Cultured in Oregon

So the Oregon Cultural Trust has proclaimed the first week in October the "Oregon Days of Culture." When we think of Oregon Culture, the Kesey family and Nancy's Yogurt are the first things that come to mind!

Obviously that's not what the Trust had in mind...

Unfortunately, Salem's not playing the game very well, and the Salem offerings (you'll have to sort the entire table on the city column - the web interface is pretty clunky) leave us mostly uninspired. The good stuff's in Portland.

So we recommend a different microbial culture - yeast culture!

There's a good post-event discussion of the beer and cider festival over at DSS. It was a great start, and next year will be even better! In the meantime, do your part to support great Oregon Culture with a pint at your favorite establishment!

Support the class programming and make your own culture (shock) at Clockworks Cafe. The September schedule has a few October dates, but look for a new one soon.

The Library's Uniquely Oregon lecture series looks interesting. Next up, on Tuesday, October 12th, is OSU essayist and philosopher Kathleen Dean Moore on environmental ethics. Microbial diversity is an important part of the ecosystem!

Moving up to the macro level, fall brings rain, and brings to mind water and the river. Over at the Conference Center is the 4th Annual Oregon Artists Series show. Two of the paintings show the river, one a rural aerial view, with cotton-candy blue water, and fields in flood; the other, an urban scene, with slashes of electric color against the purple and grey of a rainy day. The Johanson, especially, captures our ambivalence about fall and the wet - depressing sometimes, but also mysterious with possibility. Both of them are too beautiful, really, but together they say something about the wet and water here in the Willamette Valley.

(Water Reaching for Itself, Willamette Flood #3, April Waters)

(Rain and River*, George Johanson)

And there's always Carl Hall's paintings of the Willamette River and Salem hills at Hallie Ford. These seem like authentic expressions of Oregon Culture, too.

*It might be Rain and River #5, but we can't recall...will update later.