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Performance
A Call to Arts:
Now more than ever, the show must go on.
Wine
A Tender Toast:
Raise a glass to those who have died, and will die.
Outdoors
Flowing Wild and Free:
Fall's the time to explore Lane County's only wilderness river.
PLUS: Booknotes
A Call to Arts
Now more than ever,
the show must go on.
By Aria
Seligmann
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Mrs. Anderson
(Rose Anderson) discusses the ecstasy of nothingness while George (Michael P. Watkins)
and Doris (Debi Farr) listen.
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Ticket sales were already lagging and emergency meetings held among
some local arts organizations about what to do about it -- even before Sept. 11.
Recession, war, insecurity -- all those nasty things can add up to conservatism in
spending on everything, including entertainment. During stressful times, art can
suffer.
Yet, counselor after counselor I spoke with this week (see story,
page 14) stressed the importance of engaging in recreational and social activities
to stay mentally healthy during times of worry. They say sitting at home, living
in fear is not the answer: going out and being with your community is.
It would be a shame to see any of our performing arts companies
falter now, when we need them the most. So go out and immerse yourself in theater,
music and dance. Art elevates the spirit. You'll not only be helping yourself, but
showing up for the many performers who've been rehearsing week after week because
they know art matters.
One show to check out if you're looking to walk out of your life
and waltz into another era is Actors Cabaret's The Foursome. The world premiere
musical is by Eugenean Charles Nathan, who wrote the book, music, lyrics and arrangements.
Dave Heisler contributed additional lyrics and Joe Zingo directs.
The Foursome is set in the style of the golden age of musical
comedy, 1940s-ish, and offers an old-fashioned but charming plot, whereby two women
have been dating two men for years and years, and the women are fed up they're not
married yet. The women devise a scheme, a la Lucy and Ethel, to make the men so jealous
they'll realize they love the ladies enough to propose.
What sells this show, and believe me, the audience buys it hook,
line and sinker, is the quality of the music -- Jim Greenwood's at the helm, here
-- as well as the stage direction and the performance. Big crowd-pleasers are "South
of the Blues" sung by Michael P. Watkins and "I'll Be the Guy that Every
Woman Hates," sung by Watkins and Gerald Walters. Strong performances are turned
in by Watkins, Walters and Elizabeth Davis; followed by Debi Farr, John Elliott and
Rose Anderson.
Playwright Charles Nathan (ASCAP), has had hit songs sung by Perry
Como and Anita Bryant. He's a former big band jazz trumpet player and arranger, who
earned a 1953 Citation of Achievement from Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI).
There is nothing controversial about this show; the whole family
should see it. It continues through Oct. 20.
-- Good news on the theater front: Willamette Rep has announced
it will have a season, albeit an abbreviated one. In December, the company
will present A.R. Gurney's Love Letters, followed by A Midsummer Night's
Dream in March in collaboration with the Eugene Symphony, and Steel Magnolias
later in the spring. Definitely audience-building, risk-free fare, but it will
hopefully line the Rep's coffers for future, edgier endeavors.
-- Bad news on the theater front: Eugene's losing another great
performer and another dear friend bites the dust as actor David Beck says sayonara
to scrounging for pay and heads to Seattle for greater employment opportunities.
Beck has performed with Lord Leebrick, Actors Cabaret, Eugene Chamber Theatre and
LCC.
Recently, he wrote theater reviews for EW and hung in there
with us all summer as assistant editor of the Annual Manual (which comes out
in just two weeks). We'll miss you, David.
Back to Top
A Tender Toast
Raise a glass to those
who have died, and will die.
By Lance Sparks
Write about wine? While the world trembles on the brink of what
might be its most terrible war? How to begin? Where begin to write about the most
civilized of pleasures, the pleasures of the table, of good food, good wine, among
friends. The enemies of pleasure have so deeply wounded our hearts, I wonder if or
when we can ever return to a renewal of those simple civilities. I am deeply afraid
I have seen the beginnings of the collapse of a world we've known and loved. I am
deeply afraid that the wounds might have been fatal to something vital.
Like millions of others, on Tuesday morning of Sept. 11, I watched
the news in horror. When a camera focused on the intensity of the fire burning in
the second tower, I shouted to my family, "That fire's too hot; it'll melt girders;
the building can't stand!" Moments later, we cried, sobbed as the skyscraper
imploded and tumbled to the streets. Minutes later, we cried again as the second
tower fell, killing thousands, and not just Americans; people from 80 countries died
at the hands of murderous fanatics.
The assassins chose their targets very carefully. They knew how
grievous would be the wounds they inflicted. I think they knew the inevitable consequences
-- not just the severe damage to the American and world economy, not just the huge
losses of lives and jobs and homes, but the destruction of peace within our countries,
the polarization of our people, the collapse of our civility, the irresistible slide
into war.
And war there will be, must be. No nation can allow this kind of
attack without responding in kind, and it doesn't matter if, as the thoughtful Afghan
Tamin Ansary has written, this war "is exactly what [Osama bin Laden] wants."
And the first victim will be the truth, for war feeds on emotions of grief and rage
and revenge; only the planners and commanders can be coldly logical and calculating
in the creation of chaos and mayhem. The next victims will be the peacemakers, even
though peace must always be the goal of war, unless it is conducted by the suicidally
insane.
I am a Navy brat, born on a military base into a military family
in the middle of a war. All the male members of my family -- my father, my step-father,
my uncles -- have been warriors. Fort Bragg is named after one of my ancestors. As
a boy, I studied fervently the history of warfare of all kinds, all times. One of
the happiest days of my life came in my senior year of high school when I learned
that Nevada's Senator Bible had appointed me to the Air Force Academy (I flunked
the physical because of my underbite, but attended the Merchant Marine Academy in
Long Island, New York). When I crowed my glee to my Uncle Cliff, a colonel and bombardier
for the Strategic Air Command, he looked at me somberly and said, "Remember
this: Anybody who loves war and doesn't love peace is a fool or a murderer. Real
warriors want peace more than anything. Peace is what we fight for." At the
time, I was puzzled but only shrugged. Much later I learned what he knew that made
him -- and now me -- so passionate for peace.
For now, though, there is war, even though, as I write, the first
bombs have yet to fall. We will strike, as we must, even though it is just what our
enemies hope for and need, even though it could be a terrible mistake and cost the
world. Those of us who long for peace must know that the Taliban and their ilk, who
have corrupted the teachings of the Prophet in making war on women and innocents,
do not want peace and will not accept it, because only war legitimizes their power,
even their right to eat while others Afghans starve. We must recognize a terrible
truth of human history, that some regimes -- think of Hitler's fascists -- are so
profoundly vicious that only armed resistance can protect against them. So we will
have war, until, again, we can have peace.
The Taliban and their kind -- from Osama bin laden to Osama bin
Falwell -- are enemies of love, of pleasure, of civility and freedom. If we can keep
these values alive, we can contribute to a victory over the forces that would destroy
them, and us. And wine can have a modest place in this, for the Taliban hate wine
-- because it brings pleasure.
Here are two special wines you might look for: First, Chateau
Musar; a Bordeaux blend of grapes grown in Lebanon's war-ravaged Bekaa Valley,
vinified in France. It could be hard to find, but I swear you can taste in it flavors
that echo gunpowder, shrapnel and blood. Second, a crisp Italian white, Lachryma
Christi, lovely with seafood; its name translates as the Tears of Christ.
Raise a glass in tender toast, to those who die in crumbling infernos,
to the incredibly heroic men and women who die to save others, to those who will
die in the dark days to come, until peace and pleasure can return to our lives, our
nation and our world.
Back to Top
Flowing Wild &
Free
Fall's the time to explore
Lane County's only wilderness river.
By James
Johnston
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The North Fork
of the Middle Fork flows through the Waldo Wilderness. (Click here for enlarged photo.)
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There are two congressionally designated Wild and Scenic Rivers in
Lane County. The upper McKenzie enjoys more use and name recognition, but the lesser-known
North Fork of the Middle Fork Willamette River is just as scenic and quite a bit
wilder. Unlike the McKenzie, the North Fork is free flowing for its entire 42-mile
length. Thirty miles upstream of Westfir the North Fork takes an abrupt turn to the
south where it carves its way through the middle of the 30,000-acre Waldo Wilderness
on the way to its source at Waldo Lake. There are more than 160 miles of trails in
the North Fork basin, the best of which are located in the wilderness reaches of
the river.
Directions: Take I-5 south from Eugene/ Springfield for
approximately 3 miles. Take the Oakridge/Klamath Falls exit (Exit 188A). Stay to
the left onto Hwy. 58. Take 58 for approximately 31 miles. Just before the Middle
Fork Ranger Station, take the sweeping left at a sign for Westfir (you can stop at
the Ranger Station for maps on weekdays). After less than half a mile, cross a bridge
over the Middle Fork and take a left at the T-intersection. After 1.75 miles you
come to a four-way intersection in the village of Westfir, with a covered bridge
on your left. Continue straight on the Aufderheide Drive (FS Route 19). Stay on the
Aufderheide for 29.8 miles. Just before Milepost 30, take a right at a brown hiker
sign and park in a small lot surrounded by trees.
Getting to the trailhead is half the fun of this trip. The last
30 miles of your drive takes in some of the most scenic sections of the 145-mile
Aufderheide, a loop that links Highways 58 and 126. The road follows the crystal
clear waters of the North Fork and features tons of fly-fishing, kayaking, swimming
and picnicking opportunities. The best times to make the drive are early September
through early November when the roadside is choked with fall colors.
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The North Fork
of the Middle Fork flows through the Waldo Wilderness. (Click here for enlarged photo.)
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From your parking spot you have two options. The first is a short
day hike downstream along the river and the second takes you deep into the wilderness.
For the second option, take the unmarked trail that's straight
ahead when you're looking towards the river with your back to the road. The first
part of the trail is flat and takes you through a younger forest, with the North
Fork on your right. After about 2 miles you'll cross Skookum Creek and the trail
gets interesting. You'll encounter a number of seeps and springs before the trail
intersects the North Fork itself, 3 miles from the trailhead. There are logs across
the river upstream, or you can brave the ice-cold waters with bare feet.
The next mile of trail follows the north bank of the North Fork
through stands of enormous Douglas fir and Western red cedar. Then the trail turns
north and gains more than 1,500 feet in a mile of punishing switchbacks. Day hikers
will turn back before the climb, although hard-core backpackers can stay right at
all the intersections for the next 4 miles to Moolack Lake. Moolack's a great base
camp from which to mount loop trips across Moolack Mountain or down Fisher Creek.
There are trails to upper and lower Quinn and Eddeeleo Lakes, and to Waldo Lake and
the outlet of the North Fork located another 6 miles to the south.
For the first hiking option from your car, take the unmarked trail
to your right (downstream). This is an easy mile and a half stroll along the river
through a fabulous old-growth forest of Douglas fir, Western red cedar, Pacific yew
and Western hemlock (and a small camping spot). The trail splits once after about
a mile. The path to the left gets pretty overgrown, and takes you down to the river
before it disappears in a swamp. The right hand turn leads to the road and the trailhead
for Box Canyon.
Both trails have lots of vine maple, big leaf maple and alder.
In the next month, these trees, particularly the vine maple along the riverbank,
will turn a fiery red and lemon yellow. Crisp mountain air, a gorgeous river and
autumn colors make the North Fork the place to be this fall.
Back to Top
Book Notes:
Award-winning science writer Stephen Jay Gould speaks at 7:30 pm Oct. 4, Arlene
Schnitzer Concert Hall, Portland. Info at Literary Arts (503/227-2583). ... Poets
Kim Addonizio and Joe Millar read at 7:30 pm Oct. 9, Tsunami Books.
...Local editor Colleen Sell and writer Stephanie Barrow discuss A
Cup Of Comfort at 3 pm Oct. 14, Barnes & Noble. ...Coming in early Oct.,
Tsunami hosts readings by Oregon Book Awards winners and finalists, TBA.
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