Showing posts with label Stu Rasmussen transgender mayor Silverton. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Stu Rasmussen transgender mayor Silverton. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Old Postcard Wednesday--Fellini • Portrait of a Film Director



You exist only in what you do.

                                                        ~Federico Fellini

I love this old postcard, and I love the above Fellini quote. It seems such a simple concept but once you begin thinking about it layers peel off from layers and there is so much there.

As I exist right his moment--writing this post for your consideration--what I am going to do is tell you something I am not pleased with about myself: I have never seen a Fellini movie. So I am asking for your advice in selecting which of his movies you think I should definitely purchase. The full list is available at Ranker.

:::

Talking about dreams is like talking about movies; since the cinema uses the language of dreams, years can pass in a second and you can hop from one place to another. It’s a language made of image. And in the real cinema, every object and every light means something, as in a dream.

                                                        ~Federico Fellini

I have had some bad dreams lately, something unusual for me and something I am aware is going on because I have remembered a few in those first seconds after waking only to have them a total wipe from my brain by the time my feet hit the floor. Not remembering them is probably a gift I am subconsciously giving to myself, in spite of telling myself to analyze them later on.

Silverton's local theater, The Palace, had a fire last week that was a real nightmare for this small town. The owners had just completed an near $100,000 upgrade to state-of-the-art digital and The Hunger Games was in a second week showing (we hadn't seen it yet). A woman who lives in an apartment upstairs in a building in the block said her little Chinese Crested dog just would not let up in asking to go outside. It was around
7:00 a.m. when she walked the dog to the corner where The Palace is and saw the lobby in flames. Her quick thinking--she ran back to her place, called 911 and the owners of the business and the building--probably saved The Palace. The situation as it stands now is that the cause is unknown, but deemed accidental, and the theater will be closed for an undetermined time for evaluation and repairs. There was smoke damage inside, but perhaps the machinery itself escaped it. We are all hoping for the best.

Our mayor, Stu Rasmussen, is co-owner of The Palace, where he worked as a boy and fell in love with the place. Stu is the first transgendered mayor of an American city and I think Fellini himself would find him a fascinating person (and fellow movie buff). Click to see a photo of Stu lookin' gorgeous at his re-election website in the "Reality Check" page. In the video below, taken the morning of the fire, he is interviewed sans makeup.


   
       

:::

A good opening and a good ending make for a good film provide they come close together. 
                                                        ~Federico Fellini

The same is true for most blog posts so I am keeping the opening and ending of this one confined as is. I'll be looking forward to your Fellini movie recommendations!


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Monday, August 10, 2009

i love my sweet, eclectic, very cool small town



It's been difficult to not talk about my town here at Writerquake. After last weekend's annual Homer Davenport Days celebrations here I decided, what the heck, I'm going to show you these glimpses of our breakfast in the park on Saturday morning prior to the Homer Davenport Days parade, as well as shots of the parade itself.

Homer Davenport was a famous native son of Silverton, described in a marvelous full article at the Oregon Cultural Heritage Commission website, with this introduction:
Homer Davenport (1867-1912), the Silverton cartoonist, is one of Oregon's most extraordinary celebrities. Through the support of formidable newspaperman William Randolph Hearst, he would become the most influential political cartoonist in the U.S.A.

Millions saw his cartoons. Hearst used his darling "Davvy" as a point man muckraking against political bosses and big trusts such as Standard Oil Company. Davenport cartoons, with direction from Hearst, ushered in the Progressive Era and promoted the ascendancy of the American Empire. Breaking with Hearst, Davenport helped reelect Teddy Roosevelt to the presidency in 1904. One might argue that he had more impact on the American way of life than radical journalist John Reed or poet-lawyer C.E.S. Wood, both Oregonians and players on the national scene.

Yet Homer Davenport's life is an enigma. Did this fantastic success bring him happiness? It is doubtful he ever would have left his beloved Silverton if his father Timothy W. hadn't cajoled, encouraged, and pushed his reluctant son toward a career in the arts. Homer remained homesick for his small town on the edge of the Willamette Valley all of his life.


This short clip (3:41) shows snippets of the Lion's Club Breakfast in the city park, passing vintage cars on display during our short walk through the park (as we followed a darling little girl with her family), and pieces of the parade.





The day began with breakfast in our city park.
(Click on any photo to enlarge)








After breakfast we enjoyed looking at some of the craft vendors' booths and the display of vintage cars in the park before the Homer Davenport Parade.















Mike and I marched with Silverton People for Peace in a huge, peaceful demonstration protest in downtown Portland just before the Iraq War began. I've also walked with them in the Homer Davenport Days parade in years past.






Another Silverton native son -- our mayor, Stu Rasmussen -- who is the first transgender mayor in the United States (read one of
many articles at the link).




The Silverton High School class of 1959 was even there.






Silverton was voted as one of the Top Ten Coolest Small Towns in 2009!

#9. Silverton, Ore. (3,142)
{The article is wrong...the population is 7,414}
An artsy, liberal town, that's perfect for nature lovers (It's the gateway to Oregon's largest state park, and it's home to the Oregon Gardens, an 80-acre botanical park).
Located: About 45 miles South of Portland
Population: 9,433
Silverton's also been dubbed the Mural City. Visitors can pick up a walking map of downtown to tour the 14 mural, including one by Norman Rockwell.


After the parade we enjoyed more of downtown and then took our memories home with us.






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