It was an emotional night at the Goodfoot bar in SE Portland, as The Water Tower Bucket Boys bid farewell to one of its founding  members. I’m not actually sure which member, or why said member decided to leave the band, but I can confirm the four-piece outfit, is now down to three.

As some of you may recall, Water Tower Bucket Boys, used to bring life to the UO campus playing bluegrass renditions of Snoop Dogg, Sublime, and of course, whatever band wrote ‘Wagon Wheel.’ They were also known purveyors of hashish.

More recently, the WTBB have been touring all across the US and Europe, playing original songs, and slanging records, not thc.

Unfortunately, free beer at pre-show party got the best of me and I was forced to leave the show about halfway through the set. But from what I saw, I can say with confidence the Water Tower Bucket Boys was worth the cost of admission. (Which in this case, was about two minutes of haggling, because, my name wasn’t on ‘the list.’ What the Fuck band promoters? Get your shit together!)

• The theme of this airplane adventure: I wonder what my pupils look like.

• [My roommate] Shining Grass drove me to the airport. After passing her my lighter, and momentarily grabbing the wheel so she didn’t have to steer, that stat that everyone thinks about being more likely to get into a car crash on the way to the airport than getting into an airplane crash inevitable crosses my mind … and makes a lot more sense.

• I took about seven times longer cooking for my flight than it took me to pack. Jasmine rice, red lentil dahl (what up Noah), curried garbanzo beans, two peanut butter and honey tortilla sandwiches, and Mary’s Gone Crackers Brand pretzel sticks. I don’t fuck around with this shit.

• I’m in the Eugene airport and everyone has a British accent. Something’s not right.

• I just read they’re about to replace the flying people art at the Eugene airport. Bummer. I think I know why. These cats is hipsters! Check out that flickr account. Every last one of them.

• Damn. This duffel bag is pretty fucking legit. ergonomic design, tough canvas. Sir Francis Drake High School will be forever classy in my mind. That’s marketing.

• Damn. Sir Francis Drake didn’t make their duffels x-ray proof. My bag got “subject to further search-ed.” Future does not look bright for red lentil dahl.

• The fate of my mid-flight meal is in the hands of a man name ‘Ned.’

• (I wonder what my pupils look like?) “ … Oh that? I thought that was a solid. It’s not, well… what if I poured some out and left only 4 ounces in my container. Would that be cool?”

• (Still wondering what my pupils look like.)

• Ned answered no. But the dude wasn’t a dick about it. The next 2-7 minutes (measuring time is hard right now) Ned’s compassion was on display. He explained: I could mail my dhal; I could check my bag; I could go outside and eat it; I could give it to a friend. It was like it was my family dog was in question, not my red-lentil dhal.

• With time very much not on my side, I had no choice. “For the homies” I told him. Ned didn’t know what that meant.

• (I wonder what my pupils look like?)

• Even though dude’s like Ned are the most 1984 aspect of my life, it was kind of a beautiful interaction. Big Brother doesn’t seem so bad right now.

• Sitting at the gate now. Watching planes take off, with a rainbow and cumulus clouds providing a backdrop. What’s this? Chums …. BluBlockers! FUCK YES. BluBlockers! Am I Dreaming?

• I’m on an airplane. Cool.

• Oregon Voice. Meet San Francisco International Airport. If all goes to plan, the Oregon Voice distribution network will soon expand globally.

While Duck fervor is at an all time high, come pay respects to the O.G.’s of the Duck-nicknamed sport squads, the Mighty Ducks. Before you blow your duck load Monday night, come peep the sickest film in the trilogy. Green and Yellow Nike attire optional.

Afterward: a guest forum probably including Chip Kelly, Emilio Estevez, Adam Goldberg, and leading Ornithologist Ken Michael, maybe.

… if you weren’t already going to link it, check out the Phil Knight interview that the Oregonian’s Allan Brettman did. Our sports-drunk Uncle describes his unique relationship with  the university and offers some  sober thoughts on Nike, Secret Telephones, and the financial future of the UO.

Think of it as the Beats, Ryhmes and Life out of A Tribe Called Quest albums.

The Oregon Ducks men’s club hockey team defeated the USC Trojans 3-2 in front of a capacity crowd of 23,670 at the Lane County Fairgrounds on Saturday night. The win puts the Ducks in the drivers seat of the Pac-8 conference, with a 17-3 record.

Adam Banks scored once and assisted twice, the second time coming with just 2 minutes to go when Banks assisted Luis Mendoza’s fast break goal lifting the Ducks past the hated their crosstown rivals.

Adam Goldberg had 32 stops in goal, further stating his case as the team’s starting goalie over Julie ‘The Cat’ Notari.

“Quack … Quack … Quack … Quack … Quack,” said a visibly intoxicated Head Coach Gordon Bombay after the game. He added, “Man, are we Ducks or what?” Before he sped off in his red sports car.

Game Notes: Zamboni driver Scot Person set a new fairgrounds record between the 2nd and 3rd periods, smoothing the ice in 2:47 seconds. The Ducks wore green and gold commemorating the “the money and the honeys” said team spokesman Franz Beckanbauer.

This weekend Crispin Glover, (George McFly from Back to the Future,) will be in Eugene promoting his newest projects.

Glover will showcase his two films, What is It? on Saturday night and It is Fine! EVERYTHING IS FINE on Friday and Sunday nights.

Glover describes It is Fine as “my psychological reaction to the corporate restraints that have happened in the last twenty to thirty years in filmmaking.” Part two of the trilogy, It is Fine! EVERYTHING IS FINE, further explores the theme.

Shows begin at 8:30pm November 19th, 20th, and 21st.  Descriptions of each night’s lineup can be found at crispinglover.com. Tickets are available now for $20 each at the Bijou box office, which is open 4:30 to 11pm weekdays, and 2 to 11:30 pm weekends. Shows will conclude with a Q&A session and book signing.

The Oregon Voice sat down with Crispin Glover over a virtual cup of coffee. The following questions were answered over e-mail.

OV: What attracted you to the film medium?

CG: I have been making films starting when I was thirteen and purchased a Minolta super 8 camera with an intervalometer. I do not quite remember what attracted me to making movies at that age, but I did like it. My father is an actor and my mother retired from her primary profession as a dancer and secondary profession as an actress when I was born. As I was growing up watching my father work in the film industry I did not necessarily equate the business of acting with art as much as seeing it as a business. I became a professional actor at age 13 by my own choice. I emphasize that because there is a large difference in that from when I child is forced in to acting by parents who choose that career for a child. I began studying in a professional acting class at age 15. At age 16 I viewed many revival films of the 1920’s through the 1970’s at the revival theaters that were popular in the early 1980’s before the advent of VHS competition that led to most of the revival houses closing. While watching many of the films and being in acting class I began to understand film and acting as art. I ultimately felt that feature films are the place where certain interests in art could be attained.

OV: Do you enjoy Boardwalk Empire? Slash do you think Steve Buscemi deserves an Emmy?

CG: I have not yet seen Boardwalk Empire but I am friends with Paz de la Huerta who is in it and she always does a great job. I especially enjoyed her in Gaspar Noe’s “Enter the Void.” Steve Buscemi is always excellent and I look forward to seeing Boardwalk Empire.

OV: In your career what works are you most proud of?

CG: I truly am most proud of my own films. “What is it?” and “It is fine! EVERYTHING IS FINE.”

OV:  What inspired your most recent pieces? Ones that will be featured at the Bijou?

CG: I am showing two different films I feel it is important to have two different slide shows. I had other books that did not make it to the selections of when I first made the original slide Show back in 1993.  I have to admit that the books I perform in “Crispin Hellion Glover’s Slide Show Part I” are best for live performance. I have a few of the books from in “Crispin Hellion Glover’s Slide Show Part I” in “Crispin Hellion Glover’s Slide Show Part 2” because they help to make the structure of the show somewhat similar. But there is a substantial difference in the two shows and I am still making changes to the second shows as I perform them.

The fact that I tour with the film helps the distribution element. I consider what I am doing to be following in the steps of vaudeville performers. Vaudeville was the main form of entertainment for most of the history of the US. It has only relatively recently stopped being the main source of entertainment, but that does not mean this live element mixed with other media is no longer viable. In fact it is apparent that it is sorely missed. I perform a one-hour dramatic narration of eight different books I have made over the years. The books are taken from old books from the 1800’s that have been changed in to different books from what they originally were. They are heavily illustrated with original drawings and reworked images and photographs. When I first started publishing the books in 1987 people said I should have book readings. But the book are so heavily illustrated and they way the illustrations are used within the books they help to tell the story so the only way for the books to make sense was to have visually representations of the images. This is why I knew a slide show was necessary. It took a while but in 1992 I started performing what I used to call Crispin Hellion Glover’s Big Side Show. People get confused as to what that is so now I always let it be known that it is a one-hour dramatic narration of eight different profusely illustrated books that I have made over the years. The illustrations from the books are projected behind me as I perform them.

I am very careful to make it quite clear that What is it? is not a film about Down’s Syndrome but my psychological reaction to the corporate restraints that have happened in the last 20 to 30 years in film making. Specifically anything that can possibly make an audience uncomfortable is necessarily excised or the film will not be corporately funded or distributed. This is damaging to the culture because it is the very moment when an audience member sits back in their chair looks up at the screen and thinks to their self “Is this right what I am watching? Is this wrong what I am watching? Should I be here? Should the filmmaker have made this? What is it?” -and that is the title of the film. What is it that is taboo in the culture? What does it mean that taboo has been ubiquitously excised in this culture’s media? What does it mean to the culture when it does not properly process taboo in it’s media? It is a bad thing because when questions are not being asked because these kinds of questions are when people are having a truly educational experience. For the culture to not be able to ask questions leads towards a non educational experience and that is what is happening in this culture. This stupefies this culture and that is of course a bad thing. So What is it? Is a direct reaction to the contents this culture’s media. I would like people to think for themselves.

Steven C. Stewart wrote and is the main actor in part two of the trilogy titled It is fine! EVERYTHING IS FINE. I put Steve in to the cast of What is it? because he had written this screenplay which I read in 1987. When I turned What is it? from a short film in to a feature I realized there were certain thematic elements in the film that related to what Steven C. Stewart’s screenplay dealt with.  Steve had been locked in a nursing home for about ten years when his mother died. He had been born with a severe case of cerebral palsy and he was very difficult to understand. People that were caring for him in the nursing home would derisively call him an “M.R.” short for “Mental Retard”. This is not a nice thing to say to anyone, but Steve was of normal intelligence. When he did get out he wrote his screenplay. Although it is written in the genre of a murder detective thriller truths of his own existence come through much more clearly than if he had written it as a standard autobiography. As I have stated, I put Steven C. Stewart in to What is it? When I turned What is it? in to a feature film. Originally What is it? Was going to be a short film to promote the concept to corporate film funding entities that working with a cast wherein most characters are played by actors with Down’s Syndrome. Steve had written his screenplay in in the late 1970’s. I read it in 1987 and as soon as I had read it I knew I had to produce the film. Steven C. Stewart died within a month after we finished shooting the film. Cerebral palsy is not generative but Steve was 62 when we shot the film. One of Steve’s lungs had collapsed because he had started choking on his own saliva and he got pneumonia. I specifically started funding my own films with the money I make from the films I act in when Steven C. Stewart’s lung collapsed in the year 2000 this was around the same time that the first Charlie’s Angels film was coming to me. I realized with the money I made from that film I could put straight in to the Steven C. Stewart film. That is exactly what happened. I finished acting in Charlie’s Angels and then went to Salt Lake City where Steven C. Stewart lived. I met with Steve and David Brothers with whom I co-directed the film. I went back to LA and acted in an lower budget film for about five weeks and David Brothers started building the sets. Then I went straight back to Salt Lake and we completed shooting the film within about six months in three separate smaller productions. Then Steve died within a month after we finished shooting. I am relieved to have gotten this film finally completed because ever since I read the screenplay in 1987 I knew I had to produce the film and also produce it correctly. I would not have felt right about myself if I had not gotten Steve’s film made, I would have felt that I had done something wrong and that I had actually done a bad thing if I had not gotten it made. So I am greatly relieved to have completed it especially since I am very pleased with how well the film has turned out. We shot It is fine! EVERYTHING IS FINE.  while I was still completing What it? And this is partly why What is it? took a long time to complete. I am very proud of the film as I am of What is it? I feel It is fine! EVERYTHING IS FINE. will probably be the best film I will have anything to do with in my entire career.  People who are interested in when I will be back should join up on the e mail list at CrispinGlover.com as they will be emailed with information as to where I will be where with whatever film I tour with. It is by far the best way to know how to see the films.

After Charlie’s Angels came out it did very well financially and was good for my acting career. I started getting better roles that also paid better and I could continue using that money to finance my films that I am so truly passionate about. I have been able to divorce myself from the content of the films that I act in and look at acting as a craft that I am helping other filmmakers to accomplish what it is that they want to do. Usually filmmakers have hired me because there is something they have felt would be interesting to accomplish with using me in their film and usually I can try to do something interesting as an actor. If for some reason the director is not truly interested in doing something that I personally find interesting with the character then I can console myself that with the money I am making to be in their production I can help to fund my own films that I am so truly passionate about. Usually though I feel as though I am able to get something across as an actor that I feel good about. It has worked out well!

OV: In your view, what do small Arts Theaters like the Bijou mean to the artistic freedom in the film industry?

For me personally the independent theaters, cinematheques, museum theaters, and higher education theaters are vital to my self-distribution I described above.

OV:  What’s your favorite type of footwear?

If I am waling in Prague it is important to have good shoes that both look nice and yet are comfortable to walk in on the cobblestone streets. I have some shoes that I like for when I am there, but I have to admit I have not found the perfect pair yet. I own historical property in the Czech Republic not too far from Prague so I am often there. I have converted a horse stables next to my property in to a small sound stage in order to continue making my own films there.

OV: In regards to the way you ‘re-mix’ books you think of yourself of a literary DJ? What would your DJ name be?

It would be the same as my birth name Crispin Hellion Glover. Although it is true my books sometimes contain certain pre existing material for the most my books are completely original material so the analogy of re mixing books is not in whole accurate.

My father Bruce Glover is an actor. In fact he is in Part two of the trilogy It is fine! EVERYTHING IS FINE! People may know him from such films as Diamonds are Forever, Chinatown and the original Walking Tall series.  His middle name is Herbert. He never liked his middle name Herbert. So as a young struggling actor in New York he would say to himself “I am Bruce H. Glover, Bruce Hellion Glover. I am a hellion a troublemaker.” And that would make him feel good. He told my mother this was his real middle name. When they were married she saw him writing on the marriage certificate Bruce Herbert Glover and she thought “Who am I marrying?” They gave Hellion to me as my real middle name. I had always written and drawn as a child and I would always sign my drawing and writing with my whole name Crispin Hellion Glover. When I started acting professionally at 13 which was something I had decided on my own I could do as a profession at a relatively young age it became apparent that I had to choose a professional acting name for SAG. I thought my whole name was too long for acting and just used my first and last name. When I started publishing my books I simply continued using the name I had always used for writing and drawing. This is also why I use my whole name for my films.

OV:  What’s your diet like? Do you make an effort to eat local? Organic? Non-fat? Something we haven’t even heard of yet?

Yes, from age 20 for about 20 years I ate pretty strictly according to macrobiotics. Then I ate a living food diet when I acted in the second Charlie’s Angels film. After I first purchased my property in the Czech Republic and started touring a lot I went off of such strict and healthy regimens. I definitely noticed negative health effects from not eating as healthfully and in the last few years have been eating healthier again and glad of it.

OV: OK, so your at a Karaoke Bar. You only get one song and you need to impress this crowd. What one song do you have in your backpocket, just already perfect and ready to go?

“Ben” which is sang for the soundtrack of “Willard” and directed a video of and can easily be seen on YouTube. In fact the very scenario you describe happened my last night on working on “Hot Tub Time Machine” I went out with a number of members in the cast for karaoke and that was the song I sang.

“My bad guys. I forgot to check my e-mail this morning…”

Have you seen this box? Probably not, because it’s not even ours, but a depiction of what our box may look like if it were still in our possession. The box was last seen in August of 2010 — days before construction of a new crosswalk on Agate St. displaced the numerous distribution boxes which lined the left side of the crosswalk. Since work on the crosswalk was completed in mid-September the Register Guard and Oregon Daily Emerald’s distribution box’s were returned, but the absence of the Voice box remains glaring. Phone calls led us through a maze of Facilities Services employees and finally, Roger Kerrigan, Exterior Team Supervisor of the University of Oregon. Phone records indicate a stalker-like presence on Kerrigan’s voicemail, still no word back and as a result the case has effectively stalled.

Because of it’s strategic location amongst UO’s freshman dorms the box represented possibly the best outlet to our youngest readers and perhaps, even, future Voicies. With no other leads coming our way, the Voice Distribution Committee has begun to ponder if the box’s disappearance is a coincidence, or perhaps more likely a concerted effort on behalf the UO to silence the Voice of the students.

If you have any information on the whereabouts of the missing box, please e-mail the Oregon Voice at oregonvoice@gmail.com.

The Flaming Lips’ only Oregon show is tonight (Wednesday) at the McDonald Theatre. Tickets are sold out but do what you can to get in because if the trend holds true, this show figures to be a wild one. These homies (Oklahomies?) have been together for almost thirty years but show no sign of slowing down. Their most recent studio album, Embryonic, reached an all-time Lips high of 8th on the Billboard charts. Expect more than Embyronic tho, sets lists from they’re past few shows indicate at a rather comprehensive performance with all the classics you’d expect from one of the industry’s biggest names. Check back for pictures! Doors: 8 p.m. Show starts at 9. McDonald Theatre 1010 Willamette St. Eugene, OR.