Pulse Editor:
Jacquelyn Lewis
jacquelynlewis@dailyemerald.com
Tuesday, May 20,2003
Oregon Daily Emerald
On Thursday
The University Theatre
celebrates its 1000th
production
Local poets
resuscitate
worthwhile
pop culture
It is decided. After nine long months
of competition and a brief sit on the
contest’s waiting list, Eugene finally
has an official position and four poets
to represent the community in this
year’s National Poetry Slam. Although
I don’t care who wins what in Chicago
this August, it’s nice to see that poetry,
despite its phlegmatic wheezing and
open, oozing bedsores, is still some
what alive.
So many poets
wanted to be a
part of the nation
al slam, planners
had to book an ex
tra venue in the
Windy City so
they could accom
modate all of
them. Maybe the
slams were suc
cessful only be
cause Star Search
is so damn popular
these days, or
maybe people ac
tually still look for more engaging cul
ture than utter nonsense. It’s hard to
Joseph
Bechard
Cultural
Obstetrician
tell, but it’s nice to see people making
an effort.
During the course of local playoffs,
some poets made the audience want to
cut off their ears and jam them into
the bloody holes on the sides of their
heads. Others gave some glimmer of
hope for the future of our culture.
Whatever the case, you’ve got to ad
mire these poets’ cajones. It’s hard to
share what Jack Kerouac called “secret
naked doodlings” with a crowd of hy
percritical, half-drunken crazies.
But at every slam, excitement and
the smell of beer hung in the air, along
with a sense of commiseration and a
hope for the rising of some strange
phoenix — or even a ratty looking
chicken for that matter — from the
ashes of a culture that used to be.
I sometimes get so wrapped up in
my obligations, criticisms and idealis
tic nostalgia for a past I never even
knew, I neglect to participate in what
matters to me. I often lose track of
where I come from and who I want to
be. A lot of us do that. So thank god
there are other people who get off their
asses and work to keep culture alive.
Winners Martha Grover, Treysi, who
prefers to be called by one name, Ja
han Khalighi and my personal favorite,
Nathan Langston, demonstrated their '
worthiness by doing something a stu- 1
pid little monkey-boy like myself can’t
muster the energy for. They work hard 1
at what they do, and now it’s paying '
off. They didn’t let man’s foamy rabid- \
ness cow them into some silly submis
sion. They used that madness to say
something — to make this world a
more understanding and better under- !
stood place. 1
Sure, a lot of our poets may not have ]
the big-city flair of some of the
Turn to Bechard, page 7
i
Mark Baylis Emerald
The long-running MTV series The Real World' made a recruiting stop in Eugene on Saturday. Many hopefuls waited in line for over three hours for an interview.
MTV: On the local scene
MTV makes a stop in Eugene during
a nationwide audition spree for The
Real World,’ drawing more than 500
people to the Wild Duck Brewery
Reporter’s notebook
Mark Baylis
Pulse Reporter
When I heard Eugene was one of 12 cities
chosen for an open-call audition for the
14th season of MTV’s “The Real World,” I
was not only impressed that the grandpap
py of reality TV was still running around
amid all its fresh offspring, but I also
jumped into immediate MTV speak:
“Tiiiight.”
I saw the line outside the audition site,
the Wild Duck Brewery, from a half-mile
away. It was 11 a.m. on Saturday, and it
seemed that every club-hopper and conch
shell-wearer in town between the ages of 18
and 24 was defying a morning hangover for
a shot at fame. I filled out the single-page
application while standing in the line that
wound around the outside of the building. It
read like a screening application for a sin
gles personal ad:
“Do you currently have a (circle)
boyfriend/girlfriend? Where does the relation
ship stand now? How do you approach a rela
tionship? Are you the pursuer or the pursued?”
I knew why MTV had come to Eugene:
Hippies, anarchists, activists — a counter
culture mecca to rival Berkeley's fading rep
utation. Unfortunately, all my tie-dyes and
darks were in the wash. Sizing up the sea of
polo shirts and tourniquet jeans, I conclud
ed that either everyone else’s were, too, or
that counter-culture individuals don’t notice
MTV ads in the newspaper. But the three
hour wait inside the brewery gave me time
to concoct my most anti-establishment,
PETA-supporting, manifesto-writing per
sona that would make these casting direc
tors salivate on their L.A. Gear.
At 2 p.m., when I was ready to tell these
folks about the real world of impatience,
they called my number.
Ten other hopefuls and myself were seat
ed around a restaurant table with Damon, a
young MTV casting director, trying to look
our hippest and most complex. Each of us
needed a presence that would make Damon
see we were fascinating enough for a na
tionwide audience of voyeurs to tune in
every week for months on end. That's a
tough face to make. I think mine ended up
looking like a mix between the Fonz and
the Cheshire Cat.
Damon explained he would ask each of us
a simple get-to-know-you-game question,
which we were to answer as articulately as
possible. He began with the girl next to me.
Somewhere along the line, I had gotten
nervous. I could feel my heart causing vi
brations in my spleen and, subsequently,
my bladder. As Damon turned to me, my
entire constructed persona dissolved with a
single, hypothetical question:
“If you were a king of a new country, what
would you call the country and what would
some laws be?”
With 10 pairs of potential roommate
Turn to Real World, page 7
Mercado expands Eugene’s market fare
rhe new Sunday Mercado Latino
Focuses on Latin American culture
and community in a market-style
smattering of food and crafts vendors
Varon Shakra
’ulse Reporter
Saturday Market now has a Latino commu
lity counterpart — Mercado Latino, which
commences every Sunday in Washington-Jef
erson Park, located at Fifth Avenue and
Washington Street.
The event, now in its second week, runs from
LO a.m. to 4 p.m. under the Washington-Jeffer
;on Bridge and centers on Latin American cul
ure and community. A handful of vendors —
about 15 — sell food, fresh vegetables and
landcrafted goods. Tables and seating are plen
iful for those who wish to sit down and eat.
Family is a prevalent theme among many of
the exhibitors. Food vendor Marcelina
Ramirez operates the booth “Marcelina’s Mex
ican Food,” which sells items such as tamales
de mole verde con polio (green chicken
tamales) and pozole con carne de puerco
(hominy soup with pork).
The crowd was sparse on Sunday, likely due
to competition from the Willamette Valley Folk
Festival. When asked if business has been busy
the past two weeks, Ramirez answered suc
cinctly, “Mas o menos,” or more or less.
Ramirez’s son, Benjamin Montesinos,
whose family spends the week preparing food
for the market, said the event fills a cultural
gap in Eugene.
“This is a good place for the community to
come every Sunday,” he said.
Eugene resident Carol Maronay said she
heard of the market through a local newspa
per and came to indulge her interest in ex
ploring different cultures. However, she said
she expected a larger event.
“I hoped they would have more vendors,
but maybe they’re just getting started,”
Maronay said. “They seem to have a pretty
good crowd.”
Kathy Gonzales, who sells handmade
Colombian goods, previously lived in Colom
bia with her husband, Gabriel. She said she
moved back to Eugene to help Colombian
craftspeople who are going hungry because of
the country’s tourist-deprived condition.
Gonzales, who also works for the Spring
field school district, said she is thankful for
the booth and the market’s outdoor setting,
and she expects crowds to pick up during the
summertime.
“If this works out, we’ll probably be here
every Sunday,” she said.
Contact the Pulse reporter
at aaronshakra@dailyemerald.com.