Volume 33 Number 9 , September 29, 2009

Columns

• Notes On A Napkin

  Bonnie Carter

  It’s hard to say what was the best highlight of the last month, there were so many!

  My monthly trip to Surfside yielded lots of garage sale treasures & many book bargains from the annual library sale. I drove to Seaside one day for dinner & a visit with friends Jan & Jean. The weather was beautiful most of the time, even though they predicted rain the whole weekend. On Saturday, I took the walking tour of Ocean Park, posed for the photo op of everyone gathered on the street at the beach approach & enjoyed the bonfire & s’mores on the beach at sunset. It did finally rain & thunder on Sunday, when it was time to come home.

  Local icon “The Boogie Cat” Norman Sylvester’s Birthday party at The Tillicum was one of the most memorable events, with Norman dressed to the nines in his red & gold outfit (see photo on website). Staffer & friend Lauree Carlsen joined me & we enjoyed the delicious homemade seafood chowder & BLT. Read More

• Travel Excursion
  Helen, Georgia
  Charming, scenic mountain town draws visitors

  By Patrice Raplee

  The echo of polka music drifts through the small Alpine village nestled in surrounding lush hillsides. A peaceful, dreamy kind of day encourages visitors to leisurely stroll by charming, Bavarian-designed shops. Farther ahead, bistros emanate aromas of rich, tantalizing sausages and frothy German beer in the scenic mountain town of Helen, Georgia.

  

  The enchanting Bavarian town of Helen, residing on the banks of the Chattahoochee River, is tucked into Georgia’s beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains and is located 75 miles from Atlanta. Originally, the community of Helen began as settlers arrived in the early 1900s, mined for gold and cut timber for the booming lumber industry. As the town began to wane in the late ‘60s, local businessmen created a plan to revitalize Helen. With the vision and drawing talents of a local artist who had been stationed in Germany and the natural surrounding area resembling Deutschland’s Alpine region, the renovation of Helen into a Bavarian town began. Forty years later, the town has burgeoned into a lovely Alpine village that draws over two million visitors annually. Moreover, as the third most popular destination in Georgia, Helen and surrounding White County have a great deal to offer visitors. From horseback riding, golf, camping, canoeing, river tubing, excellent fishing, hiking, biking, Bavarian shopping and one of the best and longest Oktoberfests in the U.S., Helen is a perfect locale place for a superb holiday getaway. Read More

• Folk Matters
  PFS celebrates 15 yrs. w/national & local mix

  By J. Michael Kearsey

  The Portland FolkMusic Society celebrates its 15th season with a great mix of national and local performers who are known nationally--representing the best in folk/acoustic/old-time/roots music. Carvlin Hall is located at 1636 S.E. Hickory St., just north of S.E. Division at 16th; near the New Seasons Market. No smoking or alcohol are allowed, but food and beverages are available. It is a relaxed spot to bring the family, or meet friends, or make new friends who love folk music!

  On Friday, Oct. 16, the PFS welcomes Linda Waterfall with Portland’s own Richard Columbo opening the show. Waterfall’s great grandfather emigrated from Switzerland with his surname, Wasserfallen. It was anglicized to Waterfall when he came through Ellis Island, causing thousands of people in subsequent generations to ask the question, "Is that your real name?"

  Waterfall grew up in a musical family in the suburbs of Chicago and had extensive training in classical piano, composition, voice and theory. She began teaching herself to play guitar while in high school and her unorthodox guitar style reflects this. Paradoxically, her family was strenuously opposed to her pursuit of a musical career. Due to this pressure, Waterfall attended college at Stanford University, where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa, majoring in visual art. After college, she began to perform professionally. Her first successful band was Entropy Service, one of the best musical groups in Seattle, Portland (and sometimes, Cambridge, Mass.) in the mid ‘70s.

  Windham Hill Records released Waterfall’s first solo album in 1977. She also worked as a bass player in The Skyboys, a very successful country-rock group playing the club scene in the Northwest; and later fronted her own band, releasing two more albums during this period. In 1979, Waterfall was voted Seattle's Best Solo Artist by the Seattle Sun-KZAM Arts and Entertainment Poll. In 1983, she released a duo album with guitarist Scott Nygaard. During these years, she soaked up influences from many different musical traditions. Waterfall also began composing for grants and commissions, in vocal and instrumental styles that reflect her early classical training, but clearly contain elements of the vernacular musical vocabulary. Body English, her fifth album, released in 1987 by Flying Fish, continued this synthesis of popular and jazz harmonic structures into through-composed, classically-structured pieces, mixed in among energetic blues- and rock-influenced rhythms. Critics have often commented on the impossibility of categorizing her music. Read More

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