Posted inSalem

I stand up for Salem (sort of)

Whenever I blog about how boring Salem, Oregon is, there's a pretty good chance someone will leave a comment along the lines of "Your negativity about the town you live in is getting old...like you." Well, today I stood up for Salem when someone snarkily commented on the Oregonian's story about "Salemia," our film response to "Portlandia." This guy, bruceabishop, said: Having both lived and worked there previously, it's obvious to me that it should be pronounced "Sa-Lame-Ya", with the accent on the middle syllable. That deserved a fierce response, an energetic defense of Salem's non-lameness. So I replied: Hey,…
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Posted inSalem

“Salemia” gets thumbs-up from Portlandia actors

Oh, yeah! THEY, meaning Portland and Eugene, won't have so much reason to mispronounce our semi-fair city's name as So-lame now that the hipster stars of "Portlandia," Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein, have acknowledged the creative brilliance of our very own "Salemia" -- sight unseen, even before the premiere this coming Wednesday.  The brains behind "Portlandia" are cool with the notion of "Salemia." "I love it," said "Portlandia" star Fred Armisen, noting that "Portlandia" began as the web series "Thunderant." "Please tell them to keep going." "Portlandia" co-star Carrie Brownstein was equally enthusiastic. "We feel like we're just part of an ongoing conversation that…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Salem

Occupy Salem rally/march — video & photos

Today in Salem, Oregon my wife and I joined hundreds of other 99%ers in a march from the Capitol that ended at a rally in Peace Plaza (in this context, "99%" refers to those people less well-off than the top 1% -- who now own 40% of our nation's wealth). We were part of a vast October 15 worldwide protest against growing wealth inequality. The United States has the fifth-most unequal wealth distribution in the world, and it's getting worse. Our middle class is sinking into lower class status, while the rich keep getting richer. Here's a five minute video…
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Posted inSalem

Occupy Salem march! Saturday, October 15, noon

Just got this info from Laurie Dougherty, a new/old blog friend who I've never met, but who I feel I know well: Support occupiers in Willson Park next to the Capitol and attend the rally and march on Saturday October 15 starting at 12 noon at the Capitol. Occupy Salem is inspired by Occupy Wall Street and the 10/15 rally. The march is connected with a day of action for global change taking place in hundreds of cities in dozens of countries around the world. http://occupysalemoregon.com/ http://occupywallst.org/http://15october.net/ Be there! My wife and I sure will. I marched a lot in…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Sustainability

2011 OLCV Scorecard ranks greenness of Oregon legislators

Which Oregon state legislators have been naughty or nice to the environment? The just-released 2011 Environmental Scorecard produced by the Oregon League of Conservation Voters (OLCV) makes it easy to tell. Download OLCV 2011 Scorecard I checked out the Republican legislators who, unfortunately, my wife and I are saddled with here in our right-leaning area of Marion County. Ugh! State Senator Brian Boquist got the absolutely lowest OLCV Senate score when it came to voting in support of our Earth's one and only environment: 44%. Amazingly, in the 2011 session he scored even lower than Larry George. On the state representative…
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Posted inWeb/Tech

Feeling the fear, I moved to OS X (Lion) anyway

Wow, this has been a big Apple day for me. Not only did I manage to get my seemingly dead ("bricked") iPhone working after an initially disastrous upgrade to iOS 5 -- note to self: don't be one of the first to upgrade anything from now on, even an Apple product -- but I felt the fear and downloaded OS X Lion this afternoon, much more successfully. Right now I feel like I'm King of the World. Or at least, of my MacBook Pro. After only an hour or so of playing around with Lion, I can tell that I'm…
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Posted inWeb/Tech

If iOS 5 “bricked” your iPhone, try DFU mode

I was one of the would-be early adopters of iOS 5 who had my iPhone bricked by a screw-up with overloaded Apple servers. (Until yesterday I didn't know what "bricked" meant; after getting a black screen with no ability to connect with iTunes, I sure do know now). It was hugely frustrating to have iTunes tell me that the iOS 5 update couldn't be completed, and then to have a restore process also fail. I was left with an utterly unworkable iPhone, so I made an appointment with the Genius Bar at the Bridgeport Village Apple Store for 12:30 pm…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Science

Krauthammer is wrong about relativity being proven wrong

Whenever I watch Charles Krauthammer expressing his conservatism on Fox News, or read his right-wing newspaper columns, almost always I strongly disagree with him. Seeing that his most recent column was about a possible discovery of faster-than-light neutrinos, which I blogged about here, I thought that maybe Charles and I would find some agreement on the common ground of science. But no, I got as irritated with his "Gone in 60 nanoseconds" as with his overtly political pieces. Because what Krauthammer wants to say goodbye to is trust in modern science.  Scientists at CERN, the European high-energy physics consortium, have announced the…
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Posted inEntertainment Salem

“Smash” — another great Willamette Univ. Theatre play

If you live in the Salem, Oregon area and enjoy going to plays, check out the Willamette University Theatre offerings. For a long time my wife and I had season tickets to Pentacle Theatre, but we came to yearn for edgier, less predictable plays. Belatedly, we discovered Salem Repertory Theatre; unfortunately, just before SRT went out of business. Liking the SRT style (basically, anything goes), we were enthused with the first Willamette University Theatre production we went to, "Aquitania." I didn't understand it, which I assumed meant that it was a deep, thought-provoking, mind-blowing play. Regardless, I'd rather be confused…
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Posted inEntertainment Salem

“Salemia” premiere is October 19. Wake up, Salem!

Maybe this will wake up sleepy Salem, the Oregon blandburger stuck between the spicy buns of Portland and Eugene:   Salemia, our response to IFC's Portlandia, will premiere at the Grand Theatre (191 High Street NE) on Wednesday, October 19, 7:45 pm -- as part of the Salem Film Festival. Check out the You Tube teaser/intro, which features an absolutely perfect theme song by a local band, Axolotl Daydream. (Oh, by the way, just in case you don't notice, my name appears at the 43 second mark, not that I'm into self-promotion, leaving aside this self-serving blog that I've devoted…
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Posted inSustainability

Oregon court orders halt to wolf killing

Great news. The Oregon Court of Appeals has granted the request of three conservation groups to temporarily halt the hunt of two wolves in Eastern Oregon. Governor Kitzhaber should have ordered the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) to do this on his own, rather than forcing Cascadia Wildlands, the Center for Biological Diversity and Oregon Wild to step in. It's crazy that ranchers get compensated for documented wolf kills, yet ODFW also jumps into action as soon as a wolf-hating rancher demands that the last breeding pair in Oregon also be killed. Crazy, because wolves are more important…
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Posted inHome life

How I sold our 2007 Prius: what worked, and what didn’t

Yesterday I sold our 2007 Prius Touring for a fair price: $16,000. The buyer was happy, and I'm happy. So now that I've had the vast experience of one recent private party used car sale, I'll share my tips for car-selling in this Internet age. In short: AutoTrader good, Craigslist bad. I only got two serious inquiries about the car, both through AutoTrader. My Craigslist ad mostly resulted in email messages that said: "Location? I can pick it up," along with "How much are you asking for this car ?? Ive been wanting to buy one like this so if…
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Posted inSalem

Salem’s riverfront development looks like a loser

Salem, Oregon is cursed by a Blah Witch. That's pretty damn clear. Whenever something creative, energetic, and enticing comes on the Capital City scene, it encouragingly flashes into life, then starts to dim until Salem's stultifying atmosphere snuffs it out. At best, a few mildly glowing embers remain to remind us of the luster that a genuinely vibrant urban area, such as Portland, offers its residents. One example is the Sustainable Fairview project that my wife and I bought shares in quite a few years ago. Plans were for a world-class mixed use oh-so-Green development featuring residences, lots of open…
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Posted inSalem Sustainability

“Farming or Folly?” forum in Salem (Oregon)

Friends of Marion County, a land use advocacy group my wife and I are close friends with, is having a "Farming or Folly?" community forum this coming Thursday, October 6, 2011 at the Salem Public Library. See press release info below. I'll be attending, because I haven't made my mind up on the farming or folly expanded uses question. Some people don't like the idea of a winery, say, being able to host marriage parties or other events. They consider that bringing a hundred or more people onto farmland isn't really appropriate, and fear non-farm uses will steadily erode the…
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Posted inSustainability

Car conversations make me appreciate Oregon’s Green’ness

Too often, we Oregonians take our state for granted. We focus on what our Pacific Wonderland lacks rather than feeling appreciative for the oh-so-special nature of Oregon. Every time I fly back to Portland from some flat, brown, fir-tree-lacking part of the country, and a Mt. Hood panorama fills the airplane window, I think Wow! I'm so fortunate to live here. The past few days some car-related conversations helped reinforce that feeling. Last night we had dinner with some friends. I mentioned how Laurel and I had recently bought a Nissan Leaf, the first 100% electric car offering from a…
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Posted inSalem

People and places I like in Salem, Oregon

Wow! I'm about to say some positive things about Salem -- the capital city of Oregon, where I've lived for thirty-four years. My usual attitude toward Salem (boring, sleepy, uncreative, lethargic) is reflected in a multitude of other blog posts. (For example, see here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.) But today was a warm, sunny late September day. I rode my maxi-scooter around town and had a thoroughly enjoyable time. That got me to thinking about how much I like some favorite Salem people and places. Betsy at Hair Headquarters. A few blocks south of Mission, on Commercial…
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Posted inSustainability

Oregon’s wolves are more important than cattle

So far as I know, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife still plans to kill two of the few remaining wolves in our state. The guy in charge of the wolf management program at ODFW deserves a raise, because he must be getting lots of phone calls and letters from wolf-lovers and wolf-haters. Today I listened to my wife, Laurel, leave a message on his voice mail. She isn't happy with the planned wolf killing, to put it mildly, and wasn't shy about forcefully expressing her opinion. Which I share. It seems ridiculous that wildlife officials are willing to…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Sustainability

Oregon Cattlemen’s Association seeks wolf extinction

Do you eat beef? If so, make sure it doesn't come from a rancher who belongs to the Oregon Cattlemen's Association (OCA). This group appears to be committed to killing every single wolf in our state -- causing wolves to once again become an extinct member of Oregon's top predator ecosystem. If you don't believe me, take a look at the OCA Facebook page. Friday's entry says "Good news for ranchers in Eastern OR," referring to a La Grande news story: Two Imnaha pack wolves to be killed after another confirmed livestock loss Yesterday’s investigation scene showed clear evidence of…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Salem

Salem Statesman Journal shouldn’t reveal retiree info

The Salem Statesman Journal, for reasons known only to its generally right-leaning editorial board, went to court so the newspaper could release hitherto private information about the retirement benefits of Oregon state government workers. My wife is one of them. A few days ago she got a letter from the Public Employees Retirement System (PERS) informing her that because of lawsuits filed by the Statesman Journal and Portland Oregonian, on November 21, 2011 her name and benefit amount will be made public. Download PERS Letter Then, on March 9, 2012 anyone in the world will be able to learn my…
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Posted inSalem Sustainability

OLCV “Wheels & Wine” event in Salem tomorrow

If you live in the Salem area, here's two good reasons to attend a "Wheels and Wine" energy efficient wine tour tomorrow, Thursday September 22. It's sponsored by the Oregon League of Conservation Voters, and will feature...drum roll, please... Our brand new Nissan Leaf! Shown here, getting its first charge in our carport after being driven home from the Jack Scoville Nissan dealership in Corvallis late this afternoon. So Reason #1 is: Come to the event from 5 - 8:30 pm at the Santiam Wine Company, 1555 12th Street in Salem (details here, and below) and you'll get to see…
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