The very hard-to-please customer who was very pleased

My crazy neighbor is a unique individual indeed -- she is the only person I have ever known or even heard of who got a degree in music literature. Not music -- she doesn't play anything or even read music. Nope, her degree is in music LIT-er-a-chure!

Oddly enough, she had a hard time finding a job after college, and thus wound up in the US Navy, during the Vietnam years, spent some time in the Pentagon and in Pearl Harbor. Not a bad way to get your GI Bill benefits, which put her through medical school, which put her into a career as an independent physician.

She was the last of the old-style doctors -- lived over the store, saw everybody, and refused to take orders from insurance companies and play the game the way that the accountants dictate. So she was a humane physician but forgot to get rich (hence, living next to LOVESalem HQ now rather than in a big city condo near the Arts District -- where the retired gentlemen hang out to discuss music literature -- or some mountain lake somewhere).

After retiring, she's turned herself into quite the gourmet cook -- she bakes a mean blueberry pie, for example. Wonderful neighbor that she is, there is one problem -- I don't know whether it's the music literature or the MD at work but she is, how do we put this, VERY HARD TO PLEASE, especially around food.

And yet. Today, we had lunch at Church St. Pizza (on Church St. ! Where Christo's used to be, a couple doors north of Chemeketa, just south of the Chase Bank on Center St.) - and lo! It was good. Very good, in fact.

And she was well pleased! She had a supremo (a veggie combo slice with sausage) and I had a veggie slice and a cheese slice -- and it was wonderful. I don't know if Ian puts crack in his crust or what, but it's amazing. Thin yet loaded with flavor.

Crazy neighbor's most telling comment during lunch: "You know how with most pizza you try to eat it so you eat the parts you like and avoid the rest --- there isn't any part that's not good on this!"

And it's true. Check it out.

P.S. They're also serving local wines by the glass and Oregon beers! Handmade pizza with Oregon beer --- mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm . . .

What is the sound of a really big other shoe dropping? THIS:

http://www.energybulletin.net/node/53646

Stop by One Fair World on this August First Wednesday

One Fair World was part of the Ten Thousand Villages chain of fair-trade stores, and One Fair World is still a 100% fair-trade store, still run by local Salem-area volunteers, still providing artisans in developing countries a way to market their goods for a fair price that provides them with opportunities to house and feed their families and send their children to school.

The local group running the store decided to leave TTV because they wanted to continue bringing Salem more diverse goods from more certified fair-trade sources than they could had they remained with TTV. The price is losing a little bit of name recognition that had built up for the TTV name -- but, on the other hand, changing to become a fully independent fair-trade outlet means that you not only have the opportunity to deal directly with the local management, but you can also volunteer to help in myriad ways, from working at the store (and getting first crack at new things offered) to working on the board or speaking in classrooms about the fair trade ideals and practices.

So if you haven't been for a while, stop by (474 Court St. -- just west of the Court and High intersection where Grand Vines is) -- maybe this Wednesday evening, when you can register for a drawing for a gift certificate and enjoy some refreshments. Should be fun, and it's another Salem gem well worth your support --- so if you're one of those types who likes to do your holiday shopping all year round, when the mood strikes and you see something wonderful, One Fair World should be a regular stop on your rounds.

The Looming Third-Bridge Nightmare

Although it's less likely to be funded or occur than its bigger Columbia River sibling, anyone who cares about Salem should know that there is still a lavishly funded effort afoot to destroy downtown Salem's livability to promote more auto commuting (to what?) by ripping a gargantuan third auto bridge right through the heart of Salem.

You just need to go to the Gilbert House on Front St. to get a sense of what a charming addition this bridge would be -- a brutal, looming monstrosity that would not only cause the destruction of many homes but also of the waterfront.

The photo (from the linked story) is probably a good predictor for Salem --- because of our railroad tracks and the existing buildings near the Willamette, a third Salem auto bridge would essentially be a gigantic flyover bridge that would look like a piece of central LA from a gangster thug movie plopped down into Salem.

What the future has in store for Salem

Image by Welfl via Flickr

James H. Kunstler hits it over the wall again (all illustrative links added here at LOVESalem, not part of JHK's essay):

. . . The true destination of the US economy is to get smaller and for two reasons mainly:

1.) Capital ("money") is vanishing out of our system steadily and rapidly due to a massive collective failure to repay money owed on loans, mortgages, debts, and assorted obligations.

2.) Access to the primary resource we depend on for powering the economy (oil) is increasingly beyond our control -- even worse, under the control of people who would like us to eat shit and die.

We really have a choice between two ways of dealing with this. We can downsize and re-scale consciously and coherently, or we can continue to chase after the phantom of growth and allow the nation to fall into a shambles of desperation. So far into this long emergency of an economic fiasco, we seem to have chosen the pursuit of a phantom. That's what President Obama was doing last week in Detroit, shilling for a new electric automobile which, he said, will make us "energy independent." If Mr. Obama believes this, then it isn't a very good advertisement for an Ivy League education.

I'd like to know how many Americans believe that electric cars run on virtually free energy (but I don't have pollsters on my payroll). I'd bet a lot of them do, including President Obama. Sorry to rain on this uplifting parade. At best, such a car fleet would run on coal -- that is coal-fired electric power plants -- but even that is a ridiculous fantasy when you actually pencil-out the details. Not to mention that a nation full of people with dwindling or vanishing incomes won't be in a position to fork over forty-grand for one of those new pseudo "green" vehicles. Also not to mention -- wait for it -- that due to rapidly vanishing capital there will be far fewer car loans available. The only thing growing in this part of the picture is the number of Americans who cannot possibly qualify for a car loan under normal terms that would require regular repayment of interest-and-principal. (Plenty of Americans qualify for the new "innovative" kind of loan -- the kind that you never have to make payments on, but for the moment, the banks are choking to death on them, so additional approvals may lag for a time.)

It's instructive that so much current hoopla about economic growth revolves around the issue of cars. For, if anything, reality is telling us very clearly that the mass motoring paradigm is near its end. Our determination to prop it up at all costs, despite the grave impairments of available capital and energy resources is a symptom of our detachment from reality. It's also a fine illustration of the psychology of previous investment, which prompts a desperate society to squander its scarce remaining resources on the very things that are putting it out of business.

We don't need need more highways. We're about to find out that we don't have the money to keep up regular repairs on the highways we already have. The hundreds of millions of "stimulus" dollars that President Obama flung into "shovel-ready" highway projects was among the more tragically dumb mistakes he made early on, and he has apparently learned nothing along these lines since then.

Interestingly, NPR ran a local story over the weekend -- an obscure little item -- saying that Amtrak was determined to raise the average speed of its passenger trains running north from Connecticut through Vermont from 40 miles-per-hour to 60mph. That would be some triumphant accomplishment! It would bring us back to about an 1860 level of service. Of course, I happen to believe that we will be lucky in a few years if we are able to enjoy an 1860's standard-of-living, so maybe this little side venture in public transport is perfectly in tune with America's future. . . .

A movie a week: Expand your world and maintain Salem's best cultural feature

Image via Wikipedia

If you live in Salem, it's likely that you either have yourself complained about Salem's lack of cultural offerings or heard others -- many others -- complain about that.

Meanwhile, Salem Cinema trudges onward, showing world-class movies from every genre, from just about every country, and for every taste to small crowds, crowds who tend to eschew the refreshment stand (where movie theatres make essentially all their money, the lion's share [read: all] of the ticket sales going to the distributor and the studio).

Worse, Salem Cinema owner Loretta Miles took a gigantic leap of faith just as the Great Recession was really getting rolling, and she went from one to THREE, count 'em, THREE screens for independent, intelligent movies, and she brings an astounding lineup of films to little ol' Salem, whether we deserve to have such an awesome theatre or not.

Right now, the Oscar-winning foreign film, "The Secret in Their Eyes" -- an unforgettable, powerful, and beautiful movie -- is still playing, along with the enchanting "Ondine" (with big-screen beefcake star Colin Farrell doing an astonishingly great performance in a role that Hollywood would never give him). Oh, and she's also got "Cyrus," and "A Solitary Man," and has an giant handful of other great films already lined up and waiting to come in to Salem . . .

. . . where many people will miss them, all the while complaining about how little culture Salem has.

Before coming to Salem, we lived in another capital city of about the same size -- that had NO downtown movie theatre at all, and only megaplex chain monsters in the area at all. That truly sucked. We had to drive about the same distance as from here to Portland to see a great movie on the big screen. It was sad.

And it could happen here. If Salem Cinema can't make a go of it, then it won't disappear -- some chain will grab the spot and start slamming in the same plotless explosion fests and teen T&A screamers as Cinebarre and the Regal screens are showing, and we'll all be the poorer for it.

My just-made Mid-Year resolution is to try and take in a movie each week at Salem Cinema. Please join me. Buy a great cookie or some popcorn. Think you can't afford it? Cancel cable TV and you'll improve your life immeasurably, and you'll have plenty of money (and more time) to support real great movies.

If we don't support Salem's best cultural treasure, expect to see it disappear.

Green burials emerging in Oregon

One of the best ideas in a long while -- putting a stop to a horribly gruesome, insanely overpriced and environmentally catastrophic ritual -- is slowly starting to take off around the country, including in Oregon: "green burials" (i.e., going back to the way we used to handle remains before the Civil War and the advent of using poisons to pickle human remains, the better to sell things to the survivors).

If you or anyone you love plans on passing over someday, you might want to do some exploration and thinking about what should happen to the shell you will leave behind. Do you want that shell to be subjected to ghastly handling and chemicals and then encased in a sealed (for a while, anyway) box so that it becomes putrid and releases those toxins into the groundwater when the box leaks? Or would you prefer something a little less destructive, a lot less expensive, and a whole lot more in alignment with leaving the world better than you found it, or at least not worse?

There are beginning to be good resources on this. One -- and one you can and should support -- is the Funeral Consumers Alliance of Oregon. While they're not up on green burials yet, the more of us who want this sort of thing who join, the sooner they'll step up.

There are beginning to be good books on the subject. A few of the best:

• Grave Matters (also a blog)

• The Undertaking (from a pretty conventional family undertaker, ergo, pro-embalming, anti-cremation, but still a superb book and outstanding on the human need for survivors to process the death of a loved one)
  
  
• Curtains
  

And no list is complete without THAT BOOK (as funeral industry types are prone to call it).

Another Annie Leonard winner

This isn't just an issue of what you put on your body in the bathroom. Functionally, everything you buy in the hair care/cosmetics/personal care aisles might as well be poured straight into the Willamette River, because that's where it all ends up. Might be nice if it weren't so toxic.

Salem has gone to the dogs on pet rules

Image via Wikipedia

UPDATE: Even more letters highlighting the absurdity of Salem's hen-hostility compared when compared to its love of all things canine.

Great letter in the SJ today from a dog-attack victim who was sent to the hospital after her incident -- which is how she learned that people basically have no protection against dog attacks except to try a lawsuit after the fact (good luck with that, usually).

Meanwhile, Salem is slowly grinding towards an onerous, top-heavy, overly bureaucratic and fantastically -- and needlessly -- expensive program to permit residents to keep a few hens as pets. The rules of the program, which appear to be designed more to discourage people than anything else, stands in stark contrast with the total absence of rules or limits on dogs, meaning you can keep any number of dogs of any size, including breeds with aggressive tendencies and unpredictable behaviors, anywhere in the city.

So we've got draft rules for hens that make it seem like hens are lethal weapons, whereas we have no rules at all on dogs, despite things like this,

Marion County sheriff's deputies shot and killed a pit bull Friday morning that attacked a deputy, minutes after another pit bull tried to jump into a patrol car, investigators said.

The mid-morning incident began with a 9-1-1 call from a man on SE Oda Lane who said a neighbor's 60 to 70-pound pit bull chased him into his house when he tried to put the garbage out.

When deputies arrived, they learned that the dog's owner lived on nearby Beck Lane. The dog was seen unleashed in the yard. It charged the deputies, trying to jump in the open window of the patrol car.

The deputies stayed in the car, honking the horn to get the attention of the owner, who came out of and put the dog behind a fence.

The county animal control officer was called to the home. As one deputy spoke with the owner, the other joined the animal control officer when a second pit bull showed up in the yard and charged the deputy.

Attempts by the owner to call off the dog failed. The deputy kicked the dog several times but the attack continued and the deputy shot the dog dead.

and this (attacking police on command of the owner), and this (attack on boy riding a scooter), and this (police had to use an electroshock weapon to break up a dog fight), and this (number of people killed by dog attacks rising sharply, with thousands hospitalized every year by serious attacks).

Speaking of the arts

Sara Alvarez, owner of Premiere Academy of Performing Arts on 19th Street, is organizing a Neighborhood Dance performance and potluck at McRae Park on July 31 from 1-2:00 pm. All are welcome. For more information, contact Sara at papadancers@comcast.net.

FYI, the Dance Studio is located in SESNA at 135 19th Street Southeast. McRae Park is located in NEN at 20th and Chemeketa Streets.