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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 12, 2004)
Love Lost and Found And art that heals without looking you in the eye. The One Who Got Away With his mop of dark hair and soulful, bespectacled eyes, Marc Muscato, 27-year-old, do-it- yourself media artist of “My House,” “Not My House” and “A Secret History of Eugene” renown, recently bid Eugene farewell. On Jan. 16, fans filled the WOW Hall for Truck Stop Still Lifes, a presentation of short documentaries organized by KWVA and Not My House Mobile Arts. This marked the final Eugene arts event for Muscato, who would return the fol- lowing week to “take care of some family stuff” in Buffalo, N.Y. Films included I Can Fly by Jesse Garlick and Muscato, as well as poetic black and white Super 8 work by Buffalo, N.Y., filmmaker Stephanie Gray, and the wild wanderings of docu- mentarian Bill Bryson (creator of Truck Stop Still Lifes). Also featured was Owen Ashworth, aka Casiotone for the Painfully Alone, whose stack of amps and mini keyboard made for a serenade both bittersweet and a little grating, just like lonesomeness in real life. In his program goodbye Muscato wrote, “Eugene really does have an extremely support- ive community for do-it-yourself projects, but now it’s up to you! I hope you continue to sup- port and create all-ages spaces for free expression.” — Bobbie Willis Ebay Love Items bought and sold on ebay from Eugene recently: Two tickets to see the UO men’s basketball team play UCLA March 6, Section 103, row 14, seats 3 and 4. 29 bids. Winner: oregon_boi for $177.53. Everly Brothers poster advertising a performance at South Eugene High School. Four bids. Winner: pdoug for $43.52. Herb Grinder + Stash Box combination set (“You can grind and store your herbs in con- fidence and at the same time …”). Twelve bids. Winner: turbod43 for $30. Three 16-inch juggling torches (“Lots of fire means lots of fun”). Six bids. Winner: kgregddr for $51.99. Laminated Grateful Dead ticket and three backstage passes from Autzen Stadium, 1994. Ten bids. Winner: ripple-1972 for $103.06. Items won by jpassaro0 while “conducting research” on ebay: Valentine’s postcard sent Feb. 28, 1910 from Elaina in Creswell, Ore., to Miss Leona Lamb in Montrose, Colo. On the front, a dashing man sneaks a kiss from a woman in a long red dress under the heading “It is no crime to kiss in Eugene, Oregon.” On the back, Elaina writes: “Hello Leona, I guess you thought that I had gone dead again but I haven’t. First card I’ve sent for a coon’s age. If you will overlook it this time, I will try to do better in the future. It is raining here and has been for about four months.” Bought from cowboysam for $11. — Jamie Passaro ISO The One This April, 74-year-old Grace Mikesell and her husband, 90-year-old Raymond Mikesell, will celebrate their seventh wedding anniversary. How they met? Raymond, on advice from a friend, placed a personal ad in Eugene Weekly, January 1997. Grace says, “I was working on the New York Times crossword puzzle you used to run” and she caught an ad written by a man “over 75, but looks 10 years younger” with “physical capacity equal to that of most men 20 years younger” to enjoy skiing, traveling and hiking. An outdoor enthusiast, Grace (67 at the time) thought anyone still skiing at 75 must be serious. When Raymond, a one-year widower and UO emeritus professor in economics, met Grace, a 12-year widow and retired Michigan schoolteacher living in Eugene to be near her daugh- ter, he was smitten. “Very well impressed,” Raymond says of first meeting her. “More like blown away,” Grace corrects. Within weeks Raymond was introducing Grace as his fiancée — “I’ve never been the type to wait indefinitely on making a decision.” Grace thought they could maybe just live to- gether, but Raymond wanted commitment. “After I was comfortable he was an admirable man,” says Grace, they married April 1997. The two have been happy together since, skiing every winter and adventuring as far away as Antarctica. Lesson learned from the experience? “It pays to advertise,” says Raymond with a grin. — BW From the Art Department Among the stated goals of the still-incubating art program for the upcoming Sacred Heart Medical Center at RiverBend in Springfield, for which an official Request for Proposals for art consulting services was released in early February: Unambiguously positive content. Scenes of non-turbulent water. Positive cultural artifacts, like barns and old houses. Photography is good, as long as it’s of calm, serene nature scenes. People are OK, but relationships must be obviously and unambiguously positive and caring. Gardens — but no intense colors in the foreground. No deserts. No animals staring di rectly at the viewer. No uncertainty, no abstraction, no chaos. No challenging or provocative art. Citing “scientific research” that espouses calm and serenity, the art program RFP is just one part of the hospital’s vision for “a model of patient and family centered care that honors the total patient experience in a healing environment,” which, apparently, doesn’t include wa- terfalls, abstract art, or animals intent on eye contact. — Jessica MacMurray Blaine 4 FEBRUARY 12, 2004 TO THE EDITOR BEST DEMS CAN DO? During the Watergate scandal, Nixon’s team coined the term “limited hang-out” to describe the tactic of fessing up to a small crime to avoid full exposure. Several recent articles in the Weakly fit the “limited hang out” pattern. EW’s de facto endorsement of Dean care- fully avoided Dr. Dean’s history in Vermont. Gov. Dean worked with Gov. Bush to dump Vermont’s nuclear waste in west Texas (stopped by outraged citizens of both states). Dean and President Bush bypassed normal environmental review of the Interstate 289 around Burlington. If you’re against the west Eugene parkway, you can’t vote for Dean! Dean gutted environmental enforcement, gave corporate welfare to polluters, brought Wal-Mart to Vermont, and covered up the po- lice execution of peace activist Robert “Woody” Woodruff (see www.oilempire.us/dean.html). Dan Carol’s “Kumbaya Dammit” column has had numerous errors. His Dec. 4 column called 9/11 a “sin of omission” and “At this writing, several congressional investigations and commissions are hard at work on this matter and may prove that the president could have done more to stop 9/11 from happen- ing.” This is part of the cover-up, since the de- liberate “stand down” of the Air Force is one of many facts that prove 9/11 was not an intel- ligence “failure” but rather an intelligence crime. There is only ONE official investiga- tion currently underway, chaired by former New Jersey Gov. Thomas Kean, a former business partner of Osama bin Laden’s brother-in-law. See www.oilempire.us/inves- tigation.html. Carol’s company works for MoveOn.org, whose film Uncovered: The Whole Truth About the Iraq War, did not even hint at the subject of oil. See www.oilem- pire.us/moveon.html for a review. Your cover story (1/22) praises the work of Clinton’s EPA chief Carol Browner, who gut- ted environmental enforcement, food safety, toxic regulations and promoted biotech phood. If this is the best the Democrats can do, then we’re doomed to have four more years of Bush. Mark Robinowitz Eugene DIDN’T CUT IT Regarding your “highest recommenda- tion” review of In the Cut (Movie clips, 1/15) playing at Cinema 12 in Springfield: I haven’t seen that many people leave a performance before it was over since Churchill High School on Thursday the 15th. I hope that was- n’t Lois Wadsworth’s recommendation. Go see Elf instead. Now that’s a classic! John Sharkey Eugene THE TRUE-MAN SHOW As a great grandmother, I have seen presi- dents come and go, but never have I heard so much inaccuracy in any State of the Union speech. Is the president already on Mars? If he became unemployed in 2005, perhaps his physical side might unite with his abstract world. “Our economy is strong.” Right, 1,000 jobs in December ’03. Eight million unem- ployed middle-class Americans aren’t believ- ing his propaganda. He made no mention of gifts to his cronies’ no-bid, billion dollar con- tracts. He uses the media to convince the masses that black is white, mass unemployment of more than 8 million people means a strong economy. FDR had a Scottie, JFK promised the moon-landing. What photo-opportunistic copy-cat idea will this no-thinking, unorigi- nal, formerly outstanding military come up with next? Call Jim Carrey to direct and pro- duce a sequel, with a different want-a-be star. One major glitch — 24 hours of truth. He has no sanity to spend billions (debt for your grandkids) to explore Mars, when 99 percent know the reality evident to us here in this world. Perhaps when one is in a separate “Mars world” already, it does sound like a good credit bankruptcy project. I was listening for something totally ab- sent from his speech — the truth! No, I don’t
