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