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About Applegater. (Jacksonville, OR) 2008-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 1, 2013)
4 Winter 2013 Applegater Community Calendar Alcoholics Anonymous. Open meeting every Wednesday at 7 am at the Williams Community Church Fellowship Hall on East Fork Road in Williams. This meeting is open to those who have a drinking problem and have a desire to stop drinking, and also to anyone interested in the Alcoholics Anonymous program of recovery from drinking. American Association of University Women (AAUW) Grants Pass Branch meets monthly from September through May. Days, times, and locations vary. All those who hold an associate of arts, baccalaureate or higher degree from an accredited college or university are welcome to join. Contact Velma Woods at woods@grantspass.com or 541-956-5287, or Marianne Dwyer at readandshop@yahoo. com or 541-479-4041. Visit our website at http://aauwgrantspass.org and see us on Facebook. Applegate Christian Fellowship. For service times, call 541-899-8732 24 hours/day. Applegate Fire District Board of Directors meets on the third Wednesday of each month at Station 1, 18489 North Applegate Road at 7:30 pm, except for the months of March, April and May, which are held at Headquarters, 1095 Upper Applegate Road. For more information, call 541-899-1050. Applegate 4-H Swine Club meets on Tuesdays following the third Wednesday of every month at 7 pm. For more information, contact Charles Elmore at 541-846-6528 or Barbara Niedermeyer at 541-846-7635. Applegate Friends of Fire District #9 meets on the third Tuesday of each month at the Fire Station at 1095 Upper Applegate Road at 6 pm. New members are welcome. For more information, call Bob Fischer 541-846-6218. Applegate Library is open Tuesday and Friday from 2 to 6 pm and Saturday from 10 am to 2 pm. Storytime is Tuesday at 2:30 pm. 18485 North Applegate Road. Applegate Neighborhood Network (ANN) meets the last Wednesday of every month at the Ruch Library. All interested persons are welcome to attend. ANN is a community organization dedicated to protecting , preserving, and restoring the Applegate watershed. For more information about ANN, call Duane Bowman, 541-899-7264. Applegate Partnership and Watershed Council meets the fourth Thursday of the month at the Applegate Library. For more information call 541-899-9982. Applegate Valley Community Grange meets the second Sunday of each month for a potluck and a business meeting. Call 541-846-7501 for times. 3901 Upper Applegate Road. Applegate Valley Garden Club meets at 1:30 pm on the third Wednesday of the month from September through May. For meeting locations and programs, call Sandra King at 541-899-9027 or Betty Lou Smith at 541- 846-6817. Food & Friends Senior Nutrition Program invites local seniors (60-plus) to enjoy a nutritious, hot meal served at 11:30 am Monday through Friday at the Jacksonville IOOF Hall at the corner of Main and Oregon Streets. A donation is suggested and appreciated. Volunteers help serve meals or deliver meals to homebound seniors. For information about volunteering (it takes 40 volunteers to keep the Jacksonville program going ) or receiving meals, call Food & Friends at 541-664-6674, x246 or x208. Friends of Ruch Library Board of Directors meets on the first Thursday of each month at 6:30 pm at Ruch Library. All are welcome. 541-899-7438. Grants Pass Nordic Ski Club meets on the first Thursday of the month, November through April, at the Newman Methodist Church at 7th and B Streets in Grants Pass at 7 pm. Ski outings are on Saturdays. Listings are on the snow phone at 541-592-4977. Greater Applegate Community Development Corporation meets the second Wednesday of January, April, July and October at 6 pm at Applegate Fire District Station 1, 18489 North Applegate Road. For more information, go to www.gacdc.org. Josephine County Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) meets Thursdays at 6 pm. For meeting information, call 541-474-6840. Ruch Library is open Tuesday from 11 am to 5 pm, Thursday from 1 to 7 pm, and Saturday from 12 to 4 pm. Storytime is Tuesday at 11 am. 7919 Highway 238. Sanctuary One is open to the public for farm tours every Wednesday and Saturday, 10:30 am to noon. Minimum donation is $10. Reservations are required. Call 541-899- 8627 or email info@sanctuaryone.org. Southern Oregon Beekeepers Association meets the first Monday of each month at 7:30 pm at the OSU extension. For more information, please contact sobeekeepers@gmail.com. T.O.P.S. (Take Off Pounds Sensibly) meets every Monday morning at Applegate Church, 18960 North Applegate Road (at the corner of Highway 238). Weigh-in starts at 8:30 am; the meeting starts at 9:00 am. Come join us! Williams Creek Watershed Council Meetings: fourth Wednesday of the month at 7 pm at the Williams Creek Fire Station. The Public is welcome. For more information, call 541- 846-9175. Williams Grange Pancake Breakfast, second Sunday of each month, 8:30 to 11 am, followed by the Bluegrass Jam, 11 am to 1 pm. Closed July and August. 20100 Williams Highway near Tetherow Road. For more information, call 541-846-6844. Williams Grange #399 Business Meeting, second Tuesday of each month, 7 pm. 20100 Williams Highway near Tetherow Road. For more information, call 541-846-6844. Williams Library is open Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday from 1 to 5 pm. Stories, crafts and skill-sharing every Tuesday at 3:45 pm and Saturday at 2 pm. All ages welcome at free programs by local volunteers. Free Wi-Fi 24/7. 20100 Williams Highway near Tetherow Road. For more information, call Danielle Schreck at 541-846-7020. Williams Rural Fire Protection District meets the fourth Wednesday of the month at 7 pm at the Williams Fire Department. Women Helping Other Women (WHOW) meets the second Tuesday of the month at 10036 Highway 238 (Gyda Lane) at 6:30 pm for a potluck meeting to plan work parties at each other’s homes. New members are welcome. For more information, call Thalia Truesdell at 541-899-8741 or Sioux Rogers at 541- 846-7736. Wonder Neighborhood Watch meets the second Tuesday of each month, 6:30 pm, Wonder Bible Chapel, 11911 Redwood Highway, Wilderville. Send your calendar information to gater@applegater.org. Be sure to keep the Gater updated with any changes to your listing. MOVIE & BOOK REVIEWS — Movie — Blue Jasmine Reviewer rating: 3 Apples (1 Apple—Don’t bother, 5 Apples—Don’t miss) PG-13 (mature thematic material, language, sexual content); Comedy; 98 minutes Opened: July 2013 Cast: Cate Blanchett, Sally Hawkins, Alec Baldwin, Bobby Cannavale, Peter Sarsgaard, Andrew Dice Clay Director/Writer: Woody Allen There are only so many traumatic experiences a person can handle. For this reason, I would not recommend this movie. At best, the film is a dreary depiction of a very sad, depressing, tragic and cruel (but true-to-life) story, yet it contains elements that make it very real and honest. Contrary to my opinion, this movie is noted for Oscar- worthy components, including an outstanding performance by Cate Blanchett (a clear frontrunner for best actress), not to mention the exceptional portrayals by the other actors as well. On the upside, you can’t go wrong with the story being set in San Francisco. This movie centers around the trials and tribulations of Blanchett’s character as it relates to the aftermath of the arrest of Bernie Madoff. Overall, this was a bit too much for me to regard as a likable film, but may be worth seeing for the performances alone. Sharon Thompson thompsonsharon99@gmail.com Ed. Note: The reviewer is an ardent moviegoer—often watching the same movie in the theater multiple times. — Books — Mink River Brian Doyle It’s way past time for me to write a review of a book about Oregon, by an Oregonian. Brian Doyle’s novel Mink River (Oregon State University Press, 2010) is a rollicking gritty story of a fictional town on the north Oregon coast. Library Journal compares it to Faulkner. I cannot compare it to any book I have ever read. I, an English literature major, and my husband, an engineer, both say it’s the best novel we have read in well over a decade. For the literary types, Blake, and many other greats, are subtly quoted (or channeled?) throughout. There is a bit of compelling magical realism in the person—yes, person—of Moses, a talking, philosophizing crow. And there is a lifesaving bear. Rare literacy, but contained in the solid backbone story of a wild, wet—so normal!—small Oregon coastal town with its dancingly naughty Irish humor, primal force Indians, wise old men, a good marriage with an artist wife going through a rough patch, a compassionate nun, drunks, cops, loggers, fishermen and a sassy sister. This book has standing-room-only hilarity and wisdom. Speaking of standing room only, we have been twice to the Eugene library to hear Doyle speak, most recently in September, and the crowd was spilling out the door. He tells hilarious stories of growing up in Brooklyn, in an Irish-Catholic family of six boys and one girl. That one sister became a Buddhist nun. His mom said she was happy to have a nun in the family; it didn’t matter what brand. He also tells how he once got into an argument with the Dalai Lama over whether basketball or soccer is the greatest sport on earth. Doyle argued for basketball, the Dalai Lama for soccer. The argument was interrupted before it could be resolved; however, the Dalai Lama promised they would pick up where they left off, in this lifetime or the next. The kicker is that Doyle did not know it was the Dalai Lama he was arguing with. He told of sassing the world’s great spiritual leader with tough, brash New Yorkerisms such as, “Look, Pal, didn’t you hear what I just said?” I have heard some people grouse about the lengthy lists in Mink River. And in Eugene, Doyle commented about similar complaints. He read parts of those lists, and in his fine voice the words—diverse bits of Oregon flora and fauna, sea and forest, roads and highways, mothers and lovers, sinners and sicknesses—are pure poetry. Shards and shreds. Words dance and sing in Mink River: “Rumor of cougar.” Brian Doyle seems to take delight in the emailed criticism he receives. He read some of these, including the errors in spelling and grammar they contained, to the chortling delight of the Eugene audience. I should note that Brian Doyle is the editor of the award-winning Portland Magazine at the University of Portland. For a small taste of Doyle’s wonderful combination of hilarity and humanity, go to The Oregonian archives online and look for his essay, “On noticing a man reading my sprawling novel on a train” (September 20, 2012). Two quotes from that: “I have been informed that my book is brooding with death, that it is obsessed with breasts, that it is filled with wheelchairs, that it is an elegy to James Joyce, and that it is a metaphor for the United States of America, none of which had occurred to me as I wrote it, or afterwards, for that matter...” and “I have had a young man tell me mine was not only the best book he ever read but a book that made him want to go to college to find out what other sorts of shimmering books there might be for him to discover. ‘Your book was a door, sir,’ he said to me, which is not a sentence I ever heard before, and will be one of the sentences I remember all the rest of my days.” As for me, I agree with the young man who wanted to discover more shimmering books. Doyle has a new novel coming out in the spring. I wonder how it can possibly equal Mink. After reading Mink River, I have never looked at a crow or a raven the same way since. I’ve seen Moses lurking behind those twinkling sharp eyes. Julia (Helm) Hoskins 541-899-8470 julmudgeon@aol.com Ed. Note: The reviewer is the author of She Caves to Conquer, a book about a young woman who escapes the Midwest, moves halfway around the globe and finds caves that have been occupied for nearly 4,000 years.
