10A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, JUNE 21, 2016
Concert: ‘It’s going to be very special’
The Bear
Creek Dam
will likely
survive a
Cascadia
Subduction
Zone quake.
Continued from Page 1A
Orange said his paintings are
“like jazz, free-form and not ref-
erencing the literal interpreta-
tion of landscape.” He becomes
absorbed in the act of creation:
“I’m just playing, being free,
with no preconceptions about
outcome.”
The artists dreamed up the
“Sight and Sound” idea after
the program for the 2016 festi-
val of 13 concerts was printed.
They considered adding it to
Tuesday’s “Bach by Candle-
light” event at Grace Episcopal
Church in Astoria, but decided
it would reach a bigger audi-
ence — and have more space on
stage — if moved to the Liberty
Theater Saturday. Tuesday’s
concert issold out.
It was added to the 4 p.m.
“Sergey’s Happy Hour” event as
a “duo,” featuring only Antonov,
but Kazantsev embraced the
idea and it expanded into “Trio
for Cello, Piano and Artist.” The
musicians have known each
other since third grade and have
played together, often as part of
the Hermitage Trio.
Antonov has been fascinated
in the healing power of classi-
cal music, and said he has won-
dered how it could inspire a
visual artist to create something
spontaneously.
“It was always my intent to
try something like this, and I
am happy that Darren liked the
Joshua Bessex
The Daily
Astorian
Dam: Seismic study
cost the city $390,865
Continued from Page 1A
Using a 1911 ield engi-
neer’s notebook that Ken
Cook, the city’s public works
director, uncovered, and a
detailed examination of the
abutments that brace the
dam, a consultant prepared
a new geologic model that
found that conditions are bet-
ter than previously assumed.
The dam is a concrete
gravity structure in a nar-
row canyon that relies on its
weight for stability. The con-
sultant found that the abut-
ments on the left and right are
embedded in a strong basalt
foundation — compared to
the middle of the dam, which
sits in a weaker sandstone —
and will likely help the dam
withstand resistance.
Asked by City Councilor
Drew Herzig whether the
dam will remain in one piece
in a quake, Gerry Heslin, an
engineer with Cornforth Con-
Photos by Dwight Caswell/For The Daily Astorian
ABOVE: Astoria artist Darren Orange uses a scraper to apply paint to a small canvas in
his studio in 2015. BELOW: Keith Clark conducts the Astoria Music Festival Orchestra in
Philip Glass’s Symphony No. 4, “Heroes,” based on music by David Bowie.
idea,” he said, the excitement
evident in his voice.
“It’s going to be very spe-
cial, and this is the irst time
in my life we have done this.
I think whatever Darren puts
on canvas — that’s how he
sees the work. And there’s
absolutely nothing that can go
wrong with it.
“If we were to play the
piece, then play it again and
have him start over, too, it
would be a completely dif-
ferent
painting.
That’s
what’s amazing about live
performances.”
Other compositions on tap
— without painter — include
Tchaikovsky’s “Pezzo Capric-
cioso,” Gershwin’s “Rhap-
sody in Blue,” Three Preludes
by Rachmaninov, Stravinsky’s
Cello Suite No 1 and Astor
Piazzolla’s 1974 work “Lib-
ertango.” Pianist Cary Lewis,
the festival’s chamber music
director, will also appear.
A second show at the Lib-
erty 7.30 p.m. Saturday is a
Symphonic Showcase. That
concert features the Astoria
Music Festival Orchestra, con-
ducted by Keith Clark, with
Kazantsev playing Chopin’s
Piano Concerto No. 2, mezzo
soprano MaryAnn McCor-
mick from the Metropolitan
Opera of New York singing
songs by Mahler, and visiting
strings soloists Jeffrey Thayer
from San Diego and James
Van Valkenburg from Detroit
performing a Mozart piece for
violin, viola and orchestra.
sultants, a Portland based
geotechnical irm, said: “Yes.
It will stay in one piece and it
will stay where it’s sitting.”
The seismic study cost the
city $390,865, with $153,932
covered by grant money.
The city will likely make
improvements at the water
system headworks to prevent
overtopping at the dam but
can avoid signiicant struc-
tural modiications.
Keith Mills, a state engi-
neer for the Oregon Water
Resources Department, said
the Bear Creek Dam had
been a concern to the state
because it is close to the Cas-
cadia Subduction Zone off
the Paciic coast.
The state worked with
the city and the consultant
on a thorough analysis of the
dam that, Mills said, shows
“with reasonable certainty
how well your water supply
is going to hold up in some
pretty severe conditions.”
Dispatch team: ‘They are all
very deserving of this award’
Continued from Page 1A
Conference Chairwoman
Brandy Ritter offered con-
gratulations to Seaside’s
communications staff. “The
team handled the incident
with grace and professional-
ism and we would like to be
able to honor them for their
work,” Ritter said.
After Goodding was
killed, Ritter wrote, dispatch-
ers continued to perform
their duties in the commu-
Divided: ‘Today we are not so much
communicating as miscommunicating’
Introducing an
MS EVENT
WORTH
SHOUTING
ABOUT.
Continued from Page 1A
AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill, Michael Conroy
This combination of June 2016 photos shows Peggy Al-
brecht, left, in Westlake Village, Calif. and John Dearth in
Carmel, Ind. Albrecht is a freelance writer and comedian who
loves Bernie Sanders. Dearth, a retiree, grew up a Democrat
but flipped with Ronald Reagan. He’s a Trump guy.
appeasers. His show became
home for disaffected liberals in
the Bush administration’s inal
years. MSNBC hired Maddow
and eventually made the entire
network left-leaning, although
low ratings forced it back to
news during the day.
Fueled by Fox’s primacy
and opposition to the war in
Iraq, liberals began inding
their voice online in the early
2000s.
Writer Josh Marshall began
blogging and reporting, devel-
oping the Talking Points Memo
website. His work forced wider
attention to issues like the ir-
ing of U.S. attorneys in the Bush
administration,
Republican
voter suppression efforts and the
ight against Social Security pri-
vatization. TPM has grown to
25 employees with ofices in
Washington and New York.
Others followed Marshall’s
path. Conservatives took advan-
tage of new media, too.
“I don’t think it’s as much
a danger to democracy as peo-
ple think it is,” Olbermann said.
“When the business changes to
being all conservative media
or all liberal media — though I
don’t know how that would hap-
pen — that’s when it becomes
dangerous.”
Hardening of attitudes
Yet today’s political media
get at least some of the blame for
a hardening of attitudes. A gen-
eration ago, majorities in each
political party described them-
selves as moderate. Now 62
percent of the Democratic pri-
mary electorate identify them-
selves as liberal, and 76 per-
cent of Republicans say they’re
conservative, according to ABC
News exit polling.
Marty Baron, executive edi-
tor of The Washington Post,
spoke with some distress this
spring at the commencement of
Temple University’s School of
Media and Communication.
“Today we are not so much
communicating as miscommu-
nicating,” he said. “Or failing
to communicate. Or choosing
to communicate only with those
who think as we do. Or com-
municating in a manner that is
wholly detached from reality.
Too often we look only for afir-
mation of our own ideas rather
than opening ourselves to the
ideas of others.”
That thought was on Beck’s
mind when he had lunch a year
ago with Arianna Hufington,
founder of the left-leaning news
site that bears her name. They
talked about the need for an out-
let where a conservative can talk
about ideas to a liberal audience
and vice versa.
But for now, nothing’s come
of the idea.
e
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that rarely intersect. What’s big
news in one world is ignored
in another. Conspiracy theo-
ries sprout, anger abounds and
the truth becomes ever more
elusive.
In this world of hundreds
of channels and uncounted
websites, of exquisitely tar-
geted advertising and unbri-
dled social media, it is easy to
construct your own intellectual
ghetto, however damaging that
might be to the ideal of the free
exchange of ideas.
“Right now the left plays to
the left and the right plays to the
right,” said Glenn Beck, the for-
mer Fox News host who started
TheBlaze, a conservative net-
work, in 2010. “That’s why
we keep ratcheting up the heat.
We’re throwing red meat. We’re
in a room that is an echo cham-
ber, and everybody’s cheering.”
Albrecht and Dearth don’t
rely exclusively on partisan
media. Albrecht starts her day
with the Los Angeles Times,
and Dearth occasionally lips to
MSNBC to hear opposing view-
points, particularly on “Morning
Joe.” They do share mirrored
misgivings about the major
broadcast networks, newspa-
pers and their related websites
— the mainstream media —
though Dearth thinks it’s too lib-
eral and Albrecht considers it
too conservative.
That’s the kind of think-
ing that inspired Roger Ailes to
launch Fox News Channel in
1996. The former GOP opera-
tive mixed news during the day
with a prime-time lineup that
appealed to conservatives.
By 2002, Fox had raced past
CNN to become the top-rated
news network, beginning the
golden age of partisan media.
There wasn’t anything to
compare on the left, at least
until summer 2006 when Keith
Olbermann began a series
of commentaries after being
angered by a speech where
Defense Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld equated Iraq War
opponents to pre-World War II
nications center. Dispatch-
ers who were not scheduled
reported to work “just to sup-
port each other.”
“Putting the emotions
aside and continuing on
with the work that needed
to be done took courage
and strength beyond mea-
sure,” Brown said. “I am
so proud of all of them and
the way they handled every-
thing coming at them. They
are all very deserving of this
award.”
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