sun Hailey
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Sun Valley
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Carey
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Sun Valley Center’s Annual Arts & Crafts Fair Starts This Friday Page 4
WIN TICKETS and See What to Do this Week!
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Symphony STORY & PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK
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he Sun Valley Summer Symphony hit high notes the past few days with the melodic Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 4 and Respighi’s “Pines of Rome,� along with Gustav Mahler’s ambitious Sixth Symphony. Sunday’s lighter side enthralled symphony-goers with Richard Strauss’ ode to “Sunrise,� which was popularized in “2001: A Space Odyssey,� and Jacques Offenbach’s “Galop,� more popularly known as the “Can Can,� from “Orpheus in the Underworld.� Guest pianist Jon Kimura Parker endeared himself to Sunday evening’s crowd with Rachmaninoff’s wickedly played “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini,� followed by a Billy Joel encore dedicated to concert sponsor Dan Drackett and yet another encore—a “Happy Birthday� piece for Alasdair Neale couched in a Tchaikovsky piece. Like it or not, the 2012 season draws to a close this week. But not before Sun Valley’s favorite detective novelist Ridley Pearson, who has maintained a full-time or parttime residence in Sun Valley for more than 30 years, narrates “Cowboy Bill� in Saturday’s Family Concert. The concert, which begins at 2 p.m. Saturday, will feature Aaron Copland’s “Hoedown� from “Rodeo,� followed by the world premiere of “Cowboy Bill.� The piece was commissioned by the symphony and written by Alex Orfaly, a timpanist for the symphony for the past five seasons. The symphony premiered his “Mean Man’s March� last season. Orfaly says the piece came to him during his long drives between his home in Boston and Sun Valley. The family concert will be preceded by the 33rd Annual Doll Buggy Parade at 1:30 p.m. Young’uns are encouraged to dress up as cowboys and cowgirls and march from the Sun Valley Inn to the Sun Valley Pavilion. Other concerts this week: Thursday—The Musicians’ Choice Chamber Music Concert features the symphony’s own percussionist Joseph Tompkins’ “Boardgames,� which he says can be recreated anywhere that has a 2-by-4 boards and a hardware store. Also, Wolfgang Mozart’s “Serenade No. 11� for wind octet and Johannes Brahms’ “Piano Quartet No. 3.� Friday—Violinist James Ehnes, whose 25 recordings have received critical acclaim, will play Jean Sibelius’ “Concerto for Violin.� Also on tap: Edvard Grieg’s “Suite No. 1� from “Peer Gynt.� Sunday—The orchestra will play Samuel Barber’s overture to “The School for Scandal� and Antonin Dvorak’s “Symphony No. 9, From the New World,� which was influenced by the African-American and Native American melodies Dvorak heard in
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This Designer Fridge was one of many items showcased during The Community Library’s Annual Tour of Homes read about it on PaGe 15
bull! Pages 10-11
A u g u s t 8 , 2 0 1 2 • V o l . 5 • N o . 3 2 • w w w .T h e W e e k l y S u n . c o m
The kids will get an introduction to various instruments in the orchestra during Saturday’s performance of “Cowboy Bill.�
s t a n l e y • F a i r f i e l d • S h o sh o n e • P i c a b o
Blaine County Fair Gets Underway this Week
the weekly
15-Year-Old Jack O’Gara Rides ‘Em & Raises ‘Em‌
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Jack O’Gara says he knows his bulls are having fun when they begin chasing him around the arena. STORY & PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK
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page out of David and Goliath unfolds every time Jack O’Gara lowers his body into a rodeo chute. There, O’Gara anchors his 5-foot-6, 95pound body atop 1,500 to 2,000 pounds of writhing bull that wants nothing more than to twist and turn and buck him off. O’Gara has wanted nothing more since he could walk and talk. And now, at 15, he not only rides the bulls, he raises and works Brahma bulls on his father’s ranch south of Bellevue. Up to 15 of those Silver Spring Bucking Bulls are expected to appear in Saturday’s Professional Bull Riders (PBR) competition at the Sawtooth Rangers rodeo arena in Hailey. The PBR Classic starts at 7 p.m. Saturday. Tickets are available at Atkinsons’ Markets and from the Hailey Chamber of Commerce. Among the bulls O’Gara will parade into the ring: Country Bumpkin, who has yet to be ridden by anyone for eight seconds. The four-year-old, 1,500-pound bull is currently ranked 27th in the world. “These guys are all superstars,� said O’Gara. “And once you get on for the first time, it’s like a non-stop addiction. If you stay on for the full eight seconds, it feels as if you’ve conquered the world—hats in the air!� The bulls command between $20,000 and a million dollars each in a “national obsession� that’s become the third largest spectator sport in the United States behind NASCAR and UFC cage fighting, said Judd Mortensen, a bull rider who has competed in the United States, Canada, Australia and Brazil.
“Bulls are America’s modern-day gladiators—they love playing the game of bucking off cowboys,� Mortensen added. “PBR is two hours of non-stop bucking to rock and roll music. And the Hailey arena is awesome—it’ll put people right on top of the action. If the people show up, we’ll be there year after year.� O’Gara cut his teeth learning bull riding at world champion bull rider Gary Leffew’s Bull Riding School in Nipomo, Calif. “Gary talks about how a bull rider has two zones—the power zone and the house of pain. Once the bull starts kicking, you want your hand under your crotch holding that leather strap. If it’s out in front of you, you have no leverage and you end up in the eye of the hurricane, in the house of pain,� O’Gara said. “You hunker down, get over them,� added Mortensen. “If they beat you out of the chute, you’re not going to win.� Despite his small stature, O’Gara easily picks up a hundred pounds of fence in the process of directing his bulls to the right corral. He also runs several miles a week and lifts weights, knowing that he’ll use every muscle in his body to stay atop the bulls for those eight precious seconds. O’Gara visualizes himself riding a bull to a successful conclusion as he drifts off to sleep each night. “The subconscious mind doesn’t know the difference between real and fake so you can get good at bull riding then,� he said. With a little bull riding under his belt, O’Gara talked his father, Tom O’Gara, into letting him raise bulls with names like “Hit Man.� “My dad had 800 purebred Angus cat-
“If you stay on for the full eight seconds, it feels as if you’ve conquered the world—hats in the air!� –Jack O’gara
tle and I never liked them because I didn’t find anything fun about them,� O’Gara said. “Bulls are all different. They’re extremely smart, they have attitude. They’re fun to watch from the time they grow up. Once I realized how amazing bulls are, I realized I didn’t want to just ride them—I wanted to own them.� Young O’Gara feeds each bull between 40 and 50 pounds of alfalfa or grass hay each day. He exercises them by running them in circles. When they’re two years old, he puts mechanical dummies on their backs, hitting a remote button that bucks the dummies off at six seconds. When they’re three, he puts a real rider on.
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