Poetry from the Past - Awakening the Poems from the Poetry Slams of Old

Bring Me Down

Negative energy surrounds me
It has found me
It's all around
And kicks me to the ground
I'm bound
To fail
To be arrested without bail
And get seperated from my trail
I complain
About the strain
And the pain
That constantly keeps me down
And out
I live in doubt
I live without
The ability to shout
As I'm drowning
And I'm frowning
Because I can't
Rant and rave
I'm a slave
To the unspoken
I have the token
To silence...

Love is a Maze

Love is a maze
Psychological haze
A phase
We go through
A groove we flow to
That's unknown to
Those around
That surround
Your outer shell
That fights off all hell
But no one can tell
They can't read
Or feed...your need
For the maze, that's ablaze
It's love, that's all
But you can't catch me if I fall
I'm out of reach
Amd you can't breach
The wall
Of reality
It's so hard to see
So I crash and burn
And I learn
That love hurts
And it won't work
If you don't reciprocate
Or anticipate
The blind love within
It's a win-win situation
Without frustration
If you follow your heart
And you begin to see
It's there between you and me
We're in the haze
Amongst the maze and in the groove
Nothing left to do
But give in; give up
And follow me, into the love

Community Puts Stock in it's Own Market - Mosaic - Spring 2009 Edition

Community puts stock in its own market
by Alison Egan-Lodjic Photos by Chris Pollard — last modified 2009-06-03 13:48

Economic consciousness fuels support of local artisans and farmers at the Saturday Market.
Home to the original Saturday Market, Eugene tries to live up to its motto as “The World’s Greatest City of the Arts and Outdoors” from the first Saturday in April to mid-November.Despite the shrinking economy, Eugene’s tight, close-knit community has proved that a “succeed together or fail alone” mentality can fight off these economic woes.

“I think that right now, more than ever before, folks really think about where to put their money,” said Beth Little, general manager of the market for the past 10 years. “Buying local products in order to keep your own earnings in the town you live in is a viable form of economic development. I think folks are shopping at the market on purpose, to ‘walk their talk.’”

The corners of 8th Avenue and Oak Street are filled with customers taking in the sweet smells of hand-made candles and woodwork. The sound of a bluegrass band playing at the International Food Court echoes through the market, and the spicy aroma of Pad Thai and tamales lure shoppers to the booths. The area is buzzing and every booth has a line at least five people long. “This is the strongest start, according to income, we have had under my management,” Little said. Each year, she said, the market brings in millions of dollars to the local economy.The Saturday Market organization has 459 members, and about 250 booths set up each week. By the end of the year, Little expects to have more than 600 members.

This year, the market welcomed Nicole Peltz, chef and co-owner of Field to Table Private Dining & Catering.“As tough as the recession is, it’s not about closing businesses; it’s also about opening businesses,” Peltz said of her six-month-old business. Because of the declining economy, it was less expensive for her to jump into the service industry. “We’re making a profit and getting our name out there,” Peltz said.

Michael Bertotti has been selling at Eugene's Saturday Market for 30 years. From his booth, White Light Services, he has noticed the changing face of the market. Field to Table Catering uses local products, and Peltz attributes its success to Eugene’s locally focused and environmentally friendly community.

Despite the state’s 12 percent unemployment rate, vendors at the market have noticed only slight changes in sales patterns since opening April 4. Devon Bonady of the Fern Hill Nursery and Botanical Sanctuary has observed a rampant trend of consumer consciousness and buying locally farmed and made. Bonady said this year some of her “regulars” haven’t shown up, but in their stead, a newer, younger population has contributed to her business. “A lot more people are excited about gardening, probably because of the increased food cost,” Bonady said. “The consciousness about local foods will help the local economy.”

Cindia Carrere, jewelry crafter and owner of the Cinderella Lucinda booth, notes other benefits to staying local. “I think people are starving for that community connection,” she said.Carrere said although the news bombards viewers with recession horror stories, many consumers are prevailing.“I make a mental note every time I hear good stories that involve money and nobody crabbing about it,” she said.

For pictures: http://mosaic.uoregon.edu/newsmagazine/business/community-puts-stock-in-its-own-market/?searchterm=None

Embracing Death - Artist Profile - Analee Fuentes - Ethos Magazine Spring 2009

Embracing Death
by Alison Egan-Lodjic
Story by Alison Egan-Lodjic Photos by Chris Parker

Analee Fuentes’ Coburg, Oregon, home is covered in her own work. Drinking tea from a mug featuring Vincent Van Gogh’s Starry Night, she directs attention to the skeletal figures on her windowsill and then to a wall size painting of her grandmother on a sofa surrounded by flying tacos. Although mostly of her own creation, Fuentes’ decor is a testament to her talent, not her pride. But the true introduction to this Mexican American artist lies across her garden and in her studio.Natural lighting is abundant in her cluttered yet creative workspace. “I’m kind of a pack rat,” Fuentes admits as she pulls out small animal skulls, bones, and a snakeskin—a tribute to her love of finding and collecting strange things. Death inspires her, as seen in her skeletal depiction of Bona Lisa, and her self-portrait with the bony figure of death embracing her. Fuentes calls death a “companion,” saying, “Me and death are good buddies. I have my skeleton as a physical reminder when I’m in here. I light my incense and talk to my ancestors, it’s a little ceremony, it’s good for me, even when my work changes or I’m doing something else. It’s very ritualistic.”

Her ancestry, family, and heritage all contribute to her work. Fuentes’ use of bright vivid colors and imagery creates canvases indicative of her Latina culture. Fuentes’ main source of inspiration is her family; her sister, mother, and grandfather are all artistically inclined. Artists such as Frida Kahlo, Diego Velásquez, Alfred Quiroz, and other contemporary artists also contribute to her visions.Fuentes’ mother had a genuine appreciation of the arts—and not just in terms of visual art. “For a poor Mexican woman she was amazing,” Fuentes says. “She would listen to opera, she would take us to the museums and to the park. She was always appreciating art, she was always making something. Her favorite medium was clay, she made jewelry, she cut paper stuff; she was always doing art.” Fuentes says her natural artistic ability is the “family curse.” It has become a part of her way of life and the way she thinks about and relates to the world. “I think drawing and painting are like language,” Fuentes says, “It’s a way to speak without having to deal with the medium of words.”

On her website, Fuentes says, “My upbringing informs every stroke of what I paint.” She explains that her mother “always used to tell [Fuentes] that making art was like eating, that everybody needed to make art.” And although blessed with natural talent, making of art for Fuentes wasn’t always that simple. For a period of time, art wasn’t essential to her way of life.At one point in her life, Fuentes decided to become a nurse. “I was a vocational nurse,” she says. “Everybody says you can always find work as a nurse and I suppose that’s true, but I think you also think you have to find some real gratification in your work for it to be long-lasting.” And for Fuentes, nothing was as gratifying as her artwork. So, after about a decade as a nurse, she returned to her true calling: her art.Her family first planted the seed that art is good and art is necessary. And in her formative years, through schooling and early experience with nursing, her love of working with the figure along with the tradition of The Day of the Dead, led to her study of and devotion to art.

Everything ended up pulling her back towards creating art.“I fought off doing art for as long as I could and then one day I just decided I was going to go back to school. I thought I’d try graphic design because that was the logical choice in terms of blending a job and art. I found out after the first year that I was just not made for art on the computer or precise stuff. I wanted to be more expressive. I knew that it wasn’t going to be something such as “commercial art.” I knew it was going to be more expressive. By that time I had a baby, I was also trying to figure out how I would fit into a work life with an art degree, and I liked the idea of teaching. I thought maybe if I’m lucky, and I’m really lucky … I’ll be good enough and have good enough skills and communication I might be able to find a teaching job. That really was the target.”In 1987, Fuentes began teaching at Lane Community College in Cottage Grove. She instructed a non-credit class for children and their parents. Fuentes called the class an “extension of my early upbringing,” saying, “[I] thought it would be cool if father, mother, and child came in and could create something together. It was a start, and I started working everywhere I could to get experience in teaching.”

For Fuentes, nothing was as gratifying as her artwork. So, after about a decade as a nurse, she returned to her true calling: her art.And although at the time her daughter was young, Fuentes was still able to focus on creating her own art. “I’ve had strands of work that have been more commercial and I know what commercial art looks like,” she says, claiming it’s more decorative. “If I had to survive as an artist, if for some reason I wasn’t able to teach, I would probably move towards the things that I also love.”Fuentes says, “I love gold and stuff that’s sparkly, I love organic line and overdone; I mean if I’m not careful things get real[ly] overdone in here and I have to back up a little bit.” She refers to this style as “Mexican Baroque;” her definition of excess. “I think there’s some of that in some of these pieces, Baroque is usually associated with ornate and beautiful, apparent in much of the different Chicano art, along with the tendency to embellish.”Fuentes’ embellishments are seen in her work with the figure, the body, and her representations of death.

From an early age, she was exposed to the tradition of The Day of the Dead, and the fact that in her culture, death isn’t a finality. “You go to a person’s gravesite and talk about them,” she says, “which isn’t implying that it isn’t a sad event, but it’s not a finality. I still talk to my mother and my grandmother; they are still a part of my life.”She goes on to say, “I think that death is going to come to all of us, in other words, we better have a really good time while we’re here, make the best of it in fact.” She says that The Day of the Dead “makes fun” of death, illustrating that it’s inevitable; a reminder to make the most of life. “In that way,” Fuentes says, “It’s not morbid or even depressing, it’s kind of like, ‘you know, hurry, you better have fun, you better make the most of it because that’s the end for all of us.’ Life and death are more of a mesh, more of a circle, a cyclical event.”

Raised with this kind of mentality that death can be silly and non-threatening, Fuentes says, “I think it models the way you experience and the way you live your lives,” which she brings out in all of her paintings. Some of her paintings have a specific intent while some are abstract, ranging from commissioned and commercial, to expressive.

However, a few of her paintings are just for her. One of her favorite mediums to work with, charcoal, helped her make two beautiful portraits of her mother and daughter. “I think those are the only ones that I probably wouldn’t put a price tag on, these just have a different feel to them; it’s family stuff.”And it’s all that “family stuff” that keeps her rich in tradition, ritual, and culture. But it’s only in recent years that her culture has grown close to her. Fuentes says that when she first arrived to the states in 1983, it was rare to hear people speaking Spanish. These days, according to recent statistics, one in every six children in Oregon public schools is Latino. “It’s a big brown wave. It’s great. I think diversity is important; it’s really the cornerstone of democracy. We learn about one another as human beings and how wonderfully different we can be. The browning of Oregon will be something that people have to deal with in one way or another.” It’s through her creativity and onto a canvas that Analee Fuentes embraces the growing diversity of Oregon, and shares her culture with fellow Mexican Americans, her students, colleagues, and patrons of her art.

See Full Story with Pictures : http://ethos.uoregon.edu/online-only/embracing-death

Lonnie Stoner - The UnCUT

The Hardest Working Stoner in Eugene
By Alison Chriss


Stoner keeps a personal Hall of Fame plastered on his walls so that when you enter his house you see his face once in the flesh and fifty times again in frames. Look closely and see his face coming out of Gene Simmons ass, or find him four people away from Dave Matthews. There he is with his arm around local radio-lady, Downtown Deb, and another with close personal friends, the Zen Tricksters. Walk into his kitchen and above an insane collection of Celestial Seasonings and Yogi Tea, and a shelf of stale peeps, assorted candy, cookies, chips and overall junk food buffet, is the “Woodstock Wall” decorated in posters and photographs from the legendary 1969 show.
He may just be the hardest working Stoner in Eugene, Oregon. Dubbed by the Barenaked Ladies as “The Best Name in Rock and Roll” before their musical tribute to his unusual name, Lonnie Stoner, roadie-extraordinaire and video technician sits amidst the hidden talent of the city. When he returns home “to rejoin his life in progress,” he says Eugene is also where, “I come to lick my wounds.”
Stoner said that for him, Eugene is just the place to be. Originally drawn to the area for the annual Country Fair, his visit he said that by the time he left, he said “Yep, this is where I’m comin’.’” Born in Sacramento and raised in San Francisco he left California after about 35 years. He says his stuff has been in Eugene for about three years, but he’s only really been here for a year and a half, on and off.
Puff Daddy spat Cristal in his face and Brad Pitt requested where to get condoms from him – with a spit clause in his contract and safe-sex knowledge, he has toured the world with and recorded the beautiful and crazy moments of Mariah Carey, Eminem, and The Who, to name a few. His collaged walls and collection of concert DVD’s with his name racing by in the credits, serve as proof of his proximity to fame.
He grew up loving video. “I was one of those kids that got yelled at for watching too much TV, and all I can tell parents is, ‘Hey, bear with your kids because they will get something out of it.’” At about age 15 he would sneak out at night to work the graveyard shift at a local radio station. He was in the military for three years, where he received his GED and according to Stoner, that was one of the things that helped prepare him for the regimen of the whole “get up and do it again.” He was in radio promotion for awhile, which took him around quite a bit. He joined the Bill Graham organization, not to be confused with the Evangelist, Billy Graham, and that job opened doors to many opportunities.
Stoner called Bill Graham, quite the promoter, and said he was a great inspiration to him. Graham is credited with setting the standard for large-scale, well-produced rock shows and connected Stoner with The Pretenders and Jesus Jones. Graham died in October 1991, leaving an absence of and the loss of a strong figure in Stoner’s life. After Graham’s death “I kicked around for about a year and did anything and everything I possibly could do that wasn’t involved with music,” he said.
Later, he visited a friend who owned a video and tour warehouse. Stoner said he made a “tacky comment” about how unorganized the facility was and he was hired to organize it. He worked there for three years and just watched it all, wanting to get in on the action. He explained his frustration during his tenure at the warehouse: “I kept watching Tina Turner go out the door, Paul McCartney went out the door, all these tours that they were doing and constantly promising me, promising me, then finally I quit,” he said. Then he got his “backstage pass” and got a job on the Kiss tour. “That was basically my college,” he said, “doin’ Kiss for five years I could basically go just about anywhere I wanted in the video business…only because it was like surviving a war. I was still mentally intact, sort of.”
During his five year stint with Kiss, Stoner was on his way to bachelor-hood, divorcing his wife, from which he adopted his legendary name. Believing it’s never too late to reinvent yourself, and being born without knowing his father, he says the name on his birth certificate is fictitious to him. “It’s a name that doesn’t exist with anything,” he explained. So, when he met, fell in love with and married Mary Anne Stoner, her father became more of a father to him than any other male role model. He thought, “Hey, why can’t I? She can take my name so why can’t I take hers?” He took his wife’s name all those years ago and he kept it!
After Stoner left the tour, applying for other “roadie” positions became much easier. At an interview for a job he applied for, he said, “The guy paused after I told him I did Kiss for five years and he said, ‘Oh my God, are you ok?’ And I said, ‘Yeah,’ and he goes, ‘Ok, how soon can you start?” With this position he continued his education and transformation into a Lonnie Stoner of all trades.
He loves to take pictures, and just bought a new Nikon camera, but is far more a video connoisseur. He summed up his video experience and commented that, “It’s not that I know what a good shot is, so much as I know what a bad shot is.” He continued, “You can look at any television and you know when something is being presented to you as an art form or whether it’s just being thrown at you.”
Presenting art forms and living on the road, Stoner most recently returned to his south Eugene home from working on the Journey, Heart and Cheap Trick Tour. Other great acts on his resume, and some featured on his wall, include Carrie Underwood and Keith Urban. He’s worked with a few other rap acts including, Fat Joe, for whom he contributed to a video, Foxy Brown and Lil’ Kim, who he witnessed get into a “knock-down drag-out dispute.” He also worked at Lollapalooza and the Tibetan Freedom Fest, which is where he met and spoke with Brad Pitt.
He said at the Tibetan Freedom Fest, “My job was to sit backstage with the stationary camera, and they would bring people in to interview them; I was the sound guy.” He explained that Brad Pitt had just started dating Jennifer Aniston and at one point during the middle of the interview, they stop and take a break and “He leans in and he asks me my name and if I know where to get any condoms,” said Stoner. “Knowing that there was a safe sex booth, Planned Parenthood thing right down the row I said, ‘Yeah, I’ll be back in a minute’ and I went and got him some condoms. I tell the story to my friends at home and they’re like ‘Yeah, sure.’ About a week later, headlines of the National Inquirer said ‘Brad Pitt Seeks Condoms at Tibetan Freedom Fest and Can’t Find Them.’ Now, I myself wanted to call and say ‘Hello! Get your story straight because I’m the one who gave them to him.”
Stoner explains that with a life on the road, and working on tours that “roadie-ism” is a double-edged sword: “I feel proud of being there but at the same time people get the image they’re all ‘groadie.’”Although each video and tour he’s been credited on gives him various titles, overall he is a video technician. They “basically pay me for my zooming and focusing abilities,” he said.
Stoner said he want to shift over to director soon; he directed some of the filming for Heart but has yet to be credited. He also directed some rap acts, with some credited and others not. He is pushing this year to become a “fledgling director,” as he calls it. He may be home in Eugene for now but his future plans are anything but uncertain and since his return last fall from the Journey, Heart and Cheap Trick tour, he has been anything but lazy.
Finding a local job is difficult for him. He’s a member of the Eugene chapter of the theatrical stagehand union, recently working as an electrician for the Hult Center’s production of Annie. “Realistically, in this business, unless you have a job already lined up that’s the next step – you’re looking for another job,” he said.
In terms of music industry insight, Stoner explains, “Most of what I do is on a large scale because, when you go out of theaters into arenas, you need video.” He explains that there has to be some kind of justification for that last seat in the house being $100.00. Video is a luxury and he explained it’s the last element added and the first cut out of a concert experience. He said, “The field I’m in is kind of limited but fortunately, I’ve been doing it so long.”
Life on the road has its ups and downs like anything else. “You make damn good money when you’re on the road but you have to balance it because when you come home, you’re not making anything,” he said. Supporting whatever you have going on at home is key; his decorated home proves his ability to do so.
He keeps a very open mind in work and in life. He has to try everything until he finds something he “jives” with. He says he still doesn’t feel like he’s found it. Perhaps his “fledgling directing” will be his big ticket in the business. However, he stressed that if you’re chasing the dollar sign, you’re probably in the business for the wrong reason. Stoner’s reason for being in the business boiled down to, “I loved going to concerts, but I didn’t like paying for tickets,” he said. “I guess the thing that I love about music is it’s universal – no matter where you go, there’s a sound there’s a noise, there’s a resonance.” He believes that music soothes the savage beast and is an infinite thing; it’s always been here and will always be here.
The music has taken this Stoner on many whirlwind adventures. With directing in his future, that dream tour may be just around the corner. He said if he could tour with anyone he would pick two: Pink Floyd or Led Zeppelin. He admits his real dream tour would be “One that lasts a couple of years and pays very, very well – oh, oh and get treated like a human being.” He elaborated saying that on tours like The Who and Dave Matthews Band, when you don’t have a want or a need that can’t be met, that’s the dream right there.
For now, he said, “I’m on a list of fresh meat that knows how to curl a cable; they call me and ask if I’m available, and when I’m not working, I call them and say, ‘I’m available.’ It’s a two way street.” His current plan is to pick up a leg of the Keith Urban 2009 tour in March. Stoner claims he lives just one minute at a time and one day at a time, but unlike the popular addiction recovery mantra, he says, “It’s not twelve steps, its life.”
Lonnie Stoner reflected on his past, present and future and said, “To me, this whole thing is just…bizarre. I mean I’m a ghetto kid from Sacramento, what do I know about any of this stuff?” His narcissistic tendencies ambivalently matched with self-humbling comments makes you wonder if he is even aware of his achievements, or if he is just so accustomed to a lonely life on the road, the lifestyles of the rich and the famous, that it’s just another day. This self-proclaimed “legend in his own lunch-time,” 52-year-old, prolific roadie-extraordinaire gained a flexibility in career from living a life on tour, and will keep him going with the flow (as flowy as his long, gray and weathered hair) until he ends up shrugging his shoulders in Eugene again to plan his next production.

Lonnie Stoner Profile

The Hardest Working Stoner in Eugene
The “Blurse” of the Man, the Music and the Industry
By Alison Chriss

Step inside and instantly see the visually bombarding, personal Hall of Fame, covering the biggest wall of his home. Look closely and see his face coming out of Gene Simmons ass in one photo, another of him four people away from Dave Matthews, one with his arm around local radio-lady, Downtown Deb, and another with close, personal friends, the Zen Tricksters. He may just be the hardest working Stoner in Eugene, Oregon. Dubbed by the Barenaked Ladies as “The Best Name in Rock and Roll,” Lonnie Stoner, roadie-extraordinaire and video technician sits amidst the hidden talent of the city. He returns home to rejoin his life in progress, as he says, and claims Eugene is also where, “I come to lick my wounds.”
Stoner sits on his couch with his long, gray, stringy hair tied back behind him, wearing black cargo pants, boots and a plain, inconspicuous t-shirt peering through his glasses at his huge flat screen and watching the final product of his video work with Mariah Carey. He jokes about Carey’s stylist telling him what shampoo to use. Then he talked about being home saying that, for him, Eugene is just the place to be. Originally from California, he was drawn to the area for the annual Country Fair. By the time he left, he said “Yep, this is where I’m comin’.” He says his stuff has been in Eugene for about three years, but he’s only really been here for about a year and a half, on and off. The rest of his time has been spent on the road with musicians and a who’s who of random celebrities. He refers to his life in the industry a “Blurse,” which he describes as both a blessing and a curse.
Puff Daddy spat Cristal in his face and Brad Pitt requested where to get condoms from him – with a spit clause in his contract and safe-sex knowledge, he has toured the world with and recorded the epic and crazy moments of Eminem, Journey, Heart, Cheap Trick and The Who, to name a few. His collaged walls and collection of concert DVD’s with his name racing by in the credits, serve as proof of his proximity to fame, but leave out the amazing tale of just how he got there.
“I was one of those kids that got yelled at for watching too much TV, and all I can tell parents is, ‘Hey, bear with your kids because they will get something out of it,’” he said. As a teenager he would sneak out at night to work the graveyard shift at a local radio station. He was in the military for three years, where he received his GED. According to Stoner, the military contributed to helping him prepare for the regimen of the whole “get up and do it again.” He moved into radio promotion as he joined the Bill Graham organization, not to be confused with the Evangelist, Billy Graham, working with him for 12 years.
Stoner called Bill Graham quite the promoter and said he was a great inspiration to him. Graham is credited with setting the standard for large-scale, well-produced rock shows and he connected Stoner with The Pretenders, Jackson Browne, Bob Dylan, Jesus Jones and countless others for a few shows or a leg of a tour. He worked as a production assistant until Bill Graham died in 1991, leaving an absence and loss of a strong figure in Stoner’s life. After Graham’s death, he said, “I kicked around for about a year and did anything and everything I possibly could do that wasn’t involved with music.”
Anything and everything included being a cab driver for a few years, but he said, “Everything I’ve done has always come back to music.” This inevitably led him to a friend who owned a tour and video warehouse. Stoner said he made a “tacky comment” about how unorganized the facility was and he was hired to fix it, spending three years as a “warehouse rat.” He explained his frustration during his tenure at the warehouse: “I kept watching Tina Turner go out the door; Paul McCartney went out the door, all these tours that they were doing and constantly promising me, promising me, then finally I quit,” he said, “and then I got Kiss.” Working with Kiss, he explained, “That was basically my college. Doin’ Kiss for five years I could basically go just about anywhere I wanted in the video business…only because it was like surviving a war. I was still mentally intact, sort of.”
During his five year position with Kiss, Stoner was on his way to bachelor-hood, divorcing his wife, from which he adopted his wonderful last name. He says it’s never too late to reinvent yourself, and since he was born without knowing who his father was, the name on his birth certificate was fictitious to him. “It’s a name that doesn’t exist with anything,” he explained. When he met, fell in love with and married Mary Anne Stoner, her father became more of a father to him than any other male in his life. He thought, “Hey, why can’t I? She can take my name so why can’t I take hers?” And he took it, and kept it.
Post-Kiss, applying for other “roadie” positions became much easier. During an interview for a job he applied for, he said, “The guy paused after I told him I did Kiss for five years and he said, ‘Oh my God, are you ok?’ And I said, ‘Yeah,’ and he goes, ‘Ok, how soon can you start?” With new jobs at his disposal he continued to grow professionally and expand his video education and capabilities. With no previous, formal training, just a love of video and music, he explained, “It’s not that I know what a good shot is, so much as I know what a bad shot is.” He continued, “You can look at any television and you know when something is being presented to you as an art form or whether it’s just being thrown at you.”
Stoner most recently returned to home from working on the Journey, Heart and Cheap Trick Tour. Other great acts on his resume, and some featured on his wall, include Carrie Underwood, Keith Urban and the Dave Matthews Band. He’s worked with a few other rap acts including, Fat Joe, for whom he contributed to a video, and Foxy Brown and Lil’ Kim, who he witnessed get into a “knock-down drag-out dispute.” He also worked at Lollapalooza and the Tibetan Freedom Fest, which is where he met and spoke with Brad Pitt.
At the Tibetan Freedom Fest, “My job was to sit backstage with the stationary camera,” he said, “And they would bring people in to interview them; I was the sound guy.” He explained that Brad Pitt had just started dating Jennifer Aniston and at one point during the middle of the interview, they stop and take a break and “He leans in and he asks me my name and if I know where to get any condoms,” said Stoner. “Knowing that there was a safe sex booth, Planned Parenthood thing right down the row I said, ‘Yeah, I’ll be back in a minute’ and I went and got him some condoms. I tell the story to my friends at home and they’re like ‘Yeah, sure.’ About a week later, headlines of the National Inquirer said ‘Brad Pitt Seeks Condoms at Tibetan Freedom Fest and Can’t Find Them.’ Now, I myself wanted to call and say ‘Hello! Get your story straight because I’m the one who gave them to him.’”
Stoner has many backstage tales but admits, “A lot of it I’ve forgotten about; the short attention span helps. There are very few tours where you don’t have at least one meltdown,” he said. Although it can be a tough, arduous working environment, being a roadie affords him a unique brand of luxury. He admits it can be a lonely life and he can’t really keep relationships with a significant other, but touring gives him the opportunity to come home to Eugene and do whatever he wants to do, even if it’s more video work.
It’s hard for him to find a local job, as he says there’s not a whole lot of video stuff outside of sports in Eugene. He works with the theatrical stagehand union locally, recently working as an electrician for the Hult Center’s production of Annie. “Realistically, in this business, unless you have a job already lined up that’s the next step – you’re looking for another job,” he said. “Fortunately, there are hundreds of bands out there.”
In terms of industry insight he says, “You make damn good money when you’re on the road but you have to balance it because when you come home, you’re not making anything,” he said. “You have to be able to support whatever you have going on at home.” However, he stressed that “If you’re chasing the dollar sign, you’re probably in the business for the wrong reason.” Stoner said his reason for being a part of the business is, “I loved going to concerts, but I didn’t like paying for tickets,” he said.
Besides the perks of free shows, he elaborates on music being such a huge part of his life. He explains that the music drives him, opens new doors, and keeps him going. The music is his motivation. He said, “I guess the thing that I love about music is its universal – no matter where you go, there’s a sound there’s a noise, there’s a resonance. Music does soothe the savage beast; it’s an infinite thing, it’s always been here and will always be here.”
Knowing that music is the constant in his life, Stoner reflects on where it will take him next. “I just gotta try everything ‘til I find something I jive with,” he said, “I still don’t feel like I’ve found it.” While looking, his next move is exploring a new area of video; he will be shifting over to director soon. He directed some of the filming for Heart but hasn’t been credited, which has happened with other past projects as well. This year he’s pushing to become a “fledgling director,” as he calls it. Meanwhile, he enjoys being home. He visits friends, shares souvenirs, and continues to plaster his walls and photo album pages with concert paraphernalia.
For now, he said, “I’m on a list of fresh meat that knows how to curl a cable; they call me and ask if I’m available, and when I’m not working, I call them and say, ‘I’m available.’” The two-way street, as he explains, of being on the list of availability, got him a job on tour with Keith Urban again. Cherishing his last moments off the road, he’s ready and excited to get back to work.
After all he’s seen and done, Stoner says he lives just one minute at a time and one day at a time, and that “It’s not twelve steps, its life.” His life has taken him from the bottom to the top with music as his inspiration and the driving factor for his occupation. With aspirations of video directing, his next steps are sure to create even more legendary stories, pictures and media to fill his Eugene home. For now, he’s “On the road again…”

Green Day Album Review

Prolific punk rockers, Green Day, left their days of Nimrod, Kerplunk and Basket Case with their 2004 album, American Idiot. Following the same format, Green Day's current installment - 21st Century Breakdown - gives listeners exactly what the title warns: a complete breakdown of their music into something so "meh" there is much left to be desired.

Green Day made history by writing songs about nothing that in turn, meant everything! "Good Riddance" makes people cry even now, "Welcome to Paradise" still gets fans pumped and "Basket Case" will forever rear it's head at talent shows and on Guitar Hero and Rock Band playlists a lot. The band attracted a fresh, young, new and careless crowd in the ninties. With American Idiot, they blew everyone away with their eyeshadow, matching outfits and the ability to grow, musically, and mentally with their political satire and wannabe-activist tunes. "American Idiot" helped fans rock against Bush Jr., in it's "rock opera" form and "Suburban Jesus" was both insightful and quite the musical acheivement for the three-chord masters.

Is 21st Century Breakdown worth your money? YES! If you're a real Green Day fan, you'll appreciate it. It is a good rush-hour listen with a few catchy tunes that will keep you going. What it lacks is relevance. Green Day went deeper and more depressing, but with all of Obama's "Change" chants, forgive listeners for not wanting to have the breakdown with them. The true Green Day sound is still very prevalent on the album, but it lacks the power they regained with "American Idiot."

It's a good listen, just don't expect too much!

By Alison Chriss

The Very First Blog Entry

Is it seriously that easy? I should have done this a long time ago. Welcome to my blog. Formerly Alison Egan-Lodjic I am now Alison Chriss. A recent graduate from the University of Oregon with a Bachelor's Degree in Magazine Journalism, and now married to the love of my life, I find myself in a new city with a new hubby with practically no job prospects.

I told myself that I should make a blog a million times but there was always something in my way. Now, I'm settled into married life and I left all my previous distractions and reasons to keep my away from it behind. I will finally have a real journal of my musings, rants, random thoughtfulness or thoughtlessness, depending on the day, and maybe now, people will see that I didn't get my degree for nothing!

Thank you for visiting my blog, feel free to comment and welcome into my own little world where I will hopefully "Write the Wrongs..."