmers’ markets and at the Willamette Farm and Food Coalition’s annual meetup (see p. 37). Check out www.lanefood.org for more about local farmers.

b Don’t use any pesticides, insecticides or herbicides that will harm pollinators like bees. Eugene banned the city’s use of products containing neonicotinoids – which have been implicated in the deaths of thousands of honeybees – in 2014, but you can also work with your neighbors and in your own green areas not to use them. b Speaking of that, consider setting up a beehive or getting a mason bee house for your yard, as long as you’re not allergic to them. Plant flowers near your vegetables to attract pollinators.

Don’t kill

b Consider joining a CSA. That’s a Com-

munity Supported Agriculture box, where you invest early in the season in local farmers’ plans for seeds and labor, and reap the harvest once the farms start producing. You can get fruit, dairy, meat, dried beans, grains, vegetables, herbs and more, either at a local pickup spot or delivered right to your door every week.

b If you’re lucky, sometimes your farmers will let you volunteer to help out on the farm, or at least take a tour.

pollinators when you’re outside. Wasps, honey bees, mason bees (they’re tiny!), flies and many other insects help keep flowers happy and blooming for days – and they’re the things that make your pretty fruit trees, vegetable blossoms and berry flowers turn to edible food.

b Do an inventory of what and when you waste food, and consider adjusting your shopping list so that you aren’t tempted to buy more than you’ll eat.

Grow some of

b If you’re not a vegetarian, try out

something like Meatless Monday. You can use Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter and other sources to find recipes that fit your budget, your time and your family’s food interests. A search for #meatlessmonday almost always finds something new to try, or old reliable recipes with a meatless tweak.

b Snag a local cookbook like Elin Englund’s Eating Close to Home and Beans, Grains, Nuts & Seeds or the Extension Service’s Master Gardener Cookbook.

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your own food at a community garden (Eugene: www.eugene-or. gov/communitygardens and Florence: www.facebook.com/ FFHcommunitygardens), on your balcony, in a kitchen window, on a stoop, in your yard. If you’re overwhelmed about where to begin, the OSU Extension Service has a ton of great hints and sales: extension. oregonstate.edu/lane/

b Make food in quantity when you’re not busy, and freeze some for when you are. b If you have space, consider setting up a compost system for your yard or a shared yard.

brate Earth day Compiled by

Lane Monthly Staff b If you have space, money and time, and your family eats eggs, think about getting some of your own chickens or ducks for your yard. Eugene Backyard Farmer (eugenebackyardfarmer.com) can help you get started! b Check out energytrust.org/esaverkits

to help you learn specific ways to save energy in your apartment or home.

Make a commit-

ment not to raise the heat above 68 or lower the air conditioning (if you have it) below 78. Use sweaters and blankets in the winter and fans in the summer to help maintain a comfortable body temperature.

wAs your

b Take a pledge not to overwater your lawn or garden in the summer. b Advanced water-saving: Think about

installing, or asking your landlord to install, rain barrels or even a graywater system (you can get to great info on all of this from www.eugene-or.gov/index. aspx?NID=877)

If you don’t have

one and it’s safe for you to use one, get a bike. You can take a bike safety and maintenance class if you’d like to make sure you know what you’re doing and how to solve basic problems without spending too much money. Be sure to buy a good lock with the bike! (Note: Our editor rides a threewheeler – a trike. Adult trikes are great for people who don’t have a good sense of balance!)

incandescent light bulbs go out, replace them with energy-efficient LEDs or compact fluorescents. For more on the energy savings with LEDs and other efficient bulbs, check out energy.gov/energysaver/articles/ lighting-choices-save-you-money.

b If you can live close to where you work or go to school, you’re very lucky! That means it won’t be too hard for you to consider walking, biking, taking public transit or using carpools or car-sharing programs to get where you need to go.

b Save water by picking a short song – four minutes should be enough; sorry, teenagers – and singing it while you shower. Be sure to rinse that hair when you’re on the final chorus!

b If you own a car and need to use it, make sure the car’s tires are properly inflated. That can make the car up to 3.3 percent more fuel-efficient, according to fueleconomy.gov.

b Another great water-saving tip that you’re probably already using is to turn off the tap while you’re brushing your teeth or washing your face. If it’s warm enough, you can do the same thing while you’re soaping up in the shower.

b Slow down a little. It’s tough, especially if you need to drive on the highway, but leaving earlier and driving a sane speed on the highway will also help with fuel economy (just be sure to drive that sane speed in the right lane and not hang out in the left lane).

b Get to know the public transit in our area. For instance, did you know you could take the 91 McKenzie Bridge bus from Eugene and Springfield all the way up to Walterville, Finn Rock and the McKenzie River Ranger Station – or vice versa? But the Lane Transit District buses in Eugene and Springfield are pretty great for daily use too (www.ltd.org) – especially if you can combine riding the bus with your bike ride. Within Florence, you can ride the Rhody Express (www.ci.florence.or.us/ boardsandcommissions/new-rhodyexpress-route) b Head out for a hike! We are partial to Bill Sullivan’s amazing lists of places to hike in Oregon (www.oregonhiking.com), but also see this issue for Melissa Hart’s best places to hike with kids and Joanna Bartlett’s report out on hiking with the Obsidians. Remember: Take

only pictures; leave only footprints means that yes, it’s OK to have your photography equipment with you. Perhaps the kids can bring their phones or iPods and take part in contests about getting the best picture of a view, a tree, light, shadow, color or other ways to keep plugged-in kids interested in and learning about the outside.

b Want to help out in the parks? You can remove invasive plants from Mount Pisgah with the Friends of Buford Park any Monday (www.bufordpark.org/volunteers/), become a Eugene Park Steward (www.eugene-or.gov/index.aspx?NID=495)

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b Want to help out with recycling? You can become a Master Recycler for Lane County (extension.oregonstate.edu/mg/ local-osu-master-gardener-programs) Whether you live

on the Oregon Coast or you’re visiting it, learn more about tidepools. According to the state of Oregon, our tidepools have more diversity than a tropical rainforest! (www.oregon.gov/oprd/ natres/pages/rs_faqtidepools.aspx)

b You don’t have to go all “I only own 100 things!” to consider simplifying your life. Consider the WWII motto: Use it up, wear it out, make it do – or do without. b Or, more simply, consider the motto of Reduce, Reuse, Recycle - and make sure the first two come well before the final piece. Have fun with

your family or your friends, your community, and your county. We live in a beautiful county blessed with all sort of natural abundance and public land. Here’s to Lane County!

Illustrations by Rigel Ross

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by joanna bartlett

Springing Back into Gardening

very year in springtime when my little fruit trees bloom, I vow this will be the year they are fruitful. We planted them—one pear, one apple, one plum—five years ago. Only the apple tree has even remotely listened to me. The first year it produced, which was a couple of years into its life in our front yard, it gave us five apples. Either deer or wandering fruit snatchers got them before we did. The next year, after much fervent hoping and a long pep talk, I had to prop up its spindly branches so they didn’t snap under the weight of its fruit. The kids set up a lemonade and fruit stand on the last day of summer vacation, and they sold my beloved and long-awaited apples for 50 cents each. I had high hopes for last year. Surely this was the beginning of a bountiful relationship with my fruit trees. Maybe the plum and pear would finally put out as well. But no. We got a few apples, but not nearly enough to bring to life my fantasy of making homemade hard cider from our homegrown fruit. The plum set two fruit and the pear just stood there looking sullen and scabby. Last year wasn’t a good gardening year for me. I made some mistakes with my garden, most of which stemmed from ruining my soil with unseasoned compost and wood shavings, promptly leaching out all the nitrogen. My plants weren’t happy, so neither was I. This year will be my gardening comeback. Maybe it can be yours, too. That’s the beauty of springtime—a new season, a new year, another chance for gardening greatness. So what should we do, we who have spent the winter hiding out in our cozy, dry homes? Is it too late to play catch-up from the fall and get everything ready for a stellar growing season?

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Since I’ve clearly forgotten everything I used to know about gardening, I consulted with the experts: the OSU Extension Service, the good folks at Down to Earth, and Fall Creek Nursery. Here’s what it’s now too late to do: spray fruit trees with copper sulfate to prevent scab, prune my blueberry bushes and fruit trees, and put compost and leaves on my raised beds to decompose over the winter. It’s April; those buds have already sprouted. However, it’s not too late for many ways to get the garden in shape for spring. Now is a great time to fertilize everything—raised beds, fruit trees, raspberry canes, blueberry bushes, the works. Blueberries like an acid-based fertilizer, Kylie Keppler from Fall Creek Nursery told me. Throughout the summer I should add some used coffee grounds to the soil as well. And in the fall, prune them like crazy. It’s also the ideal time and weather to pull weeds, while the soil is soft from rain. I plucked the weeds from my raised beds and found all sort of vegetables that had been harboring over the winter: Swiss chard, sweet little carrots, garlic that escaped last summer’s harvest and a shock of zesty chives. Perhaps best of all, it’s time to start planting cool weather crops. There are tons of vegetables that like the cooler weather, as Nancy Hayner and Ann Rollins, both master gardeners with the OSU Extension Service, reminded me. Kale, broccoli, lettuce, peas, spinach, Japanese greens, carrots, potatoes, parsnips and beets were among their suggestions. The sun-loving crops—tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, beans and squash—will have to wait until after the last frost date, which can vary anywhere from April 10 to May 25 in Lane County. So I’ll come out from winter hibernation, roll up my sleeves, sprinkle some fertilizer and plant seeds in the ground. I love this time of new beginnings, full of promise and hope for the upcoming growing season. This year, with mild weather and good care, my fruit trees may yet be splendid, offering bounteous loads of sweetness in the fall. I’ll give them a pep talk along with the fertilizer, just in case.

Need gardening help? If you’re looking for expert help with your garden, the master gardeners at Lane County’s OSU Extension service are happy to take your call. They’re available Monday-Thursday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 2 to 5 p.m. at 541-344-0265, or you can email your questions to lanemg@oregonstate.edu.

f you love organic fruits and vegetables

and would like to get to know the local people who grow them – or if you’d like to be one of those people, if you’re a local teen – this is the best time of year to figure out how to take part in community supported agriculture boxes, or CSAs. The Community Supported Agriculture program allows for potential consumers to invest in a local farm for an entire season. The consumer pays the farm up front before the season begins to assist in the farming costs; they then have the opportunity to pick up a box of produce a week for their household in return. Lane County has a wide variety of CSAs to choose from. If you’re confused about how to figure that out, or you’d like to meet the farmers, the “That’s My Farmer” program is a yearly event at Eugene’s First United Methodist Church . It gives people the opportunity to interact first hand with CSA farmers from around 28 different programs that fit the needs of their household.

By Ayasha Thurman

photos by jen anonia

Growing Local “The whole idea behind the CSA movement

is to get people to invest in their local farms,” says Lynne Fessenden, one of the organizers and the executive director of Willamette Food and Farm Coalition. “This event is an opportunity to meet the farms that offer CSA programs and find out more about them.”

Lane County farmers and Lane County kids give us their best no one will be turned away for lack of funds – and the funds go to supply people earning low incomes with CSA boxes of their own. Organic, local food isn’t just for the wealthy! Door prizes and season snacks help make the evening that much more fun. More info: www.lanefood.org/thats-my-farmer.php

Though you definitely don’t need to be religious to attend That’s My Farmer at 6 p.m. Tuesday, April 14 at the church (1376 Olive Street, Eugene), the organizers are this year honoring the ministry of Reverend John Pitney, who founded That’s My Farmer 16 years ago. The event is $10-$15 at the door, though

One of the farms often at the event is FOOD for Lane County’s amazing Youth Farm. The farm is getting off the ground for this year under the direction of the experienced and capable Jen Anonia. Investing in this CSA – which includes berries, root vegetables, greens, tomatoes and a lot more, all from 35 crops grown by the youth – gives support to teens of Lane County learning more about sustainable, organic methods and farm management. Members can choose from regular season ($350$500, feeds 3-4 people) or late fall harvest ($125 flat rate) options and get a 10 percent discount on

the Youth Farm’s Saturday produce stand. More info, including the brochure and a link to pay electronically, at www.foodforlanecounty.org/en/ programs_services/gardens/csa/. Email gardens@ foodforlanecounty.org, text YFarmCSA to 41444 or call Jen Anonia at 541-343-2822.

The Northwest Youth Corps Garden also connects youth directly to farms through hands on experience in educational farming and gardening. The two-acre local farm known as Laurel Valley Educational Farm gives fresh produce back to local youth through programs such as NYC Youth Crews and NYC’s OutDoor High School Culinary Arts program. The CSA runs for 18 weeks, from early June to mid-October, and costs $200 for a half-share or $350 for a full share, with an option of a five-week extended season for a total of $440. Find out more and sign up at www.nwyouthcorps. org/OurPrograms/LVEFarmGarden.aspx, or call 541-349-5055 or email info@nwyouthcorps.org.

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April Gardening Events Calendar Annual Bee Weekend Friday, April 10th: 9:30am-5:30pm Saturday, April 11th: 9am-4pm 29548 B Airport Rd, Eugene

Gardening Tips for April If your garden soil is too heavy and too wet to till, get a planting mix and place it 3 or 4 inches deep to plant early season vegetables. Work this in after harvest and be ready for warm season crops. Compost or top-dress perennial vegetable crops such as artichokes. Expect Black Spot on roses as the temperature warms up. To avoid the problem, be sure to rake away any infected leaves that have dropped so they don’t re-infect the plant. You can also be sure to water at the base of the plant so as to avoid spreading Black Spot to new leaves. In the garden, this will be a busy month to plant, among others, carrots, cabbage, lettuce, onion sets, peas, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, radish, and spinach. Many are available as starts in garden centers if you want to save the time necessary to start your own from seed. Last average frost date is mid-month. Prune and fertilize shrubs after bloom, then mulch if needed. Remove spent bloom stalks from daffodils and other Spring bulbs. Leave the foliage until it starts to turn yellow. Tops are left to produce food for the bulbs.

Important month for lawn feeding (if not done already in March). Plan to do this twice in the Spring and once in the Fall. Strong formulas require watering in; organic or slow release types generally do not. April is a good month for new lawn construction whether from seed or with sod. Wet, cool weather promotes leaf disease in dogwood trees, apples, cherries, and roses. Early detection and early treatment with fungicides may be necessary. Local garden centers and nurseries are well-stocked with lots of exciting trees, shrubs, ground cover, summer blooming bulbs, perennial and annual flowers. Look for bare root bargains and summer blooming bulbs in packages at discount prices in early April. This is a prime month to add excitement to your landscape! courtesy of Lane Forest Products

On Friday April 10th and Saturday April 11th, GloryBee will host its Annual Bee Weekend! This two-day community event is packed with beekeeping education, distribution of pre-ordered packages of live bees, live demonstrations, honey sampling, onsite food vendors and additional activities. You don’t have to be a beekeeper to participate! Bee Weekend has become a popular community event, featuring honey tasting, activities for kids and much more. Additionally, our Factory Store will be open so you can purchase supplies, beerelated gifts and toys, and a variety of tasty treats. Come see the bees up-close and learn more about these tiny and amazing pollinators!

6th Annual - That’s My Farmer! Tuesday, April 14th, 2015, 6pm to 8pm First United Methodist Church 1376 Olive Street (Eugene)

Delicious seasonal snacks provided by Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Farmers, Fishers and Faith Community members! Patty Hine will present: Regenerative Organic Agriculture & Climate Change $10-15 donation at the door (no one turned away) All donations go directly to the LOW INCOME FUND, subsidizing food share for those who can least afford them. For more information, call 541-607-0106

FREE Compost Demo - BRING Recycling Saturday, April 25, 10am -12pm 4446 Franklin Blvd. Eugene

For beginning to experienced composters, these hands-on workshops will cover the basics of how composting works, which materials to use, and the different methods and types of compost bins available. Workshops are led by knowledgeable backyard composting information specialists. Preregistration is not required. Contact: Linda Renslow 541 344 5859 linda. renslow at oregonstate.edu

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green of the crop Seniors and Mary Jane

With the upcoming legalization of recreational marijuana use, many seniors who had opposed its consumption on legal grounds, now have the right and opportunity to try out “Mary Jane” for the first time. A local organization called Happy Oregon Hippies has compiled a list of 10 things to consider as you educate yourself about this new option, we are happy to share it here with you. 1. Marijuana is SAFER than many commonly prescribed medications Most seniors take prescription drugs on a daily basis. The “side effects” of marijuana are insignificant in comparison to the side effects of many prescription drugs, and not a single person has ever died from a marijuana overdose. An ongoing 30-year study found that a person weighing 140 pounds would have to consume over 4 pounds of marijuana in one sitting to reach toxic levels, and that still would not be a fatal dosage. The powerful anti-oxidant effects of marijuana can provide relief for many disorders including liver inflammation from Hepatitis C, lupus, irritable bowel syndrome, and many other serious medical conditions that all involve inflammation and oxidative damage. 2. Marijuana is not physically addictive Many seniors fear that if they start using marijuana they will become addicted. People can use marijuana daily and then stop “cold turkey”. Discontinuing the use of marijuana has much the same response as quitting the consumption of coffee. Many people who seek welcome and effective respite from chronic pain, anxiety, and stress use marijuana as a daily medicine. 3. Marijuana can reduce and possibly replace many prescription medications A major complaint of seniors regarding their daily medications is that the first pill often causes side effects that the second one is supposed to “fix.” ”Marijuana’s healing properties target various conditions such as inflamed joints, high blood pressure, chronic pain, digestive disorders, constipation, headaches, insomnia, anxiety, cognitive awareness, and more Marijuana has the potential for accentuating the effect of many commonly prescribed drugs (blog.norml.org).” For example, opiate based painkillers are typically enhanced when marijuana is used concurrently, often resulting in a reduction of pharmaceutical medicines 4. There are many different types, or “strains” of marijuana Growing this plant is not terribly different from gardeners attempting to create the perfect rose or tomato plant. Each plant has it’s own personality and effects. There are strains that are very helpful for chronic pain relief and strains Some strains can make one feel very focused and energized, while others can be relaxing and help with a good nights sleep. 5. There are ways to use marijuana other than smoking it One common misconception among aging adults is that they have to smoke marijuana to gain the medicinal benefits. liquid extracts, infused honey candies, baked goods, and other products to choose from. It can be added to just about any regular recipe in the form of marijuana infused butters or oils. 6. There are marijuana strains without “the high” “If I could get the medical benefit from the plant without the high, I’d consider it.” said many of the seniors we’ve spoken to. Harvest cultivators have developed and are currently producing potent CBD genetic strains that have minimal psychoactive effect. CBD, or cannabidiol, is tremendous for inflammation, eases pain, stimulates bone growth, suppresses muscular spasms, reduces anxiety, and increases mental focus. 7. Marijuana does not lower your IQ or cause brain damage Another common misconception aging adults have with marijuana is that can lower intelligence or cause brain damage . There is no documentation that shows that marijuana reduces or “kills brain cells.” Studies with Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s patients indicate that marijuana gradually encourages new neural pathways, allowing those with impaired brain function to potentially halt further degeneration and even encourage brain function. 8. Marijuana can help increase your appetite Health risks among senior citizens is the loss of appetite, leading to weight loss. Marijuana is/has been extremely successful in alleviating nausea and as an appetite stimulant. That being said, A new study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology finds an intriguing connection between marijuana use and body weight, showing that rates of obesity are lower by roughly a third in people who smoke marijuana at least three times a week, compared with those who don’t use marijuana at all. 9. Marijuana-infused ointments can be very effective in alleviating arthritis and neuropathy pain Locally made, medicated creams are very popular for sore joints and muscles and back pain. They are very effective, smell nice and give a you no “high” so you can feel comfortable using the products throughout the day. 10. The stigma around medical marijuana use is fading Seniors are the fastest growing population of new medical marijuana users. There is no other reason for this other than it is working work for them. If you are in discomfort or chronic pain and would like other options, this may be for you. For additional info checkout, happyoregonhippies.com 40

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On the evening of July 16, 1962, John F. Kennedy and Mary Pinchot Meyer smoked marijuana together. “Suppose the Russians did something now...” - John F. Kennedy

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“I wouldn’t answer the marijuana questions. You know why? Because I don’t want some little kid doing what I tried.” - George W. Bush

“The War on Drugs has been an utter failure. We need to re-think and decriminalize our marijuana laws. When I was a kid, I inhaled, frequently.” - Barack Obama

Thomas Jefferson “Veranda” debunk: http://rad-r.us/TJveranda - Abraham Lincoln “Hohner Harmonica” debunk: http://rad-r.us/ALhohner - Abraham Lincoln “Prohibition” debunk: http://rad-r.us/ALprohib - More documentation of Presidents on Pot: http://rad-r.us/potuspot

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Listen Live in April GRATEFUL DEAD REDUX BAND

DARK STAR ORCHESTRA,

ON THE ROAD FOR DECADES TO RECREATE THE PSYCHEDELIC JAM CONCERT VIBE IN THE MCDONALD THEATRE Dark Star Orchestra will continue the Grateful Dead concert experience with a two-set psychedelic jam redux on Saturday, April 4, 2015 in the McDonald Theatre. With Grateful Dead Chicago tickets selling online for fifteen thousand dollars per ticket, this concert offers an affordable opportunity to dance to classic Dead tunes performed live by a veteran touring band. Performing to critical acclaim worldwide for nearly fifteen years and more than 2000 shows, Dark Star Orchestra continues the Grateful Dead concert experience. Their shows are built off the Dead’s extensive catalog and the talent of these seven fine musicians. On any given night the band will perform a show based on a set list from the Grateful Dead’s 30 years of extensive touring or use their catalog to program a unique set list for the show, which allows fans both young and old to share in the experience. By recreating set lists from the past, and by developing their own sets of Dead songs, Dark Star Orchestra offers a continually evolving artistic outlet within this musical canon. Honoring both the band and the fans, Dark Star Orchestra’s members seek out the unique style and sound of each era while simultaneously offering their own informed improvisations. Dark Star Orchestra offers much more than the sound of the Grateful Dead, they truly encapsulate the energy and the experience. It’s about a sense of familiarity. It’s about a feeling that grabs listeners and takes over. It’s about that contagious energy…in short, it’s about the complete experience and consistent quality show that the fan receives when attending a Dark Star Orchestra show. “For us it’s a chance to recreate some of the magic that was created for us over the years,” rhythm guitarist and vocalist Rob Eaton explains. “We offer a sort of a historical perspective at what it might have been like to go to a show in 1985, 1978 or whenever. Even for Deadheads who can say they’ve been to a hundred shows in the 90s, we offer something they never got to see live.” All ages advance tickets are general admission and available now for $25 at all Safeway TicketsWest outlets, and online at TicketsWest. Tickets day of show will cost $30. The McDonald Theatre Box Office will open at 5:30 p.m. Doors will open at 7 p.m. The concert will begin at 8 p.m.

LILLA, KNOWN FOR SULTRY, SENSUAL NEO-SOUL

FUSED WITH RHYTHM AND BLUES WILL PERFORM THREE LONG POTENT SETS AT MAC’S RESTAURANT AND NIGHCLUB Lilla, formerly performing as Lilla D’Mone, will bring her sultry voice and original style to Mac’s Restaurant and Nightclub on Saturday, April 18, 2015 for a night of neo-soul, jazz, hip-hop and rhythm and blues fusion. Lilla will perform songs from her new release entitled ‘The Awakening.’ It’s an exciting time for Lilla. One week after graduating from Berklee College of Music, she released her second self-produced album, entitled ‘The Awakening.’ During the summer of 2014, Lilla toured throughout the country, appeared on festival main stages on both coasts, and performed as the featured opener for Mos Def on his tour. Lilla has played venues from Kingston, Jamaica to Beijing, China, working with an impressive array of artists, including Ciara, Damian & Stephen Marley, Talib Kweli, Trombone Shorty, Esperanza Spalding, the Wu-Tang Clan, Michael Franti & Spearhead, Annie Lennox, Willie Nelson, Carole King, Kenny G and Boyz II Men. Backed by her hard-hitting band and armed with a collection of soulful original tunes, few modern performers bring the class, message and talent that Lilla brings to the stage. Lilla’s recent album was recorded all over the map, from Bob Marley’s studio Tuff Gong in Jamaica, to Lilla’s hometown of Portland, Oregon. The Awakening is a celebration of the power of music and its ability to connect musicians, cultures and people from around the globe. The concert will cost $7 at the door. The concert will begin at 8 p.m. and will feature three long sets.

SOJA,

GRAMMY-NOMINATED NEW-REGGAE BAND KNOWN FOR DUB-ROCK TO PERFORM FUSION OF WORLD AND ROCK IN THE MCDONALD THEATRE Reggae fusion band SOJA (aka Soldiers of JAH Army) will perform in the McDonald Theatre on Saturday, April 11, 2015. “I want to speak for people who don’t have microphones,” Jacob Hemphill says. “Our goal as a band is to stick up for the human race. We see the world and we try to make it better in the limited time we have here.” This simple statement is the philosophy behind SOJA’s music that has driven the band, as they blend reggae, go-go, D.C. hardcore, Latin, rock and hip-hop into their own unique fusion.

Originally formed by a group of friends while still in middle school, SOJA has built a massive, dedicated fan base around the world. In the years following, SOJA has sold more than 200,000 albums, headlined shows in over 20 countries around the world, generated nearly 4 million Facebook fans, and over 90 million YouTube views. For SOJA, whose live show is an explosion of energy and positivity, music is a means of helping people relate in a more affirmative way. It also asks people to look inside themselves and really ask what it is they want to do with their life and how they can be happy. SOJA’s music is about finding that happiness and peace we all deserve and helping others do the same, something Amid the Noise and Haste aptly conveys in its songs. “I put words in my songs that I believe to be true,” Jacob says. “The point of the album is reconnecting people to the power inside themselves, getting them to fall back in love with life again. Look around, take a deep breath. All the answers are there.” SOJA is Jacob Hemphill (lead vocals, guitar); Bobby Lee (bass, vocals); Ryan Berty (drums); Kenny Bongos (percussion); Patrick O’Shea (keyboards); Hellman Escorcia (saxophone); Rafael Rodriguez (trumpet); and Trevor Young (lead guitar). All ages advance tickets are general admission and available now for $25 at all Safeway TicketsWest outlets, and online at TicketsWest. Tickets day of show will cost $30. The McDonald Theatre Box Office will open at 5:30 p.m. Doors will open at 7 p.m. The concert will begin at 8 p.m.

BOOMBOX,

FUNKY ELECTRONIC DUO FEATURING ZION GODCHAUX, RUSS RANDOLPH TO PLAY BLEND OF PSYCHEDELIC ROCK, ELECTRONICA IN THE MCDONALD THEATRE The funky, psychedelic electronic duo BoomBox will perform in the McDonald Theatre on Monday, April 20, 2015. BoomBox, the electronic duo compromised of versatile producers, DJs, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalists Russ Randolph and Zion Rock Godchaux, recently released their first new studio album in four years, Filling In The Color, following 2010’s downriverelectric and 2006’s debut record Visions of Backbeat. The band is known for not using set lists, instead improvising and changing their set’s direction based on the crowd’s energy. Godchaux calls the new record “further evolved” from the bands’ signature sound, an electronic blend of soulful Rock and Blues based dance music incorporating Backbeat, Psychedelia and Funky House sounds. A handful of tracks on the new album, including “Waiting Around” and “Dream“, incorporate live guitar riffs that were pulled from soundboard multi-tracks as the band experimented with the new tracks on the road. “We want the listener to be able to play the record front to back, not just a few tracks,” Godchaux said. “To enjoy the album as a whole. Day or night, happy or sad, from the speaker on their phone to the thumping sound system. We are song makers. That’s what we do. And this record should be confirmation that we are doing what we are supposed to be doing with our lives.” All ages advance tickets are general admission and available now for $15 at all Safeway TicketsWest outlets, and online at TicketsWest. Tickets day of show will cost $20. The McDonald Theatre Box Office will open at 5:30 p.m. Doors will open at 7:30 p.m. The concert will begin at 8:30 p.m. l a n e

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by Suzi Steffen

Who’s at the Ballet Eugene Ballet Company takes on ’70s rock opera into Tommy: the Ballet

itting in a chair in the low-ceilinged rehearsal studio at the Eugene Ballet Company, company dancer Antonio Anacan stares blankly into space.

Company dancer Danielle Tolmie, in rehearsal leotard and tights, approaches him. She touches him and flirts with him as The Who’s “Acid Queen” plays. He doesn’t respond. She pulls him up and dances around him, her movements becoming more erotic. Meanwhile, he keeps his blank stare but starts shaking. Suddenly, the music stops, and the dancers do too. “I think you need to make his shaking more visible,” says Toni Pimble, artistic director of the Eugene Ballet Company and choreographer for the company’s new piece, Tommy: The Ballet. His blank look turns to a question, “Shake harder?” She tells him that because he’ll have a white costume under the strong lights in Silva Hall, the audience will probably be able to see better what he’s doing, but that it should still be stronger. They run the scene again. Tommy has been many things – a double album, a rock opera, a musical, a movie, a pinball machine – but before now, Pimble hasn’t choreographed it into a ballet. The Eugene Ballet Company is changing that at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 11, and 2 p.m. Sunday, April 12, at the Hult Center. When Riley Grannan, managing director of the Eugene Ballet Company, pitched Pimble the idea of making Tommy into a ballet, she wasn’t into it at all. The company usually does one big classical ballet in the fall – it will be Sleeping Beauty in 2015 – the traditional Nutcracker, something with the Eugene Concert Choir in February, and then something new for the final performance of the season. Pimble decided to listen to the remastered version of Tommy that The Who released in 2013. That changed

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everything. “I realized it had a lot of great music, a lot of high-energy music,” she says. As she began to choreograph the ballet, she decided it shouldn’t be a full-length piece. Dance, after all, doesn’t have words, so the details you’d see in the movie or in the Broadway musical (which Pimble watched on her iPad) can’t always come through. She stripped the part where Tommy gets sexually abused, and she stripped the Sally Simpson storyline. “You can’t really do subplots in ballet,” she says. “Instead, you have to simplify the story and at the same time crystallize the message.” This stripped-down piece still involves the origin story for Tommy, who sees his father shoot his mother’s lover when the Captain returns from WWII. He then basically gets trapped inside himself with only a pinball machine as an outlet. Eugene Ballet Academy student Ethan Ares, an 11-year-old who most recently played an urchin in the EBC’s production of Carmen, plays young, traumatized Tommy. The production company for the Eugene Ballet built several special pinball machines for the stage. (In rehearsal, the dancers used Bi-Mart grocery cars to get the approximate weight and size.) As she began the process of building choreography for the stripped-down story, Pimble began to wonder if it was possible. Had she taken on something that couldn’t be done? But she realized that she had strong actors in her company who could take on the narrative and push it through. “It’s a matter of helping my dancers find the character,” Pimble says after the mid-March rehearsal. “It’s giving them enough rehearsal where they can play about with it, give me feedback and let me give them feedback.” She also has some strong dancers. Principal dancer Jun Tanabe plays mirror Tommy, the Tommy who sees and hears and speaks and feels and, more to the point, dances. Even in rehearsal, Tanabe’s Tommy solos are

quietly splendid. The first half of the show sees the company performing another new piece, Fluctuating Hemlines by the Washington Ballet’s artistic director, Septime Webre. Pimble calls it a “technically challenging” piece that, like Tommy, uses contemporary music to become more accessible to audience members who perhaps are not interested in more classical ballets. A live band that includes singer Siri Vik will perform for Tommy, and Pimble and ballet mistress Jennifer Martin are busy designing the costumes and keeping the dancers uninjured during their full weeks of rehearsals. “Tommy: The Ballet won’t be just a dance,” Pimble says. “It will be a full experience.” For more information on the Eugene Ballet and Tommy: The Ballet, visit eugeneballet.org. Tommy: The Ballet tickets ($28-$53, discounts for youth and college students) are available at HultCenter.org or 541-6825000. Look for Blairally’s pinball machines in the Hult Lobby; and bring any gently used and no longer useful eyeglasses to donate through the Lions Club before the show.

The Eugene Ballet Company’s 2015-2016 Season: October 24-25…………… Sleeping Beauty December 18-20……………… The Nutcracker February 3-14……………… Carmina Burana April 9-10………………… The Great Gatsby

By Mary McCoy

Experience Les Miserables At Cottage Theatre, a large cast puts on the full show in April and May

id you miss Les Miserables in its Broadway tour, or has it just been a while since you seen it onstage? (Let us speak only quietly of the movie.) Lucky you! It’s playing right here in Lane County. Cottage Theatre’s production of the show, says director and production designer Alan Beck, has “the strongest overall cast that I’ve ever worked with.” He adds, “Musically, it is as close to professional level as community theater can employ.” Beck first saw Les Miz onstage in New York. “I started crying about halfway through the production,” he says. “It was emotional and beautiful.” To make the Cottage Theatre’s ambitious production work, Beck, musical director Larry Kenton and cast member Mark VanBeever (who’s playing the villainous but amusing Thenardier and helping lead some of the vocal rehearsals) put the cast of 33 through their paces three hours a night, five days a week. Pamela Lehan-Siegel, whom many will know from a variety of local dance schools and LCC as dance instructor, is the movement coordinator for the show. “This is not just a concert version. It is the complete show,” Beck says. The live orchestra that, at last count, had 16 instruments in the ensemble, will be part of an experiment, says Cottage Theatre’s executive director, Susan Goes. Because the set is so massive—“with barricades and the like,” she says—there’s no room for the musicians on stage. Instead, they’ll be backstage with a mic.

Goes says really helps for those using assisted listening devices. The body mics feed directly to those devices and help keep the music and lyrics much clearer. Perhaps you’ve somehow missed the juggernaut of a musical (and movie), so here’s a little bit of plot: It’s based on the 19th century novel by Victor Hugo. It is the story of Jean Valjean, who is released from prison after serving 19 years for stealing a loaf of bread. He breaks his parole and is relentlessly pursued by police inspector Javert, who refuses to believe that Valjean can be redeemed. The production stars Lenny Mitchell as Jean Valjean and Ward Fairbairn as Javert with Mandy Rose Nichols, Tracy Nygard, Kory Weimer, Mark Anderson, Melissa Miller, Rebekah Hope, Michael Scott, Eric Elligot, Owen Hovert, Oceana Taylor, and Maia Wilhour in featured roles. The show—which looks like it’s selling out some performances even at press time; get your tickets soon, and watch the Cottage Theatre’s website for more performance announcement—runs April 10-May 3. Goes says that those who think a show might be sold out should contact the box office to check for cancellations. Performances are 8 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings and 2 p.m. on Sunday afternoons. Tickets ($26; $22 youth ages 6-18) are available at cottagetheatre.org, at 541-942-8001 and in person 10 a.m.-2 p.m. W-F at the box office, 700 Village Drive, Cottage Grove.

The singers also use body mics, which l a n e

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Studio Verb hosts Painting Classes for Adults, Birthday Parties for Kids & Private Events

encircle film series Join Us for...

THE HOMESTRETCH - April 2nd & FIRE IN THE HEARTLAND - May 7th

Bijou Cinema 492 E 13th in Eugene

Bring a group e of friends, or milaek new ones wh you paint!

Join us as we screen Daring Documentaries from Independent Filmmakers Public discussion following each film

Meredith will be there for guidance and you will leave with your own completed 15x20 canvas

First Thursday’s September through May Bijou Art Cinema @ 6pm

No experience needed

Contact: vicki@encirclefilms.org, 541.543.0223 find us on facebook www. encirclefilms.org

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Composer in residence: Avner Dorman

The

Music of Times

Eugene Symphony’s composer-in-residence has big ideas about percussion | By Suzi Steffen

hink about a pop song from the 1950s. No matter which one you think of, it’s so old that it doesn’t even get played on oldies stations anymore.

If a symphony plays “classical” music from the 1950s, though, it feels almost shockingly new. So when the Eugene Symphony plays two pieces from the 21st century, Avner Dorman’s Astrolatry and Spices, Perfumes, Toxins!, it programs the second half of the concert with a familiar, massive piece – Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony, also known as the Pastorale. Dorman has been counterprogrammed against many long-dead composers. “At this point, I’m a little competitive,” he says. “We’ll see, Beethoven. We’ll see.” The 39-year-old, who was the youngest composer to win Israel’s Prime Minister’s Award when he was 25, heads to Eugene in early April for a week with the Eugene Symphony and the University of Oregon’s School of Music and Dance. He is quick to laugh at himself – for instance, he says, “I’m vegan, and I live in a small town in Pennsylvania. I cannot wait to come to Oregon!”

But he’s serious about what’s happened to music written for percussion in the last 80 years. “Look at the Bartok Concerto for Two Pianos and Percussion,” he says. The piece was first performed in 1940. “I’ve been studying the piano and practicing the piano for many years, and I can barely play the piano parts,” Dorman says. “But the percussion is so simple, I can play the percussion.”

fork, and they’ll be like, fine,” he says, whereas players of more established instruments don’t have that flexibility or those options. So composers have a wide field and, Dorman says, have a tendency to think, “Hey, let’s hit this with that! That sounds new!” The two pieces of his that the Eugene Symphony is performing at 8 p.m. Thursday, April 16, in the Hult Center find new ways to make the orchestra a large percussion instrument and to feature something that’s not always onstage in concert halls – the marimba. When Dorman wrote Spices, Perfumes, Toxins!, he says, he wanted the piece to capture the feeling of the time. It was the year 2000, and he was in his 20s in Israel. “I wanted it to have the flavor of the region and the energy of Israel,” he says. “You know, it’s really hot out, there’s a lot of stress, people have an outgoing and taking everything head-on mentality.” But the music’s not aggressive. “We’re not going to cry about it; we’re going to dance about it. We’re going to have a party to deal with the stress and the

In the 20th century, music started to explore both dissonance and, importantly for his purposes, time: “How can we divide time in more interesting ways?” If music is, as Dorman says, a way to express time, his interest in percussion also serves another purpose. Composers like new things, new sounds. Percussion instruments can be almost anything. “You can tell percussionists, bring pots and pans from home and hit them with the

Tuesday, April 14 Percussion Master Class with Steve Hearn and Galen Lemmon 4-5:30 p.m., The Studio, Hult Center for the Performing Arts. Percussion and Composition Master Class with Avner Dorman

6:30-9 p.m., Aasen-Hull Hall, University of Oregon Frohnmayer Music Building.

Wednesday, April 15 Deconstructing Astrolatry and Spices, Perfumes, Toxins! A moderated discussion with Composer Avner Dorman, 6-7:15 p.m., The Studio, Hult Center for the Performing Arts

Thursday, April 16 A Recital of Works by Avner Dorman and UO Composition Students 4:30-6 p.m., Beall Hall, University of Oregon Frohnmayer Music Building Guild Concert Preview 7-7:30 p.m., The Studio, Hult Center for the Performing Arts Eugene Symphony Performance: Beethoven’s Pastorale 8 p.m., Hult Center for the Performing ArtsTickets $17-$59; College and youth

discounts available at hultcenter.org, 541-682-5000 or at the box office an hour before the concert.

All events except the Symphony performance are free and open to the public.

Steve Hearn and Galen Lemmon, the two percussionists who will join the Eugene Symphony for the Dorman performances, have played them several times before, including for former Eugene Symphony music director Marin Alsop at the Cabrillo Festival.

Now, percussion is much more complicated. In addition, the concerns of music, or perhaps the concerns of composers, have changed since Beethoven wrote the Pastorale. “Harmony and counterpoint, they have rhythmic components, but they are pitch-oriented explorations of music,” Dorman says.

Calendar of Events

Percussionist: Galen Lemmon heat,” he says, and that’s where the marimba comes in. (Listen to Spices at www.avnerdormanmusic.com/ orchestra/) He wrote Astrolatry years later, and he wasn’t trying to identify the piece with place. The Boston Symphony performed Astrolatry in January. As he was talking with the conductor and another staff member. “I was like, I don’t think this piece is distinctively Middle Eastern,” he says, “and they laughed at me.”

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Dorman appreciates the “luxury” of being in one place for a week during his residency and says he loves hearing so much of his music performed. “My music is just my thoughts,” he says. So the residency “is like visiting my thoughts outside of me for a whole week.” That’s a good thing, he says, especially when audiences already know other composers (like Beethoven) well. “I don’t always feel like the audience gets to know what my music is about,” he says. “Here, I get to present a more wellrounded picture of what I do. It’s great.” m o n t h ly

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Bard The

Down South

Pericles Shipwrecked, Pericles (Wayne T. Carr) is adrift at sea. Photo by Jenny Graham.

f you point your car south, you

can take a short trip over a few low mountain passes into the less green but still glowing land of the Rogue and Applegate Valleys and the Siskyou mountains. A large brown highway sign near exit 19 will point you toward the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and Ashland, a town utterly entwined with entertainment.

T Much Ado About Nothing Photo by Jenny Graham.

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As the story goes – a story you can hear if you take the reasonably priced Backstage Tour at the Shakespeare Festival – the festival days were hot as blazes, and few people attended the sweltering boxing matches. Angus Bowmer’s plays not only earned back the money the city had loaned him but made enough to finance the broke boxing promoters and to extend the festival to the next year. If you could have bet on Angus’ little project then, you’d be sitting pretty today.

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he Oregon Shakespeare Festival

celebrates its 80th birthday in 2015. Eleven plays (only three of which are by Shakespeare) run in three theaters, starting with four indoor plays in late February and closing with several of those plays still going in early November, after a total of more than 700 performances.

Benedick (Danforth Comins) and Beatrice (Christiana Clark) stop sparring long enough to say yes. 50

The town officials ruminated for a while and decided to give Bowmer some cash, “not to exceed $400,” but only upon the condition that they could hold boxing matches during the day so that they’d have some sure money to fall back on when no one bought tickets for Shakespeare.

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Back in the early summer of 1935, Ashland was a little town near California where people had been coming for decades to take spa treatments and drink the lithium water of the area, to listen to speakers on the old Chautauqua circuit, and to matriculate or teach at Southern Oregon Normal School. Angus Bowmer, an instructor in English at the college and a fan of the Bard, suggested that the town fund a short Shakespeare festival in the old Chautauqua arena in Lithia Park. He’d pull together actors from the college and the town and put on two plays over three nights: Twelfth Night and The Merchant of Venice.

Travels Within A Day’s Drive From Lane County

Bowmer was thrilled instead of dejected by the idea. After all, he told them, during the Bard’s day, there were boxing matches, bear-baiting and all kinds of other tomfoolery both before the plays and at intermission.

Days and nights in Ashland By Suzi Steffen

Within Range:

In April and May, you’ll have the option to see six different plays at the festival. Four opened before this issue went to press. I predict that Long Day’s Journey Into Night (which opened March 25) will be a tremendous opportunity to see the classic play in the intimate setting of the Thomas Theatre, and that the U.S. premiere of Secret Love in Peach Blossom Land (opening April 15) at the theater named after Angus Bowmer will be both moving and

heartbreaking duo of Beatrice (Christiana Clark) and Benedick (Danforth Comins), both opposed to love, dance around each other wonderfully well. Comins’ monologue after he decides to love Beatrice (spoiler!) is splendid. Director Lileana Blain-Cruz deftly handles the terrible ClaudioHero storyline, helped out by the Shirelles at the last possible moment. And Rex Young’s Dogsberry, with assorted crew, is the smartest, funniest ever performance of the inept law enforcement group. Though this show isn’t the best production of Much Ado, thanks to a weak Claudio and some awkward staging, it also sports serious strengths that I’d have been sad to miss.

Guys and Dolls Bowmer Theatre, through Nov. 1

Pericles Bawd (Michael J. Hume, center), Pandar (Scott Ripley, left) and Boult (U. Jonathan Toppo) prepare to receive their new woman at the brothel. Photo by Jenny Graham.

Much Ado About Nothing Bowmer Theatre, through Nov. 1 Perhaps you’ve had the opportunity to see the 1993 Kenneth Branagh-directed film of this comedy, or the 2013 black and white version that Avengers (and Buffy) director Joss Whedon filmed at his house. But Much Ado is different live on a sparse but distractingly gorgeous set of rose-filled streamers tumbling from the ceiling over a neongreen grass floor that’s dotted with a few formal dining room chairs. The deeply funny but also

What to say about this silly, sexist, no-there-there, charming, completely enjoyable musical? The show was inspired by a Damon Runyon short story, and the characters speak and sing like the most ridiculous slangsters who ever slanged. Frank Loesser’s lyrics are, for the most part, sheer delight, and the songs are more than toe-tapping – it was hard not to stand and shimmy along to “Luck Be A Lady,” for instance. Highlights run from the opening “Fugue for Tin Horns” to the hilarious, magnificent “If I Were a Bell” to the stunningly performed “Crap Shooter’s Dance” to the show-stopping “Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ the Boat.” The regular festival company actors are wonderfully fine, especially Kate Hurster as the religious Sarah Brown; Rodney Gardiner as Nathan Detroit; and Daniel T. Parker as NicelyNicely Johnson. The demands of a backstage stuffed with repertory pieces wouldn’t allow for a Broadway-style set, but the designers and scenic artists created some outstanding pieces nonetheless – watch for the postcard scrim and the plane. This production is directed with verve and skill by Mary

Elizabethan Stage Antony and Cleopatra, June 2-Oct. 9 Head Over Heels, June 3-Oct. 10 The Count of Monte Cristo, June 4-Oct. 11

Bowmer Theatre Secret Love in Peach Blossom Land, April 15-Oct. 31 Sweat, July 29-Oct. 31

Thomas Theatre Long Day’s Journey Into Night, through Oct. 31 The Happiest Song Plays Last, July 7-Nov. 1

For tickets, go to osfashland.org or call 800-219-8161.

How to Get a Good Deal on the Plays Section C seats are $30 all year long this year, so if sitting in seats that might have a bit of a sound or sight issue but still be mostly great is to your liking, get on the website and buy now. You can also head to Ashland, cross your fingers and hope the box office has $45 rush tickets or $15 student (with ID, and only before June 1 or after Labor Day) rush tickets. People are often selling tickets for others in their group who couldn’t make it outside of the theaters on the bricks before each show. Weekly web specials go up every Thursday for specific plays. Young adults ages 19-35 can sign up for emails with special $25 deals each week, and Oregon Trail Card holders can get special $5 rush tickets in the hour before specific shows at the box office. Members get 30 percent off during the spring and fall “shoulder” seasons as well. The festival also offers a huge list of free and not-so-expensive events ranging from festival noon talks to post-play talkbacks and, from June 2 through Oct. 11, the Green Show that starts at 6:45 each night before the plays. LISTING CONTINUED ON PAGE 52

Zimmerman and superbly executed by the amused and amusing company, augmented by professional dancers who are a fine pleasure to watch.

Fingersmith Bowmer Theatre, through July 9

Guys and Dolls The guys roll for cash and high stakes in this exuberant production directed by Mary Zimmerman Photo by Jenny Graham.

Mistaken identities, nefarious plots, backroom underhandedness, a Victorian asylum, abuse, lies, hangings and the complexities of love across social classes – sounds a little like Shakespeare, a lot like Dickens and perhaps a little like Sondheim to those who recently saw Eugene Opera’s Sweeney Todd. This world premiere play, adapted by the able playwright and scriptwriter Alexa Junge from the book by Welsh novelist Sarah Waters (Tipping the Velvet, The Paying Guests) and directed by OSF l a n e

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Artistic Director Bill Rauch, showcases the festival’s willingness to try passion projects on the big stage. The actors, including Sara Bruner as Sue and Erica Sullivan as Maud, give full-bore performances of the so-new-the-ink-isn’t-dry play, and Christopher

Acebo’s smart set balances the varied settings of the book with the demands of a fast-moving plot. My advice? Don’t read the book before you go. (If you have already read it, go anyway, but do not spoil the twisty, turny narrative for your seatmates!) This might be the first show I’ve ever seen where much of the audience gave a standing ovation to the first act alone. Fingersmith ends July 9, so get your tickets soon.

Pericles Thomas Theatre, through Nov. 1 Pericles is actually only half by Shakespeare – scholars think his contemporary George Wilkins wrote the first half – but there’s a reason it was for centuries one of his most popular plays. This particular production in the small, flexible Thomas Theatre, directed by Joseph Haj and adapted from a 2008 production he did in North Carolina, mixes projection magic, folk song and sea shanty with live musicians, a multilevel set and committed performances from the company, almost all of whom are playing multiple parts, to delve into what it means to find family, love, home. The plot sounds like epic fantasy – literally! Where are the Lannisters?! – but take your hankie: You will likely end this play in tears.

Much Ado About Nothing Beatrice (Christiana Clark, left) and Hero (Leah Anderson) contemplate the possibilities for the night’s masquerade. Photo by Jenny Graham.

Guys and Dolls Miss Adelaide (Robin Goodrin Nordli) self-diagnoses her situation. Photo by Jenny Graham. 52

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Where to Stay Ashland is filled with all sorts of accommodations, from the cheapest (the Ashland Hostel and the Ashland Commons, where you can get a bunk bed or a private room and use the kitchens to save on food) to the most luxurious, including the stunning Ashland Springs Hotel. Search for bed and breakfasts on stayashland.com or try your hand at AirBnB, or you can stay in Medford for slightly cheaper hotel rooms but a longer drive after the plays.

Where to Eat Ashland contains world-class, local, farm-fresh, tiny restaurants that get packed early and clear out around 7:30 as everyone practically throws themselves at the festival’s campus. If you can go early or stay one extra night and wait until a 7:45 or 8 p.m. reservation, you’ll have the place and all the attention to yourselves. TripAdvisor, Yelp, Urbanspoon and your hotel or bed and breakfast hosts can help you find splendid dinners (we’ve had the best luck with word of mouth recommendations). If you’re in a serious rush, the Ashland Food Co-op’s hot and cold ready to eat food and salad bar are easy and close. Breakfast? Let’s just say there’s a reason Morning Glory rises to the top of any Google search for breakfast or brunch in Ashland – but get there early, or take a copy of the festival’s Illuminations to peruse during your long wait.

What Else to Do Southern Oregon has some of the best hiking in the state (www.oregonhiking.com/oregonadventures/100-hikes-in-southern-oregon) and boasts many wineries (sorwa.org and applegatewinetrail.com), while Ashland itself has a wide variety of adorable boutiques, spas, pubs and bookstores. There’s the ScienceWorks museum (scienceworksmuseum.org), and if you’re lucky enough to see it, the only forensics animal lab in the country (fws.gov/lab). Sometimes, there’s skiing at nearby Mount Ashland, and often, though probably not this drought year, you can raft the Rogue. The Rogue Creamery is just up Hwy. 99 and makes truly delectable cheeses. Crater Lake and Mount Shasta are (separately) not far away and both well worth the trip. And you can always find Shakespeare talk, analysis, ideas, lectures and more through the various offerings of the Festival that Angus Bowmer founded on a whim 80 years ago.

By Kristin Bartus

Spring Sips

Local cocktails, local ingredients, happy mouths

ince arriving in Eugene 10 years ago, I’ve grown fond of marking the arrival of each season by mixing up a seasonally appropriate cocktail. I’m always motivated by whatever delicious ingredients are available at the farmers’ market. Spring is one of my favorite times of the cocktail-making year because I choose drinks that pair well with warm weather. If we’ve already had hints of warmth, it feels celebratory. If the cold rain is still out in full force, a fresh spring cocktail can help me power through the gray a little longer.

This year’s early onset of sunny days has only made my appetite for spring cocktails even more intense than usual. Fortunately, bartenders around newly bustling downtown Eugene have plenty of wonderful creations up their sleeves. A number of bars and restaurants have started to debut their spring-inspired libations. The drinks feature flavorful local ingredients, most of which have just begun to pop up in gardens. These cocktails beg for imbibers to sit back and bask in the glory of whatever rays of sun are currently available—or simply fantasize about the warm days soon to come. Shawn Canny, bar manager at The Barn Light at 924 Willamette St., is welcoming the season with a tasty homage to rhubarb, The Sumner Sidecar. The lovely, rosy pink drink comes in a coupe glass and includes gin, Aperol, honey and a housemade rhubarb shrub. “I knew I wanted to do something with rhubarb because it grows so well in the valley here,” Canny says. This tart little number is nice and refreshing for the season but has enough bitterness to keep drinkers from slurping it down in two sips. In anticipation of balmier weather, Canny is also adding The Liquid Gold to the menu. This

They added some ‘local coconut vinegar bitters, white rum and an orange slice to finish it off. The result is a rich, nutty drink that’s sophisticated and a little sweet.

’

sweet treat of a drink showcases a housemade horchata, along with cachaca, Luxardo and cinnamon. The cachaca is a sugar cane liquor, but, he says, “It has a grassiness and herbaceousness that hits the sweetness of horchata well.” As an added bonus, this creamy creation is vegan. Across the street at Party Downtown (55 W. Broadway), they’re ringing in spring with fun and inspired new cocktails. The “fun” comes in the form of The Purple One. “I wanted to do the Party Downtown version of a club cocktail,” says bartender Thor Slaughter. Owner Tiffany Norton has been experimenting with naturally fermenting sodas, so she used some local Concord grape juice to create a grape soda. Then the two added some Vivacity gin (from Corvallis), vermouth and lime, and topped it with an edible viola flower. It comes off like a refined take on the tasty grape soda of our youth. Also recently debuted on the menu is the Nutty Professor, another imaginative in-house creation. “Most drinks, either Tiffany or I are working on some weird thing and we try to figure out how to make a cocktail,” Slaughter says. Norton made her own almond blossom liqueur while Slaughter whipped up a hazelnut-based “Thorgeat.” They added some local coconut vinegar bitters, white rum and an orange slice to finish it off. The result is a rich, nutty drink that’s sophisticated and a little sweet. Down the block at Belly on 30 E. Broadway, the bartenders are ready for warmer weather too. The Early Bird drinks easy, like an ultra smooth glass of iced tea. It’s made with bourbon, a house lemon

cordial and impeccable tasting (Eugene-based) J-TEA Earl Grey. “It’s really simple. It’s kind of an Old Fashioned of sorts,” says bartender Garrett Wood. Another delightful offering is the Garden Party. The bartenders combine gin, vermouth and lemon with cilantro, celery and egg white to create a well-balanced drink that is tangy and cooling. “It’s definitely one of the more atypical cocktails we’ve done in a while,” Wood says. “It’s a savory cocktail—it’s a savory sour.” I’ll definitely be going back for another Garden Party soon. Over at WildCraft Cider Works at 390 Lincoln St., the French 541 is a great choice to get into the spring spirit. Bartender Annie Fisher’s take on the French 75 is just one of WildCraft’s many ciderbased cocktails. It’s made with a house blueberrylavender simple syrup, Vivacity gin, lemon and Wild Craft’s Hard Cider. It’s a bigger, bolder, fruitier version of the classic cocktail and should be featuring freshly harvested local lavender this month. “With all of these cocktails, we want the cider to come through,” Fisher says. “This one just really worked for that.” Finally, if you want to stop and smell the spring roses, Marché in the Fifth Street Public Market is the place to go. April will bring a rose cocktail called Cecile that will showcase some of the gorgeous, organic roses that grow right in front of the restaurant. Lean in toward the gorgeous pale pink drink, and you really can smell the roses. Bar manager Nate Hisamura and his crew combine a rose confit with Hendrick’s gin, lime and orange liqueur. A Marché rose petal will be floated as a garnish. “I’m using Hendrick’s because that’s an actual cucumber and rose gin,” says Hisamura. It works well. This bright, tart cocktail is a scrumptious way to start the season. n Kristin Bartus is a freelance writer, mom, fashionista and TV junkie. She lives for artisanal cocktails but still has a soft spot for blue drinks. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram @kristinbartus. We urge you to imbibe responsibly and to tune in next month for more Lane County cocktails, from Culinaria Eugenius’ Jennifer Burns Bright. l a n e

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by Suzi Steffen

film festivals

Light up the Dark All April in Eugene Welcome back, DisOrient and Cinema Pacific

ugene plays host to two strong film festivals in April. Yes, we know it’s hard— extremely hard—to go inside when the sun is shining and the birds are singing etc., but both the DisOrient Film Festival and Cinema Pacific Film Festival (with its associated weekend student film competition, the Adrenaline Film Project) are well worth the time and money. DisOrient, which for 10 years has brought to the Bijou wonderful feature-length and short films made by Asians and Asian Americans, once again offers a slate that both informs and entertains. The festival, which is largely funded by the local Chinese American Benevolent Association, “is a grassroots and volunteer-run film festival committed to presenting honest portrayals of the diversity of the Asian and Pacific Islander American experience,” says its website. The all-volunteer nature of it makes the way the festival attracts filmmakers even more impressive. Every year, directors and writers and producers of the films arrive in Eugene and get to meet and mingle with the volunteers and VIP attendees, spreading both solidarity and new ideas to students and community members alike.

the closing film, To Be Takei, honors actor George Takei of Star Trek fame.

film portraits. (That’s not part of Cinema Pacific, but it’s definitely worth a trip to the JSMA.)

The festival runs April 17-19 at the Bijou Art Cinemas (the one on 13th and Ferry, not the new Metro downtown), with opening and closing parties in other venues. An all-access pass is $75 in advance or $80 at the door, and believe me as someone who has experienced the all-access pass before, it’s well worth it. Individual tickets for screenings and Q&As with directors run $5-12 (slightly more for the handling fee online; you might want to get the tickets at the actual Bijou, but a lot of the films will sell out, so do it as soon as you can). Check out the descriptions, many trailers and more at disorientfilm.org.

Cinema Pacific’s opening film—Walden (Part One) by Mekas—runs at 7 pm Wednesday, April 29, at the JSMA.

Two weeks later, the University of Oregon’s Cinema Pacific Film Festival kicks off on April 27 and continues for a full week of events. This year’s festival, according to a press release, is “devoted to American experimental media, with a special emphasis on the history of American avant-garde film.”

DisOrient contains short documentaries like “The Delano Manongs: Forgotten Heroes of the United Farm Workers Union” and comedies like “Awesome Asian Bad Guys” which describes itself as “a kickass action comedy web series about a motley crew of Asian bad guy actors who joins forces to take down LA’s most nefarious mobster.”

The festival’s opening honors Jonas Mekas, legendary Lithuanian-American film writer and filmmaker. Listing his accomplishments would take up this entire issue of the magazine, so some highlights: Mekas and his brother founded the vital magazine Film Culture in the 1950s, changing U.S. film knowledge, and Mekas soon started writing a column about film for The Village Voice. He also founded the Filmmakers Cooperative and the Anthology Film Archives. He’s made hundreds of films, taught film and film criticism for decades, and generally serves as one of the towering figures of cinema in the U.S.

There are full-length dramas like Under the Blood Red Sun (adapted from author Graham Salisbury’s book) and music videos. The schedule is so jampacked with 29 films that it’s hard to pick out one thing to focus on, though the opening night film Cicada has won several juried festival awards and

Mekas is the subject of an exhibition at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, and as part of that show, curators Richard Herskowitz and Deborah Colton conduct a Skype interview with Mekas at 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 15 at the JSMA on the University of Oregon campus, after discussing his diaries and

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This year’s Fringe Festival offerings (8 p.m. Saturday, May 2, at the JSMA) also look intense, with everything from Joanna Priestley films and interactive artwork to a karaoke bar, a martial arts photobooth (no, really, that’s what the press release says), interactive games and more. But even before the full slate of films begins, there’s the Adrenaline Film Project. That’s a three-day workshop in which groups of high school and college students write, shoot and edit films on a theme the workshop leaders and mentors give them at the beginning of the weekend. This year, they’ll get one prop and one line of dialogue that must appear in the film at kickoff on Friday, April 24. Groups have to turn in their films by 5 p.m. Monday, April 27, and the public can watch a screening of all of the AFP films at 9:30 p.m. that night at Straub Hall Auditorium on the UO campus. It’s always a great night for funny, wacky, inventive film—we look forward to seeing you there. More info on Cinema Pacific, including the full slate of films and ticket pricing, will be available on the website (cinemapacific.uoregon.edu) during the month of April.

His First Nations heritage plays a part in the opening ceremony of the show on the UO’s Memorial Quad at 5:30 p.m. Friday, April 17. That night, singers from the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians will perform after a prayer by artist Frank LaPena. Bartow is also a musician and will perform with his band at the reception following the ceremony. “I get very uncomfortable with honors bestowed my way,” he says. “But I’ll show up with my shoes shined.” Indeed, the retrospective demands a lot of public time for an artist who, like most artists, prefers to be in his studio. “I’ve insulated myself,” he says. “I have a whole battery, an army of people that protect me for different things, and I’m safe inside that.”

The of a Work Lifetime The Jordan Schnitzer opens a retrospective for Oregon artist Rick Bartow | By Suzi Steffen

regon artist Rick Bartow doesn’t believe in half-assing things.

“Each person has a gift,” he says. “If you’re a half-assed good accountant, you should look for a better job so you’re not a halfassed one. You should be a real one.” All this is by way to say that Bartow, a retrospective of whose work is opening in mid-April at the University of Oregon’s Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, knows what his gift is, and knows he’s no halfassed artist. He also knows that despite the spiritual aspects of his paintings and drawings and sculptures, making art is also flat-out work. “The Creator gave me a job, and it’s worked for years, being nothing but an artist,” he says on the phone from Newport. Bartow’s work ranges from pastels to prints, from 3-D objects to pencils to oils to acrylics. It’s a massive output. The show at the JSMA offers more than 120 works of art, including a wonderfully dense bound book called “10 Drawings by Rick Bartow, Wiyot [Ten Little Indians]” that subverts decades of Western art history and photography of Native Americans. Bartow is a member of the Wiyot Tribe of northern California, though he also has close ties with the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians.

One of that army is Portland gallerist Charles Froelick, who’s been working with Bartow for 23 years. Froelick says that in his art, Bartow “expresses the fullness of his life and his experiences – joy, new life, the ending of life. He expresses quizzical fascinations and follies. He tells stories in a fascinating way.” That’s evident from the gorgeously produced catalog, edited by museum director Jill Hartz and curator Danielle Knapp. Knapp’s essays touch on several themes in the art and in the artist’s life, including gesture, tradition and transformation. Hartz writes, “Rick’s work is deeply layered and supremely honest,” and calls Bartow “one of Oregon’s most important contemporary artists.”

Bartow, for his part, says the catalog is beautiful, and adds that he knows “many artists would give their right arm to have a book such as this.”

ut what the artist, who’s a Vietnam veteran and a survivor of a recent stroke, also says is that he gave the last catalog of his work to the director of the Wiyot Tribe. Hartz and Knapp interviewed Bartow, and part of the catalog’s design features the artist’s words. He laughs and admits that he doesn’t always want to reread or listen to what he’s said before: “I always say I know that guy intimately, and I know all his baloney.” Bartow’s art after his recovery from his stroke – something that left him, he says, with “brain cabbage” at times – intensified and brightened. That wasn’t such a surprise to Froelick. “Sometimes, when things get rough, and I think oh, this might usher in a dark phase, he’ll present some of the most optimistic and colorful, joyous work,” Froelick says. “The colors have become so expressive. His gesture and mark-making is so free. He’s without fear.” The title of the show – “Rick Bartow: Things We Know But Cannot Explain” – reflects the artist’s take on his work. Bartow says he goes into the studio and works intuitively, and despite the stroke, he’s going to just keep on working. “I show up and start, and things happen. It’s a magical, wonderful scary sort of thing, living without a net,” he says. “You’re on the wire, and there’s no place below you but down. Why not keep working, you know?”

April 3, 5:30PM First Friday ArtTalk The Studio at the Hult Center

Thursday, April 16, 12:30 – 1:30PM Land, Law, and Liberty: Legal Perspectives on Tribal Rights Knight Law School, Room 141

Friday, April 17, 5:30PM Opening Ceremony Rick Bartow: Things You Know But Cannot Explain UO Memorial Quad in front of the museum

Friday, April 17, 6:00–8:00PM Opening Reception Rick Bartow: Things You Know But Cannot Explain

Saturday, April 18, 11:00AM Artists Panel: A Tribute to Rick Bartow

Saturday, April 18, 2:00PM A Conversation with Rick Bartow

Wednesday, April 22, 11AM – 8PM Earth Day: Free Admission

Saturday & Sunday, April 25-26, 10AM – 5PM Dynamic Collaborations, a Printmaking Workshop; Drypoint, Chine Colle, Monotype Rick Bartow & Seiichi Hiroshima LCC Building 10, Room 223

May 8 – 10 47th Annual UO Mother’s Day Powwow at Mac Court

Saturday, May 16, 12PM–3PM FAMILY DAY: Storytelling through Art

Wednesday, May 20, 5:30PM Collecting Bartow

Saturday, May 30 Things You Know But Cannot Explain: A Symposium Art & Healing, 10AM–12PM Art & (Dis)Place, 2–4PM

Saturday, May 30, 1–3PM Art and Healing Workshop

Saturday, July 18, 2PM A Conversation with Rick Bartow and Barry Lopez

Rick Bartow opens the month giving a “First Friday ArtTalk” with Froelick, moderated by arts writer Bob Keefer, at 5:30 p.m. Friday, April 3, in The Studio at the Hult Center. Many other events follow throughout April and May. The retrospective travels to The Autry National Center in L.A. and the IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts in Santa Fe in 2016, and The Heard Museum in Phoenix and the Washington State University Museum of Art in Pullman in 2017.

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Top 10 Hikes with Kids in Lane County Elijah Bristow State Park

Dorris Ranch

Brice Creek Falls

Mount Pisgah and Buford Park Arboretum

Sahalie and Koosah Falls

Ridgeline Trail

Spencer Butte

Alton Baker Park

Hobbit Trail

Waxmyrtle Trail

Cast an Eagle Eye on Wildlife Magical. That’s the word that comes to mind as you walk on the rhododendronlined Hobbit Trail north of Florence and creep through a low sandy tunnel to the ocean. At nearby Darlingtonia State Natural Site, kids and parents can hike a short path through a bog filled with darlingtonian californica — tall, hooded carnivorous plants. Head south past Old Town a few miles, and you can hike the 3-mile Waxmyrtle Trail along Siltcoos River Estuary to the beach. Realistic parents acknowledge the pull of technology from iPads to laptops to smartphones and prepare. “It’s very important for kids to let go of electronics on the trail,” Henderson says. “Let that be something they get to use in the car.” Milkovich admits that occasionally, her children complain about family hikes. “Those complaints, though, have always given way to good moods with a little sunshine and fresh air.” She finds that they don’t get exhausted or whiny on flat trails with a lake or river as a goal.

lijah Bristow State Park still ranks among her favorite hiking sites, with its various trails and river banks full of small fossils and interesting rocks. In late summer, blackberries beckon from plentiful vines, and wildlife abounds. “One time when we were there,” Milkovich recalls, “I saw several mantises, which are awfully neat. And every once in a while, you Painting by John Holdway get to see the elk in the park. Big bonus—there’s a Dairy Queen on the way back to Eugene.”For more information, visit http:// www.eugenecascadescoast.org. Best Hikes with Kids, by Bonnie Henderson, is available at bookstores around the county. n

Melissa Hart is the author of Wild Within: How Rescuing Owls Inspired a Family (Lyons, 2014). She teaches in the University of Oregon’s School of Journalism and Communication. You can find her at melissahartsmith@gmail.com

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First Friday Artwalks

offer something for everyone

The First Friday ArtWalk is a FREE event that happens year-round. Take the guided tour and follow the host to hear from the featured artists, or explore the other galleries and venues from 5:30-8pm on your own! To get involved as a business, artist or sponsor, please contact Lane Arts. First Friday ArtWalk Guided Tour April 3rd STOP #1 5:30 PM | THE JAZZ STATION (124 W BROADWAY) Ellen Gabehart, The Jazz StationOn the 4 year anniversary of the opening at its new location 124 West Broadway, The Jazz Station celebrates with a show of work depicting Eugene musicians by Ellen Gabehart. Many of these paintings and sketches were done at performances and jam sessions held at The Jazz Station, and capture the energy and inspiration of the act of creating music. Ellen Gabehart is a longtime volunteer and supporter, in addition to being a well-known and respected local artist. The show will be open for viewing until 7pm.

STOP #2 6 PM | HARLEQUIN BEADS AND JEWELRY (1027 WILLAMETTE ST) Cenya

Eichengreen, Harlequin Beads and Jewelry (5) without frameFive years ago, Cenya Eichengreen was looking for something to do while she underwent chemotherapy. Having just bought “The Art of Bead Embroidery” by Heidi Kummli and Sherry Serafini, beading seemed to fit the task. After a trip to Harlequin Beads, she began beading to relieve the boredom of being stuck in a chair for 5 hours while she underwent cancer treatments. Over the next five months, she made over 125 beaded brooches and gave them away to friends and supporters. She has continued with bead embroidery in the form of jewelry and beaded wall art. She currently sells her beadwork at Saturday Market and in gallery shows.

STOP #3 6:30 PM | GILT+GOSSAMER (873 WILLAMETTE ST) David Placencia, Orbital

Connection I, Gilt+Gossamer David CP Placencia (right) presents “Khaostasis – Micro & Macro Connections.” He states, “Curiosity is a foundation for both artistic and scientific pursuits. Art and beauty traverses the gaps of knowledge and can portray an unseen world. My curiosity is in connections found in atomic structures, nerve cells, and space travel. My endeavor is to highlight this relationship which conveys a common narrative. This series is inspired by physics, nature, and images captured by neuroscientists in Eugene, Oregon.” Find out more about his work at Khaostasis.com. Also on display is Marilyn Kent’s show “Aves Femmes,” acrylics featuring beautiful birds all dressed up. Regarding this collection, Marilyn states, “I wanted to show Birds dressed as women, with fashionable attitudes and dress. I paint birds

realistically as well as in a fanciful way. I first started making art as a cartoonist and then becoming a scientific illustrator for a museum in Chicago. I paint in acrylics and also incorporate collage elements. Often I use a picture from a fashion magazine as inspiration as clothing for the bird and then let my imagination take over. I like to use actual eyes, legs and arms along with the painted birds. I enjoy making them ‘Funny.’ In a way, you could say clothing for humans is like the feathers covering a bird, only we have more color choices!”

STOP #4 7 PM | PACIFIC RIM ART GUILD & GALLERY (160 E BROADWAY, BASEMENT) Underwater Treasures Pacific Rim Art Guild & Gallery’s featured show titled “New Life” will be comprised of works in all mediums by Dan Chen, Elesha McCarthy, Kathy Hoy, Yvonne Stubbs, Evelyn Jones, Elaine Young, and Sandi Grubbs (right).

Also on display are works by guest artists who took a silk painting workshop from Dan Chen last fall, as well as still life work from last month’s “Art In a Hurry” challenge. “Art In a Hurry” requires artists to start and finish a painting in whatever medium they choose during the ArtWalk. Music: A cello duet.

STOP #5 7:30 PM | OUT ON A LIMB GALLERY (191 E BROADWAY) Chuck Roeh-

rich, Sweet Creek, OUT ON A LIMB GalleryChuck Roehrich shows his wildlife watercolor paintings at OUT ON A LIMB Gallery during the month of April. He states, “All artists take short cuts. The world is so complicated and nuanced that we can only process a small amount of what’s there. My artwork tries to capture the complexity and beauty of our wonderful Oregon landscape without trying too hard to get everything exactly right. I try to use the real colors that it shows me and not add too much to punch up what’s already there. I try to put in enough details so that the viewer can say to him or herself ‘Yeah, I’ve been there too.’ I don’t know if art needs to ‘say’ something, but if I were to answer that question about my art, I would say that on most occasions, the world would still work and would still be this wonderful, fractal and beautiful creation even without humans. We are not separate from nature, but only one part of it.”

Florence First Friday returns once again starting Friday, April 3th, 2015! Historic Old Town Florence and the Antique District will glow as the sun sets in the magic hour and the reflections on the waters of the Siuslaw River calmly bring you into the evening hours as you dine and shop every First Friday until 8PM starting Friday, March 6th. The merchants may offer special discounts, wine tasting or some inviting music to enhance your time in our unique shops and restaurants. As you shop during the week, look for the signs in the windows of the participating businesses and then plan to celebrate TGIF with friends and family in our idyllic town on First Fridays. How lovely!

Stop by these participating businesses: Kitchen Klutter Perriwinkle Station PS Winkles On Your Feet with a Splash Silver Sand Dollar Bay Street Family Tyes Captain’s Lady (starting in May) Kenneth B Gallery Siuslaw River Coffee Rosters All About Olives Le Bouchon Flashback Photo Thrifty Threads Winddrift Gallery Blue Heron Gallery Old Town T-Shirt River Gallery Funkey Monkey Jambo Back Street Gallery Books N Bears Bonjour Divine Decadence Wizard of Odds (starting in April) Produced by the Old Town Committee for the Florence Area Chamber of Commerce. l a n e

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by Molly Bohon

Wine and Cheese a Perfect Pair E

ver wonder why wine and cheese make such a great pair? The two are like two peas in a pod. Whenever one of them is around, the other is sure to be nearby. But how do you know which cheese to eat with the appropriate wine?

Cheese helps influence the ideal balance of oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s palette. However, not all cheeses and wines are a perfect match. Certain cheese harmonizes with certain wine. There are many factors to examine in order to find the ideal wine and cheese pair. Many complementing and contrasting ingredients work well to integrate the proper flavoring to help create that balance or counterbalance in flavors. For example, a heavier wine most likely would be paired best with an older, richer, nuttier cheese. Factors like the body of the wine, tannin, acidity, and texture affect the type of cheese it should be suitably paired with. Cheese also has factors like its texture, moisture, and intensity that affect which wine it would pair best with. Young moist cheeses like mozzarella and ricotta would work well with a crisp Oregon Pinot Gris that has proper floral and citrus characteristics. A semi-hard cheese that has more intense flavoring would most likely work best with a wine that had medium viscosity. Either a medium-bodied white like a Chardonnay or a fruity red like a Merlot would be ideal. Hard-aged cheese like manchego works extremely well with a bold wine like a Syrah or Malbec. So next time you are at a wine and cheese party try and pair the proper cheese with the right wine to give your taste buds a surge of good flavor. The more accurate wine and cheese pairing you choose, the better the wine and the cheese will taste overall.

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continued from p. 10

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ver the years, many a vender has come and gone, but the majority of participants enjoy a long relationship with their market family and customers as they return to sell their collections year after year. By visiting the market and buying locally, our community benefits and supports a huge assortment of cottage industries that offer an alternate to big box stores and shopping malls. In return visitors are fortunate to enjoy the culture, art, entertainment and food that is the Eugene Saturday Market. Kim Still, marketing promotions and advertising manager, is entering her 23rd year with the Eugene Saturday Market. Still not only manages all of the entertainment for the venue but has also recorded and catalogued its history with her thousands of photos taken over the years. You may view her archive at flickr. com/photos/eugenesaturdaymarket. Lane Monthly would like to thank Still for her time and for her generous photographic contributions in this April issue.

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the writer’s corner

This Scarf

b y D o n n a Ta g g a r t

I cried when I ironed this scarf today, the scarf you gave me several years before you died. I had admired it at the store,

Crooked Bookshelf

and you later gave it to me a sweet gift from a sweet child. Your hands touched this scarf, and I can feel the love there still. I cried when I saw the pulled threads and the hole, from when I carelessly washed it

ooks on a crooked bookshelf:

the first one, rainbow colored,

You are on every page, smiling at me -

in the machine.

They cannot be mended, just as

you are safe being gone;

fat with promise; one black,

But I still fight to make those papers

Such a beautiful scarf: green silk,

the color of peridot,

in the middle,

containing only a few pages

and one of uncertain color,

you were happy here.

bright and beautiful;

sometimes I lose and they are

you cannot.

your birthstone,

standing at the other end.

Three dates: August 15, 1992 (your birth),

torn, stained

(you almost made it to your 16th birthday);

with my tears,

no wonder I always loved that gem.

June 26, 2008 (your death),

made tissue thin,

and now.

and the 16th anniversary gem

and the book slips to the floor. But nothing can be perfect;

Open any of the ones in between

you will find my life.

and I will love it for its imperfection.

hen I am done with that chapter of grief,

The shelf rises from the beginning,

but breaks downward sharply at

that black book,

I will wear this scarf with its flaws,

I pick up the book and put it

I will not set it aside; it is not a shrine.

back in its place

on that crooked bookshelf.

Life is to be lived, and this scarf is to be worn,

with that blackest date of

June 26, 2008,

I wonder if my life will always be bracketed within

with all the love you gave to me,

which is never lost.

nearly spilling the books from there

those three dates

to today.

as it is now.

After the black book of life dropping into hell:

here it angles upward slightly,

I am the carpenter, sanding and staining,

here it splinters.

November 19, 2014

lifting the broken shelf and

pushing it upwards.

I am the writer, putting the words of my life

pen a book; find hope in chapters written on

handmade paper, bright and lovely;

find despair in chapters penned on

papers no one would call lovely.

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onto the pages

in the books

on the crooked bookshelf.

June 7, 2014

Donna Taggart has lived in Eugene for over 40 years; she came to attend U.of O., grew webbed feet, and never left. She is married, with one grown daughter. In June 2008 she lost her son, Sean Taggart-Murphy; writing poetry has helped her to cope with the loss.

crossword 1

Earth Day

14 17

19 21

23 25

28 31

33 34

40 42

43 44

would be virtually standing ___. (5) 35 Every day our planet is sprinkled with fairy dust …or dust from the heavens. On a daily basis, about 100 ____ of interplanetary material (mostly in the form of dust) drifts down to the Earth’s surface. (4) 36 A well tuned vehicle uses ___ efficiently, saving money and the environment. (4) 37 Turns fruit, vegetable and garden waste into rich soil for gardening. (7) 39 To exclaim in amazement. (2) 40 Jupiter moon? (2) 41 ____ locally to save dollars and the environment by lowering transportation costs and greenhouse gases. (4) 42 A place where garbage is hauled and burned. (11) 47 Beaver’s home? (3) 49 Raw materials supplied by nature. (16) 53 A hypothetical power once thought to pervade nature and account for various phenomena, such as magnetism. (2) 55 Recycling a single plastic bottle can conserve enough energy to light a 60W bulb for up to ___ hours. (3) 56 Warm Pacific current that affects weather. (6) 57 Recycling one aluminum ___ saves enough energy to listen to a full album on your iPod. (3) 58 Chemicals, industrial waste, and sewage are often allowed into streams, rivers, or oceans, polluting this. (5)

7 9

by Al Fabet 1 Earth is 2/3 water yet only ___ percent is fit for human consumption. (3) 6 Thanks. (2) 8 A transportation vehicle using a combination of electricity and gasoline. (6) 9 TrackTown US (6) 13 Government agency which monitors environmental issues. (3) 14 Much ___ About Nothing. (3) 15 Capable of causing serious harm or death. (5) 17 Another word for garbage. (5) 20 The most common greenhouse gas. (3) 21 According to the state of Oregon, our _________ have more diversity than a tropical rainforest! WOW! (9) 22 Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to run a __ for 2 hours. (2) 23 The Earth is _____ by lightning 8.6 million times a day. (6) 24 id est. (2) 25 Used to call attention. (2) 27 3.14 (2) 28 The Earth is approximately 93 million miles from the sun. At this distance, it takes about 8 minutes and 19 seconds for _______ to reach our planet. (8) 31 About 3.8 million trees are ___ down to produce a staggering 57 billion disposable pairs of chopsticks every year, half of which are used within China. About 77 percent are exported to Japan, 21 percent to South Korea and 2 percent to America. (3) 33 Standing on the equator you would be spinning around Earth’s center at 1000 miles per hour. At the poles, however, you

Across

53 54

and 13 More efficient vehicle. (8) Oregon, our _________ 13 Government agency38 Polluted by smoke exhaust fumes. (3) 16 Eugene Ballet Company have more diversity than which monitors 1 Ozone? (2) Earth is 2/3 water yet 43 Resource from takes on ’70s rock opera 2 Every other planet in our a tropical rainforest! environmental issues. (3) Middleeast. (3) _____. (5) only ___ percent is fit for solar system is named WOW! (9) abundant___ element, 14 Much human About 44 Pronoun referring to after consumption. a Greek or Roman (3) 18 Most myself. (2) can be used as a fuel God, except our planet. 22 Recycling one aluminum Nothing. (3) 45 Power to make source. (8) Thanks. (2) The word Earth comes can saves enough energy 19 We the Earth?of causing enviromental changes, 15love Capable from the Anglo-Saxon A transportation vehicle Anagram. (5) to run acquired at age 18. (4) a __ for 2 hours. word ___, which means serious harm or death. (5) using a combination of 46 To exist! (2) 26 Local garden resource (2) “ground” or “soil” and is ___ Service. 17 Extension electricity gasoline. Another word(3) for 48 Each year, Americans thought toand be 1,000 years The Earth is _____ by throw out 23 enough soda 27 Recycling one ton of old. Ironically, the planet (6) garbage. (5) cans and bottles to reach _____ saves 682.5 lightning 8.6 million is covered by 71% water. (4) to the ____ and back 20 gallons of oil, 7,000 20 TrackTown US (6) The most common times a day. (6) 3 Greenhouse gas. (abbr.) (3) gallons of water and 3.3 4 Plant a tree. Trees ___ greenhouse gas. (3) times. (4) id (4) est. (2) water. cubic yards of landfill space. 50 Spanish for24 CO2, removing it from 51 Wind (5) 21 According to the state of transports the atmosphere. (6) approximately 40 million 29 One who litters in public 5 Properly inflated _____ tons of nutrient rich dust places. (9) saves fuel and money. (5) from the Sahara to the 30 Lane Transit District (3) 7 Antarctica has as much Amazon ____ forest 32 ___ people die every ice as there is water in every year. (4) second about 172,800 per this ocean. (8) 52 Haze combined with day. (3) 10 America (2) smoke and other 34 Everyday 200,000 people 11 A tool used to illustrate atmospheric pollutants. (4) are ___, greater than the how much impact a 54 Lane United __. (2) population of Eugene. (4) human being has on the 37 Poor land-use practices Earth. (19) have historically led to 12 The earth has more than loss of soil and have also 80,000 species of ____ created terrible dust plants. Yet, 90 percent of storms, whether in the the foods humans eat come from just 30 plants. (6) 1930s Dust Bowl or in modern-day _____. (5)

AcrossDown 1

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Network Charter School Accepting Middle & High School 2015/16 School Year Applications! Network Charter School (NCS), a public charter school (7-12 grades), focuses on hands-on education by partnering with other local agencies. With 15 students/class and 120 students total, NCS students receive individualized attention and graduate with a regular accredited diploma. Our teachers inspire students by using outdoor education, the arts, and social justice in addition to content in math, science, history and language arts. Profound relationships with the community are the core value of NCS. Partners include: MECCA, Nearby Nature, Peace Village and Le Petit Gourmet.

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Give us a call or email to find out more. 541.228.9644 sales@LaneMonthly.com

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lane county reads By Mandi Harris

Literary Redemption In my beginning were words. My earliest memories are of being sandwiched between my parents as they alternately read to me and forced me to sound out words. I had a copy of Why Is the Grass Green? that came with a cassette. It taught me all about chlorophyll—a perfect early science education for an Oregon girl who spent hours reading in trees. As I grew older, I was allowed to buy as many books as I wanted, as long as those books were no more than 25 cents at a garage sale. I was also allowed to read whatever I wanted. A lot of kids learn the facts of life on the playground. I learned the facts of life and love from VC Andrews and Margaret Atwood and Jane Austen as I worked my way alphabetically through the fiction shelves at the Douglas County Library. Books were my first teachers. They would later be my sanctuary as I navigated a world that only grew in difficulty and complexity. Reading, like prayer, is sanctuary. It is a place we can go to escape our world and to escape ourselves. Reading, like prayer, is humility. It is the search for a voice other than our own. The most renewing feeling in the world can be to forget yourself for a while, and there is no better way to forget yourself than to fill your mind with a narrator’s hopefully wise voice. Books provide rest for a weary soul. The more I need to pray, the more I read. Turning a page or inhaling that crisp book smell becomes an act of praise and a connection with life. Whether or not you are a person of faith, we are all in need of renewal at times. If you need to escape from life, crack open a book (or an app), and let someone else’s mistakes and successes fill your brainpan for awhile. Laugh, cry, be scandalized and delighted, and you will eventually emerge rested and renewed. Here are some books that all of us in need of a little redemption can enjoy:

Land of Love and Drowning By Tiphanie Yanique (Riverhead Books, 2014)

I believe in Magical Realism. I try to live my life as if it’s magically real and really magical. It’s no wonder, then, that I was drawn to this tale of three orphans from St. Thomas whose magical gifts will be their salvation or their downfall. They face illfated love affairs, racism, war and a homeland that is rapidly changing. This book is life with all of its storms, passions, turmoil, pain, joy and magic.

A Reliable Wife

By Robert Goolrick (Algonquin Books, 2010) I love a good bad woman, a woman whose author allows her to be fully human. Give me a tough broad who’s not afraid to get her hands dirty, and I’ll show you a woman who will give me the exact sort of comfort I seek in books. The titular reliable wife in this novel is a woman who has murderous intentions toward her husband, a wealthy frontiersman who ordered her through the mail. But life in the West isn’t so cut-and-dried, and maybe, just maybe, even Edwardian murderesses can find a little redemption in an untamed place.

The Girl on the Train

By Paula Hawkins (Riverhead Books, 2015) Again, I love a good bad woman. Or even a good mediocre woman. Rachel is the girl on the train, and Rachel is not your usual heroine. She is an unreliable narrator and an unreliable witness. She does not know herself or her own experiences, and we know even less. How, then is this troubled, difficult woman going to solve the murder of a woman she has only ever seen out the window of a moving train? This book is a reminder that none of us is perfect. We are all sinners. We are all weak. But that doesn’t mean we can’t have moments of great strength during which we can fight for others and hopefully even manage to fight for ourselves.

Lost & Found

By Brooke Davis (Dutton, 2015) Youth and old age. The two ends of the age spectrum least valued by society. When those selfish ones in the middle cast them out, sometimes they have no choice but to band together. So it goes for a 7-year-old girl abandoned by her mother. She forms a trio with a man who has recently escaped from his nursing home and a widow who hasn’t left her home in years. Together, they will go on an epic journey and discover there is nothing wrong with losing yourself as long as you’re not doing it alone.

Mandi Harris is a born and bred Oregonian who is pursuing a lifelong love affair with the Northwest. She spends her days slinging books and her nights sleeping. Find her at bibliaharris@gmail.com or on Twitter @MandiHarris. l a n e

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MONTHLY

Horoscope Aries—(March 21-April 20)

Libra—(Sept. 23 to Oct. 22)

“April showers bring May flowers”—a phrase that may have felt like a personal affront to those of you born in April. But this year, let’s hope for showers to replenish the ice pack and keep summer wildfires at bay. Similarly, use this time to reflect upon problems from an objective distance so that your fiery temper for can be used for warming instead of burning those you love.

April is the month Lane County comes out of her shell; the Markets (Saturday and Farmers) open, the trail-running series starts (#), you can ditch the rain gear and bike in shorts, catch outdoor shows, enjoy patio (s)eating, etc. You may want to partake in everything all at once—you’ve got the stamina to do it—just remember to maintain balance so your companions can keep up.

Taurus—(April 21-May 21)

Scorpio—(Oct. 23-Nov. 21)

In April, the judicious gardener prunes, plants and tills the garden, shaping it for a bountiful harvest. This month, you too will have the opportunity to assess which habits you want to keep, cultivate and get rid of. It will be a great time to lay out longterm plans and reconnect with people from your past.

Just spring is a time of rebirth in nature, you too will find old joys awakening anew in your personal and professional life. To channel these energies, try planting a garden, and reflect upon it as a visual metaphor for the growth and resurgence occurring within you.

Gemini—(May 22-June 21) Spring has sprung, and so have you! With the change in seasons comes newfound opportunities for exploration both in experience and environment. This month, try doing something new each day, from an alternate morning commute to chatting with a stranger or adventuring to a new part of the county—the freedom and fulfillment have the potential to be life-changing.

Cancer—(June 22-July 22) When a Cancer lets someone into their private world, it is a gift, and that lucky person’s world is forever changed. Your deep empathy, trust and ability to form strong friendships is renowned. However, part of letting people in is letting them know what you want. This month, try creating a spring routine to get all your needs met.

Leo—(July 23 to Aug. 23) April is often a month of transition, and you may find several opportunities for growth as you expand your sphere of influence. Others are attracted to your ambition, deep self-confidence and strong moral compass, all of which make you an effective leader. But be careful to direct your passion in a way that engenders respect rather than fear from your team.

Virgo—(Aug. 24 to Sept. 22) You are an expert at grounding diffuse energies and bringing order to chaos; hence, you are labeled as the ‘go-to’ person with ‘the plan’. This month, people will ask for more help than usual. Try delegating the smaller things; pointing loved ones to the gardening guide, gallery listings or calendar can help you conserve your energy for larger projects.

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Sagittarius—(Nov. 22-Dec. 21) Movement, travel, expansiveness, optimism, big picture—sounds a lot like you Saggitarius. It also sounds like the description of the spring hiking trails. This month, try exploring solo or with a new friend, discovering new layers of adventure in your own backyard! Perfect for whetting your travel palate and deepening your connections within the community.

Capricorn—(Dec. 22- Jan. 20) Your serious outlook on life and refusal to waste energy on frivolities will come in handy this month. In group projects your focus and fortitude will win the day, helping everyone succeed—just be careful to avoid dictatorial behavior. To unwind mid-month, consider the many stargazing opportunities throughout the county—the stars may bring you the solace you seek.

Aquarius—(Jan. 21-Feb. 19) Earth Day is but once a year, yet we live on this one Earth our whole lives long. Aquarius, you see the interconnected nature of our species and the multifaceted effect we have on our home and each other. This month you will have the opportunity to share the joy you see in humanity; a role as a promoter or leader bringing new ideas to the masses.

Pisces—(Feb. 20–March 20) During the month of April people start coming out of their homes and sharing their lives with each other. The opportunity to join a new group may arise. If it does, try joining up. Your masterful understanding of ideas and systems will provide a massive boost to any organization you join and help you both move in a better direction.

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