2
THE OPENING ACT
MARCH 30–APRIL 6, 2022
STAFF
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Lisa Britton
Lisa Britton/Go! Magazine
PICKLEBALL
Go! Editor
editor@goeasternoregon.com
541-406-5274
Sarah Smith
Calendar Coordinator
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New releases
‘RADIO WAVES,’
JOAN OSBORNE
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RAISING THE CURTAIN
ON THIS WEEK’S ISSUE
battle was on to see who could
win the most games. The fast-
P
ickleball is a fun sport with a
funny name.
I’m a tennis player at heart,
and I remember the first time
I saw people playing on what
looked like a shortened court
with ping pong paddles and a
whiffle ball. Turns out the game
was pickleball, a sport invented
in 1965 by three dads on Bain-
bridge Island in Washington (this
is according to the USA Pickle-
ball Association, which I didn’t
know existed).
There’s a group of pickleball
players in Baker City, and they
taught me the basics one time
when I wrote a story about their
weekly games. Baker City has six
tennis courts, and this group has
marked one court with official
pickleball lines.
But it wasn’t until my sister-in-
law, who started playing near her
home in Beaverton, enticed me
to play several years ago. She
plays a lot, and her competitive
spirit sparked my own and the
paced play is a great workout
— the type of exercise where it’s
so fun that you don’t even realize
how much time has passed.
We now have a couple sets
of pickleball paddles — as with
most hobbies, there is a wide
price range and many varieties.
I know we’ll be at the court
more as the weather gets nicer.
Pickleball has a unique set of
rules, but these are fairly easy
to learn. It has a quicker learning
curve than tennis, and is suitable
for all ages.
One caveat: pickleball is
tough to play in the wind. The
plastic ball, which is full of holes,
gets thrown off course in the
slightest breeze, which can be
really frustrating.
For a good explanation of
pickleball, and to find the rules,
visit https://usapickleball.org/
what-is-pickleball/ifp-official-
rules/.
— LISA BRITTON, GO! EDITOR
omebound during the
pandemic, Joan Osborne
began combing through dusty
shoeboxes in her closets, and
what she found was still fash-
ionable, because good music
never goes out of style.
The boxes contained
recordings of at least 100
in-studio radio performances
by Osborne dating back as far
as the 1990s, and she chose
some of the best for “Radio
Waves,” a stellar collection of
13 tunes notable for its variety.
Osborne has always been an
astute interpreter, and her soul-
ful, smoky alto is a compelling
instrument whether she’s sing-
ing the blues (“Shake Your Hips”),
R&B (“Everybody Is a Star”) or
the Great American Songbook
(“Dream a Little Dream”).
With instrumental accompa-
niment ranging from an acous-
tic guitar to a full rock band,
Osborne is creative in reimag-
ining familiar tunes. On the
The Associated Press
Motown standard “How Sweet
It Is,” she extracts the sugar
by recasting both the rhythm
and melody, and the result is
something more sensual. A
stripped-down version of her
unlikely hit “One of Us” more
directly conveys the wonder
of grace in the commonplace,
while Gary Wright’s 1970s hit
“My Love Is Alive” becomes
improbably funky.
“Good morn or evening,
friends. Here’s your friendly
announcer,” she sings to begin
Stevie Wonder’s “Love’s in
Need of Love Today,” a tune
with a message worth trans-
mitting 24 hours a day.
— THE ASSOCIATED PRESS