Posted inEntertainment Salem

Enlightened Theatrics made “The Wizard of Oz” new for me

Thank you, talented cast members of Enlightened Theatrics' current cultural gift to Salem, a marvelous stage production of "The Wizard of Oz."  You've restored the pleasure I felt as a child when I'd watch, and re-watch, the classic movie version of The Wizard of Oz. It was shown annually on television from 1959 to 1991.  So, since I was born in 1948, I must have seen it close to half a dozen times before I went off to college in 1966. What pushed me over the Oz edge, though, was raising a daughter born in 1972. I remember watching the…
2
Posted inHome life Neighborhood

Rural south Salem wildlife caught on our trail camera

OK, let's get this clear right off the bat: these photos from the trail camera my wife, Laurel, tends to -- moving it around our property in rural south Salem in attempts to capture what our non-human neighbors are doing -- aren't exactly National Geographic quality. But, hey, they show wild creatures living their animal lives on what sure seems to be a popular spot. (The dates on the photos appear to be off; so is the time, probably.) Coyote! Wily canines who we occasionally see in the daytime, but not often. We have some irrational coyote-hating neighbors who tried…
1
Posted inBicycling Salem

Tell City officials you want a bigger and better Salem Sunday Streets

Bicyclists, walkers, skateboarders, and other fans of non-motorized getting-around here in overly autocentric Salem, I've got some bad news and good news for you. Bad news. There won't be a Salem Sunday Streets event in 2016. One happened in 2013, 2014, and 2015, but it has been cancelled this year.  Salem Sunday Streets is part of the burgeoning "open streets" movement.  Open streets initiatives temporarily close streets to automobile traffic, so that people may use them for walking, bicycling, dancing, playing, and socializing. With more than 100 documented initiatives in North America, open streets are increasingly common in cities seeking innovative…
7
Posted inSalem

I’m attached to Salem, Oregon. Check out this “place attachment” scale.

How much are you attached to the place where you live? A book I've just started reading, Melody Warnick's "This is Where You Belong: The Art and Science of Loving the Place You Live," lets you find out by answering 24 simple questions -- which I've shared below. I answered 21 of the 24 questions "true." So I'm attached to Salem, Oregon (my wife and I have a Salem address, though we live in a rural neighborhood about six miles from the city limits). Warnick says: The more times you answer "true," the more likely you are to be attached…
No Comments
Posted inCurrent affairs

Melania Trump’s plagiarism shows why Donald would be a horrible president

If anyone needed a reason to oppose Donald Trump's presidential ambitions, the debacle of his wife's plagiarized speech at the Republican Convention last night sure offers up a good one. It's obvious to anyone with half a brain -- which apparently doesn't include Donald Trump -- that Melania Trump borrowed from Michele Obama's 2008 speech at the Democratic Convention where her husband won his first presidential nomination.  The New York Times has a clear comparison of the Trump and Obama speeches in "Questions Over Melania Trump's Speech Set Off Finger-Pointing." Here's the more extensive example of plagiarism. (click to enlarge)…
6
Posted inEntertainment

Odysseo by Cavalia in Portland is a thrilling horse production

Last night, Laurel and I saw the newest version of Cavalia's marvelous "horse show." (I put that in quotes to indicate that it is like no horse show you've ever seen before.) Which, like the show we saw five years ago, also in Portland, basically is an equine Cirque du Soleil.  In 2011, I blogged, Cavalia is a magical horse show -- Portlanders, go see it!    I don't know why I omitted my fellow residents of Salem in the title, so now I'll add -- Salemians, go see it! As noted in my first post about Cavalia, my wife…
No Comments
Posted inWeb/Tech

BrianHines.com gets a much-needed makeover, thanks to Adobe Spark

Being an early Internet adopter, I was fortunate to snap up the domain name www.BrianHines.com way back when. After all, there are a lot of Brian Hines' in the world. (However, I was a bit behind the times with Gmail; some other Brian Hines got his Gmail email address first, so I'm stuck with BrianHines1 -- which is better than BrianHines999, admittedly.) I've ignored my BrianHines.com web site for many years. My blogs, Facebook pages, and such have occupied my cyberspace attention. Plus, even with an easy to use website builder, maintaining a site isn't my idea of a fun…
No Comments
Posted inEntertainment

Photos of 2016 Oregon Country Fair (a fair like no other)

Ah, bliss. Today Laurel and I made our annual Oregon Country Fair journey in space (south to Veneta, outside Eugene) and time (back to the spirit of the 60's).  Even though the day was cloudy, cool, and occasionally a bit rainy, the fair was as weirdly enjoyable as it always is. Here's photos of our experience. (click to enlarge) Even before we got to the ticket-taking area, there was a dragonish' indication that this fair is like no other in the country. Indeed, the freaking cosmos.  Arriving at a bit after 1 pm, we got a delicious Indian-food lunch from a…
4
Posted inPhilosophy

Fireflies, Mt. Hood, and other strange delights

I love watching fireflies do their bioluminescence thing. I've just spent several days in Indiana and Kentucky. Fireflies are common there. They don't exist in Oregon, so far as I know. At least, I've never seen a firefly in my home state. So when the sun began to set on the day my wife and I arrived at a family get-together in a small town near Bloomington, Indiana, I couldn't take my eyes off of the seemingly randomly blinking yellow flashes of light on a large grassy lawn.  Blink here. Then there. No way to predict where the next flash…
No Comments