pimblr.com

Gray and misty, Monday was a typical day for a Portland parade.
Reggie Fierro, a silver-mustachioed veteran of 10 Rose Festival Grand Floral Parades, crawled into the belly of the 2008 Reser’s Fine Foods float and flipped the “start” switch.
The 45-foot-long float adorned with a giant pirate holding a rose moved slowly down a Northwest Portland street, following the PGE float’s towering pink hearts. In the distance, the Tyrannosaurus rex on the Key Bank float lurched around a corner, its tailpipe puffing smoke.
Fierro, the top of his head poking out of the center of his float, drove nearly blind.
“I can’t see past that mountain of gold,” he said, nodding to the pile of burlap booty in the front of the pirate.
Think the Grand Floral Parade happens June 7? Well, sure, that’s the official event. But on the evening of Memorial Day, when no one was watching, 19 float drivers took the 2008 fleet out for a test-drive.
The pre-parade mini-parade in Northwest Portland’s industrial area is tradition, giving volunteer drivers and their guides a chance to work together before the big day.
“On Memorial Day, the neighborhood’s closed down,” said Kendra Comerford, vice president of Portland float-building company Studio Concepts. “We can sort of spread out all over the neighborhood.”
The faux festival lasted about 45 minutes, stretching a few blocks before making a U-turn and heading back to the Studio Concepts warehouse off Northwest Nicolai Street and 28th Avenue.
Oh, and most of the floats were what Comerford called “naked” — assembled and painted but without the flowers, seeds, rice, beans and other decorations that builders will start to apply this week. A few were nothing more than rough wood and wire frames on bus and truck chassis. One float looked more suited for “The Road Warrior” than the Rose Festival.

oregonlive.com

You did it. You’ve made it just shy of half a year. The un-official kick off to the summer is this weekend. As I have said before, if you have not followed through with your New Year’s resolutions by now, oh well. You know what? Enjoy it. Eat half a box of Krispy Kremes and wash them down with a Bay Breeze

hamptonroads.com

Rejoice ye stout gentlemen and fair maidens, Moseley Folk Festival has just announced its line-up.
Bigger and bolder than last year, which was bigger and bolder than the year before, the festival, at the end of August, has added the Friday to its calendar.
For the full line-up head straight here.
Friday night will be headed by Morcheeba. Last time I heard them they weren’t really folky, but they’ve been off the radar a while so expect them to return with an acoustic dent in their trip hop armour. Their capacity to pen a lovely tune and reach an audience is undisputed. A very English band.
Also on Friday is an appearance by The Accidental, a collaboration between Tunng and the Memory Band. Also returning on Friday are The Old Dance School whose youthful take on the ceilidh institution will guarantee a gentile rave.
Things pick up a gear on Saturday with a truly eclectic bill. The programmers have really come up trumps this year.
Jose Gonzalez is top of the bill. If you don’t know him, think back to that Sony Bravia advert when loads of fluorescent power balls were released down a hilly street in San Francisco. The soundtrack was Heartbeats, still Jose’s finest three minutes.
He knows his way round a guitar and has a lovely voice. It should be one of those moments when everyone sits down and holds hands.
Second on the Bill on Saturday are the Bees, the best band ever to come out of the Isle of Wight. Again, not strictly folk, they have a ramshackle approach to music making that is similar to the Incredible String Band. Hugely eclectic, the band will swap instruments on stage and share vocals.
They already have a cult following which will surely increase after their Saturday slot.

birminghampost.net

Photos by Jason Redmond / Star staff Evelyn Leon, 9, works on math problems with Bard Elementary School classmate Jocelyn Rosete. Evelyn’s drawing was the winner of the California Strawberry Festival Youth Art Contest.Fourth-grade student Evelyn Leon, left, reviews multiplication problems with classmate Jocelyn Rosete before taking a quiz in Isela Escamilla’s class at Bard Elementary School in Port Hueneme on Tuesday. afternoon. Leon’s drawing was the winner of the California Strawberry Festival Youth Art Contest. Escamilla used the contest in her combined third and fourth-grade class at an occasion to kick of studies focusing on the birthday of Cesar Chavez.
It’s like one of those full-circle-of-life tales featured in a movie.
Elementary school teacher Isela Escamilla, the daughter of farmworkers, won a scholarship in 1995 from the California Strawberry Commission to help pay for college.
After graduating and earning her credential, she returned to Oxnard, where she has taught for the past six years.
“I love teaching,” she said. “A different side of me comes out. It’s a high.”
So when organizers of the California Strawberry Festival sought applicants this year for its Youth Art Contest, Escamilla went to work.
“At the end of February we Googled strawberry images, and strawberries and farmworkers came up,” she said. “This led to a discussion of Cesar Chavez. As teachers, we are always looking for ways to incorporate art into language arts and history lessons.”
All 26 of her third- and fourth-grade students at Bard Elementary School in Port Hueneme entered the contest.
Last month, Escamilla learned that one of her students, 9-year-old Evelyn Leon, won — with a drawing of a large strawberry, ocean scene and palm trees.
“I live close to the ocean, so I thought I’d do an ocean picture,” said Evelyn, who received a $150 gift card for Lakeshore Learning Store and a $50 gift card for Target.

venturacountystar.com

For people locked in kitchen combat, the five contestants at the Berry Blast-off recipe contest May 6 at the Courtyard by Marriott hotel in Oxnard seemed to be quite congenial.
In spite of cramped quarters and only one small stove top, the Ventura County cooks graciously shared space while creating culinary masterpieces that were then judged by a panel to determine the two finalists to compete Saturday at the 25th annual California Strawberry Festival.
The finalists’ recipes had been selected by a panel of local chefs and representatives from the festival board out of more than 25 submitted.
The rules called for original recipes that featured strawberries as a key ingredient and didn’t require baking.
Contestants had to bring all ingredients besides strawberries and the recipe needed to serve six. They had 60 minutes to prepare and present their dishes.
“I looked through our past recipes. I wanted something that hasn’t been done before,” event coordinator Lisa Carey said, explaining the winnowing process.
The finalists were Wendy Taber of Ventura, who prepared a Strawberry Gazpacho Salad with Tangy Lime Vinaigrette; Kateri Lawson of Ventura, who prepared Mediterranean Strawberry Quesadillas; Krista Slack of Simi Valley, who prepared Turkey Cutlets with Strawberry Black Pepper Sauce; Debbie McDermott of Thousand Oaks, who made Strawberry Tiramisu; and Bernie Barnes of Camarillo, who made Strawberry UFOs in Snow.
Each cook was given a small space in the kitchen of the hotel to prepare the dishes.
As they waited to start, the contestants milled around, worrying about whether they had forgotten a key ingredient. McDermott realized she hadn’t packed a platter for her tiramisu, but the kitchen staff was able to get her a round metal one, which she covered in doilies.
Strawberry Festival manager Bonnie Weigle provided the countdown and all conversations ceased as the room was filled with the sounds of chopping blades and the smell of fresh-cut strawberries.

venturacountystar.com

Jules Vernes characters went around the world in 80 days. Southwestern College students did it in a few minutes.
The Associated Student Organization hosted its 19th Annual Festival of Nations celebration as diverse as SWC in front of the Student Center Amphitheater.
Music, dancing, food and enlightening information from cultures such as Japan, England, Bali, Lebanon and Syria punctuated an energized throng. Fragrant foods lured visitors to the tables to get a taste of the delicious spreads that each country has to offer.
Syrian-American SWC student Eman Deiranien said she was proud to represent her parents’ native land, though she made it clear she is an American in her heart. Born in the United States, Deiranien’s family went back to Syria for about five years when she was four years old so she could learn more about her native land. Deiranien’s parents wanted her to be educated in her culture and learn the Arabic language.
She said she is very proud of her culture and the country of Syria, but she does not want to go back there.
“My dad’s work is here and my mom,” said Deiranien. “Our life is here.”
Deiranien attended the event with her sisters and mother. They were all dressed in hijabs, which is the traditional garment that women wear. These garments are controversial in Western countries, particularly among women’s rights advocates.
“We wear it when we reach puberty,” said Deiranien. “It is your choice, but your parents recommend that you wear it. Covering your face is your choice, completely your choice. The only thing you have to do is cover your hair and your elbows and your ankles.”
Syrian men do not have to wear restrictive clothing, she said. Many from the country have to attend mosque every Friday for prayer around noon.
Rita Toubia was born and raised in Lebanon, a proud nation full of well-educated, intellectual people. Toubia moved to San Diego four years ago and has no plans to return to her native land, which she said is wrecked by corrupt politics and lingering effects of Civil War. Lebanon is a small country and considered to be third world. It has religious tensions between Muslim, Druze and Christians. The 1975-90 civil war damaged the country’s economy and infrastructure. Lebanon is on a slow road to recovery. Lebanese food includes a dish called Tabouleh, a meal that includes parsley, tomatoes, onion, olive oil, lemon juice and ground meat. There was also hummus, ground garbanzo beans with a sesame base. Their famous dessert is Baklava, a Lebanon dough wrapped in pecans drenched in honey.

southwesterncollegesun.com

MERIDEN - Donald Drust took a chance a decade ago, moving his family from New Jersey to take over operations at the ShopRite on South Broad Street. With that commitment came another to the community, and now that effort is being recognized with a major honor.
Drust is grand marshal of this year’s Daffodil Festival parade, the central event in Meriden’s spring celebration.
“Once his name came up it was like, ‘Why didn’t we select him before?’ ” said Mark Zebora, the city’s director of parks and recreation.
Drust was selected by the 28-member Daffodil Festival Committee to lead Saturday’s “Daffodils on Parade” event, along with this year’s Little Miss Daffodil, crowned on Wednesday, and her honor escort.

myrecordjournal.com

I’m standing in the middle of a weed-strewn wasteland, looking for the sculpture park that’s part of the Berlin Biennial. In the distance, some overdressed people are stumbling around a patch of ground that was once the “death strip” beside the Berlin Wall. Music wafts from a mound of rubble. Someone is peering intently at a birch tree. It has a label - this must be the art.
Dotted about the place, various other works resemble abandoned billboards, bus shelters and shanty dwellings. A series of holes decorate one patch of earth, as if excavated with a giant ice-cream scoop. This miserable patch of churned, fallow ground in the centre of Berlin has been squabbled over by developers ever since unification; it is a place with a haunted past and a contested present.
Among the broken lumps of masonry and rubbish is a shed in which a film by Lars Laumann tells the story of a Swedish woman who fell in love with the Berlin Wall and now believes they are husband and wife. In the dark, my jaw dropped. The story, I realised, is not a spoof. Eija-Riitta Berliner-Mauer really is Mrs Berlin Wall, and lives with her now retired husband, in the form of various small barbed-wire-topped models of himself, in a village in northern Sweden. She says the day the wall came down was an absolute disaster, but she loves her wall just the same. As well as her beloved husband and numerous cats, she also keeps various scale-models of guillotines for company. What turns her on is parallel lines, rectangular shapes, forms that divide (such as walls), and others that connect (such as bridges). Don’t ask about the guillotines. She says she’s an object-sexualist, and believes that objects have souls, feelings, desires and thoughts they share with her telepathically. Which isn’t all that different from the art critic who also believes that man-made objects can talk and hold secrets they can share. Admitting you’re an art lover might say more about you than you think.

arts.guardian.co.uk

Thwack, thump, thwack, thump, thump. The sound of more than 30 hollow-gourd drums hitting the floor rumbles through a no-frills suite in a strip mall in west Tempe.
Drummers, young and old, are seated on gray carpet, alternately striking the sides of their instruments - called "ipu heke"- and lowering them to the floor. As the beat builds, they begin to sing:
Noho nani mai
"Be careful with your Hawaiian words!" their teacher urges over the rising music. "If you have the ‘U’ sound, don’t be afraid to shape your mouth so that sound comes out nice and strong!"
As the song’s lyrics become more pronounced, the teacher, Kaimikahu Valdez, doesn’t miss a beat. Within seconds, she slaps her drum, rolls her hand from pinky to thumb on the side of the instrument, drops it to the ground and starts the sequence over again, singing all the while.
Valdez, owner of Kaimikahu Hale O Hula in Tempe, is leading a rehearsal of the "Lili’u e," a Hawaiian song honoring the islands’ last reigning monarch, Queen Lili’uokalani. The group, along with about 60 other drummers from halaus - or hula schools - across the Valley, will perform the song Saturday as part of opening ceremonies at the Arizona Aloha Festival in Phoenix.
The two-day event, in its 14th year, draws 80,000 to 100,000 people to Heritage and Science Park to experience the culture of the Pacific islands, according to planning chairwoman Lacretia Bacon.
"There have been Pacific Islanders in Arizona for a long time, and we have a wonderfully rich community in the Valley," she says.
Two stages will feature live music, dance, martial arts and storytelling from a variety of Polynesian cultures. Craft-making booths, a souvenir marketplace, and areas where you can learn to play the ukulele or speak Hawaiian phrases will be available. A food court will offer island-inspired food and shaved ice.

eastvalleytribune.com

Taxi to the Dark Side
Directed by Alex Gibney
Reviewed by Sean Burns Opens Fri., Feb. 22
First the title: The taxi belonged to a poor bastard named Dilawar, who happened to be in the wrong part of Afghanistan at the wrong time. The “dark side” is where our esteemed Vice President Dick Cheney rather ominously informs Tim Russert, in a clip fromMeet the Press, that we’re going to have to work sometimes.
As for how dark—you’ve probably already had some inkling but decided you didn’t really want to know. After all, our Congress and the national news media spent more time last week worried about who injected what into Roger Clemens’ buttcheeks than on the question of waterboarding. But Alex Gibney’s horrifying documentary won’t let you look away, building to a staggering indictment of Bush-era POW abuse (or “enemy combatant abuse,” if you must) that’s full of evidence both barbaric and revolting. The movie made me physically sick.
Dilawar was an innocent man beaten and tortured to death by U.S. soldiers in Bagram Air Base Prison, and his was just the first of many cases to be deemed homicides over these past few years. (Predictably, initial news reports claimed that Dilawar died of natural causes.) Through some shocking interviews with the deceased’s disgraced interrogators, Gibney begins to uncover a larger, more insidious pattern of barely trained young men and women shoved into impossible situations with only the vaguest set of behavioral guidelines, but unbelievable pressure to produce results. It was only a matter of time, the movie argues, before Bagram led to Abu Ghraib.

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