From the Left Coast

Before I taught last night, I was reading this article in last week's New Yorker. I laughed, or perhaps snorted, when I came across these sentences:

So, after receiving his doctorate, he spent two years studying brain scanning with Posner, who was by then at the University of Oregon, in Eugene. "It was very strange to find that some of the most exciting results of the budding cognitive-neuroscience field were coming out of this small place--the only place where I ever saw sixty-year-old hippies sitting around in tie-dyed shirts!" he said.

I write for the paper founded by those people.

I admit to owning one tie-dyed pair of Maggie's Organic Cotton socks, which I never wear to the Oregon Bach Festival or Ashland's Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Wait ... I may have worn them at the Shakespeare Fest thanks to the outdoor theater and the beautiful August weather in Ashland. I do not, however, own any Birkenstocks.

Like most university towns, Eugene has more than its fair share of musicians, artists and actors. Many of the musicians make a living gigging in Portland (and San Francisco, Santa Fe, etc.) along with teaching at the UO and performing in the Eugene Symphony (a part-time orchestra).

I should say that I met Rich at last fall's NEA etc. etc. for classical music and opera. Both were a blast -- the program and meeting Rich -- and helped me think about arts journalism a lot. I often feel like I'm writing in a vacuum. The main theater reviewer for the daily paper in town seems to have the "I love local art no matter what" (and the "I will tell the entire plot no matter how many spoilers there are") assignment, so I can't really learn from her except as a negative example.

Thank Flying Spaghetti Monster for Flyover.