Good day, La Grande Alive, this is your weekly newsish roundup brought to you by Grande Ronde Hospital, Northwest Furniture and Mattress, EONI, and Anything2Digital.com.
Crazy Days, Crazy Cars Crazy days is coming to town! And I don’t mean a bunch of ex-mental patients are being let loose to wander, pillage, and draw baloon animals on the side of buildings. No, I’m talking about Crazy Days, the full day of small-town fun on Adams Avenue that happens every year. This Saturday, Adams Avenue will close down for a day of good old fashioned family fun. And as part of the show, every year Adams hosts about half a hundred slick, smoothe, and well-loved custom cars as part of the Grande Ronde-A-View car show. And this week I got to sit down on Coffee With Will with one of the car owners who participates, John Lackey, and talk to him about what it is about custom cars he likes so much. John said that people of his generation loved cars because they were a creative exercise. Also, they were a cheap way to have fun with the family. But you don’t see many young custom car makers these days, John said, because, one, it’s expensive, and two (and this is my opinion) many young people are more interested in techy stuff than cars. But John said that if you’re interested in learning cars, even if you don’t own one, they’d be happy to teach you. The Crazy Days and car show begin this Saturday at 9 am. There will be cool cars, face painting, water-sporting, hula-hooping, and all other sorts of goofy fun. After that, all the cars will drive around for a Poker Cruise for all to see Saturday evening. So, if you’re interested in registering your custom car for the show, you can sign up this Friday evening at Riverside Park or Saturday before 9 am at the starting line. And even if not, head on down and check it out on Saturday.
Sponsored By This title story was brought to you by…Northwest Furniture and Mattress, Grande Ronde Hospital, EONI, and Anything2Digital.com Disk Golf Tourney Most of us think of disk golf as a casual pastime, not a competitive sport. But there are professionals, and some of those professionals are going to be coming to Eastern Oregon University this weekend for a tournament. Alex Guffy has been playing disk golf for about a year and a half. And he liked it so much he decided to coordinate a tournament! The tournament will be open to the public but will also be open to professionals. And Alex said there’s actually some extremely talented players right here in the valley. The tournament is happening this Friday and Saturday. Friday at 2 pm there will be a free disk golf clinic. At 6:30 there will be a players party at Side A Brewing and early registration. Saturday registration begins at 7 am for an early start to the tournament at 9:15 am. So if you like to toss the disk and don’t mind playing with the big boys (and girls!) be sure to head up to EOU this weekend for a toss. More information can be found on diskgolfscene.com. Get Out and Go! And here’s your other upcoming events with Emily Adair from GO! Magazine!
Survey And last but not least, we need your help! For you are who watchers of La Grande Alive, there’s a quick survey we need you to take about your experience on La Grande Alive. Just jump on, head to our Facebook page, and find it on our timeline. It only takes a few minutes, and it gives us valuable information to help us keep bringing you this information in the funnest and most accessible ways possible.
Hey La Grande Alive! This is your weekly Newsish Roundup brought to by Grande Ronde Hospital, Northwest Furniture and Mattress, Anything2Digital.com, and EONI!
New Nook for Looking Glass Books
Looking glass books is moving to a new nook. Specifically down Adams Avenue a couple blocks where the bookstore will now house the permanent home for the La Grande Shakespeare Company, according to Grant Turner, the owner and operator of the store. Several weeks ago Grant was approached by his landlady of his current building who said they were going to sell the building he was in. And so he didn’t waste time, he said. He found a new location several blocks down from the old one and, well, he hop skipped quickly into new space and is currently in the process of redesigning it for his vision: a half bookstore, half-black-box theater venue which will be the new stomping grounds of his Shakespearean productions.
The new location is, well, smaller than the old one. But Grant says he likes small, intimate theater spaces. He thinks it makes the plays more of a shared experience, heightens the intimacy, and forces the audience to be active participants in the Shakespeare plays.
The Grand Opening of the new store is going to be June 1st, Grant said, followed by the opening of the first Shakespeare play in the new space Henry the 5th the following day. Keep an eye out of the trailer for the new play only on La Grande Alive.
Brought to you By This title story was brought to you by… Northwest Furniture and Mattress
Coffee With Will and Armando Barboa / Doolittle Raiders Gala
Writers can’t all be professionals. Most writers, unfortunately, have to spend eight hours of their precious writing time going to jobs outside their writing passion in order to, well, eat, squeezing their obsessive scribbling between the hours of 5pm and 1am (or 1 am to 5am depending on your inclination) assisted by egregious amounts of caffeinated beverages. Armando Barboa is one of those writers. Armando was my guest this week on Coffee with Will. He’s a member of the US Armed Forces, a staff sergeant to be exact, and a writer. And these two aspects of his life, he said, oftentimes cross over.
Armando said that he uses writing to connect with the places he travels, his experiences, and his own creative side.
And one of those places he’s traveling is Pendleton Oregon for the Doolittle Raiders Gala coming up this weekend, Saturday, April 29, from 9 am to 11pm. So here’s a little history lesson: on April 18, 1942, sixteen B-25 bombers took off from the platform of US Navy Aircraft Carriers 650 nautical miles from the coast on a mission to bomb Japanese cities. Each of the crews knew that, bottom line, the damage they caused would be like a papercut on a grizzly bear, but that wasn’t the point. The real point was to show Japan that America wasn’t down and out, and that we still had the power to resist. What they really wanted to do was give a morale boost to thousands of Americans discouraged by the recent attacks on Pearl Harbor. And their mission was successful. And the bravery of these airmen who agreed to pilot these planes has become a symbol for the spirit of the United States resistance to foreign invaders ever since. And this weekend, the last surviving pilot of these missions will travel to Pendleton to speak and participate in a celebratory event for the raid.
Overall the conversation with Armondo was full of fun and nerdiness you wouldn’t expect from an interview with a die-hard serviceman. The rest of this interview can be viewed on lagrandealive.tv or our Facebook page. And be sure to check out the Doolittle Raiders Gala in Pendleton Oregon, this Saturday starting at 9 am at the Pendleton Army Air Field.
Get Out and Go! And what else is going on this weekend? Well, I’m here to tell you along with my partner in crime Emily Adair from Go Magazine with this week’s Get Out and Go!
One more quick event, this Sunday, April 30, 11 am to 2:30 pm there will be a workshop for Milonga Tango at the Art Center East in La Grande. Milonga is a dance form from the Southern Cone countries of Uruguay and Argentina. Exotic, I know! But still, no experience is necessary, and it’s 15 bucks a person or 25 bucks per couple. Visit the art center east website for more information.
Local Sports
The La Grande Tigers Softball team went two for two this weekend against Ontario winning 4-1 and 6-1 back to back at home. Union/Cove also had a double-win, beating Pilot Rock/Nixyaawii 4-1 and 8-5 also here in the valley. Elgin, on the other hand, was the black sheep of the weekend, losing both their games at Burns by rather different margins 5-23 and 10-12. Next softball games are scheduled for the 28th when La Grande plays Baker/Powder Valley at home, Elgin plays Grant Union / Dayville / Prairie City away, and Union / Cove plays Heppner / Ione right here in the valley.
In the boys Baseball world, La Grande had a little less success than in softball. They lost one, won one v.s. Ontario playing at home, the first game a 6-5 win followed by Ontario’s comeback at a similarly slim margin of 4-5. Two very close games. Union/Cove instead of winning two lost two against Durfur / South Wasco 1-12 and 5-11 and put them down and out for the weekend. Continuing the valley’s bleak baseball end of the week, Elgin also lost two to Pilot Rock / Nixyaawii, 0-7 and 2-9, making this weekend pretty much a big fat strikeout for the valley’s baseball teams. Next games are this weekend: La Grande plays Baker / Powder Valley on the 29th, Union / Cove plays Grant Union/ Prairie City on the 28th and Elgin plays Heppner / Ione the same day.
Around the Mountain
An speaking of sports, here’s your Around the Mount in 90 seconds with Evan and Chris for our special 21st anniversary episode.
La Grande Alive Live
For all the most recent LGA content, be sure to tune into La Grande Alive Live every weeknight at 6pm on our website and Facebook ppage.
Happy 4th of July, La Grande Alive! This is your weekly Newsish Roundup brought to you by Grande Ronde Hospital, Northwest Furniture and Mattress, Anything2Digital.com, and EONI!
11 Students, 3 Plays, 1 Summer
There’s big happenings at the Opera House! Eleven students have been enlisted professionally to bring three plays to the stage this summer, and not only that, but three plays at the same time. And this last week, I got the opportunity to sit down and talk to them about what it’s like to participate.
The three plays that will be showing are Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Catch Me If You Can, and The Wizard of Oz. Showtimes can be found on the Elgin Opera House website and the three plays will be running until the end of this month. Be sure to get your tickets and catch it (wink) if you can.
Art Creates Cash
And speaking of art, did you know that, according to one study, the arts are actually a cash cow for Eastern Oregon? The Arts and Economic Prosperity study was recently taken as a collaboration by La Grande’s Art Center East, Baker’s Carnegie Center for the Arts, and the Josephy Center in Joseph. In this study, these three organizations collected a bunch of information that translated to the arts contributing over 1.2 million to the economy in 2015. It also showed that the arts organization created 39 jobs in 2015, and that’s not even including the part-time ones. And according to the Observer Newspaper, this information is reflected across the state. So the next time you’re tempted to say artists are just a bunch of moneysucking farts, don’t forget, there’s a lot of cash created by arts! You can read the full story in this last weekend’s Observer Newspaper.
Get Out and Go!
And after a long hiatus and without further adeu, here’s your upcoming events in Get Out and Go with Emily Adair from Go! Magazine.
ACTIVE SHOOTERS AND WOMEN AT WAR – Weekly Newsish Roundup: June 1-7, 2017
Check out your weekly Newsish Roundup for May 25 – 31
In the news today:
Active Shooter
Women at War
Get Out and Go
Upcoming Events
Sports Spotlight
Around the Mountain
This video was brought to you by Northwest Furniture and Mattress, Grande Ronde Hospital, EONI, and Anything2Digital.com For more local content, visit our website at http://lagrandealive.tv! Youtube link:
Hey La Grande Alive! It’s your Newsish Roundup Brought to you by Grande Ronde Hospital, Northwest Furniture and Mattress, Anything2Digital.com, and EONI!
LHS Active Shooter Drill Just a heads up everyone: next Monday, June 5th, sometime between 12:00 noon and 3:00 pm the La Grande Middle school will be doing what’s called an “active shooter drill”. An active shooter drill is a real-time recreation of the procedures and safety protocols THAT ARE IN PLACE if someone showed up with a gun and started TRYING TO shooting people. The drill is purposed for staff training, and so if you see something odd going on at that time don’t get involved! It’s just a drill, nothing to see here. If you have questions you can contact the Union County Sheriff’s office or the La grande Police Department. And further, don’t bring a gun to school. I dream of a day when we no longer have to have these drills because nobody’s shooting each other at school or anywhere else for that matter.
This Title Story Brought to you By: Grande Ronde Hospital, Northwest Furniture and Mattress, Anything2Digital.com and EONI!
Women at War What happens when women go to war? Is it the same as when men do? Are the same emotions and feelings evoked? Is the war a celebration of honor and masculinity or is there a less affirming vibe? Well, these and more are some of the questions that the La Grande Shakespeare Troupe’s all-female telling of Henry V coming up next couple weekends TRIES TO EXPLORE. And I got a chance this week to chat with them about what these questions may look like on the stage.
Henry V starts showing tomorrow, Friday, June 2 at the new Looking Glass Books location on Adams Avenue. It’s just down the street from the old building right new to Raul’s Taqueria. THE SHOW WILL RUN THREE WEEKENDS, AND Tickets cost ______ and can be purchased at Looking Glass.
Get Out and Go! And here’s your upcoming events with Emily Adair from GO! Magazine.
Also, just a heads up, we will be streaming the La Grande High School graduation this saturday at 2pm on the La Grande Alive website and Facebook page.
Community Calendar Want to know about more upcoming events? Check out the La Grande Alive Community Calendar. Just head to our website, click on the link in the upper right corner, and enjoy dozens of upcoming events right at your fingertips!
Sports Spotlight And here’s your local sports with Ronald Bond from the Observer Newspaper!
Around the Mount And here’s your EOU sports with Evan and Chris in Around the Mountain in 90 Seconds!
And that’s your weekly Newsish Roundup! This Roundup was brought to you by… Grande Ronde Hospital, Northwest Furniture and Mattress, Anything2Digital.com, and EONI!
Check out your weekly Newsish Roundup for April 6 – 12.
In the news today:
Liberty Denied!
Coffee with Will and Lori McNeil
Get out and Go!
Around the Mountain
Behind the Streams: Go Local
This video was brought to you by Northwest Furniture and Mattress, Grande Ronde Hospital, and Anything2Digital.com. For more local content, visit our website at http://lagrandealive.tv!
Hey La Grande Alive! This is your weekly Newsish Roundup brought to you by Grande Ronde Hospital, Northwest Furniture and Mattress, and Anything2Digital.com.
Liberty Denied There’s a lot of discouraged people right now in La Grande. Last night, Wednesday April 4th, the city of La Grande denied the Liberty Theatre Foundation a large amount of funding to restore the Liberty Theater in La Grande. The backstory of this request is this: the Liberty Theater requested $250,000 from the city of La Grande, $150,000 of which would be a debt forgiveness of a loan already given. If the theater had been awarded this money, said Kelly Ducote, the grant-writer for the foundation, they would have requested a million more dollars from the state.
But according to Dale Mamman who I spoke with briefly this morning, neither of the loans were granted last night. The city voted at the city council meeting last night 3-3 with one person abstaining because of a conflict of interest. And with a tie, no die. The motion failed, putting the foundation, according to Dale Mammen, back to square one.
Now I also talked to Justin Rock, one of the dissenting votes, this morning and he said he personally believed the project is amazing. But he’s a businessman, he said. And the project, even if the state awarded it the million dollars they’re hoping for, would only be halfway funded. He wants to fund projects that are more fully developed.
But there is hope, at least according to Rob McIntyre, the project manager of the a theater in Athena much like the Liberty theater. He has been working on his project for almost a decade. He said they have been at the place the Liberty has at least four times and, I quote, If you can grit your teeth, you can do it. Don’t give up, he said. Focus on the small parts of the project and, eventually, the project will progress.
But what do you think, La Grande Alive? Should the city have funded the Liberty Project? What direction should they head in the future? Your comments in the section below.
This title story was brought to you by…Grande Ronde Hospital
Coffee With Will and Lori McNeil I once heard a story about a professional ballerina who said that every time before she went on stage her stomach got butterflies. No matter how many times you perform, you’re always nervous beforehand, and that’s no exception for me with Coffee With Will. And this week, I had to take a deep, deep breath because I got the opportunity to interview, the one, the only, Mrs. Oregon United States 2016, Lori McNeil, right here in La Grande, Oregon, and, though she’s a personal friend, she’s kind of a big deal.
Every year everyone who participates in the Mrs Oregon pageant runs on a particular platform, and Lori’s platform is literacy. Lori believes that literacy is essential to children’s confidence and self-esteem.
In addition to being Mrs. Oregon 2016, Lori is a self-published author of educational children’s books. She has 2 books published, 8 more on the way. And her passion for educating children, she said, goes all the way back to her childhood she spent seeing the cost of reading difficulties in her friends.
Overall the conversation was a fun conversation with one of the most accomplished people I’ve ever interviewed. The rest of this conversation is available to be watched on LaGrandeAlive’s Facebook page.
Upcoming Events And here’s your upcoming events with Emily Adair in Get out and Go!
A couple other events this week. This Saturday there will be a Bridal Show at the Eastern Oregon University Gilbert Center. It’s the biggest bridal show in Eastern Oregon, and there will be local vendors, custom wedding clothes makers, plus an appearance by Lori McNeil, my Coffee With Will interviewee. Also, next thursday there is a Alegre Travel Vacation Night put on by, well, put on by Alegre Travel. It will be held at the masonic lodge right above the business. For a RSVP, call this number (541-963-9000).
Around the Mountain And here’s your EOU sports with Evan and Chris in Around the Mount in 90 seconds!
Local Sports The La Grande Tigers trounced Hermiston twice on tuesday. Like that alliteration? Trounced them twice on tuesday, winning their first game 4-2 and their second 11-1. Union Cove’s game v.s. Arlington / Sherman / Congdon was cancelled, as have all the Elgin games up to this point in the season. La Grande is scheduled to play Pendleton two games today at 3pm.
Behind the Streams – Go Local And this week in behind the streams, we take a look behind the scenes at the local-business side of La Grande Alive and why, exactly, you should spend your cash with local businesses.
La Grande Alive Live And be sure to tune into La Grande Alive Live, our weekday evening live stream. Every day at 6pm. We have all your most-recent La Grande Alive content on our website and our Facebook page.
What happens when women go to war? Is it the same as when men do? Are the same emotions and feelings evoked? Is the war a celebration of honor and masculinity or is there a less affirming vibe? Well, these and more are some of the questions that the La Grande Shakespeare Troupe’s all-female telling of Henry V coming up next couple weekends TRIES TO EXPLORE. And I got a chance this week to chat with them about what these questions may look like on the stage.
Every year everyone who participates in the Mrs Oregon pageant runs on a particular platform, and Lori’s platform is literacy. Lori believes that literacy is essential to children’s confidence and self-esteem.
