Ashland Community Connections | November 2021

NOVEMBER 2021

A FREE Special Section of the Mail Tribune

SAVING HISTORY Burned-out historic Talent building headed for restoration / Page 2

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Burned-out historic Talent building headed for restoration

By Tony Boom forACC

T

he burned-out shell of the 1925 Malmgren Building in downtown Talent, once a pottery center for the Rogue Valley, is on its ways to restoration and listing on the National Register of Historic Places.

Building owner Bonnie Morgan said she hopes the rebuilding will encourage other businesses in downtown to come back. She and her late husband, Melvin, operated Southern Oregon Pottery Supply, at 111 Talent Ave., for 30 years until 2008.

Since then, it has housed artist studios and an antiques business.

The building was one of scores of structures in Talent that were burned out or completely destroyed in the Almeda fire of 2020.

“With Talent losing so much, we have this one thing that we could revive and make it an anchor for the historic part of the downtown,” said The Malmgren garage building was constructed in the 1920s.

Morgan. “We’ve got four said Kramer. The service was large, front entrance. external walls and two interconcerned about the strucFor listing on the national nal walls. These are poured tural integrity of the walls, but register, exact re-creation concrete walls.” an engineering study showed is not required as long as the Morgan is working with they were in good shape historical defining features are Ashland historic preservadespite the conflagration. retained, said Kramer. Chartionist George Kramer to “We sort of have a handacter defining features that gain the historical listing and shake agreement with the Park survived includes the stepped qualify for a rehabilitation Service,” said Kramer. parapet building front, the tax credit from the federal “They weighed it. It was 8-by-12-foot front opening government. Kramer said tough for them,” said Morgan. and large windows on several the process, with a burned “There was so little left of the walls. building, is different because building. There was no roof, The second phase of the normally you would first put just a shell,” said Morgan. project, creation of architecone on the register, then do Talent had put the building tural plans, is now underway. the work. on its landmark list in 2011.

The third phase will be formal Instead, the pair are lookDr. Theodore Malmgren had application for listing once ing at a three-step process, the building constructed in work is completed. the first of which has been 1925 for use as an automobile Morgan said she expects completed with the National garage. It’s set back from the the cost of rebuilding to Park Service, which adminisexceed the amount of insurters the register program. The sidewalk since the space out front once had gas pumps. In ance reimbursement. Morgan service needed to determine 2011, Talent Urban Renewal had Western Environmental whether the shell has enough Agency funded re-creation historic characteristics that it clean the site rather than wait of bi-fold wooden doors the could be listed. for FEMA to do it because “They agreed. It took a little building first had, replacing she didn’t like looking at the negotiation and convincing,” existing roll-up doors in the destruction in downtown

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Talent. Insurance covered that cost.

“You’ve got to bring things up to code, but you want to capture that historic feel.

It’s always a tradeoff as to how you capture that,” said Morgan. “It is so complicated.

I thought I would be rebuilding this last spring. That’s how naive about the process I was.”

Kramer has about a halfdozen photos of the building from various sources. One of the best, which shows it in 1951 as a feed store, came from the Oregon Department of Transportation.

Kramer has worked on projects in downtown Portland and The Dalles that restored buildings in decrepit condition for listings on the national register. He was also involved with the effort in Medford to get Cargill Court, damaged

by a fire, on the register. The project never happened and the building was razed to become a parking lot.

Morgan also lost the nearby 1906 Hanscom Hall, which was on the register, in the Almeda fire. Working with Kramer, Morgan restored the building then got it listed in 1996. It was Talent’s first listing on the National Register.

Morgan plans to rebuild the structure, but not to criteria that could again qualify it for the National Register.

Hanscom Hall escaped destruction in a 1911 fire that burned down much of Talent.

As one of the few standing buildings, it served as a center for the town and as the post office, said Kramer. It had a variety of commercial uses over the years, including time as Talent Café.

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Survey: Students, adults divided on John Muir school rename

By Kevin Opsahl ACC

The survey results are in and of those who participated, current and former students of the John Muir Outdoor School support renaming the institution, while other groups are divided on the matter.

The information, requested by the Ashland School Board, was shared for the first time at an Oct. 25 work session. The community input survey went live on Oct. 5 and closed on Oct. 21.

“As always, we want to hear from as many people as possible so we can hear multiple perspectives,” said Andrea Townsend, director of equity and inclusion for the Ashland School District, in an interview on Wednesday. “We’re grateful for those responses … and the school board [members] that took the time to meet with the outdoor school staff. They are an amazing group of people and always want what is best for students.”

Eva Skuratowicz, chairwoman of the school board, applauded the study and the staff of JMOS. “I think it’s really helpful to have that input from the John Muir staff,” she said. “This is something that should be celebrated — something where they’re definitely leading the way for us as a school district.”

JMOS, located at 320 Beach St., serves K-8 and emphasizes a curriculum based on “natural science, traditional arts, and music,” according to its website. While enrolled, students of the school “build relationships with the natural world through planting, hiking, sketching and spending time outdoors.”

While it opened in 2006 under a different name, the school was always named after Muir, considered the “Father of the National Parks” and co-founder of the Sierra Club who died in 1914.

But in recent years, Muir’s father-figure legacy has been called into question as possibly racist by academics and even

MAIL TRIBUNE FILE PHOTO

Second- and third-graders study plant life in the John Muir School courtyard.

members and 56% of former or current parents did, too.

Meanwhile, 44% of former or current JMOS parents did not not support the name change and 22% of former or current staff members shared the same view.

For those with no direct ties to the JMOS, 69% favored a Survey results name change, while 31% did In all, 105 people were not. surveyed. Seventy of them “It’s important for us to supported the name change also hear from the rest of the and 35 did not. community,” said Townsend, While 100% of current and speaking to why people not former students supported associated with JMOS were a name change, only 78% surveyed. “We know that of former or current staff some families might not have

the organization he founded.

They point to his writings, in which he described Native Americans living in Yosemite as “filthy.” They also accuse Muir of participating in a genocide of Indigenous tribes in the Sierra Nevada, where he is from, in the 1800s.

may have on members of the school community based on the namesake’s morally repugnant views or actions,” according to the mission statement printed in the committee’s report.

JMOS was the only facility the committee recommended the school approve renaming at this time.

“The other thing we heard from the JMOS staff is this is a name change for the entire community,” Skuratowicz said. “Simultaneously, there is a real sense of belonging — it’s a smaller school, people feel very committed to the school, and the name is very significant to them.”

With those feelings in mind, the board chair asked if more JMOS staff members would be added to a committee to decide on the new name if the board approves a renaming.

Board member Victor Chang said at the meeting that the school board does many things, but this decision over whether to rename a school, “aligns with our strategic plans and equity and inclusion goals.”

“It was nice to hear, in seeing the survey results, that they are really, for the most part, pretty in favor of this,” Chang said. “It would be hard for me to support moving forward if the JMOS community was not on board. What would we do?

Force it on them?”

The board will vote on whether to rename JMOS this month.

students at John Muir Outdoor Curriculum School currently, but it may be Jennifer Parks, principal of something they’re considering JMOS, recently asked some of for the future. her teachers how they incorpoDiscussion: JMOS name rate Muir into the curriculum.

One class reads a book about change him for inspiration of short The survey comes after sevwriting prompts focused on eral months of work by the being outdoors, she wrote in Ashland School Board-apan email to the newspaper. pointed committee tasked Another class examines more with researching and dis- closely his work as a naturalist cussing the people for whom and how he “advocated politthe district’s buildings and ically for the US government grounds are named. That to prioritize forest conservadiscussion includes consid- tion policy, the preservation ering “any negative impact and respect for wild places,” that official building names Parker wrote.

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Beach Creek housing development passes first reading

By Allayana Darrow ACC

Ashland City Council approved the first reading Oct. 19 of an ordinance annexing nearly eight acres of property into the city for a new 52-unit single-family residential housing development with eight affordable housing units directly northeast of the intersection of North Mountain Avenue and the railroad tracks.

The Planning Commission approved a request for development of the subdivision, which does not go into effect until the council approves annexation, according to Community Development Director Bill Molnar.

If approved, 7.9 acres of a 10-acre property will be annexed with single-family residential zoning. The remaining 2.1 acres of the parcel adjacent to North Mountain Avenue are already within the city, according to senior planner Derek Severson.

The proposal, submitted by developer KDA Homes, includes 52 units, eight common areas and eight units guaranteed affordable to those making 80% of area median income — consistent with the city’s annexation code, Severson said.

Between May 2021 and May 2022, income limits by family size are capped at $38,300 for one person, $43,750 for two, $49,200 for three and $54,650 for four people to meet 80% AMI for affordable housing, according to the city.

The proposed development includes a limited activities and uses permit to install a bridge over Beach Creek, to provide street connectivity through the subdivision from North Mountain Avenue to neighborhoods due east, Severson said.

A permit to remove four of 25 trees on the property — approved by the Tree Commission — does not include a 60-inch diameter black oak tree or large Ponderosa pine considered significant to the parcel, he said. A planting plan for the subdivision includes 138 new trees.

The Transportation

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Ashland City Hall, right, on the Ashland Plaza.

Commission found that the development application meets criteria for adequate transportation by automobile, bicycle, pedestrian and mass transit, Severson said.

KDA Homes proposed partnering with Rogue Valley Habitat for Humanity to complete the eight affordable units, connect utilities and provide site work. The units will be comparable in construction, bedroom mix, material details and energy efficiency, Severson said.

The proposal features four cottage-style affordable units clustered in the southeast corner with access from Orchid Street and four single-family affordable units distributed throughout the subdivision.

The proposed subdivision’s street connections include Village Park Drive, Kirk Lane, Old Willow Lane, Orchid Street and Rose Lane. Severson said a traffic engineer found that 80% of site trips will use North Mountain Avenue, 10% will use Orchid Street to access the cottages and the remaining 10%

will be distributed among other street connections.

The city’s Public Works Department has initiated a capital improvement project to improve North Mountain Avenue by filling sidewalk gaps, calming traffic and improving the bike path, accessibility and storm drainage.

KDA agreed to share the cost of necessary riparian restoration along Beach Creek abutting Ashland Village Homeowners Association property on the north boundary, according to Ashland Village HOA co-president Beth Jandernoa.

During the public hearing, Jandernoa asked for city partnership addressing intense water flow, erosion and debris issues in the Beach Creek channel.

“We are concerned that if this is not addressed during the development stage, it could place the future Beach Creek HOA in a difficult position of making corrections affecting the safety and health of the

areas downstream,” said Sue Whiteman, Ashland Village homeowner.

Per conditions set by Public Works, subdivision development must not add to stream impacts compared to the vacant property baseline, KDA land use planner Mark Knox said, and KDA is prepared to employ a stream impact mitigation strategy.

Neighbors will receive notice when a final plan is submitted with engineered drawings and can request another hearing in front of the Planning Commission if they believe KDA’s proposed measures are inadequate, Severson said.

Councilor Stephen Jensen made a motion to “direct staff to prepare written findings for approval of the proposed annexation, incorporating the Planning Commission’s decision and the staff recommendations, for Council adoption on Nov. 2.”

“Getting these islands eliminated and incorporated into the city is an essential part of

infill,” Jensen said.

Councilor Paula Hyatt, supporting the motion, said in addition to the thorough planning process behind the project, the bedroom mix in affordable units includes sizes conducive to large families.

The motion and advancement of relevant ordinance adoption to second reading passed unanimously.

“I think we’re moving forward on several of our goals as a community in this development and I’m looking forward to also seeing how those drainage issues are addressed,” Councilor Tonya Graham said.

“I feel like this was a very productive part of our meeting and I’m grateful that we’re moving forward and getting some housing into Ashland,” Councilor Gina DuQuenne said.

Reach reporter Allayana Darrow at adarrow@rosebudmedia.com or 541-776-4497.

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Electric mowers propel Ashland parks and rec toward green goals obnoxious when the mowers come around,” he said. “We’re using them, we’re excited to have them and think they’re going to make a good addition to our fleet.”

Commissioner Julian Bell pointed to the possibility of fewer miles being driven by parks staff searching for a place to mow without bothering visitors as a supplemental benefit of switching to electric mowers.

“APRC is obliged to try and make its own efforts to improve its greenhouse gas emissions, but I also think that it has the potential to provide some leadership for the city,” Bell said. “The city has done a lot of things to try and improve its sustainability efforts, but this is committing to investing in more concrete greenhouse gas reduction devices.”

By Allayana Darrow ACC

Ashland park visitors may have noticed new electric mowers maintaining the city’s landscapes — the latest action taken as part of the Ashland Parks and Recreation environmental sustainability and implementation goal, ranked second for priority in the current biennial budget.

Three electric mowers replaced diesel mowers used to maintain manicured parks and the golf course, funded out of a $150,000 allocation in the capital improvements program budget to purchase equipment with the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. In all, three electric mowers, accessories and delivery to Ashland cost $86,424, according to APRC Director Michael Black.

“The bottom line for us is we’re trying to do our part in moving Ashland Parks and Recreation toward more sustainable maintenance practices,” Black said. “This is the first opportunity that we’ve had to replace some of our bigger equipment with electric motors and to make what we think is a bigger step or even a leap toward a greener APRC.” Other projects under consideration for the remainder of the allocation include transitioning city buildings from gas furnaces to electric, he said.

While the electric mower transition is intended to reduce the department’s overall carbon footprint and offer staff an opportunity to become acquainted with emerging technologies as more equipment converts to electric, other benefits include potential water savings, Black said.

The electric mowers are “superior” to the old diesel machines, he said, because of specific features, such as a touch screen with the ability to raise and lower the deck to adapt to each site, without needing to take the equipment into the shop to be adjusted. Water intake capacity depends on the depth to which grass is mowed, he said.

PHOTO COURTESY OF SEAN SULLIVAN

Bill Miller, parks maintenance supervisor, operates one of Ashland Parks and Recreation’s new electric mowers.

Water savings for lawns and grass landscapes hinges on the efficacy of irrigation techniques, and a lawn’s drought resistance can be improved by setting the mowing height to at least 3 inches for cool-season grasses and at least 1.5 inches for warm-season grasses, according to the University of California Center for Landscape & Urban Horticulture.

APRC’s diesel mowers had all exceeded a six-year standard life cycle — by 17 years in one case, according to the June 1 Parks Commission staff report. The replacement cost for one diesel mower of a similar model was estimated at $25,000.

Parks staff arranged with the electric mower manufacturer a demonstration of its 72-inch model May 20, followed by a week of testing the model in June. The 72-inch model costs $34,499 and the 60-inch model costs $25,549, not including optional accessories. The electric mowers last all day and charge overnight, Black said.

“They’re quiet as well, so if you’re in the park, it’s not as

Reach reporter Allayana Darrow at adarrow@rosebudmedia.com or 541-776-4497.

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New designs proposed for Black art installation

By Allayana Darrow ACC

In the spring, the Say Their Names Collective issued a call to Black artists for proposals for a permanent art installation, yielding four submissions. Two proposals passed a community voting phase and recently came in front of the Ashland Parks and Recreation Commission, which will oversee design and installation of any artwork on APRC property.

The art installation was initially proposed to supplant or add to the “Say Their Names” memorial along the fence at Railroad Park — erected in response to George Floyd’s murder at the hands of Minneapolis police in May 2020.

Micah BlackLight proposed a winged figure sculpture for placement at Railroad Park or Ashland Creek Park, titled “Ancestor’s Future: Crystalizing Our Call.”

BlackLight indicated a preference for placement at Ashland Creek Park as a way to establish “identity” in the space, and in recognition of the HUB sculpture approved for installation at Railroad Park this fall.

BlackLight’s proposed stainless and ferris steel sculpture alludes to angels, ancestors and those in touch with greater understanding, he said. Domed wings shield the figure “from the figurative arrows and stones of classism, racism, division and hatred,” as well as harsh weather.

An open space in the figure’s chest allows the viewer to see through to the mountains and sky and represents limitless love, he said. A half-ring of stepping stones in front would invite viewers to share space with the figure, take a moment of introspection or meditate.

Decorating the stones could be a community activity, he said.

COURTESY IMAGE

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Micah BlackLight proposed a winged figure sculpture for placement at Railroad Park or Ashland Creek Park, titled “Ancestor’s Future: Crystalizing Our Call.”

“Some may even view him as the spirit of George Floyd, whose death turned out to be such an incredibly galvanizing spark for so many, that he could return as a being of greater understanding, shepherding the way to a better life, paved by his death,” BlackLight said.

A book on the figure’s lap represents accountability for what has happened and continues to be written, inscribed with the names of Black and Brown people devoted to ending cycles of violence and those lost to police brutality, he said. The book would open on three sides.

“He looks ahead to the waiting hope of the future, while letting us know he’s not going to forget and he’s not blind to the trials we will face in our quest for that future — there’s no rosy glasses,” BlackLight said.

BlackLight listed collaborators for the proposed sculpture project, including a master sculptor, local fabrication company and metalsmith.

“Because it involves the curiosity, because it engages the viewer, it would serve as an invitation into the park,” he said. “To sit on the grass and to actually partake of

the energy and the space of the park as opposed to being something that’s a thing that you stare at.”

As part of the community engagement component the collective specified as critical, the public could contribute to drafting a statement of intent for inscription on the sculpture, BlackLight said.

Jerryck “JRoc” Murrey proposed a sculpture composed of four nine-foot timber dominoes and a seated viewing area at Ashland Creek Park, celebrating the journey of Black culture through American history and highlighting the value of cultural contributions “despite systemic challenges.” “(Playing dominoes) is often a time when the community orients around each other, comes together and it’s a jovial experience,” Murrey said.

“It contrasts deeply with the broader statement of ‘falling like dominoes.’”

In 1930, a law prohibited Blacks and whites from playing dominoes or checkers together in Birmingham, Alabama.

“African American leisure activities have often included playing tabletop games like checkers, dominoes, bid whist and others,” according to the Smithsonian National

Jerryck “JRoc” Murrey proposed a sculpture composed of four nine-foot mass timber dominoes and a seated viewing area at Ashland Creek Park, celebrating the journey of Black culture through American history and highlighting the value of cultural contributions “despite systemic challenges.”

Museum of African American History and Culture. “(The games) brought groups and families together, which made it a threat to the Jim Crow South.”

The orientation of the dominoes somewhat mimics Stonehenge, “underscoring the disparity within the ancestral voyage to America,” Murrey wrote in the project proposal.

Foot traffic from the nearby skate park and community garden make Ashland Creek Park an ideal nexus for the sculpture, with fewer barriers to installation compared to other sites in town, he said.

Numerical figures on the dominoes further illustrate the message — three over five representing a time when enslaved people were counted as three-fifths of a person under article one, section two of the U.S. Constitution, for example.

Murrey proposed burning one of the dominoes in a controlled environment to char as a community event to accompany the installation, to protect the wood from insects and rot, and add a layer of fire protection, he said. A resin would cover the three unburned dominoes. “(The controlled burn) would represent a vigil for

the lives lost and a way for the community to reflect, and also create a presentation art that the community can be complicit in in the best way,” Murrey said.

“The charred timber would symbolize that even when a community is involved in shared traumatic experiences, through fire we can become stronger and more unified,” he wrote. “In this sense, the fire is metaphorical to the trials which serve to change physical properties and make the elements stronger.”

A panel of Black community members will vote to select a permanent art installation design in January, before submitting the selection to the Public Arts Commission, Say Their Names Collective leader Jessica Freedman said.

APRC considered maintenance, safety and durability for both proposals.

“I’m excited that Ashland Creek Park looks to be a viable option for this project,” Commissioner Mike Gardiner said.

“It appears to be more appropriate from my vantage point because of no competing other artwork in the park ... and I would be excited to take my grandkids and explore either one of these pieces on our way to the playground.”

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FILE PHOTO

Outside dining is offered on Calle Guanajuato in Ashland.

Calle Guanajuato season extended through December

By Allayana Darrow ACC

The Ashland Parks and Recreation Commission approved an extension of the Calle Guanajuato season through Dec. 31.

The season was scheduled to end Nov. 14, but the Lithia Artisans Market and all but two restaurants with seating on the Calle were keen to keep the season open through the end of the year, Recreation Superintendent Rachel Dials said.

Last year, APRC approved a season extension through Feb. 28, in response to the ongoing economic struggle facing vendors and restaurants in downtown Ashland amid the pandemic.

Dials said she was approached by a restaurant with interest in extending the season further — feasibility pending review of the maintenance schedule and staff capacity this winter, Dials said.

An additional extension may be brought back to the

commission in December.

Artisans Market manager Marcus Scott said the flexibility afforded to the market last year allowed artisans to put together a safe and enjoyable shopping experience for locals and visitors as the pandemic progressed.

“This collaborative effort makes me quite proud,” Scott said. “The presence that we have had out there is something that we shouldn’t take for granted. … 2020 was about survival, 2021 has been about trying to catch up a little bit.”

Scott said typically, most of the two-dozen artisans are market veterans. This year, 15-20 new artists joined the crew. The outdoor market serves as a primary economic resource for artisans, without major indoor shows to bring revenue, he said.

“What we have found is that we’ve been able to have this great presence there and continue to be a draw to downtown when not much else is going on,” Scott said.

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American

NOVEMBER 2021

BAND College ABC will return to Ashland in 2022 for its annual 18-day summer clinic for band directors SEE PAGE 2

Concert guest artists include Julian Bliss on clarinet.

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COVER STORY

ABC BAND DIRECTORS’ PROGRAM WILL RETURN IN 2022

By Jim Flint for Revels

American Band College will return to Ashland in 2022 for its annual 18-day summer clinic for band directors after a pandemic detour forced them online in 2020 and to the Puget Sound in 2021.

The summer clinics, each with two public concerts, are part of ABC’s master’s degree program.

Up to 200 strong in recent years, summer workshop attendees will present concerts at two venues in 2022 — a June 26 performance at Craterian Theater and the traditional Fourth of July concert at Ashland High School Stadium with fireworks following. The band also plans to march in the Ashland Fourth of July parade.

The program, founded by Ashland’s Max McKee, enrolls students from around the world for its three-year master’s degree program. McKee serves as the executive director of the organization, and his son Scott is the CEO. Max McKee and his wife, Nell, recently returned from a five-week tour of Europe, including visits to Greece, London and Ireland.

While in Greece, they checked in with two ABC grads (2003 and 2006) in Thessaloniki — Yiannis Kouokas and Nikos Chrysouhoou.

“They are amazing,” McKee said. “Between them, they have over 150 players in their two concert bands. I saw up close all the great things those two men have done for band music in Greece.”

McKee said they are the “goto” directors in Greece when it comes to band music and band festivals. They will return to Ashland next summer to guest conduct at the Fourth of July concert.

Concert guest artists will be Julian Bliss on clarinet and Harry Watters on trombone.

The two appeared with the ABC band in its Craterian

ABC PHOTO

Trombonist Harry Watters will be a headliner when the Ashland Band College band performs this summer in Ashland, after a pandemic detour of two years.

concert in 2019.

Bliss, a concert soloist and jazz artist, has performed recently with the Sao Paolo Symphony, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Paris, BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, and the London Philharmonic. In 2012, he established the Julian Bliss Septet, creating programs inspired by jazz great Benny Goodman.

Watters toured with the Dukes of Dixieland for four years, and was in demand as a Bourbon Street musician when doing graduate work at the University of New Orleans, serving as the graduate assistant to Professor Ellis Marsalis.

Today he performs internationally and has recorded extensively.

Guest composers will be

Randall Standridge and Julie Giroux.

Standridge is marching band editor for Grand Mesa Music Publishers. He is in demand as a clinician, drill designer and music arranger. A resident of Jonesboro, Arkansas, he also is a freelance artist, photographer and writer.

Giroux, whose first published work for concert band was composed when she was 13, now has more than 100 film, television and video game credits. She has collaborated with Martin Scorsese, Madonna, Celene Dion, Clint Eastwood, Michael Jackson, Harry Connick Jr. and many others. Nominated for Emmy, Oscar and Golden Globe awards, she has won three Emmys.

When in London on their

recent trip, the McKees attended two 25-year celebration performances of Riverdance. The Riverdance fiddler, Haley Richardson, performed in an Irish-themed show with ABC in 2016 when she was 13 years old.

“She’s one of the best fiddlers of all time,” McKee said.

“Riverdance composer Bill Whelan created a five-minute segment in the production, featuring Haley as the single player on stage.”

The McKees took her to dinner after one of the performances to finalize details for her 2023 return appearance at ABC. ABC recently finalized purchase of a building in Ashland at the corner of Siskiyou Boulevard and Liberty, originally the Hillside Church.

The 6,000-square-foot structure will be remodeled to create high-density storage space for ABC’s music collection (now housed at Lincoln School), as well as a study area, rehearsal space and a place for music prep setup. The lower floor will be used to store equipment.

“We had architectural drawings created for a new building to be placed on Ashland School District property,” McKee said. “But the $1.3 million price tag increased to $3.2 million.”

Rather than jeopardize ABC’s endowment, they switched gears.

“There’s a small house on the property that we’ll rent out to help pay the bills,” he said.

A second house, donated by patron and supporter Gladys Wright, will be sold by ABC, effectively halving the cost of the church acquisition.

“Gladys and her husband, Al, were kingpins in band music for 80 years,” McKee said. Al Wright died last year at the age of 104, and Gladys Wright is 96.

ABC is making arrangements with Ashland School District to use high school facilities for rehearsal space, as in previous

years.

Program enrollees learn from some of the nation’s top band technicians and clinicians during the three summer programs. About half of the three-year degree work is done at home, between summers.

Candidates are required to complete six projects, two each year. They include work based on a five-hour entrance exam, sound and video recordings, and a final in-depth project dealing with their 20 favorite clinic sessions (out of more than 150) and 30 favorite band pieces (out of nearly 400).

A day-long final exam for third-year enrollees July 5 completes the program each summer. It’s comprehensive, to say the least. It includes a written exam; giving start-up lessons in clarinet, horn and snare drum to students who have never played the instruments; and a diagnostic rehearsal as a band performs what McKee calls the BooBoo Concert.

“Each candidate conducts one of four 35-piece bands of non-graduating master’s candidates who have 25 specific mistakes to perform,” he said.

“The candidate has 12 minutes to find as many of those errors as possible.”

McKee has been passionate about concert band music for decades. He was director of bands at SOU before founding the ABC master’s degree program in 1989.

ABC was first affiliated with SOU, then with Sam Houston State University, and now with Central Washington University in Ellensburg.

“It’s amazing to me to see the ever-present interest of so many of our 1,200 grads,” McKee said. “To this day, we are still in touch with all but 75 of the group of 1,200.”

Reach Ashland writer Jim Flint at jimflint.ashland@yahoo. com.

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CURTAIN CALL

HITTING THE HIGH NOTES

way to go

ROGUE RETREAT COURTESY PHOTO

Soprano Jennifer Matsuura and Cody Growe perform in a Brava Opera workshop. Matsuura will appear in holiday concerts with Rogue Valley Chorale and Jefferson Baroque Orchestra Dec. 4-5 and Southern Oregon Repertory Singers Dec. 18-19.

By Jim Flint forACC

I

t wasn’t until she enrolled at Southern Oregon University that Jennifer Matsuura first sang with a choir. Before that, she did a little singing in her high school’s theater program, was involved in band, played percussion in the marching band, and performed with the Hawaii Youth Symphony.

Today she is much in demand as a soprano, and a core singer with the 65-voice Southern Oregon Repertory Singers. She has sung opera, is soprano cantor at Trinity Episcopal Church in

Ashland, and has sung with a local contemporary Hawaiian group called Ha’ena.

Her fans are looking forward to hearing her sing at the Rep Singers’ holiday concerts Dec. 18-19, and catching her solo debut in Handel’s “Messiah” with the Rogue Valley Chorale and Jefferson Baroque Orchestra Dec. 4-5.

She manages all this while working as a therapist in a private practice, working part-time at a downtown Ashland shop called Prize, and doing some commercial modeling on the side.

It was at SOU where SEE CURTAIN, A22

Inspiring hope and restoring lives, Rogue Retreat provides shelter for more than 600 homeless individuals and families on any given night. Supportive services help program participants secure employment and permanent housing.

Learn more at rogueretreat.org.

Celebrating those making a difference in our amazing community.

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| Thursday, November 4, 2021

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CURTAIN CALL

FILMMAKER NICK ALEXANDER STARTED YOUNG

HE’S BEEN MAKING VIDEOS SINCE THE FIFTH GRADE

By Jim Flint for ACC

W

hen Nick Alexander was in the fifth grade, he started “messing around” with his parents’ camcorder, making silly home videos with his sisters. And the seed of a filmmaking career was planted.

It was nourished in middle school when he took a video production class, which inspired him to learn video editing.

“In high school, I continued learning video production and made a few short films,” he said. One of them earned a best film award in his junior year.

It was his passion for storytelling primarily that attracted him to filmmaking. And to this day, it is top of mind when he tackles a project, whether it be a feature length documentary or a 60-second spot for a commercial client.

Alexander, 28, got his first paid gig when he was a junior at Southern Oregon University in 2015, a wedding video. Today, he owns a video production business that employs nine people and is very busy juggling multiple projects at a time.

In the interim, he worked in news for the ABC affiliate in Medford and taught Spanish at Rogue Community College for three years.

He knew it might not be easy in a smaller market to build a filmmaking business, but he was not afraid of hard work.

“That’s what it takes,” he said, “along with developing strong interpersonal skills and determination — the courage to keep trying.”

Alexander uses digital media in his work.

COURTESY PHOTOS

Filmmaker Nick Alexander, right, and production assistant Ali Lyn work on an Ashland Chamber of Commerce project on the livability of the Rogue Valley.

“We film with Red cinema cameras and some mirrorless cameras,” he said. “We fly drones and have a lot of fun with the storytelling toys we utilize. It’s astounding how technology continues to improve and evolve.”

Alexander and his team do a lot of projects for commercial clients.

“There are some seasons when there are no feature film projects. That means we need to find other work to keep the business profitable and sustainable,” he said.

“My video team and I doubled down on commercial jobs at the beginning of the pandemic and have had dozens upon dozens of projects since.”

The increased amount of traffic on social media and the need to work remotely created a big need for high quality video marketing for businesses.

Nick Alexander at the New York City premiere of his first feature-length documentary.

Some of his recent commercial projects include a series on the livability of the Rogue Valley for the Ashland Chamber of Commerce, a video series for Rick Harris Real Estate Group, student

testimonials for Klamath Community College, a vaccine campaign for Sky Lakes Medical Center, an internet commercial for T net Broadband, and a Costa Rica destination wedding.

“Even though we love documentaries and making feature films, commercial projects are enjoyable,” he said. “I love to see clients react to our work and see the impact that we make on their businesses.”

It was a feature film that helped Alexander grow his business. Alexander was introduced by a mutual friend to Laz Ayala, a local real estate developer who was working on a presentation for the Rotary Club about his life as an immigrant from El Salvador.

“I was hired to film his presentation,” Alexander said.

“Afterward, I spoke with Laz, suggesting that his life could

be a movie.”

Later, Ayala warmed to the idea, and he teamed with Alexander to make the feature-length documentary, “Illegal,” based on the book he wrote of the same name.

After a New York City debut, “Illegal” went on to win many awards on the film festival circuit. Now it is available for rent or purchase on Apple TV and is available on other platforms.

A sequel followed, “Path to Prosperity.” Both films were made during the pandemic, which added delays and other challenges to the filmmaking process.

Alexander enjoyed all aspects of making the films — the directing, recording and editing. A highlight was attending the premiere of “Illegal” in New York.

“Seeing my first feature film on the silver screen in the Big Apple was nothing short of incredible,” he said.

Alexander also enjoys the collaborative nature of filmmaking.

“We continue to grow our team because we realize in order to take on more projects and feature films of quality we need many hands and creative minds.”

His team includes three editors, two marketing persons, and several camera operators.

He looks for people who share his values, who enjoy being part of a team, and who have excellent skills in filmmaking and storytelling.

Alexander’s goal is to make feature films every year, both documentaries and narrative films. When the pandemic subsides, Nick Alexander Films will be ready to hit the ground running.

Reach Ashland writer Jim Flint at jimflint.ashland@yahoo. com.

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NAMA IN ASHLAND

Thursday, November 4, 2021 |

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DINING

NEW RAW BAR IS REFINED, FRESH AS A COASTAL BREEZE

By Sarah Lemon for Revels

A

nyone who’s ever lamented the scarcity of truly fresh seafood in the Rogue Valley need look no farther than Ashland’s NAMA. This new raw bar is both as fresh as a coastal breeze and as studied and sophisticated as its sister establishment, MÄS. Expecting an antidote to subpar sushi, I tasted home — and an otherworldly realm — in a single bite at NAMA. Moon Rock is the signature brand of Clausen Oysters in my hometown of North Bend. Since the 40-yearold oyster farm — Oregon’s largest — was purchased from its founders four years ago by Patrick Glennon and Seth Silverman, more of these shellfish are served in the region’s restaurants, instead of shipped abroad.

I’ve enjoyed plenty of oysters straight from the source at Clausen’s store and eatery — but never raw until a recent dinner at NAMA. Described as sweet and nutty, Moon Rock was the latest addition to NAMA’s oyster lineup which also featured Washington’s Luna Bella and Shigoku, Alaska’s Hump Island and British Columbia’s famed Kusshi on the evening my partner and I visited.

Because the menu changes weekly, based on freshness and availability, customers shouldn’t count on specific seafoods. But I hope Moon Rock sticks around a bit longer.

Among our “mixed six on the half shell” ($24), I requested two Moon Rock from the five varieties — one apiece for me and my partner. Toasting the first of so many tantalizing tidbits, we

PHOTOS BY SARAH LEMON

The “mixed six on the half shell” offers the opportunity to taste several oyster varieties at Ashland’s NAMA.

sipped the bivalves from their bowl-shaped shells, chewed, swallowed and breathed sighs of satisfaction.

Sweet, yes; briny, yes; impeccably fresh, yes!

But oysters of this quality, handled in this manner are so much more. Trying to describe them doesn’t really capture their essence of pure ocean vitality distilled into luscious flesh — without a trace of grit or belly.

Subtle flavor nuances can be discerned among oyster varieties, but size and texture factor heavily into the impact each makes on the palate.

The smallest specimen, Kusshi, offered a silky swig of saline while the largest, Hump Island, inundated my mouth in a wave of saltwater, its minerality like sucking on smooth, surf-washed pebbles.

Improbable, I know. But once you taste it, you get it.

The minerality of Piu Piu dry riesling and Troon’s Pét tanNat, both semisparkling, perfectly complemented the oysters. As purposeful as its seafood selections, NAMA’s

wine list omits reds that simply wouldn’t enhance the cuisine. The heaviest wine we encountered, at the server’s suggestion, was Maloof Picnic Pinot Noir, more closely resembling a rose with a heady aroma of honey.

Avoiding flowery language around their dishes — and much verbiage at all — NAMA chefs readily explain each preparation. I needed only a single word — uni — to know that NAMA’s uni toast ($18) was indispensable.

Layered on pillowy white bread were thinly sliced heirloom tomato and shiso leaves, the latter’s velvety texture underscoring the buttery urchin topped with black and white pearls of sturgeon roe. The composition initially seems novel before the urchin’s savor — offset by sweet-tart tomato, punctuated by the shiso’s hint of vegetal bitterness — fully takes effect.

This is the taste of summer, the chef confirmed. We dubbed it a BLT of the sea.

A trio of mollusks — scallop, abalone and geoduck

uncertainty, I allowed him to tackle the easy pickings.

But when his hesitation over the claw became clear, I unceremoniously twisted the appendage off the body, clenched it between our cloth napkins and compressed the shell in my fist hard enough to weaken the joints, where I could excise the contents.

I must have been a sea otter in another life, I told him, eyebrows raised at the prize portions I’d extracted before dredging them in herbed mayonnaise and cocktail sauce.

Raw sea urchin is served with thinly My own plate, by contrast, sliced tomato and shiso leaves, topped with sturgeon roe, on toast at was a study in refinement.

Ashland’s NAMA. Precision knife work transformed scallop, abalone and clam — beckoned under the geoduck into toothsome menu’s heading “ice bento ruffles and ribbons. Accombox.” My partner gravitated paniments included golden to lobster, steamed and split down the middle. But I craved beets, cucumber, Roma a palate cleanser after the uni, tomatoes, herbs and edible blossoms. But the dish ($35) and pickled mackerel ($16) emphasized intriguing texture filled the bill. over intense flavor.

The chef touted the oily The most straightforward fish as house-cured — unlike and recognizable element was commercially pickled mackat the plate’s center: a dish of erel in the majority of sushi salmon roe — sweet, peachybars — before it’s lightly pink beads on a cushion of grilled. Given the portion of creme fraiche garnished with two fillets with a variety of dill. Such a simple classic, pickled vegetables, the dish such an elemental delicacy seemed a good value. And I stands on its own innate was pleased that my partner, merits. typically unimpressed with Bringing the meal full pickles, couldn’t get enough circle, my bento contained of it. After we’d polished two oyster shooters in ponzu. off the fish, shaved fennel, carrots, turnips and julienned Having eaten more heartily than we anticipated, my partkombu, he actually drank the ner and I languidly clinked juices pooled on the plate. glasses and leisurely lapped The half lobster ($35) afforded another opportunity up these final oysters, confifor enthusiastic consumption. dent they wouldn’t be our last at NAMA. Diners pry morsels from the A half dozen oysters costs crustacean’s tail, body and just $6 during NAMA’s claw without the benefit of “happy hour,” 4-5 and 9-10 specialized tools — unless p.m. Limit one order per you count chopsticks — for the job. A strategically placed person. Reserve online at namaashland.com. Located crack in the claw would at 140 Lithia Way, NAMA is greatly assist the average open 4-10 p.m. Wednesday diner. through Sunday.

Sensing my partner’s

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| Thursday, November 4, 2021 |

PERFORMANCES

CRATERIAN THEATER

SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE IN 2021-22 SEASON Local report

T

his season, you can expect to see a little bit of everything at the Craterian, and perhaps most importantly, you can enjoy the shows as they are meant to be seen: live, in-person and together. Whether you enjoy music, comedy, dance, storytelling, Broadway musicals or a little of everything, you’ll undoubtedly see something that piques your interest in this year’s lineup.

The Craterian Theater, located at 23 S. Central Ave. in Medford, has announced four new shows to its season lineup. This news coincides with a slight shuffling of the theater’s fall start to its 202122 season, which will include 20 touring productions coming to Medford.

“True to our mission as a performing arts center, this December Craterian Performances will launch a robust and eclectic season of shows that offer something for everyone. In other words, we’re back. And we’re not just picking up where we left off.

If anything, our programming is more varied than before the pandemic, and we capitalized on closure mandates by using the time to make facility improvements,” said Craterian Performances Executive Director, Stephen McCandless, in a press release. “... Whenever we could, even with social distancing and masks and capacity restrictions, we created.

That’s because the performing arts always have something to say about life and our circumstances, in the good times and the bad. That’s why they’re so important. It’s that kind of self-reflection that gives us empathy and makes us

more human,” McCandless continued.

After moving Paula Poundstone and rock concert Heart

by Heart from the fall to the spring (see box for full listings), Craterian Performances will kick off its 2021-22 season with Jake Shimabukuro — a new show to the lineup — on Dec. 6.

Other newly announced shows also include the return of comedian Brian Regan on Feb.23, an album-release show with local favorites, The Brothers Reed, on May 6, and a first-time visit from multi-hyphenate legend Henry Rollins on May 15.

“None of this would be possible without the generous support of our community, the forward-thinking philanthropy of several foundations and trusts, and the stimulus funds we received,” McCandless said. “As a result, we’re more optimistic than ever about the future of the performing arts on the Craterian stage.”

Tickets for all Craterian shows are on sale now.

Tickets, information about the shows, and the theater’s COVID-19 policy can be found at craterian.org or by calling the box office at 541-779-3000.

2022 lineup Nov. 17-22: 19th Annual GingerBread Jubilee events Dec. 6: Jake Shimabukuro — “Christmas in Hawaii”** Dec. 19: Tomaseen Foley’s “A Celtic Christmas” Jan. 8: Piano Men starring Jim Witter — A Celebration of the Music of Billy Joel and Elton John Jan. 16: “Whose Live Anyway?”

Jan. 23: Jesse Cook Tempest II Tour Jan. 26: “Friends! The Musical Parody” Feb. 9: Yamato — Drummers of Japan

Tomaseen Foley, left, and Paula Poundstone.

Feb. 11: Storm Large Feb. 14: Mandy Harvey (as seen on “America’s Got Talent”) Feb. 23: Brian Regan** March 4-13: Teen Musical Theater of Oregon — “The Drowsy Chaperone” March 16: STOMP April 2: Animaniacs in Concert April 28: Comedienne Paula

Poundstone* April 29: Grammy Award-winner Lisa Loeb April 30: HYPROV: Improv Under Hypnosis May 5: The Brothers Reed** May 10: “Menopause the Musical”* May 14: American Rock Concert Heart by Heart*

May 15: Henry Rollins — Good to See You 2022** July/August 2022: TMTO presents Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast”* * Indicates that this show has been rescheduled since the Craterian’s first season announcement ** Newly added show

Prescriptions filled fast and accurately by friendly staff.

Personalized treatment for all your health needs.

Expert advice and referrals for both conventional and alternative healing resources.

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Thursday, November 4, 2021 |

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BOOKS

THE POWER OF RATIONAL THINKING

WHAT TO DO WHEN OUR WORLD SEEMS SO UNREASONABLE

Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters

By Steven Pinker Viking. 412 pp. $32

By Nick Romeo The Washington Post

L

ate in his life, the 17th-century philosopher Thomas Hobbes plunged into a controversy with an Oxford professor of geometry. Hobbes believed he had discovered how to square the circle. The professor begged to differ, and Hobbes wound up looking foolish. In 1651, Hobbes had written a passage in his famous “Leviathan” that almost anticipated the episode. When power is at stake, he argued, people will dispute even something as clear as the fact that the internal angles of a triangle sum to 180 degrees.

If you’ve ever seen someone — not yourself, of course — clinging doggedly to a flawed position to try to win an argument, you’ve witnessed a small instance of how what Hobbes termed a desire for “dominion” can distort reasoning.

More consequential examples are in abundant supply.

On issues such as vaccines, climate change and corporate taxation, a host of individual and institutional actors now seem dogmatically chained to unreason as they pursue real or illusory power. In fact, for champions of reason, the situation is far more dire than Hobbes suspected. Even with no ulterior drive to dominion, human cognition is susceptible to a range of errors and biases that have been extensively documented over the past several decades (though in many cases these are rediscoveries of older insights).

For anyone tempted to despair, however, Steven

VIKING

Pinker’s new book, “Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters,” offers a pragmatic dose of measured optimism, presenting rationality as a fragile but achievable ideal in personal and civic life.

Given our current moment of apparent national derangement, when large areas of culture and politics seem to have slipped all tethers to reality, Pinker’s ambition to illuminate such a crucial topic offers the welcome prospect of a return to sanity. And in many ways he succeeds — as with all of his books, this one is erudite, lucid, funny and dense with fascinating material. His

characteristic brew of Yiddish jokes, brainy comics and incisive argumentation is a pleasure to read, even when the subjects are technical and mathematical. It’s no small achievement to make formal logic, game theory, statistics and Bayesian reasoning delightful topics full of charm and relevance.

It’s also plausible to believe that a wider application of the rational tools he analyzes would improve the world in important ways. His primer on statistics and scientific uncertainty is particularly timely and should be required reading before consuming any

news about the pandemic.

More broadly, he argues that less media coverage of shocking but vanishingly rare events, from shark attacks to adverse vaccine reactions, would help prevent dangerous overreactions, fatalism and the diversion of finite resources away from solvable but less-dramatic issues, like malnutrition in the developing world.

It’s a reasonable critique, and Pinker is not the first to make it. But analyzing the political economy of journalism — its funding structures, ownership concentration and increasing reliance on social media shares — would have given a fuller picture of why so much coverage is so misguided and what we might do about it.

Pinker’s main focus is the sort of conscious, sequential reasoning that can track the steps in a geometric proof or an argument in formal logic. Skill in this domain maps directly onto the navigation of many real-world problems, and Pinker shows how greater mastery of the tools of rationality can improve decision-making in medical, legal, financial and many other contexts in which we must act on uncertain and shifting information. One recurring theme is the way that framing an identical choice in different ways — focusing on loss vs. gain, presenting a problem visually rather than verbally or substituting more concrete details for abstract variables — can make salient the logical core of otherwise tricky dilemmas.

Despite the undeniable power of the sort of rationality he describes, many of the deepest insights in the history of science, math, music and art strike their originators in moments of sudden epiphany.

From the 19th-century chemist Friedrich August Kekulé’s discovery of the structure of

benzene to any of Mozart’s symphonies, much extraordinary human achievement is not a product of conscious, sequential reasoning. Even Plato’s Socrates — who anticipated many of Pinker’s points by nearly 2,500 years, showing the virtue of knowing what you do not know and examining all premises in arguments, not simply trusting speakers’ authority or charisma — attributed many of his most profound insights to dreams and visions. Conscious reasoning is helpful in sorting the wheat from the chaff, but it would be interesting to consider the hidden aquifers that make much of the grain grow in the first place.

The role of moral and ethical education in promoting rational behavior is also underexplored. Pinker recognizes that rationality “is not just a cognitive virtue but a moral one.” But this profoundly important point, one subtly explored by ancient Greek philosophers like Plato and Aristotle, doesn’t really get developed. This is a shame, since possessing the right sort of moral character is arguably a precondition for using rationality in beneficial ways.

The capacity to be gracefully refuted in an argument is largely a moral one, and decreasing one’s desire for Hobbesian “dominion” is not something that another tutorial on statistics or game theory can achieve. For people who have mastered these formal tools and are now abusing them to gain dubious ends, something very different is needed — cultivation of the sort of moral character that allows one both to perceive and to desire the right things in life.

Nick Romeo is a critic and journalist based in Athens. He is writing a book on the future of economics.

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BOOKS

THROUGH HIS 61 YEARS

ANTHONY BOURDAIN’S MESSY, BRILLIANT LIFE

Bourdain: The Definitive Oral Biography

By Laurie Woolever Ecco. 464 pp. $29.99

By Tim Carman The Washington Post

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nthony Bourdain attracted people to him, beyond the usual parasocial relationships that develop between the famous and those who love them from afar. Folks felt like they knew him. They felt connected to him. That was one of Bourdain’s gifts as a writer, raconteur and television travel guide: He was open to experiencing the world, the best and the worst of it, and he in return presented himself as an open book to the world.

He was a guy who hated artificiality, yet he practiced his craft on, arguably, the most manipulative medium in history. That dissonance, I’m convinced, was part of what made many of us love Bourdain even more: He presented himself as an intellectual truth-teller on an idiot box that Neil Postman, the writer and theorist, once said was “largely aimed at emotional gratification.” Bourdain was the guy who could juggle romanticism, nostalgia and unvarnished truth, whether it was about Atlantic City, Iran or his own troubled life.

David Simon understood Bourdain’s tractor beam. Simon is a writer and television producer, best known for “The Wire,” and if you follow his Twitter feed, you know he’s not prone to sentimentality. Which is part of the reason I’m so struck by his interview with Laurie Woolever in her absorbing new book, “Bourdain: The Definitive Oral Biography.” Simon recalls watching an episode in which Bourdain visited a South American city that the producer couldn’t remember.

Bourdain sat with his back against an alley wall, watching kids playing kickball while locals drank a redwine-and-cola concoction known as siete y tres.

There’s “this look of incredible sadness and love” on Bourdain’s

“Bourdain: The Definitive Oral Biography,” by Laurie Woolever, right.

ECCO PHOTOS

face, Simon tells Woolever. “It was a moment of duende for me. It’s like, this guy loves people. He’s trying desperately to connect in ways that great journalists and great writers connect.

And also, the writing is so good, the narration so well-written, that I just wanted to be his friend.”

Simon had the connections and influence to eventually make friends with Bourdain. (He would even ask Bourdain to write scenes for the HBO series “Treme,” about post-Katrina New Orleans and its subplot about a chef trying to find her way.) But here’s the thing: Whether you were a friend in real life, like Simon, or just a vicarious one, like most of us, you’ve probably tried in the three-plus years since Bourdain’s death by suicide to reconcile the man who seemingly had nothing to hide with the man whose private demons led to that awful night in a luxury hotel in Alsace, France.

Oscar winner Morgan Neville’s documentary “Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain” provided more than a few insights into the man, but the film’s power was curbed in two ways, one avoidable and one not: It was limited to a couple of hours of running time, normal for the medium, and it was sidetracked by

Collectively, the stories and remembrances are heartbreaking, infuriating, inspiring, damning, loving and sometimes even disorienting. We learn over the course of more than 400 pages that the portrait Bourdain painted of himself — tough, empathetic, quick-witted, curious, damaged, competitive, no-nonsense — was just a sketch.

So many shadings had yet to be filled in. a controversy in which Neville used artificial intelligence to have Bourdain read a few of his own passages posthumously. The public spent more time arguing about the ethics of A.I. than it did debating the merits of Neville’s work.

Woolever’s book does a much better job of filling the void, and she’s the ideal person to tell Bourdain’s story.

For years, she was his assistant, confidant, traffic cop and occasional collaborator. (This year, Ecco released Bourdain’s posthumous travel guide, which Woolever single-handedly compiled from the author’s previous works.) In other words, Bourdain’s contacts list was her contacts list.

For the oral biography, Woolever interviewed nearly 100 people who wandered in and out of Bourdain’s life during his 61 years. They include family members, former colleagues in the kitchen, journalists, artists, chefs, network executives and the many people who toiled behind the scenes to produce Bourdain’s singular travel shows.

Collectively, their stories and

remembrances are heartbreaking, infuriating, inspiring, damning, loving and sometimes even disorienting. We learn over the course of more than 400 pages that the portrait Bourdain painted of himself — tough, empathetic, quick-witted, curious, damaged, competitive, no-nonsense — was just a sketch. So many shadings had yet to be filled in. The transparency that Bourdain implicitly promised us through his writings and shows, we come to find out, was far more opaque.

Take, for example, this passage from Bourdain’s essay “Selling Out,” in his 2010 book “Medium Raw”: “In my life, in my world, I took it as an article of faith that chefs were unlovable. That’s why we were chefs. We were basically ... bad people — which is why we lived the way we did, this half-life of work followed by hanging out with others who lived the same life, followed by whatever slivers of emulated normal life we had left to us.

Nobody loved us. Not really.”

SEE BOURDAIN, A23

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A TENDER MEMOIR

Thursday, November 4, 2021 |

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BOOKS

HE OPENS HIS RECIPE BOOK, AND HE SHOWS HIS HEART

Taste: My Life Through Food

By Stanley Tucci Gallery. 304 pp. $28

By Jennifer Reese The Washington Post

I

f you’re looking for detail on the career of the great character actor Stanley Tucci, you should probably pass on his lovely new memoir “Taste: My Life Through Food.”

Nowhere in its 300 witty pages will you learn what inspired Tucci to become an actor or how it felt to wear a lavender bouffant wig in “The Hunger Games” or to kiss

GALLERY

Colin Firth in “Supernova.”

At age 60, “edging toward the mid-to-late autumn” of

his years, Tucci finds that food — specifically, the way food connects him to the people he loves — means more to him than show business. A handful of celebrity co-stars make cameos in “Taste,” but only because they happened to be sitting across from him at a memorable meal. This book focuses on Tucci’s more intimate food experiences: the eggplant parm hoagies his mother packed in his childhood lunchboxes, the coq au vin he ate on his first date with his first wife, Kate (who died of breast cancer in 2009), magnificent breakfasts on German film sets (“Someone please employ me there again”) and how he is passing

family culinary traditions onto his children, one salami sandwich at a time.

And what rich traditions they are. Tucci grew up in semirural Westchester County, N.Y., where he once found his immigrant Italian grandmother skinning a squirrel on the porch. Bottles of tomato sauce, simmered over an open fire and strained through a pillowcase, lined the shelves of the damp basement where his grandfather made cloudy purple wine.

“Was it the best wine in the world?” Tucci asks. “No. Was it the worst? Very close.

Did it matter? No. It was part of my grandfather, whom we adored, and that made it the

sweetest liquid ever to pass our lips.”

This fusion of love and food is what gives Tucci’s book its sweetness.

He writes of his family’s rituals with tenderness, from the Christmas timpano (a mighty pastry drum stuffed with ziti, salami, cheese, eggs and meatballs) to the epic Independence Day picnics at which guests played bocce, sang “Yankee Doodle,” drank jug wine and feasted on sausages and peppers. Of his mother, Tucci writes, “I can honestly say that on the fourburner electric stove she used throughout my childhood and

Coming December 2021 Visit Southern Oregon’s Premiere Dining, Art, Entertainment, and Gaming Destination

SEE TUCCI, A23

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BOOKS

RICHARD POWERS

DELIVERING ANOTHER CEREBRAL, ENVIRONMENTAL NOVEL Laced throughout the novel are gorgeous glimpses of faraway worlds — imaginative nighttime stories that Theo tells Robin about beings who have two brains, fishlike organisms with religious rites and civilizations that exist along a strip between boiling and freezing.

Bewilderment

By Richard Powers W.W. Norton. 278 pp. $27.95

By Ron Charles The Washington Post

R

ichard Powers’ poignant new novel, “Bewilderment,” is a cri de cœur. Like his recent masterpiece, “The Overstory,” which won a Pulitzer Prize, “Bewilderment” deplores humanity’s destruction of the environment and the perverse incentives that make our descent toward universal suicide so difficult to stop.

But unlike “The Overstory,” with its sprawling network of interconnected plots, this is a hauntingly intimate story set within the privacy of one family trapped in the penumbra of mourning. Although there are allusions to a Trump-like fiend accelerating the country’s decay, Powers isn’t interested in exploring the full scientific and political complexity of our environmental catastrophe.

Instead, “Bewilderment,” which is shortlisted for the Booker Prize and longlisted for a National Book Award, focuses on how that tragedy is perceived by one special little boy.

When the novel opens, an astrobiologist named Theo Byrne is camping with his 9-year-old son, Robin. The setting is bucolic but tinged with tragedy. Theo and his wife, a passionate animal rights lawyer, once spent their honeymoon in this forest, but two years ago she died in a car accident.

Now, father and son are negotiating that tender border between reminiscence and grief. “Alyssa would’ve propelled the three of us forward on her own bottomless forgiveness and bulldozer will,” Theo says. “Without her, I was flailing.”

The whole novel comes across in that wounded, confessional tone, the voice of a man so overwhelmed that he can barely contend with the ordinary diversions of life. “Everything about parenting terrified me,” he says, and he’s got extra reasons to be concerned. His precocious son exhibits a strange set of contradictory behaviors. Noises unsettle him, except in the woods, where he can

W.W. NORTON

identify them with precision. He has trouble concentrating but memorizes enormous amounts of information and sits for hours to produce intricate sketches. Although he’s incredibly sweet, he sometimes explodes in uncontrollable rages.

Various specialists have suggested Asperger’s, OCD and ADHD. “I never believed the diagnoses the doctors settled on my son,” Theo says. “His second pediatrician was keen to put Robin ‘on the spectrum.’ I wanted to tell the man that everyone alive on this fluke little planet was on the spectrum. That’s what a spectrum is.” Alarmed by the overprescription of psychoactive drugs to muzzle and normalize atypical children, Theo rejects them all and develops what he admits is a crackpot theory: “Life is something we need to stop correcting,” he insists. “My boy was a pocket universe I could never hope to fathom.”

But fathoming other universes is the essence of Theo’s job. He studies the infinitesimal fluctuations of light from space in hopes of locating alien planets capable of supporting life. Laced throughout the novel are gorgeous glimpses of faraway worlds — imaginative nighttime stories that Theo tells Robin about beings who have two brains, fishlike organisms

with religious rites and civilizations that exist along a strip between boiling and freezing.

“They share a lot, astronomy and childhood,” Theo says. “Both are voyages across huge distances. Both search for facts beyond their grasp.

Both theorize wildly and let possibilities multiply without limits. Both are humbled every few weeks.”

But as attuned as Theo is to his son, love and patience alone will not make Robin neurotypical. As the boy’s outbursts grow more violent, Theo attracts more critical attention. If you’re the parent of a child with special needs who’s felt the cold procrustean hands of the public school system, you know what this father is up against. When the principal threatens to get Child Services involved with Robin’s case, Theo is willing to try anything to keep from medicating his son into an appropriate state of docility.

At this point, the story takes a turn down what we might call Powers Lane — that avenue of almost-mystical cutting-edge science that we’ve come to expect from the author’s cerebral novels. Desperate to keep Robin off psychoactive drugs, Theo turns to an old friend of his wife’s who is developing an experimental therapy called decoded neurofeedback or DecNef. It’s a noninvasive procedure that involves placing patients in an fMRI machine and training them to pattern their own neural activity to match some standard, presumably healthier mental state.

For fans of Powers’ earlier novels, this should get all their synapses firing. They’ll remember that “Galatea 2.2” (1995) revolves around the development of an artificial brain. In “The Echo Maker” (2006), a young man suffers a traumatic head injury that alters his memory. And in “Generosity” (2009), an Algerian woman may possess the genetic key to happiness. But if those earlier

novels sometimes felt like auditing a graduate course in neurology, “Bewilderment” holds forth in a shadowy forest of fables.

The moment 9-year-old Robin responds positively to DecNef treatment, the lab director hits upon a curious idea: Why not use old neural patterns recorded by Robin’s mother to train the boy in attaining ecstasy? Sure enough, soon Robin is communing with his dead mom’s brain — or at least its recorded neural patterns. In a matter of weeks, he has acquired his mother’s knowledge of the natural world and her intense love for it.

This mother-son spirit mingling may be incredibly lovely, but it’s also irreducibly creepy. And there’s a high risk of sentimentality here: the precious Messiah child mewing his little Whitmanesque profundities at us about the unity of all life. More problematic still is a corny story line in which Theo suspects that the lead neurologist might be carrying on some kind of adulterous affair with his dead wife’s brain print. All this neurological mumbo-jumbo creates a clammy atmosphere for what is, at its heart, a tender story about a child who responds to the plight of our planet just as passionately as we all should.

Unfortunately, “Bewilderment” goes out of its way to cast the tale of Robin’s miraculous evolution as a green version of Daniel Keyes’ “Flowers for Algernon.” That classic tear-jerker has taught generations of seventh-graders that the only thing worse than being intellectually disabled is getting smarter and then becoming intellectually disabled again.

Powers’ thoroughly modern fable of environmental mourning hardly needs to dredge up that cringeworthy antecedent. It feels like just one more bit of fantastical melodrama that dilutes the potential power of “Bewilderment.”

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Thursday, November 4, 2021 |

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LIVE EVENTS

LOCAL MUSIC, GROWERS MARKETS & MORE

Editor’s note: Masks are required in all indoor public spaces and at large outdoor gatherings in Oregon. Check with all venues listed in Tempo to confirm events.

Thursday, Nov. 4 Medford Growers Market: Fresh and organic seasonal produce, crafts and food carts are available from local farms and vendors from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Thursdays through Nov. 18, in Hawthorne Park, corner of East Jackson and Hawthorne streets, Medford. Masks are required. Social distancing and safety measures are in place.

See rvgrowersmarket.com.

Pub Trivia: Family-friendly games of trivia are available from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Thursdays at 4 Daughters Irish Pub, 126 W. Main St., Medford. Participation is free, and there are prizes for winning teams. Call 541-779-4455.

Comedy Improv Sessions: The Rogue Valley Improvers, led by Thomas Hartmann who trained with Second City Chicago, will hold free improvisational comedy practice from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Thursdays at the Medford library, 205 S. Central Ave. For further information, email forinfoman44@gmail.com.

Friday, Nov. 5 Slopes & Trails: Slopes & Trails will host a free meet-and-greet at 5 p.m. Friday, Nov. 5, at Wild River Brewing & Pizza Co., 2684 N. Pacific Highway, Medford.

The nonprofit organization provides social and recreational activities. See slopes.org.

Paul Turnipseed: Guitarist Paul Turnipseed will perform a mix of New Orleans and Latin rhythms, along with jazz and blues standards at 5 p.m. Friday, Nov. 5, at DANCIN Vineyards, 4477 S. Stage Road, Medford. Admission is free. Call 541-245-1133 or dancin. com.

Jeff Kloetzel: Singer, songwriter and guitar player Jeff Kloetzel will play an acoustic mix of pop, folk and soul, along with original songs at 5 p.m. Friday, Nov. 5, at Schmidt Family Vineyards, 330 Kubli Road, Grants Pass, Admission is free. See sfvineyards.com or call 541-846-9985.

Holly Gleason: The singer, songwriter and guitarist will perform

original folk along with a few covers at 5 p.m. Friday, Nov. 5, at South Stage Cellars, 125 S. Third St., Jacksonville. See southstagecellars.com or call 541-899-9120.

Blades of Grass: The band — guitarist Kathryn Casternovia, Jef Ramsey on mandolin, Fred Mayer on viola, and Bob Rawlings on stand-up bass — will perform a mix of Bluegrass, vintage county and Texas swing at 5:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 5, at Belle Fiore Winery, 100 Belle Fiore Lane, Ashland. Admission is free.

See bellefiorewine.com or call 541-552-4900.

Adam Gabriel: Singer and songwriter Adam Gabriel will perform acoustic Southern rock and soul music at 5:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 5, at Dunbar Farms Rocky Knoll Winery, 2881 Hillcrest Road, Medford. Admission is free.

See dunbarfarms.com or call 541-414-3363.

Living on Dreams: The band Living on Dreams will perform a blend of contemporary jazz, blues and funk at 6 p.m. Friday, Nov. 5, at RoxyAnn Winery, 3285 Hillcrest Road, Medford. See roxyann.com or call 541-776-2315.

John Dabaco: Jazz pianist John Dabaco will perform standards and classics at 6 p.m. every Friday and Saturday, at the Hearsay Restaurant, Lounge and Garden, 40 S. First St., Ashland.

See hearsayashland.com or call 541-625-0505.

Jen Ambrose: Singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Jen Ambrose will play a mix of original blues, soul and folk at 6:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 5, at Downtown Market Co., 123 W. Main St., Medford. See downtownmarketco.com or call 541-973-2233.

Saturday, Nov. 6 Grants Pass Growers Market: Find local seasonal produce, baked goods, beverages and more from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturdays at the Josephine County Fairgrounds, 1451 Fairgrounds Road, Grants Pass. Masks are required while in the market.

See growersmarket.org.

Medford Cars & Coffee: Car enthusiasts can meet from 9 to 10:30 a.m. every Saturday at 2780 E. Barnett Road, Medford, near Starbucks and Mountain Mike’s Pizza. The group will not hold meetings in the event of rain or

snowy weather. Find Medford Cars and Coffee on Facebook for further information.

Lithia Artisans Market: More than 40 artisans display and sell handcrafted items from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays, through December along Calle Guanajuato, the pedestrian walkway behind the downtown plaza that runs next to Ashland Creek in Ashland. Safety measures will be in effect, masks are required, and social distancing will be enforced. Any closures or postponement announcements will be made on the Lithia Artisans Market Facebook page.

Call 808-303-2826 or see lithiaartisansmarket.com NaNoWriMo VIP Lounge: In honor of National November Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) teens and preteens are invited to visit the Teen Department at the Ashland library, 410 Siskiyou Blvd. or the Medford library, 205 S. Central Ave., which will feature a drop-in VIP writing lounge where you can write (and snack) your way to your writing goal every Saturday in November. For further details see jcls. org and click on Programs &

Events and then JCLS Calendar or call 541-774-6980.

Lily Jo’s Revolution: The trio, Lily Jo’s Revolution, will perform plugged in acoustic soulful originals along with select covers from noon to 2 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 6, at The Miners Bazzar, 235 E California St, Jacksonville.

See theminersbazaar.com or call 541- 702-2380.

Oregon Oldtime Fiddlers Association: The group will hold a family-friendly public jam session and dance from 1 to 3 p.m.

Saturday, Nov. 6, at the Eagle Point Grange, 5 S. Shasta Ave., Eagle Point. Acoustic musicians are welcome to sit in and play, and dancing is encouraged.

Donations are optional. Call 541956-0618 or 541-218-0126 or see ootfa4.org.

Daniel Nickels: Guitarist and singer Daniel Nickels will perform ‘90s rock and indie rock at 2 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 6, at Stone River Winery and Vineyard, 2178 Pioneer Road, Talent. Call 541-631-9583.

Michal Palzewicz & Ayke Agus: Cellist Michal Palzewicz and pianist Ayke Agus will perform at 4 p.m.

Saturday, Nov. 6, at Grizzly Peak

Winery, 1600 E. Nevada St., Ashland. The program will feature a varied selection of music by Chopin, Franck, Popper, Bartok, Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich and other composers Admission is $25 and reservations are required. For reservations email at GPWreservations@gmail. com. See grizzlypeakwinery. com or call 541-482-5700 for further details.

Danielle Kelly Jazz Duo: Singer Danielle Kelly and guitarist Paul Turnipseed will perform a mix of jazz styles at 5 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 6, at South Stage Cellars, 125 S. Third St., Jacksonville. $5 cover. See southstagecellars. com or call 541-899-9120.

Not Too Shabby: Singer Lisa Yriarte, guitarist Pete Brown and drummer Mike Fitch will play a mix of pop, blues, R&B and contemporary hits at 5:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 6, at Belle Fiore Winery, 100 Belle Fiore Lane, Ashland. Admission is free.

See bellefiorewine.com or call 541-552-4900.

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| Thursday, November 4, 2021

LIVE From Page A19

season with the Fall Concert Series, to be performed at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 6, at the Craterian Theater, 23 S. Central Ave., Medford, and at 3 p.m.

Sunday, Nov. 7, in the Oregon Center for the Arts Music Recital Hall, 450 S. Mountain Ave., at Southern Oregon University, Ashland. Hutton will lead a Combined Symphony-Orchestra of 60 accomplished young musicians in performances of “Symphony No. 29 in A Major, K. 201” by Mozart, Edvard Grieg’s “Peer Gynt Suite No. 1, Op. 46,” the “Overture to Rienzi” by Richard Wagner (arr. Dackow), “Procession of the Nobles” by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (arr. Isaac), “Old Wine in New Bottles” by Gordon Jacob, and an arrangement of music from “La Belle Hélène” by Jacques Offenbach.

Tickets are $10, $5 for students with ID. Tickets for the Medford concert are available at the Craterian box office, 16 S. Bartlett St., or by calling 541-779-3000.

Tickets for the Ashland show are available at the door. Both the Craterian Theater and Southern Oregon University’s Oregon Center for the Arts require proof of full vaccination or negative COVID-19 test results to attend a performance. Patrons should be prepared to present an I.D. along with proof of full vaccination or proof of a negative PCR test or a negative rapid antigen test in accordance with each venue’s testing requirements for entry.

Masks are required at all times inside both facilities. Attendees are asked to follow venue policies and protocols. See ysso.org, email at info@ysso.org or call 541-858-8859.

JuJu Eyeball: Bend-based Beatles cover band JuJu Eyeball will perform at 8 p.m. Friday, Nov. 19, at the Talent Club, 114 Talent Ave., Talent. Tickets are $15. See Talentclublive.com for ticket info or call 541-535-2721.

Sunday, Nov. 7 Rogue Valley Old Timer Car Club: People interested in old car mechanics, restoration, safety and touring in their cars are invited to meet at 1:30 p.m.

Sunday, Nov. 7, at the Independent Order of Odd Fellows Hall, 1130 Hazel St., Central Point.

Membership is open to anyone who owns a car or truck 30 years old or older. Call 541-535-7658 or

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541-227-3030.

Stardust: Singer Victoria Lawton-Diez, guitarist Tim Church, bassist Dave Miller, and Allan Adler on sax, will play a mix of Latin, American standards, Latin, Spanish, and French songs and pop music at 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 7, at RoxyAnn Winery, 3285 Hillcrest Road, Medford. Admission is free. See roxyann.com or call 541-776-2315.

Dave Tull Trio: Jazz drummer and vocalist Dave Tull, along with Randy Porter on piano and Tom Wakeling on bass will perform at 3 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 7, at Grizzly Peak Winery, 1600 E. Nevada St., Ashland. Tull is well-known on the Southern California music scene, including being the drummer for Barbra Streisand, and spending 10 years as the drummer and vocalist for Chuck Mangione. Tull’s latest release, “Texting and Driving,” was the No. 2 most requested new album of 2018 on SiriusXM Real Jazz, and was featured by NPR’s Susan Stamberg on Weekend Edition. Tickets are $30, $10 for students with student ID. For tickets see grizzlypeakwinery. com or call 541-482-5700. For further information, see siskiyoumusicproject.com/event.

Daniel Nickels: Guitarist and singer Daniel Nickels will perform ‘90s rock and indie rock at 3 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 7, at Walkabout Brewing Co., 921 Mason Way, Medford. See walkaboutbrewing.com or call 541-734-4677.

David Barnes: The Southern Oregon singer and guitarist, David Barnes, will perform at 3 p.m. Sundays in the wine garden at South Stage Cellars, 125 S. Third St., Jacksonville. See southstagecellars.com or call 541-899-9120.

Stardust: Singer Victoria Lawton-Diez, guitarist Tim Church, bassist Dave Miller, and Allan Adler on sax, will play a mix of Latin, American standards, Latin, Spanish, and French songs and pop music at 4 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 7, at RoxyAnn Winery, 3285 Hillcrest Road, Medford. See roxyann.com or call 541-776-2315.

Danielle Kelly Jazz Trio: Singer Danielle Kelly, guitarist Paul Turnipseed and bassist Jeff Addicott will play a mix of jazz styles at 5 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 7, at Belle Fiore Winery, 100 Belle Fiore Lane, Ashland. Admission is free.

See bellefiorewine.com or call 541-552-4900.

Monday, Nov. 8 Take & Make: Kids and their families can stop by any JCLS branch to pick up a take-and-make craft kit during select dates. Each library branch offers a unique craft for every age group, from preschoolers to adults, and all need supplies are included in the kit. For details, see jcls.org and click on Programs & Events and then JCLS Calendar, or call the library branch in your area.

Paul Schmeling Band: The Paul Schmeling Band will perform jazz standards from 7 to 9 p.m.

Mondays at Martino’s Restaurant and Lounge, 58 E. Main St., Ashland. Email at artymorlan@ gmail.com or call 541-488-4420.

Tuesday, Nov. 9 Ashland Rogue Valley Growers & Crafters Market: Seasonal fruits and vegetables, crafts, specialty foods, drinks and more are available from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Nov. 23, at the National Guard Armory, 1420 E. Main St., Ashland. Masks are required. Social distancing and safety measures are in place. See rvgrowersmarket. com.

Social Benefit Dance Club: Dance to music performed by Darren Kuykendall at 1:30 p.m. Tuesdays at the Rogue Valley Square Dance Center, 3377 Table Rock Road, Medford. You do not need a partner to participate. Admission is $5-$6. Call 541-727-7070.

Wednesday, Nov. 10 Medford Senior Center Bingo: The Medford Senior Center will host Bingo games for adults at 12:30 p.m. every Wednesday and Friday at the Medford Senior Center, 510 East Main St.; $8 for six cards for 10 games. Must be 18 or older to participate.

Doors open at 11:30 a.m. For further details on the games or for a full listing of activities and services available, see medfordseniorcenter.org.

Kids Crafternoon: Children ages 7 and older can create their own version of a world, village, or scene by building a diorama at 1:30 p.m. Wednesdays, Nov. 10-17, at the White City library, 3143 Avenue C. All craft materials will be provided. This program’s two sessions are provided to allow adequate time to complete your project.

For further details see jcls.org and click on Programs & Events and then JCLS Calendar or call 541-864-8880.

Yarnia: Children 8 and older can learn to knit or crochet from 2 to 3:30 p.m. Wednesdays at the Eagle Point library, 239 W. Main St. Supplies and instruction are provided. All levels welcome.

For further details see jcls.org and click on Programs & Events and then JCLS Calendar or call 541-826-3313.

Jeff Kloetzel: Singer, songwriter and guitar player Jeff Kloetzel will play an acoustic mix of pop, folk and soul, along with original songs at 5 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 10, at Belle Fiore Winery, 100 Belle Fiore Lane, Ashland.

Admission is free. See bellefiorewine.com or call 541-552-4900.

Adam Gabriel: Singer and songwriter Adam Gabriel will perform acoustic Southern rock and soul music at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 10, at South Stage Cellars, 125 S. Third St., Jacksonville. See southstagecellars.com or call 541-899-9120.

Southern Oregon Jazz Orchestra: The Southern Oregon Jazz Orchestra, a 17-piece big band, along with vocalist Dianne Strong-Summerhays, will play music for listening and dancing in the style of Count Basie and Duke Ellington from 7 to 9 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 10, at Grape Street Bar & Grill, 31 S. Grape St., Medford. See grapestreetbarandgrill.com or call 541-500-8881.

Thursday, Nov. 11 Medford Growers Market: Fresh and organic seasonal produce, crafts and food carts are available from local farms and vendors from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Thursdays through Nov. 18, in Hawthorne Park, corner of East Jackson and Hawthorne streets, Medford. Masks are required. Social distancing and safety measures are in place.

See rvgrowersmarket.com.

Eagle Point Book Sale: Book sales are held from 12:30 to 3 p.m.

Thursdays at the Eagle Point library, 239 W. Main St. Look for new or gently-used books, DVDs and CDs. Proceeds help fund library programs, activities and collections. For further details see jcls.org and click on Programs & Events and then JCLS Calendar or call 541-826-3313.

Pub Trivia: Family-friendly games of trivia are available from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Thursdays at 4 Daughters Irish Pub, 126 W. Main St., Medford. Participation is free, and there are prizes for winning teams. Call 541-779-4455.

Comedy Improv Sessions: The Rogue Valley Improvers, led by Thomas Hartmann who trained with Second City Chicago, will hold free improvisational comedy practice from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Thursdays at the Medford library, 205 S. Central Ave. For further information, email forinfoman44@gmail.com.

Friday, Nov. 12 Brain Time: Seniors ages 55 and older are invited to play games such as Scrabble, Boggle or Dominoes, or do a creative coloring project in adult coloring books, from 2 to 4 p.m. the second Friday of each month at the Central Point library, 116 S. Third St. For further details, see jcls.org and click on Programs & Events and then JCLS Calendar or call 541-664-3228.

Shae and Jenni: Singer Shae Celine along with guest, Jenni, will perform at 5 p.m. Friday, Nov. 12, at DANCIN Vineyards, 4477 S. Stage Road, Medford. Admission is free. Call 541-245-1133 or dancin. com.

Bryan Teal: Singer-songwriter Bryan Teal will perform at 5 p.m. Friday, Nov. 12, at Schmidt Family Vineyards, 330 Kubli Road, Grants Pass, Admission is free. See sfvineyards.com or call 541-846-9985.

Clayton Joseph Scott: Singer-songwriter Clayton Joseph Scott will perform at 5 p.m. Friday, Nov. 12, at South Stage Cellars, 125 S. Third St., Jacksonville. See southstagecellars.com or call 541-899-9120.

Duke Street: Rhythm and soul band Duke Street — Scott Rogers on guitar, Kent Clinkinbeard on drums, John Hauschild on slide guitar and vocals, Gordon Greenley on saxophones and Joe Cohoon on bass and Michael Vannice on keys—will perform at 5:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 12, at Belle Fiore Winery, 100 Belle Fiore Lane, Ashland. Admission is free.

See bellefiorewine.com or call 541-552-4900.

Daniel Nickels: Guitarist and singer Daniel Nickels will perform ‘90s rock and indie rock at 5:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 12, at Dunbar Farms Rocky Knoll Winery, 2881 Hillcrest Road, Medford. Admission is free.

See dunbarfarms.com or call 541-414-3363.

Blue Lightning: This high-energy dance band — Sue Lundquist on keys and guitar, Rhonda Loftis on drums, Trish Cook, Dianne SEE LIVE, A21

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LIVE

From Page A20

Strong-Summerhays on vocals, Crystal Reeves on electric violin, Brent Norton on lead guitar and Cedrick Buckingham on bass will perform at 6 p.m. Friday, Nov. 12, at RoxyAnn Winery, 3285 Hillcrest Road, Medford. See roxyann.com or call 541-776-2315.

Oktoberstock : Jen Ambrose, Jon Galfano, John Morrison and special guest Scott Chase will perform the music of Woodstock at 6:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 12, at Walkabout Brewing Co., 921 Mason Way, Medford. See walkaboutbrewing.com or call 541-734-4677.

Adam Gabriel: Singer and songwriter Adam Gabriel will perform acoustic Southern rock and soul music at 6:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 12, at Downtown Market Co., 123 W. Main St., Medford. See downtownmarketco.com or call 541-973-2233.

Saturday, Nov. 13 Project FeederWatch: Volunteers can help experts count birds that visit feeders at North Mountain Park at 9 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 13, at 620 N. Mountain Ave., Ashland. Results will be submitted to Cornell University’s FeederWatch program.

Admission is free and pre-registration is not required. For further information see ashlandparksandrec.org, email at parksinfo@ashland.or.us or call 541-488-5340.

Rogue Gallery & Art Center Family Art Day: Kids and families of all ages can explore and create art from noon to 2 p.m. the second Saturday of each month at Rogue Gallery & Art Center, 40 S. Bartlett St., Medford. Make your very own art projects to take home and explore gallery spaces with an art scavenger hunt. All materials will be provided. Admission is free; registration is required.

Children must be accompanied by an adult. After registration, specific times will be set to limit number of participants to meet social distancing protocols. Call 541-772-8118 or see roguegallery.org.

Meows and Whiskers Weekend: SoHumane is offering a special adult cat adoption event “Meows and Whiskers Weekend” featuring reduced adult cat adoption fees from noon to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday,

Nov. 13-14, at the SoHumane Adoption Center, 2910 Table Rock Road, Medford. With this special offer for an adult cat (seven months or older) adopters can “Spin the Wheel” to see their reduced adoption fee.

Kittens will also be available for adoption but not eligible for the “Spin the Wheel” discount.

The first 15 adopted cats will go home with a special goodie bag.

Cats available for adoption can be viewed online at sohumane. org/cats. For more information call 541-779-3215.

Wildheart Music: Wildheart Music featuring Carla Bauer will perform a mix of light rock and pop songs at 2 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 13, at Stone River Winery and Vineyard, 2178 Pioneer Road, Talent. Call 541-631-9583.

Pacifica: Vocalist Alissa Weaver, guitarist and vocalist Jack Fischer, and drummer Michael Whipple will perform at 5 p.m.

Saturday, Nov. 13, at South Stage Cellars, 125 S. Third St., Jacksonville. $5 cover. See southstagecellars.com or call 541-899-9120.

Stolen Moments: Guitarist Dan Fellman, vocalist and guitarist Conny Lindley and Walter Lindley on upright bass will play American jazz standards, Latin jazz and Gypsy jazz at 5:30 p.m.

Saturday, Nov. 13, at Belle Fiore Winery, 100 Belle Fiore Lane, Ashland. Admission is free.

See bellefiorewine.com or call 541-552-4900.

Long Walk Vineyard Rogue Valley Farm to School Benefit: Long Walk Vineyard will team up with Rogue Valley Farm to School for a monthly benefit featuring estate wine from Long Walk, assorted tapas prepared by Deanna Waters-Senf featuring locally sourced seasonal ingredients, and a presentation of RVF2S programs, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. the second Saturday of each month, at 1800 N. Valley View Road, Ashland. Tickets are $25. All proceeds to benefit RVF2S. For further information, see rvfarm2school.org or call 541-778-7356.

Sunday, Nov. 14 Mark Charles Hill: Guitarist and singer Mark Charles Hill will play a mix of light rock, country and pop at 3 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 14, at Walkabout Brewing Co., 921 Mason Way, Medford. See walkaboutbrewing.com or call 541-734-4677.

JiJi Kim: The Jefferson Classical Guitar Society will host a

concert by renowned guitarist JiJi Kim at 3 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 14, in the Music Recital Hall, 450 S. Mountain Ave., on the Southern Oregon University campus in Ashland. Kim is an adventurous artist known for her virtuosic performances which feature a diverse selection of music, ranging from traditional and contemporary classical to free improvisation, played on both acoustic and electric guitar.

Tickets are $25, $10 for students.

For tickets and further information see jeffersonguitars.org.

Nick Garrett Powell: Guitarist and singer Nick Garrett Powell, lead singer of the acoustic duo The Fret Drifters, will perform at 4 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 14, at RoxyAnn Winery, 3285 Hillcrest Road, Medford. See roxyann.com or call 541-776-2315.

Not Too Shabby: Singer Lisa Yriarte, guitarist Pete Brown and drummer Mike Fitch will play a mix of pop, blues, R&B and contemporary hits at 5 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 14, at Belle Fiore Winery, 100 Belle Fiore Lane, Ashland.

Admission is free. See bellefiorewine.com or call 541-552-4900.

Monday, Nov. 15 Native American Genealogy: In honor of Native American Heritage Month, library staff will provide one-on-one help with your genealogy research questions and share information on Native American ancestry research at 11 a.m. Monday, Nov. 15, at the Gold Hill library, 202 Dardanelles St. Assistance is first-come, first-served. For further details see jcls.org and click on Programs & Events and then JCLS Calendar or call 541-855-1994.

Wednesday, Nov. 17 Casual Memoir Writing: Learn how to write and complete a short memoir of a specific memory in one sitting using a simple method from 10:30 a.m to 12:30 p.m. the third Wednesday of each month at the Central Point Library, 116 S. Third St. Writing samples and supplies will be provided. For further details or to register, see jcls.org and click on Programs & Events and then JCLS Calendar or call 541-664-3228.

Kids Crafternoon: Children ages 7 and older can create their own version of a world, village, or scene by building a diorama at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 17, at the White City library, 3143 Avenue C. All craft materials

will be provided. This program is a continuation of the diorama project offered on Nov. 10. For further details see jcls.org and click on Programs & Events and then JCLS Calendar or call 541-864-8880.

Kids Crafts: Children ages 5 and older can create and decorate a handmade recipe book at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov.17, at the Ashland library, 410 Siskiyou Blvd. Library staff will share some of their favorite recipes from around the world to help you get your collection started, and you’ll have plenty of space to add your family favorites.

For further details see jcls.org and click on Programs & Events and then JCLS Calendar or call 541-774-6980.

Jen Ambrose: Singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Jen Ambrose will play a mix of original blues, soul and folk at 5 p.m.

Wednesday, Nov. 17, at Belle Fiore Winery, 100 Belle Fiore Lane, Ashland. Admission is free.

See bellefiorewine.com or call 541-552-4900.

Rogue Blues Society: The Rogue Blues Society will hold a jam session from 6 to 9 p.m. the first and third Wednesday of each month at Grape Street Bar & Grill, 31 S. Grape St., Medford.

Social distancing rules must be followed and maintained on stage, including that vocalists provide their own microphones; masks must be worn when away from your table. See grapestreetbarandgrill.com, find Rogue Blues Society on Facebook or call 541-500-8881.

David Cahalan: Singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist David Cahalan will perform at 6 p.m.

Wednesday, Nov. 17, at South Stage Cellars, 125 S. Third St., Jacksonville. See southstagecellars.com or call 541-899-9120.

Friday, Nov. 19 Gold Hill Book Club: The Gold Hill Library Book Club for adults 18 and older will meet at 3 p.m. the third Friday of each month, at the Gold Hill library, 202 Dardanelles St. On Friday, Nov. 19, the book to be discussed will be “Firekeeper’s Daughter” by Angeline Boulley. Books are available for pickup one month before the meeting date. For further details or to register, see jcls.org and click on Programs & Events and then JCLS Calendar or call 541-855-1994.

David Cahalan: Singer, songwriter and guitarist David Cahalan will perform at 5 p.m. Friday, Nov.

Thursday, November 4, 2021 |

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19, at DANCIN Vineyards, 4477 S. Stage Road, Medford. Admission is free. Call 541-245-1133 or dancin.com.

Dayton Mason: Gypsy jazz singer, songwriter and guitarist Dayton Mason will perform at 5 p.m.

Friday, Nov. 19, at Schmidt Family Vineyards, 330 Kubli Road, Grants Pass, Admission is free. See sfvineyards.com or call 541-846-9985.

Marshall Stack and Friends: Singer and guitarist Marshall Stack joined by others will perform American Folk tunes at 5 p.m.

Friday, Nov. 19, at South Stage Cellars, 125 S. Third St., Jacksonville. See southstagecellars.com or call 541-899-9120.

Jeff Kloetzel: Singer, songwriter and guitar player Jeff Kloetzel will play an acoustic mix of pop, folk and soul, along with original songs at 5:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 19, at Belle Fiore Winery, 100 Belle Fiore Lane, Ashland.

Admission is free. See bellefiorewine.com or call 541-552-4900.

Bekkah McAlvage: Country-folk and American roots singer and guitarist Bekkah McAlvage will perform a mix of acoustic folk, roots, country, and blues-tinged songs at 5:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 19, at Dunbar Farms Rocky Knoll Winery, 2881 Hillcrest Road, Medford. Admission is free.

See dunbarfarms.com or call 541-414-3363.

Gypsy Gillis: Cover band Gypsy Gillis will perform classic rock and blues dance music at 6 p.m.

Friday, Nov. 19, at RoxyAnn Winery, 3285 Hillcrest Road, Medford. See roxyann.com or call 541-776-2315.

Nick Garrett Powell: Guitarist and singer Nick Garrett Powell, lead singer of the acoustic duo The Fret Drifters, will perform at 6:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 19, at Downtown Market Co., 123 W. Main St., Medford. See downtownmarketco.com or call 541-973-2233.

Pablo Estigarribia: Latin Grammy nominee and world-renowned tango pianist, Pablo Estigarribia will perform traditional tango and original works for dancing at 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 19, at Grizzly Peak Winery, 1600 E. Nevada St., Ashland. Tickets are $25. For further information and to purchase tickets see grizzlypeakwinery. com or call 541-482-5700.

Castalian String Quartet: Chamber Music Concerts will host the Castalian String Quartet at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 19, and 3 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 20, SEE LIVE, A23

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CURTAIN From Page A11

Matsuura met Paul French, professor of music and music director of Rep Singers, who recognized her potential.

She started taking lessons from him and was asked to join Rep Singers in 2007, her senior year.

She has degrees in psychology, music, and a master’s degree in mental health counseling. Upon graduating from SOU, she received the AAUW’s Outstanding Woman Graduate in Music Performance award.

“I never thought about singing professionally until I had my first job singing in an opera, and later in an educational outreach program for Rogue Opera,” she said.

“I think I was more curious about learning how to sing really well versus singing to make a living.”

Matsuura, 38, born and raised in Hawaii, now lives in Talent. Her parents were an early influence in exposing her to music.

“They enrolled me in ballet very early,” she said, “then piano lessons. They are not particularly musical, but enjoyed and supported my musical endeavors.”

She continued taking dance lessons in her youth, both contemporary and hula, fitting them in with musical theater, youth symphony, and playing soccer.

Sopranos are divided into three basic groups: coloratura, lyric, and dramatic. She remembers during the beginning of her undergrad years

MF-00139471

COURTESY PHOTO

Jennifer Matsuura performs with Colin Campbell at an SOU Fringe Festival.

at SOU thinking she couldn’t sing very high.

“I realized I had never been exposed to repertoire that had a very large range,” she said.

“I had never sung in a choir or even seen an opera, and was unfamiliar with those genres of music.”

The more repertoire she was handed, the more she was able to explore the different characteristics of her voice.

“I think I would categorize my voice type as a light lyric soprano that also can move,” she said. “I enjoy the agility of singing coloratura, but also love the warmth of singing in my lower register.”

She has been through her share of auditions. What works best for her in those situations is to be prepared, confident, and connected to the audition material.

“It helps me get out of the way of myself,” she said, “so companies can see more clearly the uniqueness I bring to the music.”

Staying in the moment and focusing on collaboration with the pianist are key for her in the audition process.

What gives her confidence is having the material well memorized. “Then I am able to engage more in the storytelling of the piece.”

When she rehearses at the piano, she has a metronome, a mirror, and a pencil at hand to take notes. More recently, she started recording herself and listening back.

“I developed a condition a few years ago called Patulous eustachian tube disorder,” she said.

The condition causes the valve of the eustachian tube to remain open, allowing sound to travel from the nasal sinus cavity to the ears. The result is some distortion and hearing one’s own voice too loudly.

“Listening to recordings gives me a better idea of how I sound when I sing.”

Matsuura takes considerable pleasure in the music itself, but also enjoys the connection with other musicians and with the audience.

Not having the sky-high range of a coloratura soprano eliminates certain pieces from her repertoire. But even in her range, there is work to be done before a performance.

“Most of the challenges I encounter are tricky runs or singing a tonally challenging piece,” she said. “I usually address those passages with a metronome and listen to

the tonal shifts as I basically memorize the feeling in my body.”

A recent gratifying assignment occurred this summer, singing with the Britt Orchestra doing an installation piece on the hiking trails in Jacksonville.

“I got to work directly with the composer, Caroline Shaw, whom I had admired for years,” she said.

She has a long list of favorites performed with Rep Singers over the years. But the group’s appearances on the Elizabethan stage stand out.

“Some of the most magical memories I have are singing the Songs of Shakespeare annual summer concerts at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival,” she said. The concerts alternated songs by the choir with readings by OSF actors.

Next for Matsuura are rehearsals for the coming holiday concerts. Tickets for the Rogue Valley Chorale and Jefferson Baroque Orchestra’s Craterian Theater performance of Handel’s “Messiah” are available at craterian.org.

For tickets to the Rep Singers’ “The Waiting Sky” holiday concert at the SOU Music Recital Hall, call the box office at 541-552-0900.

Beyond that, it will continue to be a busy life for Matsuura, balancing her career as a therapist with her side hustles, and her passion for music.

“In 10 years, I hope to still be singing, learning new music, and collaborating with friends,” she said.

Reach Ashland writer Jim Flint at jimflint.ashland@yahoo. com.

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BOURDAIN From Page A16

I’ve been pondering this passage the past two days, mostly as a counterpoint to the material contained in Woolever’s book.

What’s missing from Bourdain’s confession in “Medium Raw” is the source of his self-loathing. The source, it seems, is the usual one: Bourdain’s childhood. He had a strained relationship with his parents, especially his mother, Gladys, a controlling presence in the young Bourdain’s life. As his brother, Christopher Bourdain, reveals in the book, Gladys reinvented herself as an adult. She concealed her Jewish background from her WASPy neighbors, lied about her maiden name and even made her friends and husband swear to keep her secrets safe. Her children wouldn’t learn some truths until later in life.

“Our mom was always more argumentative and frustrated with her lot in life,” Christopher Bourdain tells Woolever. “When people weren’t doing what she thought was right, she would initiate arguments. Tony was into a lot of stuff that she disliked.”

“I mean,” Bourdain says a few pages later in the book, “they would periodically go for anywhere from three months to a year without talking.”

That childhood, it seems, set the course of Anthony Bourdain’s life until his last breath. His rebellion. His seclusion into books and film (much like his father, Pierre).

His descent into hard drugs. His controlling behavior (colleagues talk about the casual way he’d brush off their ideas or even their painstaking preproduction work during location shoots). His endless thrill-seeking.

Maybe even his ability to conceal secrets — pains, doubts and private yearnings — that he didn’t want others to know about.

The beauty of this book is its ability to balance joy and pain. You sense both the damage done to Bourdain and the damage he would later inflict upon others. At the same time, you also read one memory after another from people, whether they were the beneficiaries or victims of Bourdain’s generosity and/or pettiness, who were able to

TUCCI

From Page A17

on the gas hob that replaced it many years later, she has never cooked a bad meal. Not once.” The book includes a handful of recipes, including the meaty Tucci family ragu that I am eager to try.

Tucci adores restaurants almost as much as home cooking. He lovingly describes the defunct Manhattan eateries that sustained him as a struggling young actor, places like Big Nick’s, which sold “enormous, greasy,

do the one thing that he apparently couldn’t: They loved him and felt empathy for him through all the peaks and valleys.

“Tony had a way of talking about himself honestly without revealing himself, really,” Nigella Lawson, the television host and longtime friend, tells Woolever. “I mean, everything you read about him, he’s not telling lies. He’s hiding in plain sight.”

“I feel that also, he always had to perform the role of Tony,” Lawson continues. “So that performance was a form of protection, as well as a kind of punishment. I don’t know that he could be in a room with someone and allow himself to be dull. Tony was never dull. But there’s no such thing in the world as someone who sometimes doesn’t feel muzzle-brained or too low to have a conversation.”

The oral biography races through the chapters of Bourdain’s life, maybe even the ones you had forgotten about. (Remember the ill-fated Bourdain Market, his expansive food hall inspired by Singapore street hawkers?) Several of the closing chapters are devoted to another ill-fated experiment: Bourdain’s relationship with Asia Argento, the Italian actress, #MeToo activist and filmmaker who is depicted as yet one more drug that Bourdain couldn’t resist. Argento, incidentally, is not interviewed for the book, just as she wasn’t for Neville’s documentary.

When an Italian tabloid published photos linking Argento to a French journalist, Bourdain sunk into a deep funk from which he never recovered.

“He never liked looking like a rube,” Lydia Tenaglia, co-founder of Zero Point Zero Production, tells Woolever. “I think he was profoundly hurt, and profoundly disappointed, and profoundly humiliated, and he probably had a moment of epiphany; that he had just ... leveraged his whole life, his reputation, his words, his family, his money.

I think it was just kind of like, I’m done, I’m exhausted.”

After reading Woolever’s superb book, you can argue that his suicide was a cruel, avoidable coda to this brilliant man’s messy life.

Or that, after escaping so many close calls, Bourdain just fell prey to his addictions. Or both.

bloody burgers on plump buns.” There will always be a place in his heart for the Carnegie Deli, where towering pastrami sandwiches nourished body and soul “when you popped in late at night after a few too many at a cheap downtown bar, en route to the one-bedroom apartment you thought you’d be living in for the rest of your life if someone didn’t give you a job soon.”

Apparently, someone gave him a job fairly soon because within a few chapters, Tucci is supping at glamorous restaurants in far-flung locales like Vancouver, Normandy and

Reykjavik. Even when the food isn’t fabulous — he’s not a fan of Icelandic puffin — it makes a good story. In one of funniest scenes in the book, at a Normandy bistro, Tucci and his companions, including Meryl Streep, rashly order andouillette, a mysterious French sausage. Tucci looked down at his plate when it arrived and announced, in colorful language, that it looked like a male horse’s privates.

Streep concurred. Redolent of cow intestines, it tasted even worse than it looked and everyone sheepishly sent back their andouillette and ordered

LIVE

From Page A21

in the Music Recital Hall, 450 S. Mountain Ave., at Southern Oregon University in Ashland.

Named 2019 Royal Philharmonic Society Young Artist of the Year, the Castalian String Quartet is rapidly emerging as an exciting voice on the international chamber music scene. Friday’s concert will feature Mozart’s String Quartet in F Major, K. 590 “Prussian”; Ligeti’s String Quartet No. 1 “Metamorphoses nocturnes”; and Mendelssohn’s String Quartet in F minor, Op. 80. Saturday’s program includes Beethoven’s String Quartet in D major, Op. 18 no. 3; Janacek’s String Quartet No. 1 “Kreutzer Sonata”; and Sibelius’s String Quartet in D minor, Op. 56 “Voces intimae.” Tickets are $36 to $45, $5 for full-time SOU students and Oregon Trail Card holders. Proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test is required for entry, and masking is required while in the building. Tickets are available online at chambermusicconcerts.org or by calling the Box Office at 541-552-6154.

Saturday, Nov. 20 Auto Europa Ashland Car Club: People interested in European classic and exotic cars can meet from 8 to 10 a.m. the third Saturday of every month at Water Street Café, 10 Water St., Ashland. The club often goes on cruises to various locations throughout the valley. For further details, see AutoEuropaAshland.com.

Teen Crafternoon: Teens are invited to join Teen Library Associate Laurel to learn some

omelets.

Since 2012, Tucci has been gradually moving food to the center of his professional life.

He’s written two cookbooks and earlier this year won an Emmy for his TV series “In Search of Italy,” a tantalizing tour of the country’s distinctive regional cuisines. But in the darkest of ironies, in the book’s penultimate chapter, Tucci reveals that in 2017 he was diagnosed with salivary gland cancer. The gruesome treatment didn’t just nauseate him, it also made even water burn his mouth “like battery acid.” For six months, he

Thursday, November 4, 2021 |

A23

basic calligraphy and the art of hand lettering at 1 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 20, at the Medford library, 205 S. Central Ave. For further details see jcls.org and click on Programs & Events and then JCLS Calendar or call 541-774-8679.

Mercy Duo: The soul, pop and R&B duo—singer Lynda Day and guitarist Dave Day — will perform at 2 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 20, at Stone River Winery and Vineyard, 2178 Pioneer Road, Talent. Call 541-631-9583.

Ashland Folk Collective Winter Fundraiser: Hollis Peach, the Brothers Reed and King Roy Wing will perform an outdoor concert from 4 to 8 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 20, at La Baguette Music Café, 340 A St., Ashland.

Tickets are $30 and are available online at eventbrite.com.

Masks must be worn when in the cafe, in line or when social distancing cannot be maintained. Sanitation stations will be provided. Doors open at 3 p.m. For further information see ashlandfolkcollective.com.

Band of Brothers: Vocalist Megan Baker, guitarist and vocalist Steve Hopkins, bassist John Lingafelter, and Nevin Van Manen on keys will perform at 5 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 20, at South Stage Cellars, 125 S. Third St., Jacksonville. See southstagecellars.com or call 541-899-9120.

Sunday, Nov. 21 Liberty Quartet: The Liberty Quartet will perform a family-friendly concert of Southern Gospel music with a mix of hilarity, at 5 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 21, in the Worship Center at New Life Church of the Nazarene, 1974 E. McAndrews Road, Medford. Admission is free, donations accepted. Call 541-779-7777.

poured his food directly into his stomach via a feeding tube.

Happily, Tucci is once again able to savor favorite dishes that he lists on a page toward the end of the book, from “chili con carne (extremely mild!)” to “a fried egg on a very thin toasted bagel.” Reading this book will make you more attentive to the glorious — or modest — food on your table, and to the people with whom you are privileged to share it.

Jennifer Reese is the author of “Make the Bread, Buy the Butter.”

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| Thursday, November 4, 2021

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Thursday, November 4, 2021 |

A25

Dual-axis tracking raises bar

By Allayana Darrow ACC

As the only company with UL-3703 listed elevated power plants in the U.S., there’s no shortage of projects waiting to take advantage of STracker Solar technology, but competition is on its way, said founder Jeff Sharpe.

The UL-3703 listing is “coveted” because it informs potential clients that the solar energy system’s components have been thoroughly tested and documented for safety and reliability, Sharpe said.

Dual-axis solar tracking systems allow the same solar panels to see 50-70% more energy harvest than through fixed panels, he said. Mounted on 20-foot posts, the elevated systems allow for continued use of the area below each installation, whether over roadways or farmland.

STracker Solar has thus far installed about a dozen dualaxis solar tracking systems in Ashland and four offgrid systems in Jacksonville, with a few more systems scattered across the region.

“We’re the only ones available in the U.S. for anything like this right now (on a commercial scale),” Sharpe said.

“Competition is coming; it’s going to come quick.”

Sharpe said building a functioning network of solar collaborators will be crucial to ensuring a healthy transition in electricity sourcing — the largest greenhouse gas emitter in the U.S. “I would say that we are on the cusp of a wave; we’re at the limit of what we can handle,” he continued. “In the last few months, it has taken off in a way that we had hoped for, didn’t necessarily expect, and is going to require us to expand our production capabilities.”

In addition, the cost of steel has more than doubled and STracker Solar continues to battle supply chain issues for most components, slowing the company’s ability to accept new contracts.

In each setup, STracker’s patented control systems are combined with structural steel

PHOTO BY ALLAYANA DARROW

Jeff Sharpe checks the testing setup Oct. 25 for Stracker Solar control systems.

components manufactured at Oak Street Tank & Steel Inc. Through Ashland’s virtual net metering program, power produced through a 200-kilowatt rooftop system at the workshop is credited to the Ashland Food Co-Op. At the end of September, three new STrackers were installed at the north end of the SOU Sustainability Farm, adding to three existing Strackers installed in 2019, providing renewable energy credits and opening an avenue for agrivoltaic research for the university, and setting up investor Abbott’s Cottages as the first net-zero vacation rental in Ashland.

“Energy resilience and a secure energy infrastructure are key elements for us to meet Ashland’s present and future energy needs,” said Brad Roupp, owner of Abbott’s Cottages.

“Now with these additional three STrackers, along with the three units we installed in 2019, 100% of the electricity that our business, home and

A set of five STrackers with lot lighting is due for installation at TC Chevy in November — Sharpe said he expects contracts for car dealership lot installations to become a reliable trend. A six-panel setup is slated for installation at Franz Bakery in Medford and five S1B trackers are headed for a new Ashland bank branch scheduled to open in 2022, which will make it the first net-zero bank in the state, Sharpe said. vehicles consume is provided by the sun.”

Two bifacial solar trackers at Ashland Family Dentistry now provide power for the entire office. One of the models has “more than adequately” powered an Ashland residence for more than three years, Sharpe said.

A set of five STrackers with lot lighting is due for installation at TC Chevy in November — Sharpe said he expects contracts for car dealership lot installations to become a reliable trend. A six-panel setup is slated for installation at Franz

Bakery in Medford and five S1B trackers are headed for a new Ashland bank branch scheduled to open in 2022, which will make it the first net-zero bank in the state, Sharpe said.

A large residence in the Emigrant Lake area plans to power everything, including a swimming pool, with an S1B — the only model STracker Solar is offering for new projects at this time.

“We have some big names locally that are talking about some large community solar projects and they will all utilize this S1B,” Sharpe said.

When wind reaches 30 miles per hour, a wind monitor instructs the S1B to move to a flat position, which can handle up to 120 mph winds — they’re essentially “bulletproof,” Sharpe said.

The benefit of dual-axis tracking technology extends to reducing the greenhouse gas footprint of manufactured solar panels, Sharpe said, by using up to half as many dual-axis trackers to provide the same amount of energy as a fixed installation, thereby reducing the most greenhouse gas-emitting part of the process: the solar panel itself.

“Fortunately, we have been asked to bid on three groundmount installations in the past couple of years and in all three, we won based on cost per kilowatt hour produced,” he said. “We’re just seeding something now that’s going to play a significant piece in this transformation from fossil fuel to wind and solar power. It’s going to take all of us.”

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Schools pushing for state funding bill to pass Phoenix-Talent is asking for money to make up for students who didn’t return after Alemda fire

By Kevin Opsahl ACC

A member of the Rogue Valley delegation to the Legislature has promised that a bill which would have provided a funding boost to Phoenix-Talent School District, ravaged by the Almeda fire last year, will be revived in 2022.

House Bill 2630 had bipartisan support but did not make it to a vote on the Ways and Means Committee due to miscommunication among lawmakers, Democratic Rep. Pam Marsh told the Medford Mail Tribune.

“We're going to fix this,” she said, noting that a bill is being prepared right now.

“It’s my highest priority. I’m going to do everything I can to get that bill through this time.”

HB2630 would have directed the state’s Department of Education to cover any loss of State School Fund distributions that districts might have had as a result of wildfires last year.

Because of the Almeda fire, the Phoenix-Talent School District saw approximately 700 students displaced — 350 of which have yet to return to the district, officials say.

Given that factor and Oregon’s complicated funding formula for schools — in which districts are funded based on the number of students enrolled and attending — it’s a recipe that could mean Phoenix-Talent schools stand to lose millions of dollars.

In a recent interview with the Mail Tribune, Phoenix-Talent Superintendent Brent Barry

FILE PHOTO

would love for lawmakers to come through in 2022 and pass a funding bill.

“My plea is the hope that the Legislature realizes the need,” Barry said. “We’re already just trying to put one foot in front of another and without this security, it could be devastating.”

Dawn Watson, chairwoman of the district’s school board, said that for now, the school district’s budget is not affected by the bill’s failure, but “if something happens and they [lawmakers] don’t follow through with their promise, then we will have to take significant cuts.”

Such cuts would mean “impact to programs and

people and ultimately, students,” Barry said.

Marsh can still picture the moment the Almeda fire struck and talked about what it must have meant to youth.

“Every child in the Phoenix-Talent School District — if that child was at home — fled their home looking up at a giant plume of smoke, if not actual frames, coming toward their neighborhood,” Marsh said.

“Now, not every child lost their home, but every child has carried with them the memory and trauma of what that day was like.”

She commended Barry’s leadership, noting that the

district as a whole is “trying to hold all of these children and families in their arms to nurture them.” “[And also] to put the right kinds of programs on the ground to help children and families respond to and heal from the trauma they’ve experienced -- and do the regular academic stuff at the same time,” Marsh said. “That’s why we need to give them the support they need.”

Marsh noted that the importance of getting this bill passed goes not just to being able to educate students. It will provide economic development as well.

“For many people to know

there’s a strong, vibrant, robust school district is a really important factor in where they decide to locate themselves,” Marsh said. “So this community needs a school district to be in great shape and functioning well as they go through this rebuilding process.”

Watson said that process could take up to five years, which is why the district asked the Legislature for the bill to include a sunset provision of 2025.

“We asked [the Legislature] for a five-year forgiveness … based on what we were told it would take for families to move back into our community,” she said.

Because of the Almeda fire, the Phoenix-Talent School District saw approximately 700 students displaced — 350 of which have yet to return to the district, officials say. Given that factor and Oregon’s complicated funding formula for schools — in which districts are funded based on the number of students enrolled and attending — it’s a recipe that could mean Phoenix-Talent schools stand to lose millions of dollars. In a recent interview with the Mail Tribune, Phoenix-Talent Superintendent Brent Barry would love for lawmakers to come through in 2022 and pass a funding bill.

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Thursday, November 4, 2021 |

AGING HAPPENS

Financial woes, dementia can be linked

By Ellen Waldman for ACC

D

id you know that missing credit payments can be an early sign of dementia?

I learned that interesting fact this month, when I attended the yearly conference of the Oregon Geriatric Society (oregongeriatricssociety.org) via Zoom. The conference is designed by and for medical providers.

Here are some highlights from this year’s presenters.

All this information is backed by serious research, peer review and significant data.

A study was done in single-family households which showed that missed credit payments up to six years prior can be a very early indicator of Alzheimer’s disease or related dementias — also if there is a significant drop in a person’s credit score up to two years prior to diagnosis.

Interestingly, there was no relationship between missed payments and other health conditions. In my experience, couples often pick up the slack for one another, so it’s likely that’s why this was confined to single individuals.

The takeaway is financial symptoms of dementia may be the first to develop prior to a formal diagnosis. This could help families to recognize cognitive changes at much earlier stages.

On the same topic, it was found that for people with dementia who also experienced depression, that non-drug interventions are actually more effective than drug therapy. The types of treatments shown to be most effective were environmental stimulation, massage and touch therapy, social interaction, exercise, reminiscence therapy and other interventions.

These might be more challenging for families to provide at home, and many of our local memory care facilities offer these for their residents. This was the strongest evidence that non-drug interventions

may be better at treating depression in dementia.

In the Rogue Valley, we have four skilled nursing facilities and two hospitals. If you’re receiving care in any of these medical settings, how long can you expect it to take until recovering your former level of functioning? After an acute illness, it takes on average five to six months to return to normal function after being in a SNF. If this was a catastrophic illness or injury, two-thirds will recover their former functioning, but only one-third will if the illness is progressive. The important takeaway here is to be patient with your recovery. In many cases, you will return to full functioning over time.

Fall risk assessments and fall-avoidance are often concerns for older adults. The expression that a broken bone is a game-changer has been proven to be true now. There are two types of fractures: traumatic, such as a fall down the stairs, and nontraumatic, a fall from ground level, like standing. No matter which type of fall caused the initial broken bone, all subjects were at a greater risk for subsequent fractures, regardless of the type of initial fracture. The presenter said that any fracture is an indication that more fractures are likely to occur, and checking for osteoporosis is indicated.

Next time you see your primary care provider (doctor, nurse practitioner, naturopath), suggest they look into attending next year’s conference of the Oregon Geriatric Society. It would be great to have more representation from Southern Oregon. So much important information on the latest medical research for aging adults is presented, and connections with other professionals are made.

Ellen Waldman is a certified aging life care professional.

Submit questions about aging and Ashland-area aging resources and column suggestions to her through her website, SeniorOptionsAshland.com.

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A28

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Cancer survivor scales new heights Crane climb at Asante Rogue Regional Medical Center raises money for new medical building

By Vickie Aldous ACC

A 205-foot construction crane towered over cancer-survivor Cameron Caldwell and Dr. Brian Gross as the two prepared to climb a series of ladders to reach the top.

“Yeah, I’m a little nervous.

My palms are a little sweaty.

But I think it shouldn’t be too bad,” Caldwell said Friday afternoon at Asante’s Medford medical campus, which is in the midst of a flurry of construction.

Caldwell said he’s been getting advice about how to tackle the crane-climbing challenge.

“Just don’t look down. That’s what they all say,” he said.

Gross, a cardiologist with the Asante health system, won the right to climb the crane with a companion after submitting the winning bid at an Oregon Wine Experience fundraiser for the Asante Foundation. Gross thought about inviting a friend or colleague, but when he heard about Caldwell, the choice was clear.

An avid runner and basketball player, Caldwell was diagnosed with bone cancer in his senior year of high school after starting to feel pain in his leg. He endured limb-salvage surgery and 18 rounds of chemotherapy to beat the cancer.

He’s now a pre-med student at the Oregon Institute of Technology in Klamath Falls.

Gross said he wanted the young man to join him on the climb because Caldwell has lived through the challenge of fighting cancer and is now on a path toward a career in medicine.

“He’s going to help a lot of people. It’s pretty obvious to me,” Gross said.

The two donned hardhats, fluorescent construction vests and GoPro video cameras to record the adventure. They climbed a long series of ladders to reach the top of the crane.

From their high perch, they could see the autumn colors of trees, the hills surrounding Medford, buildings and tiny people and cars far below.

Cancer survivor Cameron Caldwell, middle, and Dr. Brian Gross, right, wave to onlookers Friday after reaching the top of a crane.

JAMIE LUSCH / MAIL TRIBUNE

Cameron Caldwell, top, and Dr. Brian Gross, bottom right, a cardiologist at Asante, climb a crane at Asante by the new Patient Pavilion on Friday.

They stayed high up on the 14-story crane as its operator raised construction equipment to the top of the Patient Pavilion, a six-floor medical building under construction.

The towering piece of equipment has a lifting capacity of 55,115 pounds, about the same as 300 doctors and nurses or five ambulances.

The $420 million Patient Pavilion building will allow Asante to provide more medical care to the nine-county region it serves.

After learning more about the crane and admiring the panoramic view, Caldwell and Gross made the long trip down, carefully placing their hands and feet as they descended the series of ladders.

Back on the ground, Gross said the trip wasn’t too hard because they paused to enjoy the view from platforms at the

base of each ladder.

“You had a little break each time. It was like running short wind sprints, or running lines in basketball,” he said.

Caldwell said he was powered by adrenaline on the way up, but that started to peter out on the descent.

“Near the end, I was definitely starting to breathe hard,” Caldwell said.

Caldwell said he appreciated getting a different perspective of the Rogue Valley from the crane’s heights.

“It was beautiful,” he said.

With its multiple stories, Caldwell said the Patient Pavilion will give kids and adults inspiring views. He got his care at a smaller oncology unit where there wasn’t much space to walk around.

“That’s going to be awesome for them. I mean, just a little bit of happiness and

brightness throughout their day,” Caldwell said.

He said cancer treatment takes so long that a medical facility becomes like a second home for patients.

Gross said patients need inspiration when they’re battling illness.

“You get sick and you need something to point towards. This place is going to be designed with all sorts of views to uplift your spirits and make you think about, ‘This is a fight worth fighting.’ It’s invigorating to look out over this valley. This is an absolutely gorgeous place to live,” he said.

Gross said it’s important for local residents to have high-quality care close to home.

“I get bored driving fourand-a-half hours to Portland.

I can’t imagine doing it sick and weak and nauseated,” he said.

Floyd Harmon, execu tive director of the Asante Foundation, said the general contractor for the Patient Pavilion project, Andersen Construction, donated the crane-climbing experience.

It was one of the many items and adventures auctioned off during the Oregon Wine Experience event that raised $1.6 million this year.

The Patient Pavilion will include new operating rooms, an expansion of Asante’s cardiovascular unit, critical care beds and a medical center devoted to health care for

women and children, Harmon said.

“The last couple of years have shown us how important those critical care beds are,” he noted, referring to the COVID-19 pandemic that has strained hospital capacity.

Caldwell said being at Asante’s Medford campus brought back both good and bad memories of his cancer battle. He said the positive attitude of his oncologist, Dr. Ellen Plummer, helped him through the ordeal.

Having cancer changed his career path and made him want to help others by becoming a doctor.

“Before, I wanted to be an engineer. I wanted nothing to do with medical because it grossed me out,” Caldwell said.

Caldwell’s little brother Sage was on hand to watch the two scale the crane and come back down. Sage said he’s written a one-page book about his big brother’s fight with cancer and his path to be a doctor.

Obviously convinced Caldwell is as tough as nails after his cancer battle, Sage said his brother could have climbed 50,000 cranes stacked on top of each other.

“I bet he could have climbed higher,” Sage said.

Reach Mail Tribune reporter Vickie Aldous at 541776-4486 or valdous@ rosebudmedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @VickieAldous.

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Volunteers from varied backgrounds give free counseling to other seniors

By Vickie Aldous ACC

R

etired therapist Ed Reed was wondering what he could do to help during the pandemic when he spotted his neighbor Stewart McCollom, a retired business owner.

“I wanted something to do to use my skills and give to the community,” Reed recalled. “I ran into Stewart while he was walking his dog.

He told me about the Age Wise Age Well program. I said, ‘Wow! That’s great!’”

The program in Jackson County trains senior citizens from all walks of life to become volunteer peer counselors for other seniors.

Clients in the program get a free weekly counseling session to talk about a range of issues, from losing one’s sense of identity after retirement to navigating the loss of a spouse.

“It’s a very worthwhile thing for the community — both for us as volunteers and for people who need someone to listen to them and discuss problems,” Reed said.

The program is accepting new clients as well as new volunteers.

Reed retired from his career as a licensed therapist in 2019.

Now a volunteer with the Age Wise Age Well program, he has a few clients of his own and also does the initial intake conversations with those referred to the program.

The program has a dozen counselors who each see one to four clients each. Normally, a counselor and client would meet one-on-one in person, usually at the client’s home. During the pandemic, the counseling sessions are being done by phone or through online video talks.

Reed said the volunteers, who come from a mix of backgrounds, do well as counselors.

“I’ve been very impressed with people’s skills. There’s a richness that comes from people coming from different

talking to fellow senior citizens who are going through the same shared experiences.

Because the service is free, it fills a gap in the community.

Even people with insurance often run out of coverage for therapy sessions, said Age Wise Age Well Program Coordinator Brooke Kirkland.

During the intake process, people with severe mental health issues can be referred for professional help if their needs are beyond the scope of the program.

Kirkland said the volunteer counselors are the heart of the Age Wise Age Well program.

The counselors meet weekly for a confidential talk with each other about their clients’ issues. With their diverse mix of backgrounds and experiences, they help each other do a better job helping their JAMIE LUSCH / MAIL TRIBUNE clients, Kirkland said.

Ed Reed, left, Nan Gunderson and Stewart McCollom are peer counselors who serve senior citizen clients in Jackson “The group of 12 active County for the Age Wise Age Well program. counselors is so dedicated and they care so deeply about professions. Everyone has a jobs and now they’re not doing stories about their lives and the people they serve,” she real desire to be a good listener anything and they feel they’re current experiences. said. “I can’t imagine a more and to be empathetic,” he said. losing their identity.”

While in-person meetings compassionate group.”

McCollom, now 93, helped McCollom said some people between clients and counGunderson, one of the launch peer counseling for have unresolved issues from selors are on pause for now, counselors, said the volunsenior citizens in Jackson the past and need help working Gunderson said the counselors teers sincerely enjoy talking County. He’s been helping as through their feelings in order haven’t let that stop them from with their clients. a counselor since 1990. to move on. helping their clients via phone “It’s uplifting to all our peer McCollom said it made Nan Gunderson, a volunteer or computer. counselors because we feel sense to start peer counseling counselor and retired clinical “We look forward to the time we’re providing something for seniors in the Rogue Valley social worker, said with all the when we can go back to meetmeaningful. I think it’s upliftsince so many people retire upheaval and change over the ing in person, but we don’t let ing for our clients because here. The area also has a large past few years, people need that handicap us. It’s a good they know we’ll be there every number of retirement commu- someone to talk to now more program and it’s still valuweek. We’re dependable and nities and nursing homes. than ever. able,” she said. trained and we care,” she said.

McCollom said relationship “It’s critical to have someone The Age Wise Age Well Gunderson said she knows issues are the most common to talk to and vent and problem program is under the umbrella it’s hard for people to ask for problems people are confront- solve,” she said. of the Community Volunteer help and apply for counseling. ing, whether it’s relationships Gunderson said clients are Network organization.

But she said people feel better with a spouse, adult children or often facing some type of loss, Referrals to the program once they start talking reguothers in the community. such as the loss of a house, a have dropped off somewhat larly to someone they trust.

The next most common set spouse, some of their physical during the pandemic because “Pick up that phone,” she of issues revolve around aging. abilities or their career after people are visiting their doctors urged.

Many people become anxious they retire. less often, Community VolTo apply for counseling about their health and experi“Maybe they’ve retired or unteer Network Executive yourself or to refer someence isolation, he said. they had to quit because of a Director Kristin Milligan said. one for counseling, or to “We look at all of these kinds health condition, or they’ve People can call and ask for volunteer to become a of aging issues,” McCollom been a caregiver but their loved counseling, or health care trained peer counselor, call said. “Sometimes people have one died or had to go into a workers, relatives, friends and 541-646-3402. anxiety. Sometimes there’s facility. They are going through neighbors can refer someone guilt over something they think a transition that starts as a who they think could benefit Reach Mail Tribune reporter they did wrong. There can be loss,” she said. from the counseling service.

Vickie Aldous at valdous@ frustration, especially among Gunderson said counselors Milligan said senior citizens rosebudmedia.com. Follow her men who had high-powered listen carefully to people’s often feel more comfortable on Twitter @VickieAldous.

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ALARM BOX

By Kelly Burns

A few tips for a safe winter

for ACC

When fall rains set in, firefighters often hear comments like, “You must be thankful the rains are here. This must be your slow season.”

It may be a surprise, but we don’t have a slow season in Ashland. Your firefighters and paramedics will respond to nearly 5,000 calls for help this year. While the rain limits the number of wildfires, the threat of indoor fires increases.

This is the time of year we turn on heaters, stoke fires and get creative in the kitchen.

Here’s a list of a few things you can do to make sure you, your friends and family keep your home or apartment as safe as possible: Smoke Alarms: Place smoke alarms in each bedroom, in the hall leading to the bedrooms and on each floor of your home. Make sure your smoke alarms are working by testing them monthly. Never disable a smoke detector except to change the batter or replace the alarm itself.

Carbon Monoxide Alarms: If you have a carbon monoxide source such as natural gas appliances, oil- or wood-burning stoves, or a door that leads from the garage

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Keep portable space heaters at least 3 feet from combustibles like clothes, towels, newspapers and boxes.

These are meant to be used as temporary heating sources for small spaces. Don’t leave them on all the time or when you leave the house, and don’t try to heat the whole house with them.

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to your house, you should have a carbon monoxide alarm near the bedrooms. This gas is odorless and potentially deadly.

Detectors are the only way to protect yourself and your loved ones.

Cooking: Cooking mishaps are the number one cause of house fires. This is the time of year we see an upswing in these types of fire calls. Unattended

cooking is the biggest culprit, followed by food frying.

Remember, oil will catch fire if it gets too hot. Keep a lid nearby in case of an oil fire, and never put water on hot oil!

Portable Space Heaters: Keep these at least 3 feet from combustibles like clothes, towels, newspapers and boxes.

These are meant to be used as temporary heating sources

for small spaces. Don’t leave them on all the time or when you leave the house, and don’t try to heat the whole house with them. If your heat source fails, never use an outdoor fueled appliance like a propane heater as an indoor heat source.

Carbon monoxide can kill.

Candles: Let’s just say that battery-operated candles are much safer. There are some

very realistic-looking battery-powered candles on the market today, and they pose no open flame threat. If you can’t part with the wax candle and flame, then ensure it is not near combustibles (paper, fabric, curtains, books, wood), and do not leave the room or go to sleep while the candle is burning. We have seen many candles start fires. If you have left the house or a room with a candle burning, maybe it’s time to make the switch to battery-operated candles.

Christmas and Holiday Trees: If you select a live tree, make a new cut about 1 to 2 inches from the base of the trunk. This will let the tree soak up water. Keep water in the stand. When you change the water for your pet(s), add water to the tree. Keep heat sources at least three feet from the tree. Use lights that are in good repair with no broken or damaged wires. If the tree starts dropping needles, it’s time to get rid of it.

Check our website at www. ashland.or.us/holiday for other helpful holiday tips.

Let’s have a safe and happy holiday season.

Kelly Burns is a battalion chief/ paramedic with Ashland Fire & Rescue.

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Afghan refugee arrivals in Oregon pick up ACC staff

The pace of Afghan refugees arriving in Oregon began to rise in mid-October, according to the latest update from the Afghan Arrivals Workgroup.

Welcoming preparations continue as resettlement begins in the wake of a tumultuous evacuation process.

“Current combined commitments from all national resettlement agencies to resettle Afghan parolees are not enough, meaning Afghans will either be forced to remain at U.S. military bases or will

be sent to communities with inadequate support,” Rep. Khanh Pham and Sen. Kayse Jama said in the update.

“Resettlement affiliates are being encouraged to ramp up their capacity to resettle more families.”

The Afghan Arrivals Workgroup — a collaborative effort launched Sept. 14 among lawmakers, state and local agencies, nonprofits and community leaders — established subgroups to coordinate key aspects of Afghan refugee relocation in Oregon. Officials expect the state’s metro

centers to take in most refugees following the collapse of Afghanistan into Taliban control.

Colder weather has begun to affect the sustainability of lodging on certain U.S. military bases, prompting federal officials to consider relocating more than 40,000 people to emergency housing.

According to Catholic Charities of Oregon, five families (a total of 15 people) will arrive soon, to be initially housed and fed by the Oregon Department of Human Services Emergency Management Unit. Catholic

Charities recently announced the addition of a case manager to its refugee services team to focus on Afghan family resettlement.

The Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization was approved as a state resettlement agency, with the power to work directly with the federal government to resettle refugees.

IRCO plans to increase staff by two to three people for program support and training as they work to settle 150 Afghan arrivals through the end of the year, according to

the workgroup update.

The Afghan Support Network, a new organization filing for nonprofit status, will focus on immigration support, cultural navigation, service connection and advocacy with and on behalf of Portland areabased Afghan communities.

All Afghan Arrivals Workgroup subcommittees have convened for at least one meeting. Subcommittees include housing, legal services, employment and workforce development, childcare, education, health care and translation services.

Ashland woman sues over forced urine sample

By Nick Morgan ACC

An Ashland woman is suing for damages surrounding the way police and medical staff obtained a urine sample that resulted in her drunken-driving conviction — but also caused the woman a urinary tract infection and “significant emotional injury.”

Calling the procedure “painful, humiliating and deeply degrading,” Lise Ann Behringer, 64, filed a suit in October in U.S. District Court in Medford seeking a court order stopping Ashland police and hospitals in the Providence Health Care system from forcing catheters on criminal suspects.

Behringer’s suit alleges that Ashland police exceeded the scope of their search warrant when they had medical staff force a catheter in her during a 2019 drunken driving investigation, and that Providence Medford Medical Center staff battered and assaulted her during the procedure she didn’t authorize.

“Providence Health Care then bills Ms. Behringer $1,100.24 for its barbaric treatment of her,” the lawsuit states.

Shortly before 8 p.m. the evening of Oct. 19, 2019, Ashland police Officer Justin McCreadie stopped Behringer near the intersection of East Main and Fordyce streets and smelled alcohol on her breath, according to an affidavit filed in Jackson County Circuit Court.

McCreadie said he observed her vehicle “stopped in the middle of the road” for an extended period of time, then witnessed Behringer swerving in her lane leading up to the stop. She pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of driving under the influence of intoxicants the following July.

The police affidavit states that

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Behringer refused field sobriety tests, blood and urine tests at the time of the stop, prompting the officer to obtain a search warrant for blood and urine samples.

Behringer’s lawsuit claims that she tried to provide a breath sample at the police station, but was unable to because of her disabilities. An oxygen regulator was visible in the vehicle at the time of the stop, as was a handicapped parking decal in her front window.

The officer "demanded“ a urine sample, the lawsuit claims, but Behringer refused to urinate in front of the male officer.

McCreadie obtained a search warrant for Behringer’s blood and urine.

The lawsuit, however, claims that the warrant “did not authorize forced catheterization.”

She claims that the hospital staff — who have not yet been named in the lawsuit beyond “Jane and John Roe Medical Staff” — stripped her below the waist, did nothing to protect her privacy during the forced urine sample and did nothing to mitigate the pain of a tube being forced into her urethra.

According to a statement she made to a judge in her criminal case Feb. 4, 2020, Behringer claimed medical staff made five attempts to insert the catheter.

“It was so humiliating, I can’t even explain it to you,” Behringer wrote to the judge.

She expressed remorse for driving impaired, but also described being released from the hospital after her arrest without her medications, her phone or her money.

“I feel awful about it, just ashamed

and disconnected and want to apologize to my community and to the court,” Behringer wrote. “On the other hand, I think it’s fair to learn what the protocol is for arresting people who have chronic, progressive illnesses which are likely to cause their death.”

“I had no purse, no money, no phone, no oxygen ... I called an Uber and had to break into my own home to get my money from my dresser to pay (the driver),” Behringer wrote. “I was easy prey out there, very scared and very ill.”

A Providence spokesperson and the Ashland City Attorney refused to comment on the case.

The lawsuit, however, cited a response from a Providence patient care liaison dated Feb. 20, 2020, which stated that an internal review found the level of care “appropriate.”

“Our review found the care appropriate as assisting law enforcement with evidence collection is something we are often asked to do,” the liaison stated Feb. 20, 2020.

The Providence representative told Behringer that there’s “no written policy or protocol that specifically outlines what should be done,” but in such incidents staff and officers make attempts to respect a patient’s right to privacy.

"One of the ways we do this is turning our backs to the patient during the process if it is safe to do so,” Providence told Behringer. ”As it turns out this is not always the case.”

In this case, one police officer, one staff member and a hospital security officer were the only ones on the scene.

Reach web editor Nick Morgan at 541776-4471 or nmorgan@rosebudmedia. com. Follow him on Twitter @MTwebeditor.

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