"UPPER LETT LD G L
VOLUME £
TREE!
NUMBLR.
cXkAU >19?!
U PPER L E F T COAST PRODUCTIONS * P O BOX 4 Z 2 2 CANNON BEACH 0 « ??«MO * 5 0 3 * 3 6
Z ^5 *
b h u H s tp X i(icr.com *
W W U .U p p c r k fk A y .c o r
“I am also a
Alan Watts
Dev.
Hults
Editorial
Now & Then
Mr. Alan Watts has seemed to have made his
presence known as of late. A dear friend visited
lately and allowed as how she was living on the
'Vallajo', the ferry boat that Alan Watts lived on for
several years in Sasalito. Your beloved Rev. had
visited this craft in his younger years and felt the
wonder of being where that man of wisdom had
lived his days. Our friend was not really very
familiar with Mr. Watts, so, it being a little after
10:30 on a Thursday night, we turned our radio on to
KMUN, where one can regularly hear The Love of
Wisdom', a series of lectures Mr. Watts made over
his long career. She seemed delighted.
For those readers who don't actually live in or
visit our small village, we must explain that Cannon
Beach is the home of, among many other things, the
Christian Conference Center, which brings us locals
in touch with a lot of 'true belivers' on a regular
basis. Now don't get us wrong, they are, for the
most part, pretty nice folks. They tend to smile a bit
too much, but that is to be expected of folks who
don't get to the ocean enough. We tend to get a lot
of what we call 'button people' in the bookstore (the
folks at the Conference Center wear buttons with
their names on them, so they can be identified when
they line up for meals as actual payed up and
deserving of being fed), and this last fall a woman
visited the store, who though she was not wearing
the tell-tale button, was obviously a 'true believer'.
Yes, our constant readers will notice that there seems
to be a moral lesson in the offing here. YBR is the
sole minister in the Rastified Church of the Cowboy
Buddha, and has been known to tease folks who are
more dogmatic than spiritual. Dogma can be learned,
catachisms, chants, rituals, but the spirit must be felt.
Sorry, it has to be brought into what we are calling
the 'real' world these days. Well, needless to say the
aforementioned woman and YBR began to go at it,
theologically speaking. We debated faith and
physics, law and love. It was great fun. Finally we
seemed to agree that we should continue with our
learning. We introduced her to Mr. Watts, she said
she was confused, we thought this was a good sign.
With all of the strange and frightening things that
seem to be filling the current 'real world' it seems a
good idea to bring something that encourages us to
continue our learning and our attempt to understand
each other, and to admit our confusion. And
especially learning that when we say words like you
and them and they, we arc confused and we arc
really trying to say, I and us and we. Which is what
we think Mr. Watts has to teach us, and thus our
headline this month of May.
BILL’S
Tavern & Brewhouse
188 N. HEM LO CK
CANNO N BEACH, OR 97110
436-2202
Bill says, “If you’re in a hurry,
you don’t belong here."
I
Low er L e f t C o rn er
by Victoria Sopieilo
THE DRUG OF A NATION
It's time to put the TV away. The last two
nights we've watched it. The first night we watched
a movie on video. The next night we watched an
hour-long documentary about India. Our mistake
was, while rewinding the tape, we turned to our few
available broadcast channels and fell across the
beginning of a movie. We watched that for two
more hours. The movie was harmless enough and
not totally mindless. The news came on and we
were curious about the weather in Southern
California. Another half hour passed, with tales of
scandal in the White House, the deterioration of
roads and streets in Portland, sports results, and
"cop shoots suspect." You get the picture.
In other words, without thinking about it,
two adult people each spent three and a half hours
watching television in one night. That's seven
hours, almost a day's work in a lot of businesses.
Let's say we only watched the India documentary; it
was entertaining, educational and beautiful. That
leaves five hours to do something else: Talk to each
other, go for a stroll (with the dog if we had one),
clean up the kitchen, sort through one of those piles
on my desk, write a letter to far away friends or
family, start a project—like the sewing or drawing
we never feel we have time to do, go to a meeting,
concert, or even read a book. In the summer, those
five hours could be spent walking on the beach,
weeding the garden, chatting with neighbors,
mowing the lawn, or building something in the shop.
Admittedly, these activities don't sound like a
lot of fun to everyone. A kid, especially, probably
isn't very excited about the prospect of doing the
dishes or raking the lawn instead of watching TV,
and some of us adults aren't much more self-
disciplined. But, the point is that TV steals our time,
eats away at it with little pleasurable bites, until it's
devoured big chunks of our life energy. That would
be okay if the rest of our lives were more abundant,
but they're not. In the rest of our lives, we're busy,
pressed for time, feel like there's too much to do.
What part of that time pressure comes from too much
TV?
I can be just as bad a couch potato as the next
person. Once it's on, I'm no better at turning it off
than anyone else. It's like having cookies in the
house. If they're here, I'll eat 'em. I can resist
buying them in the store, but once they're at home,
the battle's lost. It's the same with TV. As long as
it's tucked away out of sight, I don't even think
about it. I can choose to rent a video or check one
out at the library; those are conscious choices about
how to spend my time. But TV itself often takes
away the "conscious" part of choice. The sound and
images move along in one seamless current. There's
never a page break where one chapter ends—where a
program stops and another begins, a half minute of
blank screen so you can return to the real world of
your own home, think about what you saw, or
decide you don't need to see more. This is the
seduction of television, why one poet/performer, Gill
Scott Heron, calls it "the drug of a nation." It's like
chain smoking or binge drinking, or any other drug
where you stop choosing how many doses you need
and just keep absorbing it.
There have been times in my life when I just
wanted a break and TV provided it—when I was
physically and mentally tired and wanted to be in
some other reality at the end of the day. That's when
I was going to school full time, holding down two
part-time jobs, and caring for a house. I'm older and
less energetic now, but the lure of a different reality
still has its charms.
Some people have a cocktail in the evening,
others smoke a joint, a lot of us watch TV. In all
cases, moderation should be the rule—we should
realize we're dealing with a mind-altering substance,
that when abused can have destructive results. We
don't want our kids htxikcd on alcohol or pot at an
early age. Why do we allow them to get hooked on
TV? As far as I'm concerned it should be carefully
prescribed, used in specific situations, with limited
doses.
CORRECTED FOR PACIFIC BEACH TIDES
Tides
M ay -
WASHINGTON AND OREGON COAST TIDES
DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME
LOW TIDES
H IG H TIDES
time
DATE
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
ft.
4:20 8 4
Fri
5:16 7.7
Sat
Sun 6 6:22 7.1
7:37 6.7
Mon
8:50 6 6
Tue
9:53 6.7
Wed
10:48 6.9
Thu
11:37 7.1
Fn
Sat
0:14 8 5
Sun
Mon © 0:43 8.5
1:12 8.6
Tue
1:42 8 6
Wed
2:13 8.6
Thu
2:49 8.5
Fri
3:30 8.3
Sat
4 19 8.0
Sun
5:20 7.5
Mon
Tue > 6 35 7.1
7:59 6.9
Wed
9:17 7.0
Thu
10:26 7.3
Fn
11:28 7.5
Sat
Sun
Mon <ir 0 09 9.7
0:53 9.7
Tue
1:37 9.5
Wed
2:22 9.2
Thu
3:07 8.7
Fri
3:55 8.1
Sat
4:48 7.5
Sun
time
ft.
6:02
7:04
8:05
9:01
9:50
10:32
11:09
11:43
12:23
1:05
1:47
2:28
3:08
3:50
4:34
7.1
7.0
7.1
7.3
7.6
7.9
8.2
8.3
7.2
7.3
7.3
72
72
5:23
6:17
7:15
8:12
9:05
9:54
10:41
11:25
12:26
1:20
2:13
3:05
3:55
4:45
5:36
6:29
7.1
7.0
6.9
6.9
7.1
7.5
8.0
8.6
9.1
9.5
7.7
7.8
72
7.8
7.7
7.5
7.4
72
ft.
time
11:29 -0.4
5:40
6:21
6:59
7:35
8:10
8:43
9:17
9:54
10:35
1124
29
28
2.5
1.9
1.3
0.7
0.3
-0.1
-0.3
-0.5
-0.5
-0 5
-0.4
-0.3
0.0
0:58
2:14
3:24
4:26
5:23
6.15
7:05
7:54
8:42
9:28
10:14
11:01
11:49
2.6
2.3
1.5
0.6
-0.3
-1.0
-1.5
-1.7
-1.7
-1.4
-1.0
-0.5
0.1
0:40
1:52
3:02
4:03
4:54
time
ft
11:34
12:26
1:27
2:29
3:25
4:14
4:58
5:37
6:14
6:49
7:24
7:58
8:33
9:10
9:53
10:43
11.45
12:21
1:24
2:28
3:29
4:25
5:17
6:08
6:57
7:46
8:35
9:26
10:18
11:14
2.8
0.2
0.6
0.9
1.1
1.2
1.3
1.4
1.7
1.9
2.1
2.4
2.5
2.7
2.9
3.0
3.0
0.3
0.5
0.7
0.8
1.0
1.2
14
1.6
1.9
2.1
2.4
2.6
2.7
BASEBALL
The Cubs have been playing baseball, and
tying it well. There is talk that this could
‘the year’ by other than Cubs fans. It
uld be because of Harry, or expansion
ching, or maybe, just maybe, they a rc '
lying good baseball. Go Cubbies!!
Never does nature say one thing and wisdom another.
Juvenal
Cannon Beach
Haystack Garden
May 1 1th, 7pm
SLIDES & STO R IE?
O k í GÓ n \ 0 lderne 5S
À
lOMMHY A r P ir j C E D o r
AVIR ON MT N TA U lf M —
A RAI
W
U
4 T R
C
O
M
U
m
rro
*1
fien«
Loo G olosi
succinovi
‘
iiMfwn
Irtl&
orûH I ,
iNiriK'NG
CONSUW«'«
MtSSXGI
" A TRA
C4irniriiM
A LI«
«5 ZM
fe R 1* <
*’X m c , £ N T "
twe
Imine
1 j.
*»•*•» 0 * 1 »
IB K
C ompelling
voice -
VM IA N
—«1 H l ,
rs tro R E
Y/
U »A R ,
H M "I
IT 5
too U W t .
A M essage of hope . pjvver ^ opportunitv
FOR ALL WHO CARE ABOUT THE LAST W ILD
PLACES, ABOUT LIFE ON PLANET EARTH.'
WÎEL LEFT Lbtt WW W 8
r I