In this Coffee With Will, Will sits down with Austin Saunders from Oregon Rural Action about his studies at EOU, his move to Oregon Rural Action and ways that people can get involved with social activism right here in La Grande.
Big thanks to our sponsors Northwest Furniture and Mattress, Grande Ronde Hospital, Anything2Digital.com, and SeaBrite Dental P.C.
Eclipse, Powerline, BPA, Beer, Festival
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Hey La Grande Alive! This is your weekly newsish roundup, brought to you by Grande Ronde Hospital, Northwest Furniture and Mattress, Anything2Digital, and EONI!
Eclipse Earlier this week, according to NASA, almost 300 million people migrated globally to see, front and center, the full solar eclipse. And man, I gotta say, speaking as a person who saw it from Baker City in all its totality, it was mind-boggling. Here’s a couple images taken from across the United States. Here’s one from Greenville, South Carolina. Here’s Hopkinsville, South Carolina. And here’s one from Jefferson City Missouri. We also got video of the event from Baker City, OR.
And the event was just the beginning. Many people have spent all this week thinking about what, exactly, the eclipse really meant. One weird bearded guy wrote this in a poem about his experience with the eclipse.
You never understand the value of the light
until you’ve looked directly at the sun
and felt it covered up.
But not everyone is as weird as that guy. And I got the opportunity to walk around and talk to a bunch of normal La Grandians this week about their most memorable experience of the eclipse.
And what about you, La Grande Alive? What was your most memorable moment of the eclipse? Post in the comments and we’ll put your name into a drawing to appear on your own Coffee With Will to talk about you and your experience of the eclipse this year! I promise you, it’s easier than pie and a whole heck of a lot more tasty.
Brought to you By This title story was brought to you by…Grande Ronde Hospital, Northwest Furniture and Mattress, Anything2Digital, and EONI!
So Many Beers, So Little Time Beer! Everyone loves beer! Well, most people like beer. I’m not one of them, but many Oregonians are! And last weekend, just before the eclipse, La Grande hosted its fourth annual Beer Festival at the Union County fairgrounds. Hundreds of beer-lovers from all over Eastern Oregon mecca’d to this oasis of craft beer culture, music, food, and overall festivities to enjoy over 80 craft beers from Portland to Colorado here to be tasted, tried, and enjoyed.
B2H On Trial Last night about a hundred people gathered at the Blue Mountain Conference center to give their input into the B2H issue, yet again. After a long and somewhat tedious presentation about the appeal process things got a little spicy as people began to express their extreme distaste at not only the idea of the particular routes of the B2H power line but also the idea of a new power line in general!
People we’re very frustrated at the entire idea of a new power line and didn’t want it anywhere near La Grande. Plus, after that long an extremely technical speech about how to be involved in the appeal process nobody seemed to know exactly how they could best get involved! People yelled, people made passionate speeches and generally expressed frustrations. Even the county commissioners seemed frustrated at their seeming lack of power and options for their voices being really heard. But one voice, Irene with the STOP B2H commission, seemed to know what she was talking about and have an answer for how to help.
So bottom line, though the process is frustrating and complicated, if you have concerns about the B2H line contact Irene with the STOP B2H committee here in La Grande at this number (5418058446). La Grande Alive will have more on this story as it develops.
Outro And that’s your weekly Newsish Roundup! This roundup…Grande Ronde Hospital, Northwest Furniture and Mattress, Anything2Digital, and EONI!
Hey La Grande Alive! It’s your weekly Newsish Roundup brought to you by Grande Ronde Hospital, Northwest Furniture and Mattress, Anything2Digital, and EONI!
Cloverhaven Cowgirls And speaking of horses, there’s something about them. Something that makes you want to tell them all your problems, reveal all your deepest emotions. Something tender and sensitive yet, at the same time, quietly powerful. And this week I got the opportunity to visit the Cloverhaven Cowgirl Camp 2017 where every summer several groups of young ladies spend a whole week getting to know horses and enjoying the subtle therapy of these gentle giants.
But these horses aren’t all tears and ears. They’re also extremely powerful beasts and being around them, said Brittany, rubs off on the girls and, in a way, empowers them.
Now this year’s camps are done. Winter is coming and the open-air facilities they have are too cold to go all winter. But Brittany said that she’d love to have facilities for year-round camps. This is her passion, she said, and she said that, with more money, her dreams could become a reality. And she said that the upcoming Gala on the 16th of September is a perfect opportunity to give to this cause.
La Grande Alive will have more on this story in a couple weeks.
Brought to You By This title story was brought to you by…Northwest Furniture and Mattress, Grande Ronde Hospital, EONI and Anything2Digital.com
Eclipsed! Eclipsed! Next Monday, August 21st, the moon and sun are ready for their closeups. The eclipse is happening and here’s a couple tips on how you should prepare all courtesy of the Observer Newspaper.
Be prepared for inconveniences. Over three million people are slated to travel through this area this weekend. And where people go, inconveniences grow. So be prepared and maybe spend a little more time meditating this week to prepare your spirit for petty annoyances.
Stock up! Stock up on any necessities this week thursday and friday. Here’s the list: food, water, safety glasses, prescriptions and medicines and any special necessities for you. You won’t, I repeat, you won’t be able to drive very well to purchase things this weekend, especially the day before the eclipse. So buy it all now.
Don’t burn. There is a county-wide burn ban, people, so keep your matches in your pants and your lighters in your backpacks. The last three forest fires around here were human caused. And with all the people, we don’t want any flames spoiling the skies for our front-row seat of this thing.
For more information on the eclipse, be sure to check out the Observer story in their Monday newspaper. La Grande Alive will have a follow up next week.
Outtro Short Newsish this week, everyone! This roundup was brought to you by…Northwest Furniture and Mattress, Grande Ronde Hospital, EONI and Anything2Digital.com
But, soft! What light through yonder barn door breaks!
It is the Newsish Roundup, and I am the fool!
Arise fair fool and bring us the half-baked news,
Brought to you by sponsors such as these:
Northwest Furniture and Mattress,
Grande Ronde Hospital,
Anything2Digital,
And Eastern Oregon Network Inc.
It is the news, O, it is the news!
Theater Camp Parents, looking for somewhere to dump your kids during the week? Yes, yes, I know you would never think such a thing about your kids. But if do think such heinous thoughts, the Elgin Opera House is holding week-long summer camps which look like a stick and a bundle of fun for kiddos of every age. Every week close to a hundred kids descend on the Opera House to learn stage combat, dance, acting, and other theater activities. And Abagail Raasch, EOU student and assistant camp director, said that the most important thing the kids learn is how to make friends and be social which, let’s be real, some of us (big arrow pointing at will) had a lot of trouble with at that age.
And as you can see by this b-roll, this ain’t no chess-club: it’s a lot of fun. And having fun is important, said Abagail.
After the week of training, the kids take all of their new knowledge and get to participate in the Elgin Opera House production of Wizard of Oz. If you’re interested in signing up your kids for Theatre Camp at the Opera House, visit their website and give them a call. And be sure to head out to Wizard of Oz and Catch Me If You Can showing these next weekends at the opera house.
B2H On Trial Remember last week when I talked about B2H? Well, I got a couple things wrong and I want to correct them. I said it was B2H stood for Boise to Hermiston. Well, it doesn’t. It stands for Boardman to Hemingway. Also, I said the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission makes the final decision on where the line goes. Well, it’s actually the Energy Facilities Siding Council, or EFSC for short.
Now, that all being said, I got much of this information from having further conversations on the subject this week. After last week’s story, I got to sit down with, first, County Commissioner Donna Beverage, the third Union County commissioner, and, second, local attorney Brent Smith to talk about the legality of the issues. The conversation with Donna Beverage was short and to the point. She really had her ducks in a row and the bottom line of what we talked about was that the best way to get your concerns heard is to work with the county commissioners instead of against them.
I also got to talk to local attorney Brent Smith about the legality of the government taking private property. And interesting fact, the “eminent domain” laws are actually written into the constitution. What it says is, essentially, that the government can take private property for public use but only if they offer them fair compensation. So for those people (like me) who have a little inward cringe at the idea of government taking private land for public use, unfortunately, it’s been written right into our constitution since day one. But that’s okay, Brent said. The system that’s in place is actually really biased toward the private landowner and them getting solid payment for their condemned property. The best thing people in this situation can do, he says, is learn the system and use it to get what’s theirs.
The rest of these interviews, along with the Jack Howard and Steve McClure interviews, can be found in-full on La Grande Alive.
CHARM Grande Ronde Hospital is starting a new program for pregnant mothers struggling with alcohol and drugs. The CHARM program will help struggling mothers with services like access to safe housing, baby necessities, transportation, and registration assistance with other support services. It’s designed to help reduce the amount of fatalities and birth complications in mothers who struggle with drugs and alcohol. It was spearheaded by FBC Nurse Manager Jenny Gonzalez who said that she “experience(s) firsthand the heartbreak of newborns addicted to drug and alcohol as they suffer withdrawals and are discharged to a potentially unsafe home environment. We understand these mothers need help and we want to help them.” The program is not punitive and is more focused on helping the mothers and children than redressing the drug and alcohol problem and meting out consequences. It does, though, offer services to help the mother get sober.
Get Out and Go! And here’s your upcoming events with Emily Adair from Go! Magazine in Get Out and Go!
One other event coming up, Union County CASA is hosting a carnival the weekend of the 19th! Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASAs) are volunteers who are appointed to each child taken into state jurisdiction due to abuse and/or neglect. And CASA is holding a carnival to increase awareness of CASA and need for what they call “superheroes” to support the abused and neglected youth in our community. It’s scheduled for August 19, at Riverside Park in La Grande from 11:00 AM to 4:00 PM. So get on down and have some fun!
In this episode of Coffee With Will, Joseph Marcell, best-known as the butler from Fresh Prince of Bel Aire, stops into the studio to talk about his life-long love for the poetry and plays of Shakespeare.
Big thanks to Northwest Furniture and Mattress, Anything2Digital.com, EONI, Grande Ronde Hospital, and SeaBrite Dental P.C.
Joseph Marcell – (born August 18, 1948) is a Saint Lucian born British actor, best known for his role as Geoffrey the butler on the sitcom The Fresh Prince of Belair
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!
In this episode of Coffee with Will, Lori McNeil, Mrs. Oregon United States joins us in the studio to talk about her road to Mrs. Oregon and about her passion about literacy education.
Big thanks to our sponsors Northwest Furniture and Mattress, Grande Ronde Hospital, Anything2Digital.com, and SeaBrite Dental P.C.!
Be sure to tune into http://lagrandealive.tv for more local content.
Mrs. Oregon, Lori McNeil, Pagentry, Reading, Education
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.
In this episode of Coffee with Will; Ken Wheeler, Professor of Theater at Eastern Oregon University, as well as an actor/director extraordinar, chats with Will about how he got into theater, as well as the challenges of maintaining his conservative views in the art world.
Big thanks to our sponsors Northwest Furniture and Mattress, Grande Ronde Hospital, Anything2Digital.com, and SeaBrite Dental P.C.!
Gun Talk with Steve West and Clay Winton – March 22, 2017
In this episode of Gun Talk, La Grande Alive is joined by Steve West from The Adventure Series and Clay Winton from Crosshair Customs to talk about AR-15s and compares AR-15 ammo to other types of common ammunition.
Big thanks to our sponsors Northwest Furniture and Mattress, Grande Ronde Hospital, and Anything2Digital.com!
Hey LaGrandeAlive! I’m sick, and this is your weekly Newsish Roundup brought to you by Northwest Furniture and Mattress, Grande Ronde Hospital, and Anything2Digital.com.
Scoutdoorsing I was a boy scout once. And then I realized I was a woman. What? Just kidding. About being a woman. Not about being a boy scout. I do, in fact, have vague memories of doing box-car derbies, getting badges, doing my darndest to remember the scout law, promise, and that one other code thing you have to remember. Can you see why I’m not a Boy Scout any more? But just because I’m not a scout any more doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate who they are and what they do. And the last several weeks I got the opportunity to put together a piece about the Boy Scouts right here in Eastern Oregon.
If you’re interested in getting your child involved with the Boy Scouts in Eastern Oregon you can learn more at their website.
Coffee With Will and Zeke Fetrow / Brahms Requiem It’s not often I get to geek out with people about one of my favorite subjects: art. But this week on Coffee With Will, I got to chat with a man who combines massive musical erudition with a fun-loving demeanor that wins even the stuffiest of people to his side: Zeke Fetrow. Zeke is the conductor of the Grande Ronde Symphony and a music nerd to the max. He knows a bunch about the musical history of the pieces he directs, pieces including Brahms Requiem that he is conducting tomorrow night at Eastern Oregon University.
Despite knowing everything about the history behind classical arrangements, Zeke isn’t hoity toity about his knowledge. He’s actually a super fun-loving guy. Zeke believes that his place is trying to bring people into the music and making classical music accessible to everyone from professors to poppers.
Overall the conversation was a wonderfully profound yet fun exploration of Brahms Requiem and emotion in music in general. The rest of this conversation is available on LaGrandeAlive’s Facebook page. And be sure to head up to Mackenzie Theater tonight, Thursday March 16, at 7:30 pm for Brahms Requiem in La Grande.
Upcoming Events And here’s your upcoming events with Emily Adair in Get Out and Go!
Local Sports In sports… Nothing! Not a lot going on in local sports these days, with basketball and wrestling all done. But here’s a video of a dancing banana just so you know we care.
Around the Mount And here’s your EOU sports with Evan and Chris in Around the Mountain in 90 Seconds.
La Grande Alive Live (And More…) And one more thing! Be sure to check out our newest service La Grande Alive Live! La Grande Alive Live is our weeknight live stream that catches you up with all our most-recent content. 6:00 pm every monday through Friday, tune into our Facebook page and our website and watch about two hours of live content at home, on your computer, or on your smartphone. La Grande Alive Live, our weekly evening live stream.
Also, be sure to check out our newest show Gun Talks, a show in which Brent, the owner here at LaGrandeAlive, talks about guns with local-business owner Clay Winton. That show can be found on our LaGrandeAlive Facebook page.
And that’s your weekly Newsish Roundup. This roundup was brought to you by Grande Ronde Hospital, Northwest Furniture and Mattress, and Anything2Digital.com. Be sure to like and share this video and tune into lagrandealive.tv for more local content. I’m Will Bowman.
Earlier this week, according to NASA, almost 300 million people migrated globally to see, front and center, the full solar eclipse. And man, I gotta say, speaking as a person who saw it from Baker City in all its totality, it was mind-boggling. Here’s a couple images taken from across the United States. Here’s one from Greenville, South Carolina. Here’s Hopkinsville, South Carolina. And here’s one from Jefferson City Missouri. We also got video of the event from Baker City, OR.
You never understand the value of the light
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.
