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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 12, 2016)
7A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2016 Movie: ‘Seaside’ received support from community Continued from Page 1A Convention Center, which offered up a side room for an interrogation scene. Zalutsky, a Portland native and master of fine arts graduate from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, was short-listed for the Independent Spirit Award’s “Someone to Watch Award” for his first feature, “You Belong To Me.” His 17-minute film “How to Make it to the Promised Land” was funded through Kickstarter and a Jerome Foundation grant. Zalutsky wrote “Seaside” during a residency at the Mac- Dowell Colony, an artist colony in New Hampshire. This month, a social media fundraising campaign is help- ing filmmakers cross the fin- ish line. ‘Hamilton’ star Submitted Photos Ariana DeBose and Matt Shingledecker filming at Hug Point. Ariana DeBose, who appeared in the original Broad- way cast of “Hamilton,” stars with Oregon native Steffanie Leigh in this female-driven revenge thriller. “The film is a thriller with lots of twists,” Zalutsky said. His script tells the story of a young woman who moves to the Oregon Coast with her boy- friend to start a new life in the beach house he’s inherited from his parents. When the two bump into another young woman who has previous knowledge of the boyfriend, it becomes appar- ent the boyfriend hasn’t been entirely forthcoming about his past. Bad things — very bad things — soon start happening. To produce the film, Zalutsky recruited fellow Portlanders Alyssa Roehren- beck (“The Drunk Series,” “Gage,” “DOTT”) and Kevin Corstange, who has appeared in productions at Portland Center Stage and now is a New York- based producer. Local casting was provided by Simon Max Hill, who also helped cast IFC’s “Portlandia.” “Seaside” received encour- agement and support from the local Seaside community, including in-kind donations from local businesses, includ- ing Sleepy Monk Coffee, Can- non Beach’s American Legion Post 168, Seaside Gelato, the Spindrift Inn and the City of Seaside Union Bank. Basic Rights Oregon, a pro- gressive group for social equal- ity, also hosted a fundraiser to benefit both “Seaside” and the organization. As the film draws closer to completion, Zalutsky said he’s starting to submit it to film fes- tivals, some of them in Oregon. He hopes to have screenings in Portland and on the coast. The local landscape plays a key role, with its “beautiful, but dangerous” cliffs, rocks, wind and rain. “As befits the landscape, we learn it’s not an easy place to live,” Zalutsky said. “The environment is beautiful but dangerous.” Matt Shingledecker and Ariana DeBose at Funland in the movie, “Seaside.” Ariana DeBose and Matt Shingledecker at Yelda’s Boutique in Seaside. Miller: ‘I love it even more now that I live here. That’s the truth’ Continued from Page 1A “It’s really cool when peo- ple say to you, whether you’re on the radio or on the trolley, ‘I did not know that,’” he said. “I love that, when I can tell you something you didn’t know.” ‘Heavy lifting’ Miller got into radio broad- casting back when many peo- ple considered radio work not a “real job.” In fact, the father of a girl he was interested in wouldn’t let his daughter date Miller because the man con- sidered radio a disreputable profession. But radio involves a lot of heavy lifting, Miller said: “You’re just using your mind and not your arms.” “It’s a lot of work,” he said, “and the hardest thing to do in this business is go in, and do what you do, when somebody just died, you had a big fight with your wife, your dog died, you got a bill that came that you didn’t expect, you’re afraid you’re going to lose your job. “But you have to go in there and perform the same way every day,” he said. “And if you don’t think that’s difficult, try it. That’s what separates the pros from the amateurs.” Miller’s career began back when disc jockeys actually jockeyed discs — or, in Mill- er’s case, 45s. Decades ago, his show prep involved buying the early morning print editions of prom- inent newspapers and going into the studio with clippings and notes. The arrival of the Internet broadened the infor- mation he talked about on the air. Miller’s shows were non- partisan — and, for the most part, apolitical — but they occasionally had a satiric edge. When Oregon’s U.S. Rep. Wes Cooley was caught lying about his military service, for exam- ple, Miller wrote a scathing parody song about the scandal. “If you listened to my show and you figured out my poli- tics, good for you. But I didn’t rant and rave about it,” he said. “People figured me out pretty quick, but I didn’t go on and on. And I don’t think if you dis- agree with me you’re stupid; I think you disagree with me. And I get that; that’s how the world works. And I don’t like these liberal and conservative labels. I never did — it’s too easy.” ‘Blessed’ Miller pulled some memora- ble on-air stunts, such as phon- ing Idi Amin, the mass-murder- ing former president of Uganda whose number Miller somehow got a hold of. “He talked to me long enough to tell me he wasn’t going to talk to me,” Miller said. One time, Miller called the Eiffel Tower and asked for the recipe for French dressing. He flew with the Blue Angels, and rode with Austra- lian racing driver Geoff Bra- bham. He’s hosted his show from Disneyland and Walt Dis- ney World, and called in reports from around the globe. “God has just blessed me and my family through this goofy business to the point where I don’t know what I’ve done to deserve it,” he said. And a person who feels blessed needs to give some- thing back, according to Miller, who said he likes to use his “big mouth” to do good in the world. When he learned that low-income parents in Ore- gon and southwest Washing- ton couldn’t afford eyeglasses or hearing aids for their chil- dren, Miller and KEX crew founded a nonprofit charity — now called the KEX Kids Fund Sick leave: Employers with 10 or more workers would have to comply Continued from Page 1A “We are still consider- ing our options,” said Kris- tina Edmunson, a department spokeswoman. Gov. Kate Brown is named as a defendant in the lawsuit, but the Department of Justice will ultimately decide whether to appeal the ruling, said Chris Pair, a spokesman for the governor. “Gov. Brown carefully reviewed the paid sick leave bill before signing it and dis- agrees with the court’s deci- sion,” Pair said in an emailed statement. The law, passed in the 2015 legislative session, requires employers with at least 10 employees to offer 40 hours of sick leave each year. Employ- ers with fewer staff members are required to provide the same amount of unpaid sick time. Linn, Douglas, Jeffer- son, Malheur, Morrow, Polk, Sherman, Wallowa and Yam- hill counties challenged the requirement in May. Linn County already provides paid sick time to more than 95 per- cent of its employees, Nyquist said. County commissioners, however, objected to providing the benefit to temporary and seasonal park and fair employ- ees. Doing so would have cost the county on order of $40,000 per year, Nyquist said. Nyquist said he hopes the ruling will give lawmakers pause when they consider pass- ing future measures that would cost counties more money. “This is a comprehensive effort on our part to proactively manage our budget going for- ward,” Nyquist said. “You get to that place where you have that gap, and you are cutting positions or asking taxpay- ers for more money. We think the taxpayers are not in the mood to be receptive to those requests, and we have had for a number of years, the Legis- lature introducing and some- times passing measures that had financial consequences and didn’t’ track with the con- stitutional amendment.” The Capital Bureau is a col- laboration between EO Media Group and Pamplin Media Group. — to raise money for the cause. “You haven’t seen anything until you’ve seen a kid that never heard before put on a set of hearing aids and hear their mom for the first time,” he said. For the effort, Miller received an award in 1988 from President Ronald Reagan in the White House Rose Garden. “That was a huge moment for me,” he said. “It was like the icing on the cake.” ‘That’s the truth’ Miller, 65, finds it funny that he ended up in Astoria, because his life began in Ironton, Ohio — a little town with enormous historical significance that lies on a major river. He and his wife, Shirley, bought a house in town about 15 years ago, and visited on weekends and holidays. Mov- ing to Astoria from Beaverton, he said, was the best decision they ever made, “other than get- ting married.” “We love it over here,” he said, “and I love it even more now that I live here, and that’s the truth.” — Erick Bengel Submitted Photo Bob Miller, of Astoria, is wearing the full trolley conductor uniform next to Old 300, the Astoria Riverfront Trolley. Public Meeting Columbia River System Operations The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Bureau of Reclamation and Bonneville Power Administration invite the public to help identify issues that the agencies will analyze in the Columbia River System Operations Environmental Impact Statement. The agencies will use this EIS to assess the eff ects and update their approach to operations of 14 federal dams and related facilities in the interior Columbia River basin. The agencies welcome your comments, suggestions and information to help inform the scope of issues, potential eff ects and range of alternatives evaluated in the EIS. Thursday, December 15, 2016 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. The Loft at the Red Building 20 Basin Street Astoria, Oregon For more information about the Columbia River System Operations EIS, please visit this website: http://www.crso.info Information is also available by calling 800-290-5033.
