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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 27, 2012)
HAPPENING PEOPLE BY PAUL NEEVEL NEW S TOM BLANK >>> CONTINUED FROM P. 7 Growing up in Hinsdale, Illinois, Tom Blank got a start in theater production by way of his father, who managed the Hinsdale Summer Theater. “I started as house manager at 18,” says Blank, who studied film and TV production at Northwestern. “I moved up to producer as a senior in college.” He joined the Navy to avoid the draft, became an officer and served off the coast of Vietnam after the Gulf of Tonkin incident. Later, he was assigned to a public affairs office on Sunset Boulevard, advising the studios. “I read every script of McHale’s Navy,” he reports. When he left the Navy, Blank entered the Directors Guild Training Plan and began a 30-plus-year career as a director, assistant director and unit production manager in episodic television. When work slowed, he took an MA in screenwriting at Cal State LA. Early in 2005, he and his wife Kathy visited the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. “She looked at the sky,” he notes, “and said, ‘We have to move to Oregon.’” Later that year, they had a house in Eugene. In 2006, Blank launched a film seminar, Behind the Lens, in collaboration with the Downtown Initiative for the Visual Arts. This year’s BTL schedule, “Oaters, Tuners and Weepies,” features genre firms of the 1930s. Screenings take place at the UO Baker Center, 325 E 19th, on Tuesday evenings at 7 pm. Find details at the DIVA web site. “Maybe it’s time for the government to do a study and determine the extent of the possible effects on public health and on the safety of the rail systems,” DeFazio says. “If you are going to allow mining and transport, you should have knowledge of the impacts and extent of fugitive coal dust emissions.” He says another amendment he proposed that would have made clear the Stop the War on Coal bill was strip- ping government agencies, such as the Surface Transporta- tion Board, of their ability to regulate coal was not allowed to be voted on at all. Coal trains headed for a proposed Port of Coos Bay coal export terminal would pass through Eugene and Lane County on their way to the coast. At 5:30 pm Oct. 8, the Eugene City Council will hear both from coal op- ponents as well as those in favor of the trains at the Bas- com/Tykeson Room of the downtown Public Library. — Camilla Mortensen M IND I N S I G H T U N I V E R S I T Y S E M I N A R S O F O R E G O N Fall 2012 Professor Cheyney Ryan will lead a one day discussion on conflict resolution, non-violence, and peace. Ryan is the founder of UO’s Peace Studies Program, teaches in the UO Law School’s Conflict and Dispute Resolution Program, and is a fellow at Oxford University’s Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict. (Lunch and book included). Cost: $45 INDEPENDENCE The Swerve: How The World Became Modern Professor Jim Earl (English) Saturdays, October 6, 13, 20, and 27 (9:30 a.m.–noon) Browsing Room, 106 Knight Library, 1501 Kincaid Street EXPERIENCE Shakespeare scholar Stephen Greenblatt’s award-winning new book tells of the discovery and impact of the Roman poet Lucretius’s great poem, On the Nature of Things. The seminar will read Lucretius and Greenblatt for a stimulating roller-coaster-ride through ancient, medieval, Renaissance and modern history and ideas. Cost: $99 ENDORSED BY County Commisioner Pete Sorenson Eugene City Councilor George Brown Eugene City Councilor Alan Zelenka Former Congressman Jim Weaver Former Commissioner Jerry Rust Canvassing for Taylor 11:00 a.m. Saturdays Meet: Democratic Party of Lane County Offi ce 228 E.11th Ave. 541 484-5099 or Call Robert at 541 914-5603 paid for by Taylor for City Council 8 OF THE What Is Peace? Professor Cheyney Ryan (Philosophy, Law) Saturday, September 29 (10:00 a.m.–2:00 p.m.) Browsing Room, 106 Knight Library, 1501 Kincaid Street INTEGRITY AFSCME Oregon League of Conservation Voters Sierra Club Lane County Young Democrats Mayor Kitty Piercy GEARS Lane County’s parks suffer from off-season vandal- ism, and homeless people who are currently prohibited from sleeping in their RVs or campers in Eugene need a legal place to sleep. The Lane County Parks Advisory Committee, the Homeless Coalition and St. Vincent de Paul think they might have found a way to reduce both problems. Beginning around Thanksgiving, or by the holidays at the latest, the Lane County Parks Division will experi- ment with using homeless people who own RVs or camp- ers as hosts in parks with hookups for power, water and septic systems. Life Re-elect Betty Taylor CAMPERS FOR COUNTY PARK SECURITY September 27, 2012 • eugeneweekly.com www.bettyltaylor.com The Friendship: Wordsworth And Coleridge Professor Jim Earl (English) Saturdays, November 3, 10, 17, and December 1 (9:30 a.m.–noon) Browsing Room, 106 Knight Library, 1501 Kincaid Street Alan Sisman’s new book by this title tells how two English university students reacted to the French Revolution by inventing a new kind of poetry to improve mankind. Focusing on Nature, Feeling, and Imagination rather than reason and ideas, the two poets founded the Romantic movement in England and changed the world. The seminar will read Sisman’s book along with the poems. Cost: $99 To register, call 541-346-1889, or online at: libweb.uoregon.edu/administration/insight.html EO/AA/ADA institution committed to cultural diversity. © 2012 University of Oregon DES 052ac
