Weekly Newsish Roundup, November 3, 2016 – 5 News Stories in 21 Minutes and 13 Seconds!
Check out this the weekly Newsish Roundup for November 3 to 9, 2016!
In The News This Week:
Marketplace Opens Its Doors
Measure 97 – Yes or No?
Upcoming Events
Local Sports
Around the Mountain EOU Sports
Hey LaGrandeAlive, this is your weekly Newsish Roundup brought to you by Northwest Furniture and Mattress, Grande Ronde Hospital, Marketplace Family Foods, Valley Realty and Direct Music Source.
Marketplace Opens Its Doors
Sometimes I think La Grande needs a facelift. And I know I’m not the only one. But, good news, one of the things that has been happening around here to make that happen is the construction of the new grocery store building on the corner of 4th and Adams which is now officially open.
Ballot Measure 97 – Yes or No
So, in less fun news, voting day is this week. November 8th is the big day. And one of the big issues on the ballot, for Oregonians at least, is ballot measure 97. And the last couple weeks, Brent has been investigating this issue, talking to knowledgeable people in both the yes and no camps, and has put together a little package presenting both sides of the issue back to back for you to understand just a little bit better than you did before you watched this video.
Both of the interviews that were in that package can be viewed in-full on the LaGrandeAlive Facebook page.
Upcoming Events
Anyways, what’s going on this week in the valley? Dracula is showing for another weekend. If you didn’t catch it last weekend, it’s showing again this Friday and Saturday, November 4th and 5th. Shows are at 7:00 pm on Friday and Saturday and also a late night showing on Saturday at 10:30pm . All showings are in the Liberty Theater in La Grande. Also, just over the hill another play is showing at the Eastern Oregon Regional Theatre in Baker. ‘The Psychic’ is, according to Go Magazine, a “Murder Mystery, of sorts.” Tickets are available at Betty’s books on main street in Baker City. Also, the holidays are here: there are two Holiday Bazaars going on this weekend, one at Zion Lutheran Church and the other just down the street at First Christian Church, both in La Grande, both from 9am to 1pm on Saturday. And last, I’ve always thought that ballerinas are some of the most beautiful people I’ve ever seen. The precise control of their bodies, the way they curve and dance and jump, it’s amazing. Not something I could do without a lot of practice and stretching. And now, also according to Go Magazine, the new photography exhibit “The Ballerina Project” is coming to Cook Memorial Library. The ballerina project is pictures of ballerinas at familiar Eastern Oregon locations, and every ballerina featured has some connection to Eastern Oregon. All the photos can be viewed at Cook Memorial Library through January 31st.
Local Sports
In sports, the La Grande Tigers football team beat Molalla in an on-your-seat-to-the-end thriller last Friday right here in La Grande. The teams stayed close the entirety of the game, and late in the 4th quarter the lower-ranked Tigers pulled ahead of the 13th ranked Indians to win 29-22 and Molalla just couldn’t bring it back. The Tigers will head to North Bend to play the number 1 team in Oregon to see if maybe, just maybe, they can continue in the postseason. We will not, however, be covering this game live on LaGrandeAlive like we have covered the other games.
In other prep-football news, Union lost to Grant Union 18-48 and will play next Friday at 6:00 pm. Imbler beat Enterprise 36-24 and Elgin lost to Sherman 51-0, ouch, and will play Rosalia this Friday at 7:00 pm at Rosalia.
The Tigers’ cross country team also trashed their competition at district this weekend. According to the Observer, all of the Tigers Girls finished in the top six of the Greater Oregon League, finishing with a team score of 15. The boys finished with a score of 20, also polishing off their tournament and coming away behind baker, Ontario, and McLoughlin in the state. The cross country team will travel to Eugene for the state competition this Saturday and try their hand against the best of the best in Oregon.
EOU Sports
And now for collegiate sports, here’s the two guys who know the who’s who and the what’s what just up the hill on our friendly Eastern Oregon University.
Tags: La Grande, OR, Marketplace Family Foods, Measure 97, Local Sports, Eastern Oregon University
Weekly Newsish Roundup, October 26, 2016 – 5 News Stories in 10 Minutes and 48 Seconds!
Check out this the weekly Newsish Roundup for October 20 to November 3, 2016! In the news this week,
EOU In The Black
Local Politics
Local Sports
Around the Mountain EOU Sports
Hey La Grande Alive. This is your weekly Newsish Roundup brought to you by Grande Ronde Hospital, Northwest Furniture and Mattress, Marketplace Family Foods, and Direct Music Source.
EOU In The Black
Here’s a little look into the behind the scenes of the writing process. Writers ever feel like writing when they sit down. When I started writing this week’s script, I wasn’t really in the mood to write. But I still did, and still out came this script. One of the tricks to getting into the mood to write is to just, well, write down how much you don’t want to write, like I did here. We’re tricky little creatures, us writers. And you want to know where I learned that trick? As an English Major at Eastern Oregon University. And speaking of EOU…
Well, I think everyone’s stinken glad to hear that. Because if EOU wasn’t around, where would I have gotten these fabulous writing and movie making skills? Who would have taught me how to write even when I’m not in the mood? Who would have systematically deconstructed my per-undergraduate belief system leaving me dazed and confused in the wake of postmodern nihilism? I should probably stop reading so many books.
Local Politics
Anyways, you want to know where you won’t find postmodern nihilism? Local politics. And over the last couple weeks, we’ve gotten interviews with both candidates for La Grande Mayor and Union County Commissioners including Mark Davidson, Donna Beverage, Steve Clemens, and John Bozarth. Now, I’ve urged this before: go watch them. Having an informed vote is very important, and you can begin to get informed about local politics and the personalities of the people behind their politics by watching some of these interviews on LaGrandeAlive.tv. We also have several live debates we streamed that featured not only the La Grande mayoral and County Commissioner Candidates, but also policies for Elgin, Union, and North Powder Races. Those and more can all be found on LaGrandeAlive.tv’s website.
Dracula In La Grande!
So, what’s going on in the valley this week? Well, this week we’re just going to talk about one event because I’m really stinking excited about it. Bram Stoker’s Dracula is coming to La Grande! Now if you haven’t ever read Bram Stoker’s Dracula, this isn’t your pasty-white-sparkle-queen creature-meets-bad-actress and falls in love vampire story. It’s not your horribly overdone gore fest with sharp pointy teeth ripping people to shreds. It’s a deeply intellectual mind-bender and psychological thriller. This Dracula won’t kill you with lots of CG and effects–no, instead, he’ll slowly drain your lifeforce over the course of years, absorbing your vitality to regain his youth, as he’s done countless times over the ages, no traces left behind except the two tiny red spots on your neck, spots the doctor will look at and dismiss as bug bites or pimples or some other unimportant detail in regards to your lethargic ennui. And then he won’t just do it to you, he’ll do it to all of your family’s female members, until you’re driven insane by the tension and everyone in the village thinks you’re a bunch of crazy sangurophoriphobes that have gone off the deep end of the proverbial blood pool. Anyways, it’s really good. You should go see it. It’s at the Liberty Theater October 28, 29, 31, and November 4th and 5th. 7:00 and 10:30 pm. Come and get a scare.
Local Sports
In sports, the LHS tigers lost to Ontario last week 26-42. And as such, they’re heading to Molalla this Friday for their first post-season game of 2016. Steve Hendrix got the opportunity to chat with the coach of the LHS tigers this week about this could-be last game of the season.
Around the Mountain in 90 Seconds
And now, EOU athletics. I’m going to shut up and let the real experts talk: here’s your weekly EOU athletics in Around the Mountain in 90 Seconds.
I’m Evan House, and I’m Chris Duarte of EOU Athletics
This is Around the Mountain in 90 Seconds!
The EOU football team collected another top-25 victory on Homecoming Weekend, taking down No. 21 Montana Western, 21-13. Alfred Gross rushed for 141 yards on 15 carries, while EOU’s defense held the Bulldogs to only 37 rushing yards.
The Mountaineer volleyball team collected victories over Warner Pacific and Multnomah in Portland last week to improve to 23-2 overall and 16-1 in CCC play. EOU returns to Quinn Coliseum this weekend for games against Southern Oregon and Oregon Tech.
The EOU men’s soccer team picked up a critical 1-0 victory over Northwest Christian on Saturday, while the women suffered a double-overtime heartbreaker to the Beacons in Springfield.
The EOU men’s basketball team’s annual Quinn Classic is scheduled for Oct. 28-29 here in La Grande. The Mountaineers kickoff the 2016-17 campaign on Friday at 3:30 p.m. against Bethesda.
That’s the latest news in EOU athletics, stay tuned next week, as we take you Around the Mountain in 90 seconds.
Weekly Newsish Roundup, October 20, 2016 – 5 News Stories in 14 Minutes and 27 Seconds!
Check out this the weekly Newsish Roundup for October 20 to 26, 2016!
In the news this week:
Veterans Heal at Hot Lakes
Urban Renewal On The Block?
Upcoming Events
Local Sports
Around the Mountain EOU Sports
Hey LaGrandeAlive, this is your weekly Newsish Roundup brought to you by Grande Ronde Hospital, Marketplace Family Foods, Valley Realty, Northwest Furniture and Mattress and Direct Music Source.
Veterans Heal at Hot Lakes
I went out to Hot Lakes this week. And other than almost getting attacked by a goose in the parking lot, I had quite a good time wandering around, learning about all the new changes going on at this Eastern Oregon retreat, and talking to Lee Manual about her 13 year investment in this previously dilapidated property just miles outside Union and La Grande.
Now, if you’ve never been in Hot Lakes and looked, you should, it’s pretty cool. They have the oldest x-ray machine in the world, according to Lee, plus a bronze foundry, many spas and hot tubs and dozen little critters wandering around that will make you stop and stare and, maybe, stay in your car for fear of being goosed. Just kidding. I didn’t get attacked, except by the wonder bug and the coolness cold as I wandered around inside and gawked at all the interesting memorabilia. That was really, really bad. The coolness cold? Really Will?
Urban Renewal On the Block?
Anyways, moving on, the La Grande mayoral debate is coming up. And we finally we got to sit down and talk with the other candidate for mayor, John Bozarth, this week. And it seems one of the biggest issues separating him from his competitor, Steve Clemens, is what the heck to do about the Urban Renewal district, if anything.
If you haven’t registered to vote, too late. Sign up next year. For those o you who have, voting day is Tuesday November 8th. You will get your ballots in the mail and you can drop them off at the Treasurer’s drop box on 4th street in La Grande or at your local receptacle. Both of these mayoral candidate interviews can be viewed in-full on LaGrandeAlive’s Facebook page and I encourage you to do so. Democracy only works with an informed citizenry, and a little conversational peek into the lives of these two small-town political candidates is available at your fingertips through LaGrandeAlive. No pressure or anything, just the exhortations of a small-town pretty face and beard that wants you to know what the heck you’re voting about rather than tossing off your ballot like a bad Facebook rant.
So, what’s going on in the valley this upcoming week? Well, first off the Eastern Oregon Film Festival is happening all this weekend from Thursday until Saturday. So if you’re into pretentious artsy films and esoteric bands, this is your digs. Full festival passes can be purchased for sixty bucks online and single-session passes can be purchased at the door–provided there’s still seating left, that is. For a full schedule of their films and events, see their website. Also, the Haunted House is still scaring at the Maridell Center Friday and Saturday nights until the end of the month. This weekend there’s several fall festivities available including a pumpkin patch at Johnson’ Family Fruit’s, a harvest festival in Haines on Saturday morning and early afternoon, and several live music groups including The Grande Ronde Community Choir, HoneyHoney, a rock country duo, Keith Taylor a ragtime pianist, plus a junk ton with the Film Festival. If you’re interested in the times and locations of any of these events, pick up a Go! Magazine with the Wednesday Observer or visit the Go Magazine website. They have a fantastic spread with specific times, dates, and a more in-depth look at these and other events.
Local Sports
In sports, last week the LHS Tigers football team trashed Milton Freewater 68-20 in their second to the last game of the season. You know that moment in a sports game when you stop rooting for your own team to score more points? Yeah, we hit that point late in the first half of the game. The game started out even with a touchdown either way. But after that the pigs just weren’t flyin’ for the Pioneers. By just over half-time La Grande was over fifty points up and the clock was running down nonstop. And that’s how it ended–a heavy at-home loss for McLoughlin, and La Grande driving home wondering if they weren’t just a little bit too rough on the Northern Oregon team. La Grande will play Ontario Friday the 21st for their final game of the regular season and then head into post-season playoffs. They are guaranteed at least one game at this point and maybe more.
A couple other scores for you, Cove lost to Wallowa 78-12–ouch! Elgin lost 22-26 against Adrian–double ouch! Imbler lost against Grant Union 22-32, and–dear God finally–Union beat Enterprise by a hair 31-29. Quick, simple, to the point, that’s how I like my sports.
Around the Mountain in 90 Seconds (EOU Sports)
And speaking of to the point, here’s what’s going on up at EOU as told by somebody not me.
I’m Evan House, and I’m Chris Duarte of EOU Athletics:
This is Around the Mountain in 90 Seconds!
The EOU men’s cross country team is ranked 16th in the country and earned a third-place finish at the Inland Empire Challenge over the weekend. Nic Maszk took fourth en route to earning CCC Runner of the Week!
The sixth-ranked Mountaineer volleyball team bounced back from its first conference loss with a top-25 victory over #24 Northwest. Makayla Lindburg led the way with 15 kills and 18 digs.
The EOU football team completed the season sweep over #8 Southern Oregon on Saturday. The Mountaineers jumped four spots in the poll to #12 and host #21 Montana Western on Saturday for Homecoming at 1 p.m.
The EOU men’s soccer team took down College of Idaho, 2-1, over the weekend for its fourth conference win of the season, while the women’s soccer team carded its third tie of the 2016 campaign.
While it may’ve been a scrimmage, the EOU men’s and women’s wrestling teams made history on Wednesday evening, as they duked it out at the Blue and Gold Wrestle-Off at Quinn Coliseum.
That’s the latest news in EOU athletics, stay tuned next week, as we take you Around the Mountain in 90 seconds.
Weekly Newsish Roundup, October 13, 2016 – 5 News Stories in 12 Minutes and 24 Seconds!
Check out this the weekly Newsish Roundup for October 13 to 19, 2016!
In the news this week:
Save the Salmon!
Steve Carves Trees
Upcoming Events
Local Sports
Around the Mountain
Hey LaGrandeAlive, this is your weekly newsish roundup brought to you by Valley Realty, Grande Ronde Hospital, Marketplace Family Foods, Northwest Furniture and Mattress, and Direct Music Source.
Save the Salmon
How do I cleverly say that I actually got out of the studio this week? Well, this week I made like a horse and got. I made like Zoolander at the end of the movie and left. I made like Gary Johnson and peeked, out into the world of La Grande that is, and what did I find? Well…
So, fun story, Sarah and I nearly got shot by a hillbilly while filming that piece. We were walking down the hill somewhere near 5 Points Creek and, out of the blue–bang-bang-bang!–bullets hitting off the rocks just feet from us. Of course, I guess I don’t really have anything to complain about–journalists in other countries get shot at a whole heck of a lot more than me and by a whole heck of a lot more dangerous troglodytes than some hillbilly that doesn’t know what a buck looks like. Whoever you are, mysterious gunman, just so you know, no matter how many camera operators you shoot, a tripod will still have just three points and won’t look very good mounted on your wall.
Anyways, in other news…Steve Carves Trees
That dude barely graduated with a high-school diploma. So for all you school slackers, hey, you’re still a human being and there’s still hope for you.
Just grab a stick, carve it into something pretty, and do it a million more times and you’ll be fine.
Upcoming Events
Alright, so what else is going on in the valley? Do you like Shakespeare? Do you hate Shakespeare? Well, either way, EOU is putting on the quote-unquote ‘Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Abridged” and you should like it. This play is a comedic romp that would make the bard turn over in his grave, probably, at the prospect of his works being done through the medium of rap music, a cooking show, or finger puppets. That show is October 13-15 and 21-22 at 7 PM at the Mackenzie Theater. On Saturday night there’s a corn maze in Medical Springs going from 7 PM to midnight. I would make a joke about this but it would probably be corny. Also other fall festivities: there’s a floating pumpkin patch on Saturday night at the Veterans Memorial Pool in La Grande. And Pendleton is hosting Oktoberfest at the Pendleton Roundup Stadium this Saturday night. It’s an all-aged event and there’s going to be meat and sausages and beer and, as such, probably flatulence.
Local Sports
In sports….no, no I’m going to stop right there. I’m tired of doing sports because, to be honest, I don’t know a delay of game from a traveling penalty. So I’m going to step out of the way and let the professionals take it from here, starting this week, starting with local sports, a brief package from our LGA Sports Director about the La Grande Tigers. Steve?
In other prep football news, Elgin lost to Colton 78-14, Cove lost to Joseph 56-26. Cove will play Wallowa tomorrow, Elgin will play Adrian at Adrian, and La Grande will slug it up to Milton-Freewater to play and we’ll be there too streaming live from the 50(ish) yard line.
Around the Mountain In 90 Seconds
And now for our newest weekly segment with EOU’s sports media guys, “Around The Mountain in 90 seconds.”
I’m Evan House, and I’m Chris Duarte of EOU Athletics, This is Around the Mountain in 90 Seconds!
The EOU men’s and women’s cross country teams return to the course this weekend at the LCSC Inland Empire Challenge. The men’s team recently jumped six spots in the NAIA Coaches’ Top 25 Poll from No. 22 to No. 16.
The sixth-ranked Mountaineer volleyball team will look to bounce back this weekend after being shocked at College of Idaho on Tuesday. EOU squares off against Evergreen and No. 24 Northwest this weekend in La Grande.
The Blue and Gold football team is on the brink of a 52-31 victory at MSU-Northern. However, the Mountaineers will face a much tougher opponent in No. 8 Southern Oregon on Saturday in Ashland at 6 PM.
The EOU men’s soccer team broke a 12-year old CCC record after scoring 16 times against Walla Walla on Sunday. Both the EOU men and the women’s soccer team take on College of Idaho and Rocky Mountain this weekend in La Grande.
That’s the latest news in EOU athletics, stay tuned next week, as we take you Around the Mountain in 90 seconds.
Weekly Newsish Roundup, September 22, 2016 – 8 News Stories in 6 Minutes and 56 Seconds!
In the news this week,
Bid For Life
Vote For (Insert Candidate)
Upcoming Events
Local Sports
Hey LaGrandeAlive, this is your weekly Newsish Roundup brought to you by Grande Ronde Hospital, Valley Realty, Northwest Furniture and Mattress, Marketplace Family Foods and Direct Music Source.
You know, you may not like a lot of elements of small-town life, but there are a few positives. Like when you jaywalk, instead of calling the police people will actually wave at you. Like not playing the gunshot or firework game every night at the home. Or like if you get cancer or have a brain aneurysm, your friends and loved ones just may step in and host an event to raise money to help you out and cover the medical costs of your recovery. And that’s exactly what’s happening this weekend at not one but two silent auction events going on both Saturday and Sunday. Both both are being held as fund raisers for people who are having a hard, hard time with health, and we scored interviews with people helping coordinate both of the events.
This Weekend Two Fund Raising Events
Essentially, there are two events going on this weekend fund raising to help local people in their health crisis. At both events, there will be food, beer, and a silent auction. A Lori Mack’s event, they’re auctioning off a puppy. A real live greyhound puppy, plus hundreds of other items. Lori Mack’s event is Saturday at Benchwarmers bar and grill from 6 to ten pm, and the Tyson Johnson and Cory Bevell event is from 2 to 8PM on Sunday at riverside park. Both events are family-friendly. So if you want a puppy or a hot dog, you should go down and support these events this weekend. They’re for a good cause and the people who organized them put a lot of hard work into them. Plus I will personally interview the person who buys the puppy at Lori’s event on LaGrandeAlive.tv. LaGrandeAlive–we love puppies.
The season of really bad suits, haircuts and lesser-of-two-evils dichotomies is upon us–politics is in full swing, both local and national. And at LaGrandeAlive, we’ve scored a couple recent interviews with some political candidates including Bud Pierce, the GOP gubernatorial candidate for the state of Oregon, and Steve Clemens, one of the candidates for the La Grande mayoral race.
Both of these Coffee With Wills can be viewed in-full on lagrandealive.tv’s Facebook page or our website. We’re hoping to have John Bozarth on the show as well, as soon as he gets back to us. Elections are coming up and so I ask you, La Grande, who are you voting for and why? Your comments in the section below.
Alright La Grande, what’s happening this week? Well, the fat lady is singing yet again: little mermaid is returning to the Elgin Opera House for yet another weekend. Showings Friday at 7:30 pm and Saturday at 2:30 and 7:30 pm. Also Friday, there’s another ragtime piano concert at the Carnegie Art Center in Baker City Oregon. And across two whole valleys, Alpine Fest is happening at Wallowa Lake this weekend. What is Alpine Fest? Well, it’s a celebration of Swiss-Bavarian culture every year at Wallowa Lake. My girlfriend and I went last year and, well, we weren’t that impressed. We ended up just going out to dinner at some local restaurant. But then again, that’s probably we were late and, well, missed pretty much all of alpine fest including the parade, the hand-crafted bratwursts, Terminal Gravity micro-brews and live music. We also missed the Swiss yodeling, folk dancing, alphorn singing, accordionists and all the food, jewelry, goat-soap and quilt vendors. That probably would have made us have a better experience. So, what’s the moral of this story? Don’t be like Will and be late for Alpine Fest. It’s September 22-25, this weekend, and if you don’t show up fashionably late you should have a good time.
Local Sports
In sports, the valley had its first wins of the season. Imbler beat Riverside 34-23 this weekend. Union beat pilot rock 34-6, and Elgin beat Pine Eagle 21-7. Cove and La Grande, however, couldn’t match the other members both losing their respective games against the Sunnyside Christian Leopards and the Sunnyside Washington Grizzlies. Sunnyside had its way with the valley, Cove losing 58-14 and the La Grande Game wasn’t much better. La Grande lost 61-20, falling behind early in the game and, we’ll, never recovering. Our sports director, Steve Hendrix, snagged a quick interview with the coach for the Tigers about their upcoming game and strategy this weekend.
That full interview is available on LaGrandeAlive’s website and facebook. La Grande’s next game is this weekend in La Grande against Ontario, 7pm on Friday. Imbler plays Portland at Heppner at Heppner same time same place. Elgin will play Riddle also same time same date at home. Union plays Weston McEwen at Weston McEwen and Cove will play Powder Valley at home, all 7:00 pm this Friday in hopes for continued wins for the valley.
The EOU football team didn’t have a great weekend either. They lost 20-7 to their out-of-state rival University of Idaho, falling behind after a early-game touchdown. The rest of the game, according to the EOU sports website, was a rainy downhill slope as the Vandals scored three more touchdowns after the first quarter to polish off the ailing EOU team. EOU now 2-1 overall and frontier conference. Next game, they’re gonna play Montana Tech at home Saturday at 1PM.
The EOU volleyball team, on the other hand, is smashing it, quite literally. On Sunday they trashed Evergreen state three to none 25-16, 25-15, 25-13 notching up the margin incrementally as the night went on and on. They are still 6th in the NAIA coaches top 25 poll, and will play Warner Pacific and Multnomah university this weekend Friday at 7PM and Saturday at 5PM respectively.
And that’s your weekly roundup. This roundup was brought to you by Grande Ronde Hospital, Valley Realty, Northwest Furniture and Mattress, Marketplace Family Foods, and Direct Music Source. Tune in for more local content. I’m Will Bowman.
Hey La Grande Alive, this is your weekly newsish roundup brought to you by Direct Music Source, Grande Ronde Hospital, Family Foods, Valley Realty, and Northwest Furniture and Mattress.
Did you know that, in the original short story “The Little Mermaid” by Hans Christian Andersen, the princess not only sells her voice but her tongue too? And in exchange for this oral bartering, not only does she not get it back, but the dude she sold it for ends up marrying another woman. In the end, Ariel commits suicide and finds herself as a disembodied spirit performing 300 years of penance before she can actually have her soul–her ultimate goal the entire time–and get into the Kingdom of Heaven. Pretty brutal, huh? But that’s okay, because that’s not the story that you’ll be seeing at the Elgin Opera House Starting this weekend. That story is based on the good-old-fashioned Disney story we all know and love, a story of love, a story of really catchy broadway tunes sung by lobsters, of women giving up essential parts of their bodily functions to try their hand at a man. That’s the story that you’ll get to see, good old-fashioned family laughter and fun. In fact, last week I got a chance to sit down with the director of the play Terry Hale and talk to him about the play, and how (unlike Hans Christian Andersen short story) the Little Mermaid fits in with the more overall mission of the Elgin Opera House: to provide fun, family-safe plays for the Grande Ronde Valley.
The play premieres this Friday, September 2nd. It runs until September 24th, every weekend, Friday and Saturday at 7:30 pm and Sunday at 2:30 pm. The cost is 8 bucks for balcony, 17 bucks for orchestra seating center stage, expensive, I know, but, please, whatever you do, don’t sell any essential bodily functions to pay for the show. Lobsters, fat seagulls and ruby red hair just aren’t worth it, man.
Alright, what else is going on this weekend other than Mermaids?
Well, There’s live music tonight at Ten Depot Street. There is also another concert by Anna Tivel tomorrow at the Stage Door Theater. Hank Cramer the “Wandrin’ Minstrel” will play also play tomorrow in Baker city 6pm at the Wagon Encampment. Also this Friday, ”The Outsiders” art show at Art Center East will show pieces of a bunch of teenagers from Union County. Also, Saturday, the Farmers Market is in La Grande from 9 am to noon ish and in Enterprise the Juniper Jam music festival will feature multiple bands including Some People, Mise, Wild West and Groovy Wallpaper, plus Laney Lou and the bird Dogs and more, running from 1 to 10 pm. Lastly, Community Merchants is pretty much the cool-squeeze of all local businesses: everything in their store is locally made, bought, and sold, and they’re having a Business After Hours for business representatives to get together, chat, eat and otherwise network with other like-minded-local individuals. The after hours will be September 6 from 5 to 6:30 pm.
Sports
In sports, high School football starts this weekend! Friday is the big day: the La Grande Tigers will play Pendleton at La Grande, Baker will play Nyssa, Imbler v.s Pilot Rock, Elgin v.s Cove at Cove, and Union v.s. Umatilla at Umatilla. There’s so much football going Friday the pigs are running for the hills to keep their skins. But only one of those games will be covered by the LaGrandeAlive.tv online stream: La Grande v.s Pendleton, 6:00 pm on Friday at the EOU Community Stadium. And actually EOU’s new sports director Steve Hendrix got to sit down with the coaches of the LHS tigers and talk to them about their strategy for the coming game.
So here’s my question for you, sports lovers: who do you predict for this year? Who’s going to take the gold and who’s gonna fold? What kind of matches do you foresee being good, bad, fun to watch? Also, if you’re into local football, be sure to pick up a Wednesday edition of the Observer. They have a fantastic spread on each of the local teams, their schedules, and features of some of the key players from each respective crew. And be sure to tune into LaGrandeAlive this Friday for the first LHS live football stream.
Now, everyone, please stick around a little longer. Football isn’t life and other sports do, in fact, exist in Eastern Oregon and are just as important to keeping the world spinning.
Like soccer, for example. The EOU soccer girls trickled through Lewis and Clark Sunday afternoon 3 to 1.
And volleyball! EOU volleyball girls smashed Vanguard 3 games to none winning 25-16, 25-21, and 25-17.
And like running! The Drug Free Run was this last Saturday (which, unfortunately, I didn’t run in). This run is an annual run put on here in the Grande Ronde Valley by the Union County Safe Communities Coalition. Every year, while all the pot growers are safely and comfortably down in the valley tending their home-grown plants, all the running-nuts take to the hills at Mount Emily Recreation Area to actively protest these lazy toker types by doing what they do best: actively hurting themselves. Ah, the life of a health nut, pain today for pleasure tomorrow. Anyways, the winners this year were Jacob Huntsman with a 5k time of 26:38 and Timothy Vanderlugt with a 10k time of 42:44. And just so you know, Timothy is like 50 years old and can still beat me and most others I know in La Grande at races. So what this means is that none of you people under 70 have any excuse for complaining about getting old while Timothy Vanderlugt still exists. Period. Unless you’re Timothy Vanderlugt complaining about other people complaining. Fair enough.
And, lastly, polo! This weekend 8 polo teams, 70 horses, 30 out-of-towners, and a bunch more home-growns gathered and smacked the ball around on horses in this otherwise unheard of equine sport right here in La Grande. Did you know that La Grande Had a polo club? I didn’t, but we do, apparently. In fact, La Grande polo is actually bigger than you’d guess. It’s part of a Northwestern league that travels to places including Spokane, Portland, Yakima, and even as far south as Salt Lake City to mount their horses and play. Melissa Joseph, one of the founders of the La Grande polo club, said it’s just fun to play as a family here, and what the polo club really is is a group of really good friends they get together with and play polo. If you’re interested in joining the polo club, call Melissa and Steve Joseph right here in La Grande. They have two tournaments a year, and you could be involved with the next one.
Alright! That’s it! This weekly roundup was brought to you by Direct Music Source, Grande Ronde Hospital, Valley Realty, Marketplace Family Foods and Northwest Furniture and Mattress. Tune in for more local content. I’m Will Bowman.
Sometimes I think La Grande needs a facelift. And I know I’m not the only one. But, good news, one of the things that has been happening around here to make that happen is the construction of the new grocery store building on the corner of 4th and Adams which is now officially open.
So, in less fun news, voting day is this week. November 8th is the big day. And one of the big issues on the ballot, for Oregonians at least, is ballot measure 97. And the last couple weeks, Brent has been investigating this issue, talking to knowledgeable people in both the yes and no camps, and has put together a little package presenting both sides of the issue back to back for you to understand just a little bit better than you did before you watched this video.
In sports, the La Grande Tigers football team beat Molalla in an on-your-seat-to-the-end thriller last Friday right here in La Grande. The teams stayed close the entirety of the game, and late in the 4th quarter the lower-ranked Tigers pulled ahead of the 13th ranked Indians to win 29-22 and Molalla just couldn’t bring it back. The Tigers will head to North Bend to play the number 1 team in Oregon to see if maybe, just maybe, they can continue in the postseason. We will not, however, be covering this game live on LaGrandeAlive like we have covered the other games.
Here’s a little look into the behind the scenes of the writing process. Writers ever feel like writing when they sit down. When I started writing this week’s script, I wasn’t really in the mood to write. But I still did, and still out came this script. One of the tricks to getting into the mood to write is to just, well, write down how much you don’t want to write, like I did here. We’re tricky little creatures, us writers. And you want to know where I learned that trick? As an English Major at Eastern Oregon University. And speaking of EOU…
I went out to Hot Lakes this week. And other than almost getting attacked by a goose in the parking lot, I had quite a good time wandering around, learning about all the new changes going on at this Eastern Oregon retreat, and talking to Lee Manual about her 13 year investment in this previously dilapidated property just miles outside Union and La Grande.
If you haven’t registered to vote, too late. Sign up next year. For those o you who have, voting day is Tuesday November 8th. You will get your ballots in the mail and you can drop them off at the Treasurer’s drop box on 4th street in La Grande or at your local receptacle. Both of these mayoral candidate interviews can be viewed in-full on LaGrandeAlive’s Facebook page and I encourage you to do so. Democracy only works with an informed citizenry, and a little conversational peek into the lives of these two small-town political candidates is available at your fingertips through LaGrandeAlive. No pressure or anything, just the exhortations of a small-town pretty face and beard that wants you to know what the heck you’re voting about rather than tossing off your ballot like a bad Facebook rant.
In sports, last week the LHS Tigers football team trashed Milton Freewater 68-20 in their second to the last game of the season. You know that moment in a sports game when you stop rooting for your own team to score more points? Yeah, we hit that point late in the first half of the game. The game started out even with a touchdown either way. But after that the pigs just weren’t flyin’ for the Pioneers. By just over half-time La Grande was over fifty points up and the clock was running down nonstop. And that’s how it ended–a heavy at-home loss for McLoughlin, and La Grande driving home wondering if they weren’t just a little bit too rough on the Northern Oregon team. La Grande will play Ontario Friday the 21st for their final game of the regular season and then head into post-season playoffs. They are guaranteed at least one game at this point and maybe more. 
The sixth-ranked Mountaineer volleyball team bounced back from its first conference loss with a top-25 victory over #24 Northwest. Makayla Lindburg led the way with 15 kills and 18 digs. 
How do I cleverly say that I actually got out of the studio this week? Well, this week I made like a horse and got. I made like Zoolander at the end of the movie and left. I made like Gary Johnson and peeked, out into the world of La Grande that is, and what did I find? Well…
That dude barely graduated with a high-school diploma. So for all you school slackers, hey, you’re still a human being and there’s still hope for you. 
Alright, so what else is going on in the valley? Do you like Shakespeare? Do you hate Shakespeare? Well, either way, EOU is putting on the quote-unquote ‘Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Abridged” and you should like it. This play is a comedic romp that would make the bard turn over in his grave, probably, at the prospect of his works being done through the medium of rap music, a cooking show, or finger puppets. That show is October 13-15 and 21-22 at 7 PM at the Mackenzie Theater. On Saturday night there’s a corn maze in Medical Springs going from 7 PM to midnight. I would make a joke about this but it would probably be corny. Also other fall festivities: there’s a floating pumpkin patch on Saturday night at the Veterans Memorial Pool in La Grande. And Pendleton is hosting Oktoberfest at the Pendleton Roundup Stadium this Saturday night. It’s an all-aged event and there’s going to be meat and sausages and beer and, as such, probably flatulence.
In sports….no, no I’m going to stop right there. I’m tired of doing sports because, to be honest, I don’t know a delay of game from a traveling penalty. So I’m going to step out of the way and let the professionals take it from here, starting this week, starting with local sports, a brief package from our LGA Sports Director about the La Grande Tigers. Steve?
And now for our newest weekly segment with EOU’s sports media guys, “Around The Mountain in 90 seconds.”
Essentially, there are two events going on this weekend fund raising to help local people in their health crisis. At both events, there will be food, beer, and a silent auction. A Lori Mack’s event, they’re auctioning off a puppy. A real live greyhound puppy, plus hundreds of other items. Lori Mack’s event is Saturday at Benchwarmers bar and grill from 6 to ten pm, and the Tyson Johnson and Cory Bevell event is from 2 to 8PM on Sunday at riverside park. Both events are family-friendly. So if you want a puppy or a hot dog, you should go down and support these events this weekend. They’re for a good cause and the people who organized them put a lot of hard work into them. Plus I will personally interview the person who buys the puppy at Lori’s event on LaGrandeAlive.tv. LaGrandeAlive–we love puppies.
The season of really bad suits, haircuts and lesser-of-two-evils dichotomies is upon us–politics is in full swing, both local and national. And at LaGrandeAlive, we’ve scored a couple recent interviews with some political candidates including Bud Pierce, the GOP gubernatorial candidate for the state of Oregon, and Steve Clemens, one of the candidates for the La Grande mayoral race.
Alright La Grande, what’s happening this week? Well, the fat lady is singing yet again: little mermaid is returning to the Elgin Opera House for yet another weekend. Showings Friday at 7:30 pm and Saturday at 2:30 and 7:30 pm. Also Friday, there’s another ragtime piano concert at the Carnegie Art Center in Baker City Oregon. And across two whole valleys, Alpine Fest is happening at Wallowa Lake this weekend. What is Alpine Fest? Well, it’s a celebration of Swiss-Bavarian culture every year at Wallowa Lake. My girlfriend and I went last year and, well, we weren’t that impressed. We ended up just going out to dinner at some local restaurant. But then again, that’s probably we were late and, well, missed pretty much all of alpine fest including the parade, the hand-crafted bratwursts, Terminal Gravity micro-brews and live music. We also missed the Swiss yodeling, folk dancing, alphorn singing, accordionists and all the food, jewelry, goat-soap and quilt vendors. That probably would have made us have a better experience. So, what’s the moral of this story? Don’t be like Will and be late for Alpine Fest. It’s September 22-25, this weekend, and if you don’t show up fashionably late you should have a good time. 
In sports, the valley had its first wins of the season. Imbler beat Riverside 34-23 this weekend. Union beat pilot rock 34-6, and Elgin beat Pine Eagle 21-7. Cove and La Grande, however, couldn’t match the other members both losing their respective games against the Sunnyside Christian Leopards and the Sunnyside Washington Grizzlies. Sunnyside had its way with the valley, Cove losing 58-14 and the La Grande Game wasn’t much better. La Grande lost 61-20, falling behind early in the game and, we’ll, never recovering. Our sports director, Steve Hendrix, snagged a quick interview with the coach for the Tigers about their upcoming game and strategy this weekend.
Did you know that, in the original short story “The Little Mermaid” by Hans Christian Andersen, the princess not only sells her voice but her tongue too? And in exchange for this oral bartering, not only does she not get it back, but the dude she sold it for ends up marrying another woman. In the end, Ariel commits suicide and finds herself as a disembodied spirit performing 300 years of penance before she can actually have her soul–her ultimate goal the entire time–and get into the Kingdom of Heaven. Pretty brutal, huh? But that’s okay, because that’s not the story that you’ll be seeing at the Elgin Opera House Starting this weekend. That story is based on the good-old-fashioned Disney story we all know and love, a story of love, a story of really catchy broadway tunes sung by lobsters, of women giving up essential parts of their bodily functions to try their hand at a man. That’s the story that you’ll get to see, good old-fashioned family laughter and fun. In fact, last week I got a chance to sit down with the director of the play Terry Hale and talk to him about the play, and how (unlike Hans Christian Andersen short story) the Little Mermaid fits in with the more overall mission of the Elgin Opera House: to provide fun, family-safe plays for the Grande Ronde Valley.
In sports, high School football starts this weekend! Friday is the big day: the La Grande Tigers will play Pendleton at La Grande, Baker will play Nyssa, Imbler v.s Pilot Rock, Elgin v.s Cove at Cove, and Union v.s. Umatilla at Umatilla. There’s so much football going Friday the pigs are running for the hills to keep their skins. But only one of those games will be covered by the LaGrandeAlive.tv online stream: La Grande v.s Pendleton, 6:00 pm on Friday at the EOU Community Stadium. And actually EOU’s new sports director Steve Hendrix got to sit down with the coaches of the LHS tigers and talk to them about their strategy for the coming game.
