THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, APRIL 15, 2016
COMMUNITY
1B
‘AROUND THE HOUSE’
SALVAGE SURPRISE
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A NEW KIND OF TRAFFIC JAM
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rom the George Flavel)DFHERRNSDJHZZZIDFHERRNFRP
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otherwise in excellent condition, a box of one dozen ship’s axes,
from the bark Desdemona, were recovered by an Astoria snag
pulling crew last week while clearing drifts in the lower river.
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(pictured in a )UDQN:RRG¿HOGSKRWRDQGMXVWDFURVVWKHFKDQ-
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gave her name to the sands and beacon, ran aground, and was
wrecked in 1856.”
WHAT’S COOKING?
WWHQWLRQ+RPH&KHIV´Cyndi Mudge posted on the Astoria
6XQGD\0DUNHW)DFHERRNSDJH³$casting agency contacted
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Here’s the scoop: “(We’re) looking for amazing home cooks
across America who do not work as a professional chef, but love to
cook and/or bake ... fun personalities, a passion for cooking, and a
solid foundation to build upon.”
The auditions are from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. April 23 at the Embassy
Suites Portland Downtown, 319 S.W. Pine St., and you’ll need to
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Then, you need to email your name, age, phone number, city of
residence and occupation, and that you want to audition in Portland,
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tences about your passion for cooking and anything unique or inter-
esting about you unrelated to food.”
You’ll also need to make a 30-second video about yourself:
“With lots of energy, tell us who you are, where you’re from, how
you earn a living, something fun and unique about you, and why you
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‘A
ROBOTS RULE THE WAVES
H
ere’s one for the history books: The Pentagon’s Defense
$GYDQFHG 5HVHDUFK 3URMHFWV $JHQF\ DARPA) is cer-
tainly accomplishing its mission “to make pivotal invest-
ments in breakthrough technologies for national security”
(www.darpa.mil) with the April 7 christening, in Portland, of
a 132-foot robotic vessel designed to hunt and track enemy
submarines.
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Unmanned9HVVHO$&789EXWLW¶VDORWHDVLHUWRFDOOWKHVKLS
by its new name, Sea Hunter, which is pictured courtesy of
DARPA.
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vessel achieved 27 knots. So far, so good.
Designed to be able to do a 70-day mission with a “high
degree of autonomy,” sea trials begin soon in San Diego.
steemed photographer and
Astorian Robert Adams,
and his exhibit and book con-
taining a series of images of his
home and home town, “Around
the House,” were featured
recently in the U.K. publication,
The Guardian (http://tinyurl.
com/TownAdams). He is pic-
tured in a photo courtesy of PBS.
Well-known for his land-
scapes and architectural pho-
tos, this time the photographer
worked on a smaller scale, con-
centrating on his domestic life in Astoria. “Beauty, which I admit
to being in pursuit of, is an extremely suspect word among many in
the art world,” the artist noted. “But I don’t think you can get along
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thing that seems invulnerable, in some cases, to our touch. And who
would want to do without beauty? There’s something perverse about
ruling out beauty.”
The Ear expects most Astorians would agree with what Robert
Adams’ photos show — you don’t have to do without beauty if you
live in Astoria.
CAM CUDDLES
F
ormer Astorian Jona Bechtolt and his partner Claire
Evans (pictured), who perform as the Los Angeles-based
indie pop group Yacht (http://teamyacht.com), are nomi-
nated for a Webby People’s Voice Award, and you can get
in on the voting to help them win at http://wbby.co/gH7TR
So, what’s this Webby award Yacht is being nominated for,
you may ask? Webbys honor excellence on the internet. Spe-
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ment categories for a highly successful team-up with Uber to
promote a single from their I Thought the Future Would Be
Cooler album, “L.A. Plays Itself.”
How the promotion worked was that whenever a car was
ordered for a ride, and Uber surge pricing went into effect —
prices multiplying based on the demand for cars, a common
occurrence in L.A. — the Yacht song would play. The tagline
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Did it work? Like gangbusters. They got huge media cov-
erage, and it was their most successful album launch.You
can watch the video for the song here: http://tinyurl.com/
PlayYacht. “We wanted L.A., the city, to play the song, liter-
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Los Angeles Times in an interview (http://tinyurl.com/Yacht-
LAT). “... By bonding it to that, then we allow Los Angeles
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us that’s a nice way of connecting the city to the music that
inspired it.”
IT’S JUST A FLUKE
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McKirdy (pictured) has found a new occupation — and a new
moniker — in Samantha Hess’ highly successful Portland business,
Cuddle Up To Me (http://cuddleuptome.com), which offers “fully
clothed, completely platonic cuddle sessions of 15 minutes to 5 hours.”
As Cam Cuddles (www.facebook.com/camcuddles), he is the
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or even lost a pet, so I’m here for those people.”
He’s not only making his customers happy, he’s pleasing his boss,
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they do matter,” Samantha said, “and that whatever they’re going
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F
HIS GREAT GIFT
T
he Ear received a surprise recently from Jan Johnson:
an envelope full of old photos of the 1987 dedication of
the Indian head statue near the New Youngs Bay Bridge.
Shown, are a few samples: Peter “Wolf” Toth, the artist
(www.dcschumaker.com), is pictured inset, left, and climbing
on the statue; the group gathered for the ceremony are pic-
tured inset, right.
Just in case you don’t know, the cedar statue, made from a
giant log, was created by Toth, as part of the Trail of the Whis-
pering Giants, to honor Native Americans. The Astoria ver-
sion, Ikala NawanRU0DQ:KR)LVKHVKRQRUVWKHWULEHVRI
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note, Toth himself is not Native American — he was actually
born in Hungary.
But did you ever wonder how one of the giants came to
be in Astoria? Jan’s husband, Ed Johnson, has the answer.
Sometime back in the 1980s, he told the Ear, he taught sum-
mer classes in Reno, Nevada. He and his children would go
to the city park often, and that’s where he met Toth, who was
carving statues there. Toth told Ed he was putting Indian stat-
ues in all 50 states (which he eventually did), so Ed asked if
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When Ed got back home from Reno, he started a letter
writing campaign to invite Toth to Astoria to carve a Whisper-
ing Giant here, beginning with then-mayor Edith Hennings-
gaard-Miller. She wrote Toth an invitation letter, and so did the
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Toth accepted, and stayed at Joe Herman’s (who did the
rock work around the base). The sculptor did not get paid for
his work, by the way — he considers the Whispering Giants
a gift to his adopted country — usually local governments
and citizens cover his expenses and materials. It took several
months to hand-carve the 18-foot statue, which has presided
over the Roundabout ever since.
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Photo courtesy of National Geographic and photographer Lynn Johnson
‘I
was belatedly looking through my April National Geographic
over breakfast this morning, when I turned a page and suddenly
saw a very familiar face looking back at me,” Astorian Stewart Bell
wrote. “Sure enough, the caption named Rod Gramson, one of four
prominent Warrenton brothers (Gil, Terry and Loren being the others),
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transplanted from the dead (http://tinyurl.com/GramsonPic).”
A portion of the photo is shown, courtesy of National Geographic
and Lynn Johnson. Rod Gramson is in the middle, with Deanna and
Rich Santana. The couple’s teenaged son, ScottGLHGLQDWUDI¿F
accident, and his heart was transplanted into Rod’s chest. The parents
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the road where he was killed, accompanied by photographer Lynn
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been cheated, and I thought at my age, somebody younger should
have gotten that heart,” Rod said. “I was hoping that I wouldn’t be a
disappointment where their son’s heart went. I’m really happy to be
able to meet them.”
“The family of this boy felt like he was still alive in the bodies
of those who were surviving because of his great gift,” the photog-
rapher said. “At one point, the father put his head on the chest of the
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hear that heart beating? Tell me my son is not alive.’”