COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL • AUGUST 15, 2018 •
Film festival coming to Cottage Grove this weekend
By Caitlyn May
cmay@cgsentinel.com
Utah has Park City. Aft er
this weekend, Oregon can say
it has Cottage Grove.
Park City, of course be-
ing the home of the famous
Sundance Film Festival that
draws thousands to the small
town of 8,000. It served as a
source of ambition for Len
Blackstone when he decided
Cottage Grove needed a little
something.
Enter, the Bohemian Film
Festival.
It’s three days of mov-
ie screenings selected from
more than 100 entries from 18
countries — including entries
from award-winning fi lm-
makers.
“Th ree years ago, I asked,
‘What can I do to help Cottage
Grove?’” Blackstone said. He’s
been a resident of the city for
33 years and has acted, most
recently, as a real estate bro-
ker, responsible for the sale
and subsequent revival of the
Stewart Building on Main
Street earlier this year. “So, I
met with Mike Dilley at the
Axe and Fiddle,” he said. “It
was supposed to be a 30-min-
ute meeting. It ended up being
three hours.”
An idea had been hatched
at that meeting. Why couldn’t
Cottage Grove host a fi lm fes-
tival?
“We’re not trying to be
Park City, Utah but I do see
potential,” Blackstone said of
the little town that adds to its
population 10 times over each
winter for a few days.
Th e Bohemian Film Festival
will already have a head-start
on attendance by combining
its eff orts with the local cham-
ber of commerce’s 40th anni-
versary celebration of “Animal
House,” a fi lm made popular in
the 1970s that has maintained
a following given the local ties
to Oregon — it was fi lmed at
the University of Oregon with
some select-few scenes fi lmed
in Cottage Grove as well.
Th e Healing Matrix, com-
munity center and the Opal
Center will become hubs of
cinema beginning on Aug. 17.
A nearly non-stop schedule
has fi lms showing at all three
locations with a break on Sat-
urday for a showing of “Ani-
mal House.”
“We have fi lmmakers from
18 diff erent countries,” Black-
stone said. “Bobbi Jo Hart, do
you know who that is? She is
a graduate of Cottage Grove
High School in the 1980s. Her
fi lm will be shown.”
Th e fi lm, “I Am Not a
Rockstar,” follows a Juil-
liard-trained pianist through
the United States, Canada
and Europe as she comes of
age. It’s been the recipient of
two Canadian Screen Awards
since its release in 2013.
Hart’s fi lm made the cut
from more than 100 entries.
A volunteer group of ap-
proximately
20
people
screened all of the fi lms that
were submitted before nar-
rowing the fi eld down to 62.
“All of the judges were reg-
ular people,” Blackstone said.
“No movie critics, that was
important.”
Movie-goers can choose
from feature-length fi lms to
fi lms that fi t into the timespan
of a coff ee break.
At the end of the three-day
festival, there will be a winner
in each category and an over-
all winner who will take home
a $3,000 prize.
“It’s not the best time of the
year to hold a fi lm festival,”
Blackstone said. “But we’ll see
what happens, we’ll see how it
goes.”
Tickets (ranging from $8 to
$49) can be purchased at bo-
hemianfestival.com. A sched-
ule of movies as well as trailers
for the fi lms are also available
on the site.
‘Animal House’ anniversary celebration draws original bands
By Caitlyn May
cmay@cgsentinel.com
On Aug. 18, everyone will
be trying to grab onto the past
for a few hours.
Th e Cottage Grove Area
Chamber of Commerce will be
hosting an eff ort to reach back
in time and reclaim the title
the city once held: rights to the
world’s largest toga party.
And while more than 3,000
residents attempt to crowd
into Bohemia Park wearing
sheets in varying degrees of
toga cosplay, special guests will
be setting the 1970’s mood.
Th e Kingsmen will strap on
their guitars and play the song
that has been carrying them to
the charts and from gig-to-gig
for 30 years, “Louie, Louie.”
“Well, they used our song in
the movie,” said Mike Mitchell,
a guitarist for the band, when
asked what he remembers of
the band’s role in the fi lm.
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At the time, the band was
living in California when a
phone call came in from a
friend.
“Katherine (Wilson) is a
friend of the band and we used
to play the university before
we shot the movie there and
she was involved in the casting
for the movie,” Mitchell said.
Wilson, an Oregon native,
made a name for herself in
Oregon cinema, becoming a
liaison for the governor’s offi ce
for “One Flew Over the Cuck-
oo’s Nest.” She went on work
on other fi lms shot in Oregon
including “Stand by Me” and
“Animal House.”
Th e relationship between
the band and Wilson has con-
tinued through the years, cul-
minating in the band’s appear-
ance at the last celebration in
Cottage Grove that marked
the fi lm’s presence there.
Th is year, the band will join
Th e Cry and Otis Day for the
attempt to win back the world
record and celebrate the fi lm’s
40th anniversary.
Th e day will start with a
parade down Main St., mir-
roring the parade in the fi lm
which is Cottage Grove’s main
claim to fame. It will continue
with a screening including a
showing of “Animal House” at
1 p.m. in the armory followed
by the fi lm “Animal House of
Blues” at 3 p.m.
Just prior to the last fi lm,
the gates to Bohemia Park will
open and the mad count will
begin. Guinness requires cer-
tifi able head counts to be con-
sidered for the world record
and so each toga-donning
individual has to be counted
when the gates open at 2 p.m.
An hour later, the beer mile
will take place with individ-
uals running one lap around
the track, stopping to drink a
beer at each quarter mile. Th e
Blues Sisters will play at 4:30,
followed by John Swan and the
Revelators at 5:30 and at 6:30,
the world record attempt will
be made.
Mitchell and his band will
close the event out along with
Otis Day and Th e Cry begin-
ning at 7:15 p.m.
“It’s just a lot of fun. We be-
came a band that would come
down and play for this and
it’s a big party for the whole
town,” Mitchell, a band mem-
ber for 55 years, said. “I’ll keep
doing it as long as I can lift my
guitar and jump up and down,
I guess.”
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Pet tips
‘N’ tales
By Mary Ellen
“Angel Scribe”
Preying on Pets
I
t is a dangerous myth that having your pet beside you pro-
tects it from coyotes. My Gig Harbor neighbor was garden-
ing with her cat beside her when a coyote grabbed her cat
and ran away.
One Vancouver neighbor was leash-walking his two dogs
when a coyote grabbed the smaller one and ran off . My Seat-
tle friend’s two cats disappeared when a coyote moved into her
neighborhood. She learned that none of her neighbors knew
that a predator was stalking pets and 20 cats and two small dogs
were missing.
Th en there is Denise’s horrifi c experience at a paw-pular
park.
“I turned off the engine and heard screaming,” said De-
nise. “I left my dogs in the car and ran towards the screams.
A non-English speaking woman was clutching her leashed dog
to her chest as a coyote held fast to her dog’s hind quarters.
I grabbed the coyote by the scruff of the neck, wound up my
fi st and round-house punched his jaw. I heard a popping noise
and he released his grip on the poor dog. I shoved the woman
back, grabbed the stunned coyote by its scruff and rear end, and
tossed it into the bushes. All the while yelling like a banshee
with my arms wildly swinging.
“I had once heard what to do, but never in a hundred years
thought that I would have to employ the technique. I took the
distraught woman to my car and we used my ‘pet fi rst-aid kit’
on her dog. I could not understand a word of what she said, but
the look on her face and gestures said it all.”
Denise is a bone-a-fi de dog-hero, but what she did in the
heat of the moment is not recommended.
Besides coyotes, pet parents also fear birds of prey. Th ese
birds are capable of picking up and fl ying away with squirrels,
rabbits, chickens and small pets. One friend watched an owl
fl y off with his small cat. Armed with this information, when
Miss Wings, my 5-pound cat, was outside, I kept a watchful eye
Denise’s dogs, Maggie and Gizmo, are proud of their hero
who single “hand”edly saved a dog from a coyote’s grip.
out for hawks.
When San Diego residents Paul and Pamela Mott’s beloved
dog, Buff y, was stolen from beside them by a coyote, they were
determined to purr-vent the nightmare from happening to oth-
ers. So, they invented an answered to our prayers to protect pets
from preying animals.
Paul designed a cat/dog armored vest that withstands a
life-threatening attack. Th e DuPont Kevlar fabric is teeth stab
resistant. Th e measured for a purr-fect fi t vests are comfortable,
light weight, water resistant, easy snap-on and have two rows
of 1-inch spikes running down them like sharp skunk strips.
Spikes also circle the neck collar, and running down the middle
of the vest are 8-inch stiff broom-like plastic bristles for poking
predator’s eyes.
“Our police department tested the vest with an attack K9 and
it passed with fl ying colors. To date, thousands of dogs and a
cats wearing our vests pur-oved that it is 100 percent eff ective
against coyotes, aggressive dogs and birds of prey attacks with
no reported injuries,” said Pamela. “Th e vests are endorsed by
veterinarians world-wide. If we can help save one life, we have
made a diff erence.”
Jamie in California writes, “One night, I considered not put-
ting Lola’s vest on thinking we would be quick. Th ank goodness
I put her in it because minutes later, two coyotes quietly ap-
proached us and one was less than a foot from Lola!
“My stomping and yelling scared them away, but I can still
picture that bewildered coyote’s eyes as he contemplated attack-
ing the weird creature covered in spikes and plastic whiskers. I
am one hundred percent sure that if Lola was not wearing her
vest, she would have been gone.”
TIPS:
Protect small dogs in dog parks with a coyote vest. Trans-
form them into a cute-colorful armored animal. TV footage:
www.coyotevest.com/pages/videos
When a coyote attacked an Oregon City dog, its owner saved
it with CPR and mouth to snout breaths: www.oregonlive.com/
oregon-city/index.ssf/2011/07/portland_woman_rescues_
tiny_dog_caught_by_coyote_near_oregon_city.html
Department of Fish and Wildlife on coyote cautions: www.
dfw.state.or.us/wildlife/living_with/coyotes.asp
Share your fun, amazing or crazing pet tips and tales at
angelscribe@msn.com or Follow Pet Tips ‘n’ Tales on Facebook
at www.facebook.com/PetTipsandTales. Adopt loving pets online
at www.PetFinder.com. For spay or neutering, call the Humane
Society at 541-942-2789.
