|
News
Briefs: Eugene Clinic Closes
| WEP Loser | Eyeing Pesticides
| Owls Spotted | Labor Notes
News:
Charter Reform: Council rejects auditor proposal, refers watered-down
in-house city attorney to ballot.
News:
From Bus to Dust: Wandering the land of the naked and the free.
Happening
People: Harriet Merrick
EUGENE
CLINIC CLOSES
Lois Smith, executive director of All Women's
Health Services (AWHS) in Portland confirmed the organization's Eugene
clinic closed permanently July 16. "We are effectively discontinuing
services as of today," Smith says. Eugene patients are being referred
the organization's other clinic in Portland, which will remain open.
"We will be coordinating follow-up care with our clients through the
Portland center," she says.
|
Slant
Ç If you need a chuckle, read Jim Godbold's
column online in the Sunday R-G. He draws fuzzy distinctions
between independent media writers/videographers and the "real
journalists" of mainstream media. "Whatever our flaws," he writes,
"one thing you won't have to do when you read our newspaper
is wonder if what you are reading is journalism." Godbold's
on shaky ground (again) trying to nail down which media are
authentic and worthy. The R-G's style of journalism might
be polite, well-edited, and even inspired at times, but for
the most part it's also meek, superficial and yes, biased. When
was the last time the R-G investigated car dealers' shady
practices, conflicts of interest at City Hall or the power wielded
by the Chamber of Commerce over city politics? The R-G
has practically ignored labor strife in the community, particularly
its own. We learned a lot more about the WTO from the indy media
than we ever learned from the R-G. Journalism should
be judged on how well it serves the public interest, even if
it's offensive, confrontational and opinionated. As we discovered
in the point-of-view investigative reporting on Watergate, the
truth can be an ugly thing — but liberating.
Ç "Mitigation" is a concept being used over
and over again to justify the environmental destruction that
would come with building the West Eugene Parkway. Even if we
replace every filled acre of established wetlands with two or
three acres of new wetlands somewhere else we are likely to
see a net loss over time. The success rate of wetlands mitigation
nationwide is poor and even the success rate of our more stringent
local efforts is questionable. Meanwhile, we will be damaging
our remaining west Eugene wetlands with exhaust fumes, oil leaks
and noise — not to mention all the wetland critters large
and small that will be smashed by tires and windshields.
Ç Speaking of tires and windshields, thanks
for the calls and letters regarding our new "Treadmarks" column
that runs with our car ads in the back of the paper. Yes, author
Jim Motavalli is editor of E, The Environmental Magazine,
one of the most influential green publications in general circulation.
Most of his columns have an environmental angle, but like many
of us, he also has a nagging affinity for finely crafted driving
machines. Is everyone who drives and also preaches about global
warming and sprawl hypocritcal? Does it matter what we drive?
Old VW buses can pollute more than some new SUVs. What about
all the high-mileage moms shuttling kids all over town? Should
we all switch to bicycles? What do you think?
SLANT includes short opinion pieces and rumor-chasing
notes compiled by the EW staff. Heard any good rumors lately?
Contact Ted Taylor at 484-0519, editor@eugeneweekly.com |
Smith says the reasoning behind the Eugene shutdown
"can be summarized as a strategic decision we've made for the organization."
She says the organization will also be able to focus its efforts more
comprehensively on a full spectrum of women's healthcare.
Founded in 1971, AWHS is a non-profit feminist organization
dedicated to providing women-controlled healthcare and the right to
choose. The Eugene clinic provided a variety of services, including
annual exams, STD screening, donor insemination, pregnancy testing
and abortion services. Smith says that to her knowledge, AWHS was
the only non-profit clinic offering abortion services in Eugene. However,
patients can still receive the same services at the Portland location.
The organization is a member of the Federation of
Feminist Women's Health Centers. "We will continue to work with the
pro-choice community in Eugene and Lane County," Smith says. —
Jacquelyn Lewis
WEP
LOSER
In a letter to the Eugene City Council
and mayor, Eugene scientist and environmentalist Mary O'Brien says
it looks like Eugene is about to lose a million dollars for wetlands
conservation, due to the West Eugene Parkway (WEP) project.
"The House planned to give a million dollars of Land
and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) money to the BLM in 2003 for helping
to complete the wetlands project in West Eugene, but the Senate committee
working on these funds has zeroed that out," she writes.
The committee has consistently supported the West
Eugene Wetlands acquisition program over the years, and is aware that
the federal portion of the acquisition program is nearing completion.
"In order to properly conclude the project, however, certain issues
regarding the status of lands in the project area must be resolved,"
says committee notes.
O'Brien says when the BLM inquired about the committee's
concerns, they found "it had to do with the Eugene Parkway project
and the disposition of LWCF acquired lands for right-of-way purposes.
[The committee] indicated that additional LWCF funds would be dependent
on maintenance of the lands for the purpose intended."
O'Brien says she's hopeful the city will get the money
back "when the WEP is blocked in favor of a transportation and community
approach that doesn't involve using rare wetlands as the location
of a 100-yard-wide highway that will only increase traffic and VMTs"
(vehicle miles of travel per person per day). — Ted Taylor
EYEING
PESTICIDES
Just before Independence Day, Northwest
salmon and their human proponents got some good news: A court ordered
the Environmental Protection Agency to reevaluate the use of 55 pesticides
that the agency's own document show are getting into salmon streams
at harmful levels.
The July 3 decision requires the EPA to formally consult
with the National Marine Fisheries Service, the agency charged with
protecting threatened and endangered salmon, to determine how or whether
to allow those pesticides to be used. The Eugene-based Northwest Coalition
for Alternatives to Pesticides (NCAP) and the Pacific Coast Federation
of Fishermen's Associations (PCFFA) may still bring more information
to the court on other pesticides; another 898 chemicals could be added
to the consultation list.
The effects of this case are potentially far reaching.
The Endangered Species Act requires federal entities, or projects
that get federal funds, to go over planned action with species-protection
agencies to make sure that they don't harm endangered fish or wildlife.
The EPA has never performed such consultation when it registered pesticides.
NCAP and PCFFA sued to get wide-ranging salmon considered in pesticide
registrations, but salmon are not the only species the EPA has ignored.
"EPA has not complied with its duties under the Endangered
Species Act with respect to a wide number of species," explains Patti
Goldman, an attorney with Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund who led
the environmentalists' suit. "This case tells EPA that it cannot keep
doing that."
Arthur-Jean Williams, chief of the EPA's environmental
field branch of the office of pesticide programs, says the agency
will now begin examining each pesticide to see if the chemical may
affect a protected species. If the EPA finds that there is a possible
impact, she says, the agency will consult with species-protection
agencies.
As for the 55 pesticides the Seattle court ruled on
two weeks ago, the EPA was supposed to start consultation on Monday
and has until Dec. 1, 2004 to complete the process. — Orna
Izakson
OWLS
SPOTTED
The heat is rising not only in the
valley, but also around ongoing logging of ancient forest at the Berry
Patch timber sale near Eugene. Activists are incensed because of threats
to two different kinds of beasts, human and avian.
It hasn't showed up much beyond cable-access television,
but activists with video cameras in the last 10 days found a pair
of imperiled spotted owls and their barely flying owlet in the immediate
vicinity of active logging.
Generally speaking, it's illegal to do anything that
will harm a species like the owl that's protected under the federal
Endangered Species Act. But the Forest Service has an out in this
case: The Northwest Forest Plan says it's OK to log after the middle
of June when owlets have begun to leave their nests, even if they
can't fend for themselves yet.
"The Forest Service is saying 'Well, we had a June
15 (logging) restriction, so now that it's passed June 15 we can cut
because the fledgling is old enough to fly away,'" says Leeanne Siart
of the Oregon Natural Resources Council.
Further, explains Sierra Club activist Shannon Wilson,
owls that the Forest Service didn't find when the Northwest Forest
Plan went into effect eight years ago don't even get the 100-acre
buffer their more obvious cousins do. (Wilson notes that biologists
say owls in this area ideally should have up to 2,500 acres to move
around in.)
Also at risk is the lone activist sitting up in a
tree at Berry Patch. Forest Service officials just announced a closure
around her perch. It's essentially an effort to starve her out, because
anyone trying to bring her food or water risks arrest.
But falling trees aren't subject to arrest, and activists
note that logging is ongoing just 20 to 30 feet from the activist's
platform. That, Siart says, " definitely has endangered the life of
the person up in the tree."
— Orna Izakson
LABOR
NOTES
The Eugene Newspaper Guild, representing
150 workers at The Register-Guard, has won another unfair labor
practice charge filed with the National Labor Relations Board.
Administrative Law Judge Jay Pollack issued a ruling
July 3 that found Guard Publishing violated labor law because it did
not notify the union of changes it made to an advertising commission
plan; and implemented a new commission for advertising space sold
on the newspaper's web site without notifying the union. Federal Judge
Jay Pollack ruled that both actions affected conditions of employment.
"The newspaper disagrees with Pollack and is reviewing
all options," said R-G Human Resources Director Cynthia Walden
in a rare story about the ongoing labor battles by Christian Wihtol
in the July 13 R-G.
Withol wrote that the ad commission changes actually
gave salespeople additional compensation; and in the web site dispute
the company created for the first time a commission plan for selling
ad space on the
web site.
"The NLRB previously has ruled that when a company
is in the midst of contract negotiations, it has a special duty to
refrain from implementing changes," wrote Wihtol referring to the
judge's decision.
Meanwhile, contract talks were scheduled to resume
this past week as the Guild says goodbye to R-G copy editor
former Guild president Suzi Prozanski, who's retiring after 18 years.
"The company's negative attitude toward workers is
a puzzle that has eluded me," she wrote in a farewell statement to
the Guild. "I hope you all will have better success persuading the
company to do the right thing …"
— Ted Taylor
Back to Top
Charter
Reform
Council
rejects auditor proposal, refers watered-down in-house city attorney
to ballot.
BY ALAN PITTMAN
Congress may be screaming for better accounting
amid the rush of corporate scandals, but not the Eugene City Council.
Last week, the council voted five to three to reject
a unanimous recommendation from the Citizen Charter Review Committee
(CCRC) for the City Council to hire an independent performance auditor.
In a separate meeting, the council did vote last week
to refer a charter amendment to voters that would create an in-house
city attorney. The city's current system of a private law firm doing
the city's legal work has been widely criticized for potential conflicts
of interest and high legal bills.
Councilors Bonny Bettman, Betty Taylor and David Kelly
unsuccessfully argued that the council needed an auditor to provide
independent information on the operations of city government.
"We have blinders on because we're so dependent on
the city manager for information," Bettman said. "He's the gatekeeper
for all the information the council gets."
Acting City Manager Jim Carlson opposed the independent
auditor amendment to the City Charter proposed by the CCRC. He warned
the City Council that a similar auditing office in Portland had 56
staff people.
Councilors Pat Farr and Scott Meisner seized on Carlson's
56 number to argue the auditor proposal would be too expensive. "The
city of Portland has a staff of 56 so we would have a staff of what,
14," Farr said. "I would rather have 14 more police officers or 14
more parks and recreation staff."
But Carlson's 56 figure wasn't reviewed by an auditor
and is wrong. Portland has only eight staff conducting performance
audits under the direction of an elected city auditor, says Richard
Tracy, audits director for the city. Tracy says Eugene could likely
get by with hiring just one auditor.
The CCRC recommended hiring one auditor and cited
studies showing the position was likely to pay for itself by reducing
waste in city government.
Carlson also told the council that the city manager
could and has in the past conducted "independent" performance audits
simply by contracting with an outside firm for an audit. "Any time
you contract with an outside auditor it's an independent audit," he
said. The performance audits produced by such an arrangement "are
not considered tainted by the city manager." He added, "We do performance
audits. We're not afraid of performance audits."
But Tracy says such an arrangement of the city manager
hiring an auditor to audit his own management of the city "would not
be considered an independent structure" under generally accepted government
accounting standards for performance audits. Under such a system,
the outside firm could feel pressure to report favorably if it wanted
to continue to do business with the city, or the manager could simply
bury or change the report before anyone saw it, according to Tracy.
Earlier information from city staff also disputes
Carlson's claim that the city already does performance audits. "City
staff do not perform formal performance audits," wrote Dee Ann Hardt,
city financial services director, in a memo last year to the CCRC.
The proposal for an auditor hired by the manager "is
not independent any more than Enron's was," said Bob Cassidy, a member
of the CCRC.
"If the person is responsible to the city manager,
there's no point to it at all," said Councilor Taylor. "The city manager
hired them and is responsible for paying them" and the auditor is
likely to report only favorably, she said.
City managers and other public officials often resist
independent auditing because of the potential that "embarrassing"
information will be publicly disclosed, Tracy says.
Cassidy says CCRC members "expected" the manager would
oppose strengthening the council with independent information. "It's
a matter of who's got the power."
Council conservatives have historically supported
the strong manager system of government while reformers have complained
that the powerful manager most often sides with business interests
and developers.
"I would hate to see a council majority dictating
the specifics about how the city operates," said conservative Councilor
Pat Farr.
Councilor David Kelly said a city auditor would increase
citizen's confidence in government. "It shows transparency and openness
and accountability to the public," he said. "It shows we can be efficient,
it shows we can be accountable before we ask taxpayers for more money."
"We've had insider management in this organization
for decades and decades," Councilor Bettman complained. "It's astounding
the resistance to this idea that we have an independent look at city
government."
City
Attorney
The council voted unanimously to
refer a charter amendment to the ballot that would create an in-house
city attorney.
Councilors said the new position would likely save
the city money while reducing concerns that the current arrangement
of contracting all the city's legal work to an outside private law
firm creates conflicts of interest.
The city has contracted with Harrang Long Gary Rudnick
to do almost all its legal work for the last three decades. Eugene
has paid the firm about twice what Salem spends on its in-house attorneys.
Eugene is the only city of its size or larger in the nation to not
have an in-house legal staff, according to the International Municipal
Lawyer's Association.
"Having a [in-house] city attorney means the accountability
is to the taxpayers of Eugene and not to the firm," said Councilor
Bettman. The current situation of contracting with the firm creates
"situational conflicts" of the firm dividing its loyalties between
competing clients, Bettman says. "It starts to erode trust and credibility
and accountability."
Councilor Scott Meisner said he wants a city attorney
that has a "single loyalty" to the city and not to other clients or
his or her firm's profits.
Councilor Gary Pape said he believes the in-house
attorney could save the city money by allowing other firms to compete
successfully for contracts for the city's additional legal work.
Councilor Gary Rayor said the in-house position would
provide needed oversight of city legal contracts and save money by
doing work in-house.
But it's uncertain how Carlson would implement the
charter amendment if it passes.
The council voted 6-2 to weaken the recommendation
of the CCRC by adding language that the manager will "supervise" the
new in-house attorney's oversight of contracts with outside firms.
"That leaves a huge loophole," complained Bettman.
The change "marginalizes the city attorney from the start" and creates
a situation where the manager could ignore the new position and continue
to contract with the same outside firm to do the same legal work,
according to Bettman.
Carlson opposed the in-house attorney measure and
told the council that he would interpret it to include the hiring
of only a single attorney with the rest of the work still contracted
out to a private firm. He also said he would "duplicate" at least
some of the work of the in-house attorney in the private law firm,
probably increasing city costs. "We're going to have the same conflicts
of interest issues we have today," he said.
Back to Top
From
Bus to Dust
Wandering
the land of the naked and the free.
By Nate
Puckett
Don’t go looking for Kesey’s ghost. If
there’s a ghost, it’ll find you. Or it won’t. Hell,
I don’t know. Have you seen any Thai food around?
– Javier, who withheld his last name
because "that’s a pretty heavy commitment"
Dr. Mogambo is looking for – nay, seeking
– the drum tower, but his headdress keeps getting caught in the
branches above, so he can’t get away from me, not until he spells
Mogambo. I also want to ask him about the dirt (is it dirt?) covering
his body, and his loincloth, and his pair of bright red maracas .
. . but spelling must come first, because I am a Professional, yes,
and now he’s making a break for it – but the trees are on
my side, snagging his head-feathers so I can get the proper sequence
of letters and ask Mogambo what, exactly, he is a doctor of.
"M.D., Ph.D., BVD, LSD, PCP, THC, and any other drug
I can get my hands on," he says, unsnagging and trotting toward more
open terrain. "If you are not currently using drugs, start as soon
as you can." Then, hand cupped to ear, hungry for percussion, he is
gone.
"Doctor? Doctor!" I shout into the crowd. "I keep
having this strange dream!"
A woman painted entirely silver expresses interest.
"It’s terrible," I tell her. "I’m at the
Country Fair, in broad daylight, and suddenly I notice everyone’s
staring and pointing at me."
"Oh no," she says. Empathy is not hard to come
by around here.
"Yeah, and I can’t figure it out, but then I
look down, and I realize – "
"What?" she breathes, taking a step closer.
"I’m wearing clothes."
There is a ripe, static moment, then the silver woman
throws her head back and laughs so loudly it startles me.1
Bystanders start laughing just from the fallout – just reacting
to that silver, four-alarm laugh – and I turn on my heel and
stride purposefully toward the trees, considering the doctor’s
advice.
The 33rd annual Oregon Country Fair landed 13 miles
west of Eugene, from July 12 to July 14, with about 28,000 people.
And now it is over. This much we know for certain.
But the staying power of such a spectacle is also
impossible to deny; the lingering, music-in-your-marrow sensation
inherent to witnessing such an elaborately bizarre undertaking on
such a grand scale is not something that can be rinsed away, with
about a half-pound of dust, in a post-Fair shower. That shit sticks
with you.
So, too, does another sensation – but only if
you attend the Fair as a member of the press. This feeling is not
so much afterglow as it is aftershock: the cumulative result of walking
around, notebook in hand, camera at the ready, taking a lot in
and putting very little out. After a while, the eventees begin
to sense this dynamic, and they resent it. Because the Fair is, above
all else, a collective effort, a community, by God(dess), and
if you’re not participating on some fundamental level . . . well,
they don’t like it. Why would they?
Such messiness takes on another dimension: as the
day drags on, the feeling can become mutual. That is, you start glaring
back.2 Such
antipathy is very un-Fair, the sort of petty head-butting that is
supposed to drown in the Long Tom River for three glorious summer
days, but Fair-magic or no, I was ready, at certain critical junctures,
to drown more than pseudo-psychological abstractions. Hippies aren’t
supposed to glare at anyone, dammit.
I only mention all this because the myth of the Objective
Journalist ranks right up there with the Easter Bunny; no coverage
is truly unbiased, so the most you can hope for is a little coverage
of the biases as well. To review and expand: I spent all of Saturday,
July 13, walking around, scribbling into a notebook and looking very
narkish indeed. I was not exhibiting the sort of whimsy that pervades
the Fair. I was most decidedly an outsider, and what’s worse,
I kept trying to finagle/steal an overnight-camping wristband, which
are colored pink but really golden. I was snapping pictures and taking
notes and the consensus seemed to be that I would probably, somehow,
Ruin It For Everyone. A lot of fairgoers wore costumes: fairies, butterflies,
shamans. I, apparently, went as the Man.
"Make way! Make way! Make way for
the magic of the dragon!"
The dragon was born in 1987, the brain-beast of the
Fair’s "Ambience Entertainment" committee. For three
days every year, it is alive and lively, leading a procession of chanting/drum
pounding/whimsy-dispensing dragoneers throughout the fairgrounds,
which are huge, about 12 acres. The dragon is bright and long, with
human legs sticking out underneath as it cavorts to the bongo-rhythm.
"Make way!" A face-painted man at
the very front, outfitted with a dragon-staff, long turquoise hair
and very white beard, growls at me. I snap a picture.
"Make way!" A blue-painted woman
wearing a disco ball dress throws her head back and whoops.
"Make way for the magic of the dragon!"
Everyone does, of course. Hell, you could pull the same stunt in downtown
Portland during rush hour and a way would be made. Between the chanting
and the drum-pounding and the marching, the dragon exudes
some powerful magic. It’s a terrific idea, and
the fact that there is an entire committee devoted to dreaming up
such spectacles is illustrative of the emphasis the Fair puts on creativity.
Much of the goings-on are devoted solely to Creating Moments –
the sort of mentality Salvador Dali sought when he asked why no waiter
ever brings him a flaming phone book after he, Dali, has ordered some
food. (Because that waiter would be fired, Mr. Dali. But at the Fair,
he would be applauded, and encouraged.)
 |
There was, in fact, a waiter at the Fair, a guy wearing
a bow tie and sporting a platter with a facsimile of the president’s
head on top. He kept scurrying around and pointing to the platter
and yelling, "Corporate evildoer! Corporate evildoer!" When I didn’t
react the way he was expecting – I just stood there and scribbled
in my notebook, which I guessed looked kind of ominous – he started
yelling it at me. I think. Maybe I was just being defensive/ cranky
because I couldn’t find a decent place to smoke pot within the
fairgrounds. Dr. Mogambo would not have been pleased.
Yes, there is a drug element at the Fair, but the
Fair-folk are extremely touchy about it because drugs aren’t
what they want to be primarily associated with. Shopping, yes. Drugs,
no. So they devote a considerable amount of people and energy to making
sure there isn’t any drug use going on, and they do a pretty
good job, even in the parking lot, the rat-bastards. At one point
I thought I saw a guy dipping an eyedropper into a vial of LSD, but
upon closer inspection he was just preparing to blow some bubbles.
They were nice bubbles, but it was still a bit of a letdown.
 |
I didn’t stay overnight, because I am not Of
the Fair; I was only at the Fair. This is not enough. You have to
work there or perform or be somebody’s kid or lover or whatever.
Even if I had stayed overnight, I would have given up trying to "cover"
that sort of thing, because frankly, I was ready to get naked and
run around like some sort of crazed heathen, brandishing my notebook
like a sacred tablet and occasionally setting a page on fire, as an
offer to the God of small alternative newsweeklies, as I howled at
the brilliant summer moon. That’s the sort of effect the dragon
parade has on you.
But it was not to be, and naked-heathen running just
wouldn’t be the same in Eugene proper, so I had to settle for
secondhand overnight accounts, all which were fairly juicy and envy-inspiring.
Next year I’m going to start digging a tunnel in April, and I’m
going to smuggle in a platoon of young Republicans, just for giggles.
I’ll tell ’em we’re going to a retirement-planning
seminar or something.3
Capitalism is alive and well at the Fair, and anyone
who denies this probably made a killing hocking kaleidoscopes or hemp
diapers. There were, for example, 52 vendors selling stuff made of
glass. About 40 would massage you for a fee. You could purchase fairy
wings or herbal pillows or yurts or hand-wrapped copper wire dragonflies
or iron meditative sculpture or Thai food. No one would tell me how
much money they had made so far. In fact, bringing the topic up at
all seemed to be verboten, but some food vendors looked like they
were making hundreds of dollars an hour.
Hell, even 5-year-olds were performing with a hat
or dish in front of them.
One kid was just tossing a yo-yo up and then catching
it, looking around, wondering why the twenties weren’t rolling
in. In all fairness, his chief motivation seemed to be wanting to
emulate other, older performers, not make money. But give him a few
years.
Some acts were well worth the loose dollar or two.
In particular, the Kitchen Syncopaters, a five-man group that performs
at Saturday Market and other places, kicked considerable ass. They
have a washtub bass and washboard percussion and other hobo-style
instrumentation, with plenty of "hey lordy mama" type vocals, and
the result is captivating. Whenever they’d perform along one
of the paths, a bottleneck would materialize as fairgoers slowed or
stopped to listen. It was one of the calmest spots around – shuffling,
world-weary music amidst the flash and energy of the Fair. In fact,
their performance wasn’t worth a loose dollar or two; it was
priceless. It probably helped that I found a spot to sit down, which
was almost as gratifying. Doing the Fair right means putting one foot
in
 |
front of the other, then repeating the process about
8,000 times. Maybe that’s why morale seemed to drag steadily
downward as the afternoon wore on. You could sense a torpor settling
over the festivities around 4:30 or so – although this is a relative
assessment; any "torpor" that includes stilt-walking parades
and constant, thunderous drumming4
is playing in the Big Leagues – and a lot
of people seemed exhausted before the Fair "closed" at 7
p.m.
My morale didn’t drag so much as plummet; you
can only be asked "What are you writing in that notebook?"5
a few dozen times before your tongue starts to
bleed from the biting. Almost every time, this question was not asked
in a curious manner but in a suspicious one. In all fairness, the
Eugene Police Department and others have been known to videotape/
document counter-cultural activities like protests and hempfests and
whatnot, so I guess such suspicion wasn’t totally unfounded.
Hell, there probably were some sort of undercover suckas around –
but I wasn’t one of them, and I was getting sick of the Treatment.
This sickness showed; as the day progressed, I felt myself appearing
more and more spiteful and conniving, which provoked suspicion, which
pissed me off, which . . . well, you get the idea. A vicious cycle.6
At one point I just gave up interviewing people
and instead had them write directly into my notebook about whatever
they pleased.
 |
For the sake of balance, then, a partial inventory
of things that did not piss me off and were, in fact, enjoyable:
* This guy with a guitar who kept referring to himself
as a "Mississippi bullfrog" in one of his songs, all of
which were bluesy and wonderful. At one point a bearded man with tie-dyed
everything and a big-ass conch shell decided the bullfrog should duet
instead of solo and began sounding one note over and over. It went
something like:
Bullfrog: You ain’t nothin’ but
a hound dog
Conchman: Blaaaaat!
Bullfrog: Cryin’ all the time
Conchman: Bla-blaaaat! Blat!
Bullfrog: You ain’t nothin’
Conchman: Blat bla-blat blaaaat!
Bullfrog: But a hound dog
Conchman: BLAAAAAAT!
And so on. The result was, shall we say, mixed, but
no less enjoyable. Except for the fact that both men had the coveted
and aforementioned pink wristbands, which I was getting more and more
desperate to attain.
* A big plate of Pad Thai with peanut sauce.
* The fact that Fair officials, even ones who were
systematically denying me admission to the overnight festivities,
wore costumes – good costumes! – and seemed to take everything
in stride, from lost children to the god-awful stench from outdoor
toilets being emptied, the latter driving me to give up my efforts
to talk my way into getting some sort of Clearance from the eight
or ninth Fair official I’d tried that day. She kept telling me,
"I’m just a fairy. I have no power to make decisions."
Which, when you get down to it, is a pretty strong argument. I sure
as hell couldn’t overcome it. A fairy is a fairy, even if she
has to swivel her plastic ear every time she answers the phone.
Indeed . . . and the Country Fair is the Country Fair,
except at night, when it is something Beyond, and possibly Above.
This is what I’ve heard, at least. As one of the barbarians who
was turned away at the gate, I can attest that staying overnight is
something that is treated like the ultimate Fair experience,
because it’s easier to sneak into a Seattle Mariners game or
the Hult Center or even probably the fucking Office of Homeland Security,
for that matter. When hippies get together they can keep things pretty
tight.
The big reason I wanted to stay overnight was a deep-seated
conviction that the ghost of Ken Kesey7
would appear sometime Saturday night, at the High Point of the entire
spectacle, whatever that would be. This was, after all, the first
Fair that would take place since Kesey – a Fair fixture –
died in November. You can’t put anything past a Prankster of
his caliber, right?
Right?
 |
It would be nice to know. Instead, I had to settle
for his bus, which led the opening-day parade and enjoyed ample, nearby
parking space8
by the Fair exit. Knowing I would soon have to use that exit, so the
Fair-folk could begin preparing the party in earnest, made me a cranky
reporter indeed. I couldn’t shake the sense of Righteous Injustice
I was nursing, and I couldn’t unfurrow my eyebrows and unclench
my teeth, not even at the Main Stage when, near the "end"
of Saturday’s Fair (7 p.m.) an absolutely kick-ass flamenco-rock
style band was covering Led Zeppelin, with electric violin and a woman
who could sing much better than Robert Plant ever considered . . .
not even then could I stop my internal bitching, until I looked up
and noticed that at the top of the stage curtain-rod, above everything
and everyone, was a poster of Kesey himself, one of the posters they
were distributing by the bus "free with your $20 donation"
to some sort of Kesey statue-fund, yes, and as the music neared its
penultimate crescendo I was dead certain that Kesey, who I had been
watching on the poster for a few minutes now, was laughing at me.
No, not with me. He was most assuredly having a wholesome,
belly-centered guffaw at my expense. If you can’t lighten up
at the Oregon Country Fair, you are doomed, already in the Loss Column,
and you might as well move to L.A. and start voting for Montgomery
Burns. Kesey has become nothing but light; meanwhile, I couldn’t
even pick up my feet when I walked – I would dust-shuffle along,
forming elaborate revenge schemes for those who had Denied Me.
So I tried to be a good sport about it – shrug
it off with a little chuckle, make a renewed effort to hear the music
instead of just listening to it. I took three deep breaths and looked
around at the crowd. I stared for a while, feeling a little tingle
in my fingertips from clutching my notebook for so long. But that
didn’t explain the tingle through the rest of my body as the
crowd began to roar for an encore. Somewhere a conch shell blatted
pleadingly, again and again. Somewhere a bright-silver laugh erupted
and spread.
Every summer, 12 acres are set aside as a wildlife
preserve for that most endangered of species, the Uninhibited Human.
Such an effort can’t help but be a Great Notion. Even from the
outside looking in.
1
It should be noted that most people at the Country Fair were wearing
a typical amount of clothing for summer. But some were not, and their
costumes tended toward the paint-dependent. BACK
2
And cursing. BACK
3
Best head-shaking story I heard about people trying to sneak in and
stay overnight: One time, right before the "sweep," wherein
a small army of wristband-sporting in-crowders walk around methodically
kicking out anyone not Authorized, a woman approached a Fair staffer
sobbing – real, no-shit tears – because she and her daughter
had become separated, and her daughter had her overnight pass, and
the woman was going to be kicked out and then her daughter
would stay in, and probably be adopted by some other family,
some family with wristbands and a nice tent, and oh dear god it’s
every mother’s worst nightmare come to pass, etc., etc. It turned
out to be one huge sopping-wet lie that collapsed during cross-examing.
Of course, the fact that they would cross-exam this woman at that
time speaks to both (a) the lengths Fair-folk will go to ensure the
outsiders stay out, and (b) the measures such outsiders will employ
to get in. Plots and schemes abound as the sunset draws near. BACK
4
I never saw Dr. Mogambo at the drum tower, but I’m assuming he
eventually made it, because any time you got within 80 yards you could
hear spirited, intricate pounding. The dancing area at the drum tower
may have been the dustiest spot at the entire Fair, which is a hell
of an accomplishment. BACK
5
A random sampling: Brazilian martial arts demonstration . . .
so many agendas . . . David gets to be outside dragon today . . .
"I see you every year – you are so beautiful"
. . . then a circle. Pumpin’ up . . . can I finagle a massage?
. . . empty rickshaw . . . and here’s a poet . . . acquaintances
abound . . . "I hope it rains" . . . Shufflin’ music.
And yes, they’re saying "cocaine." Singing it. Plenty
good . . . sky has darkened . . . $4 massage was mediocre . . . Ooh
– a GUY w/ "free hugs" body paint . . . cell phones
are anathema . . . god bless the water barrel . . . 1st tremors of
having-to-take-a-shit @ 5:20 – worth the line? Not yet . . .
somewhere, applause roars . . . electric violin solos are cool . .
. wristband envy intensifies . . . damn skeeters . . . BACK
6
But still not as vicious as the sweep. BACK
7
Oregon native and capital-w Writer (if you have to read the rest of
this it means you don’t know who Kesey is, so hopefully you can
stop reading . . . come on . . . back to the body text . . . Christ,
you really don’t know?) of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s
Nest, Sometimes a Great Notion, and other works; counter-cultural
icon; Merry Prankster; focal human of Tom Wolfe’s The Electric
Kool-Aid Acid Test; proponent of going "beyond acid,"
a process wherein the fundamental Truths of psychedelic experience
are applied to a chemically straightforward reality –and I think
the Fair is a pretty good example of just that, especially (I suspect)
at night, and goddammit I wanted to see Kesey’s ghost. BACK
8
At the Fair, such space is a little – but just a little
– easier to find then a ghost. The LTD bus shuttles, which left
from Eugene every 10 minutes, were definitely way to go. BACK
 |
Harriet
Merrick
As purchasing manager for the UO,
Harriet Merrick has played a key role in establishing sustainability
as a priority on campus. "Best value purchasing is not always lowest
sticker price," she notes. "The right thing to do in terms of stewardship
is often also right economically when you look at all the costs."
Merrick's office offers support and training to other departments,
whose specialists determine their needs. "Harriet has been a tremendous
asset," says UO recycling coordinator Karyn Kaplan. "I'm sure her
work has saved the UO lots of money along the way." Merrick has been
a social activist since her PSU student days the early '70s, when
she and her father were caught in a police assault on Vietnam War
protesters. "It was an eye-opening event for me," says Merrick, who
afterwards transferred to the UO. "I came out, got involved in the
gay rights movement." Merrick was lead plaintiff in an ACLU lawsuit
that overturned an OCA anti-gay initiative passed by voters in 1988.
She served four years on the board of Basic Rights Oregon, and now
sits on the ACLU state board and on the executive committee of Lane
County Democrats. — Paul
Neevel
Happenin' People Archives
Nominate A Happenin' Person
Table
of Contents
| News | Views | Arts & Entertainment
Classifieds | Personals
| EW
Archive
|