4A • March 9, 2018 | Cannon Beach Gazette | cannonbeachgazette.com
Views from the Rock
Where ukuleles fly off the shelves The ghost in the lamp
F
O
nly in Cannon Beach would
a music store move its stock
by pushing a piano down
the street. Michael Corry of
Michael’s Music had a little help from
his friends — among them city manager
Bruce St. Denis, a guitarist — last
month as he moved inventory from his
Sunset Boulevard location to a new spot
on South Hemlock.
Corry, a professional musician most
of his life, is best known locally as a
teacher, performer, studio engineer and
shop owner.
Corry, originally from Santa Monica,
California, played in garage bands
from the age of 11. After graduation, he
continued his love of music, with a year
at Mount St. Mary’s Conservatory. His
interest in world music beckoned, and
he considered studying in Hawaii with
the great guitarist Gabby Pahinui.
“I thought about going to Hawaii and
knocking on his door but I didn’t have
enough money to get to Hawaii,” Corry
recalled. “I thought about going to
Mexico and playing in a mariachi band
because I liked that, too. Then I heard
about the Ali Akbar Khan School in San
Francisco. It was the easiest to get to
from Santa Monica.”
It was there Corry studied with the
great Indian musician and sarod master.
“I went there just to learn a few more
licks on guitar,” Corry said. “I was
only going to stay for the summer. I got
hooked — I was there four years.”
Corry specialized in the sarod, an
Indian stringed instrument with a goat-
skin resonator. “You’re actually playing
with your finger and your fingernail at
the same time,” he explained. “I used
to practice so much that my fingernails
wore back until I was bleeding.”
After leaving San Francisco, Corry
went on the road “for a lot of years” be-
fore settling in the Lewiston-Clarkston
area of Idaho.
Corry raised a family and opened a
music store, living and working there
for more than two decades. When his
father died, he took a vacation to Can-
non Beach.
“I was sitting at what used to be
Dooger’s — now Pelican — and look-
ing at that building and thought: ‘That
would be a nice place to have a music
shop.’ I thought it would cost so much
to have a shop there. But I went and
talked to the landlady and the price was
pretty good.”
In October 2001, Michael’s Music
opened its doors.
It was a hit right away, Corry said.
“The store was really supported by the
locals. A lot of businesses will open
during the summer because they’re
tourist-oriented, but I wanted to open
during the offseason so people knew I
was supporting the locals.”
During the economic downturn, he
fought skin cancer. “I had to keep work-
ing,” he said. “The doctor told me it’s
$1 million to build a nose and it doesn’t
always work.”
Corry said he is not in pain and
breathes better. “I keep getting things
cut off, here, and on my back. It doesn’t
even hardly hurt.”
A building change
In December, Corry’s landlord
asked him if he would be interested in
renting the nearby Hemlock location.
R.J. MARX/CANNON BEACH GAZETTE
Michael Corry of Michael’s Music at his new location.
CANNON SHOTS
R.J. MARX
‘A LOT OF BUSINESSES
WILL OPEN DURING THE
SUMMER BECAUSE THEY’RE
TOURIST ORIENTED,
BUT I WANTED TO OPEN
DURING THE OFF-SEASON
SO PEOPLE KNEW I WAS
SUPPORTING THE LOCALS.’
BRUCE ST. DENIS
Michael Corry
Michael Corry and Daron Patton
move a piano to Michael’s Music new
location.
“This happened real quick,” he said. “I
think if I had thought about it I would
have chickened out. It just about killed
me. But this is a much better location.
It’s cleaner, I can be more organized
and I get a lot of foot traffic.”
As in the old location, he teaches
more than 20 students of all ages at all
skill levels. He says he loves teaching,
from beginning students to advanced,
and adults returning to music.
Corry said unlike other methods,
he teaches students to play music right
off. Corry gets students playing “real
songs” right away, “not kiddie songs
and dumbed-down stuff.”
The method works, he said. “I’ve
got people I’ve turned into pros. But
I’m happy to sit on the beach and play
Jack Johnson stuff. I’ve taught all the
way from ages 3 to 87. The love never
goes away.”
Corry plays in the group Blue Jug
and manages a recording studio where
he plays backup on projects from the
Beatles to Beethoven — literally. He
recently performed on a recording of
Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony where
he played piano, bass and guitar.
As a songwriter and lyricist, Corry
uses local themes. “I did an album
called “Codger Pole,’” he said. “It’s
a place over in Colfax, Washington, I
used a lot of local references.”
His song “Little Bird of Falcon
Cove” employs a Hawaiian motif, a
carryover from his longtime love of
world music. But as much as he looks
outward, he keeps his heart close to
home.
“Mourning Dove” was written in
the aftermath of the death of 2-year-
old Isabella Smith, murdered by her
mother Jessica Smith in a Cannon
Beach hotel room in July 2014.
“The whole story of ‘Mourning
Dove’ was really about the little girl
who died trying to figure out what
happened. She’s stuck in between
purgatory. That incident had a great
impact — there were some kind of
spiritual things going on with it. I
was already working on the song and
there was this mourning dove singing
outside. Then the little girl died and
the bird was gone. I thought, that’s
what this song’s about. It was such a
difficult time.”
So far, the store’s 1347 S. Hemlock
St. location has proved a winner for
Corry, with new customers and stock.
Ukuleles are flying off the shelves, he
added.
Other hot sellers are guitars, sheet
music and books.
Corry is trying to provide services
for what “everybody needs,” he said.
“I repair all instruments. If it’s out of
my league, I’ve got some better guys
who know what they’re doing.”
Little and big: A story about a town
By Ursula K. Le Guin
For Cannon Beach Gazette
Author Ursula K. Le Guin, a part-
time resident of Cannon Beach, died
Jan. 22. “Little and Big” was originally
printed in the Cannon Beach Citizen in
2003. It is reprinted with the permission
of Charles Leguin.
O
nce upon a time there was a
little town by a big ocean. It was
a wise little town. Long ago it
had looked at its dunes and beaches, its
big trees, its marsh where the redwing
blackbirds sang, in little streets and little
grey shingle shops and houses, and said:
This is all good. My people like me, my
visitors like me, and I like me. This is
what I am and what I want to be.
Busy people kept coming to the little
town and scolding it. You are foolish,
they said. You don’t understand prog-
ress. You don’t even have neon! There
are no corporations here! We will bring
you golden arches and make you rich!
No, thank you, said the wise little
town. My people own my shops. People
come to me because they like those
shops, and because at night my streets
Publisher
Kari Borgen
Editor
R.J. Marx
Circulation
Manager
Jeremy Feldman
Production
Manager
John D. Bruijn
SUBMITTED PHOTO
Filmmaker Arwen Curry, producer
and director of “The Worlds of Ursula
K. Le Guin,” with the author in Can-
non Beach.
glimmer very softly in the dark.
But busy people kept coming to
the town and scolding it. Look at you!
they said. All these little funky shingle
homes! You should be ashamed. You
need immense houses.
What for? asked the town.
For rich people, said the busy people.
People like us. We cannot live in funky
cottages with gardens. Let us tear these
down and build many immense houses,
surrounded by immense rocks, and then
everyone will see you are a town of rich
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Danielle Fisher
Staff writer
Brenna Visser
Contributing
writers
Rebecca Herren
Katherine Lacaze
Eve Marx
Nancy McCarthy
CANNON BEACH GAZETTE
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people and admire you immensely.
I see, said the little town, and it thought
about this. It thought long and hard. It had
no objection to rich people. Rich people
had done it a lot of good, over the years.
But then, so had not-rich people.
My people, thought the little town,
whether they are artists or cleaning
maids in motels, whether they work or
are retired, whether they live here or
come here whenever they can, all have a
big love for me, a big love for the little
grey houses, the quiet streets, the great
beach, the marsh where the blackbirds
sing. My houses are little, but my
people are big. I wonder if making the
houses bigger might make the people
smaller? And how will immense houses
fit my little, quiet streets? Do I want to
be rich, or do I want to be what I am?
Do I want to be admired, or do I want to
be loved?
The sea of course paid no attention to
such foolish questions, and the black-
birds had nothing useful to say. All the
little town could do was ask itself, and
hope that it was wise enough to find the
answer to its questions. It was not a little
question, and the answer would not be a
small one, either.
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or a long time I ignored the niggling observation that
the cord on a lamp I’ve had for 30 years was being
held together with duct tape. In the interest of full
disclosure, before the duct tape, it was Scotch tape. The
duct tape was a step up. For a long time, every time I turned
on the lamp, I half expected it to burst into flames. It didn’t.
Just in case, I never left it on when I left the house, lest it
cause an electrical fire. Weeks and months (OK, two years)
passed before I decided to do something about it.
A month or so ago, I took the lamp to an electrician. The
place where I took it said repairs aren’t really their thing,
but if I wasn’t in a rush, they would do it. I wasn’t. Much to
my surprise, about a week later, I got a call saying the lamp
was ready.
I paid for the
repair and took the
VIEW FROM
lamp home. While
THE PORCH
I was at it, I also
bought a new shade. EVE MARX
Every shade in the
store was for sale as
the electric compa-
ny no longer wants
to be in the shade
business. They still
have quite a few
very nice shades on
sale, 50 percent off.
At home, I screwed
in a bulb and turned
the lamp on.
Nada.
Nothing hap-
pened.
The next day I
took the lamp back
to the shop and said
it didn’t work. I said
I thought it entirely
EVE MARX/FOR CANNON BEACH GAZETTE
possible that I’m a
The Wedgwood base lamp the au-
person who can’t
even screw in a light thor fears has a haunt attached to it.
bulb.
The lamp disappeared to the rear of the shop. Mean-
while I babbled idiotically to the woman who works in the
electrician’s office about the lamp.
“The lamp belonged to my mother who inherited it from
her third husband,” I began. “This guy had been married
before and his first wife liked antiques. This lamp base is
old Wedgwood,” I said. I could see from her expression the
word “Wedgwood” meant nothing to her, but she kept a
game face.
“The truth is, I don’t even much like the lamp,” I said.
She looked surprised, like why would I bother fixing an
old, admittedly somewhat ugly lamp I didn’t even care for.
“But I’m afraid to abandon it because my mother might
come back and haunt me about it. ”
Her eyebrows raised.
I explained my mother has been dead a long time. Thirty
years, but who’s counting?
“I’m not really sure how attached she is to this lamp,
but I’d rather be safe than sorry,” I said. “When she died,
I inherited all of her furniture. Some of it I sold. Some of
it I gave away. One of the things I kept besides this lamp,
and — by the way, there are two of them; the lamp has a
twin — was an old midnight blue mohair velvet camel back
sofa. My mother was very fond of this sofa. She slept on
it most nights. When we moved long ago from New York
to L.A., I had it reupholstered. It was kind of ratty at that
point and who in L.A. wants mohair velvet? So I had it
reupholstered in a much lighter tapestry fabric. My mother
was furious.”
The woman at the electrician shop looked confused.
Hadn’t I just said my mother was dead?
“She came back to haunt me,” I said. “She came back as
a ghost to tell me in no uncertain terms I’d made a dread-
ful mistake because that sofa only looked good in mohair
velvet.”
“What happened then?” the woman asked.
“Well, we lived with the sofa for 10 more years and then
I gave it away,” I said. “I gave it to the guy who did odd
jobs for us around the house. He’s got a huge family who
cooks a lot of food and there’s a warm hubbub and I think
my mother was a lot happier. It was too quiet at my house
for my mother anyway. I think my mother’s ghost followed
the sofa because after I gave it away, she didn’t bother me
again for years.”
A few days later I went back and retrieved the lamp.
Paul, the very nice man who fixed it, explained what the
problem was the first time, but the info went straight over
my head. I have a poor understanding how electricity works
anyway so I leave it to the experts. While I was there, I
bought a second shade for the lamp’s twin. I’m pretty sure
the people in the shop think I’m a nut and hope to never see
me again, but I am eternally grateful they got the lamp to
work and my mother’s ghost hasn’t come around to inform
me I bought the wrong shade.
PUBLIC MEETINGS
MONDAY, March 12
Cannon Beach Rural Fire Protec-
tion District, 6 p.m., 188 Sunset,
Cannon Beach.
WEDNESDAY, March 14
Cannon Beach City Council, 5:30
p.m., work session, City Hall, 163
E. Gower St.
THURSDAY, March 15
Cannon Beach Parks and Com-
munity Services Committee, 9
a.m., City Hall, 163 E. Gower St.
Cannon Beach Design Review
Board Meeting, 6 p.m., City Hall,
163 E. Gower St.
MONDAY, March 19
Ecola Creek Watershed Council
Meeting, 4:30 p.m. City Hall, 163
E. Gower St.
TUESDAY, March 20
Cannon Beach Public Works
Committee, 9 a.m., City Hall, 163
E. Gower St.
Seaside School District Board of
Directors, 6 p.m., 1801 S. Franklin,
Seaside.
THURSDAY, March 22
Cannon Beach Planning Com-
mission, 6 p.m., City Hall, 163 E.
Gower St.
TUESDAY, April 3
Cannon Beach City Council, 7
p.m., City Hall, 163 E. Gower St.
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