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