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Photo by Matt Love
Matt Love led a Blood, Beer and Typewriters speed writing workshop during the
Festival of Dark Arts Feb. 13 at Fort George Brewery.
A G LIMPSE I NSIDE
An occasional feature by MATT LOVE
Festival of Dark Arts
They traveled from
as far away as Vancou-
ver B.C., Seattle, Salt Lake
City, San Francisco, Klam-
ath Falls and who knows
where else, perhaps the
land beyond the Styx Riv-
er where Budweiser and
Coors flowed. A couple
hundred waited in line
before the noon opening
while classic winter rain
ripped through Astoria
and shredded many of
the useless umbrellas.
Some people dressed in
costume. One woman
came on stilts and wear-
ing horns. Many moms
and dads carried small
children.
All this to taste stout
beers, one of them pea-
nut butter flavored, one
of them named after the Devil
himself.
Now, I like beer, even dark
beer, but the Fort George
Brewery’s Festival of Dark Arts
smacked of obsession — no
— make that a pilgrimage, a
pilgrimage that featured a DJ
spinning heavy metal music,
belly dancing, clowns, a tat-
too artist, tarot card readings,
a blacksmith, macaroni and
cheese, fire dancing, rock and
roll, and a lot more I didn’t
see because the brewery was
packed like the way salmon
used to be canned in Astoria.
It was my first visit to the
festival, and I was ensconced
like a Captain Nemo aboard
the Nautilus among the
gleaming silver vats, kegs, sin-
ister tubing and bubbling beer
to teach my Blood, Beer and
Typewriters speed writing
workshop/contest to any-
one who wanted to crank
out noir fiction under pres-
sure on vintage typewriters
and drink stouts.
Sixteen
quasi-sober
people signed up and
wrote with macabre gusto
under the dim glow of red
light. About half of them
had never used a typewrit-
er before and I had to teach
them on the spot, not an
easy thing to do when stout
is involved. The writers all
channeled the late great
sportswriter Red Smith,
who once said, “Writing is
easy. Just sit in front of a
typewriter, open up a vein
and bleed.”
The noise of five typewrit-
ers pounding madly away
reverberated in our area of
the brewery and drew a curi-
ous crowd. Several onlookers
remarked how soothing the
sound was, like the familiar
voice of a long lost friend
from a bygone era when
grandfathers wrote letters on
typewriters instead of watch-
ing Fox News or carried as-
sault weapons near wildlife
refuges.
The writing was superb,
at turns wicked and hilari-
ous. A couple pieces were
certainly worth publishing
as Astoria noir flash fiction.
I see a whole new trend for
this town: leave typewriters
in taverns, bars and tap-
rooms, put some paper in
them, provide a list of pro-
fane and savage prompts,
and let the noir stories pour
forth like so much stout
from a keg at a party for a
powerful coven working
their magic on who will be-
come the next President of
the United States.
Matt Love is the author/editor of
14 books about Oregon, including
a detective novel called “The Great
Birthright.” His books are available
through coastal bookstores or his
web site, nestuccaspitpress.com
Hippoglossus stenolepsis
Pacific halibut
By LYNETTE RAE McADAMS
The world’s largest flatfish,
Hippoglossus stenolepsis can
be found throughout the
waters of the northern Pacific
Ocean — from California to
Alaska in the east, and all
along the coasts of Russia,
Japan, and North and South
Korea in the west. Known
commonly as halibut, the fish’s
name derives from two words
of late middle English origin:
“haly,” meaning “holy,” and
“butte,” meaning “flatfish,” and
was so called for its popularity
on Catholic holy days.
A demersal fish, halibut live
on or near the ocean floor and
are swift swimmers and strong
predators. Camouflaged with
sediment, they
lie in wait for
their prey,
which include
other fish like
sardines, cod
and rockfish, as
well as shrimp,
crabs, octo-
pus, and, quite
unabashedly, other halibut.
Known to live as long as 55
years, H. stenolepsis can grow
to more than 8 feet long and
can weigh nearly 500 pounds.
In 2014, a 76-year-old man
caught a 482-pound halibut
in Glacier Bay, Alaska, but
the catch was stricken from
record when the fish had to be
shot during landing for fear it
would cause injury to others
on his boat.
Pacific halibut are diamond
shaped, and their scales are
embedded in their skin, nearly
invisible. At birth, they swim
like a salmon, with
an eye on both
sides of their
head,
but at
six months of age, one eye
migrates over to the other
side. At the same time, the
side of the fish that now holds
both eyes, darkens in color to
a deep brown with hand-
some speckles, becoming the
halibut’s topside, while the
underside turns a creamy off-
white. This color effect, known
as countershading, allows
the fish to be disguised from
above (the dark color blends
with the sea floor), or below
(the white blends with the
light from the surface). Most
halibut swim with their right
side uppermost, but for 1 in
20,000, the opposite is true.
A favorite fish for those
with a taste for seafood,
halibut is light and flaky when
cooked, with a buttery nut
flavor whose richness belies
its fat content: Compared to
salmon’s 30 percent fat, H.
stenolepsis weighs in at only 1
to 3 percent.
Submitted photo
A side view of Hippoglos-
sus stenolepis, the pacific
halibut.
Mr. Doobees -
Always friendly,
fun & educational
I always leave
Mr.Doobees happy
and empowered
Visit u s in RAY M O N D, W A.
O n Hw y 101 betw een Raym ond & South Bend M ile M aker 56
2870 O cean Ave Raym o n d W A 98577
m rd o o b ees.co m
DAILY 10 AM - 7 PM
360-875-8016
m rd o o b ees@ g m a i l.co m
Anyo ne fro m a ny sta te , a g e 21a nd o ve r, c a n purc ha se pro d uc ts a t M r. D o o be e s.
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the influe nc e o f this d rug . The re m a y be he a lth risk s a sso c ia te d w ith c o nsum ptio n o f this pro d uc t. F o r use o nly by a d ults tw e nty-o ne a nd o ld e r. K e e p o ut o f re a c h o f c hild re n.
February 25, 2016 | coastweekend.com | 31