This is just too much.
We’re filing for compensation currently. Have it be known that we originally called it “Rent-A-Puppy” but expanded to “Pooch” because we believe old dogs can do new tricks and deserve the chance to help with dating.
As part of Allen Hall Productions, a series of short documentaries were made for each student publication at the University of Oregon. Here’s the one that was created for the Oregon Voice. Thanks to Abby Silverman and Christina Diamond for the video.
Please refrain from laughing (too hard) at our interview shyness.
Hi all,
Now that the Summer sun has burned many of our ears, necks and backs, we write to you with an update – a progress report of sorts. As noted in our last post, we have a plethora of projects that we’re trying to accomplish before Fall rolls around and here’s where we stand thus far:
Revamp website
Acquire new distribution boxes
Paint new distribution boxes
Replace broken Plexiglas in boxes around campus (About 1/3 fixed.)
Scan and archive Volume 14 and others not on website
Create master distribution list, distribute to more places (It’s still growing, but we have a good start.)
Clean/Reorganize office (It’s reorganized but not clean. Does it need to be?)
Plan Rent-a-Pooch IV (Set for October 21st.)
Organize U of O Student Media Summit
Bind and archive volumes not already in library
Blog, blog, blog
Build roller-coaster (It’s very rickety.)
Drink beer (Can we ever really cross this one out?)
While there are some items that have been taken care of, there is much more to accomplish. If you’d like to get involved and help us help you and the entire student body, give us a shout via the contact form.
Our latest and most rewarding/colorful/longest effort of the year is now available to be viewed on the Internet from anywhere around the world, yes, even from Norway, New York City or Chicago! The print version is available around campus and will be distributed to the greater Eugene area via bike brigade shortly.
If you’ve left for summer vacation and want us to mail you a print copy, let us know via the contact form and we’ll gladly accommodate you.
Special thanks to all the past contributers who found time in their busy schedules to send us a remembrance and for allowing us to reprint their words. Hopefully you enjoy the issue as much as we enjoyed putting it together.
While this was our last issue of the school year, don’t think we’re going to be simply taking it easy until school starts up again in the fall. Here’s a list of the projects we have in store for the summer months:
Revamp website
Acquire new distribution boxes
Paint new distribution boxes
Replace broken Plexiglas in boxes around campus
Scan and archive Volume 14 and others not on website
Create master distribution list, distribute to more places
Clean/Reorganize office
Plan Rent-a-Pooch IV
Organize U of O Student Media Summit
Bind and archive volumes not already in library
Blog, blog, blog
Build roller-coaster
Drink beer
If you want to give us a hand and hang out with cool people, get at us.
The latest installment of the wonderful Oregon Voice has been on stands around campus for the last week. It now has an online presence. For all who can’t pick up a hard copy around campus: this is for you. Enjoy.
[i] Historic Bailout Bill Passes Congress, Bush Signs, Julie Hirschfeld Davis, Associated Press , 10/3/2008, <http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/financial_meltdown> Notable in that Obama, Bush, & McCain all supported this measure.
[ii] The Iraq War Will Cost Us 3 Trillion, And Much More, Linda J Biljmes and Joseph E. Steiglitz, for the Washington Post, 3/9/2008, page B01. <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/07/AR2008030702846.html> The total tab for the Federal government is roughly 1.5 trillion, the other 1.5 trillion is in other assorted costs to society (for instance, the lost labor of disabled persons or those family that now must care for them).
[iii] All of these issues deserve a much more thorough accounting, for now a few footnotes citing broad overviews will have to suffice. Fun documentaries have been given precedence. Because lord knows we have enough to read already.
[iv] VIDEO: Conversations with History: Chalmers Johnson, moderated by Harry Kreisler, Executive Director of Institute of International Studies at UC Berkeley, interview with Chalmers Johnson, President of the Japan Policy Research Institute. Recorded 1/29/2004 <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQi4-97GXrI>
[v] VIDEO: Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of Understanding the Media, directed by Mark Achbar, a documentary based on book of same title by Noam Chomsky/Edward Herman published in 1988. <http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5631882395226827730&hl=en> Explores the propaganda model of understanding the media. Long, but gripping.
VIDEO: You Can’t Print That! Conversations with George Seldes, documentary outline of book of same title, concerning censored and rewritten events from 1918-1928, written by George Seldes in 1929. <http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2831405867075843529> Another fine example of how censorship that doesn’t rely on overt methods is that much more effective in masquerading as truth. Also lots of fun stuff tactfully omitted in textbooks.
[vi] VIDEO: Corporations in the Classroom, directed by Jill Sharpe for Global Currents, “Character-driven Stories about socially relevant issues of importance to all Canadians.” 4/7/2007 <http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6389522346340441292> Includes a section on Eugene, Oregon towards the end. This type of behavior is completely illegal in the civilized world, read: Europe.
[vii] National Debt Clock <http://zfacts.com/p/461.html> The most oft cited figure is 9.6 trillion, but this refers only to the general fund, and does not include the various trust funds running surpluses. Though that money is already needed to for its stated purposes, it is misleading to ignore the other sectors of government finance when speaking of a “national debt”
[ix] Union Members Summary, Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1/25/2008 <http://www.bls.gov/news.release/union2.nr0.htm> “Union members accounted for 12.1 percent of employed wage and salary workers, essentially unchanged from 12.0 percent in 2006. In 1983, the first year for which comparable union data are available, the union membership rate was 20.1 percent.” And this is down still from the post WWII period, when union membership was held by roughly a third of workers.
[ix] The War on Properly Sourcing strikes again, no footnote for you!
[x] US Prison Population Dwarfs That of Other Nations, Adam Liptak, International Herald Tribune, 4/8/2008. <http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/04/23/america/23prison.php> The US incarceration rate is 751 prisoners per 100,000 population, trailed by Russia at 627, and Cuba at 531.
[xi] Homelessness in the Almanac of Policy Issues, 2000. <http://www.policyalmanac.org/social_welfare/homeless.shtml> This source is kinda vague and slightly dubious. If they have an ulterior agenda its hidden behind some poor graphic design. Deal with it.
[xii] I’d recommend <blacklistednews.com> for all the best freaky libertarian NWO martial law conspiracy stuff, and <counterpunch.org> for the best progressive analysis I have yet found on the interweb.
[xiii] Video: Robert Reich: How Unequal Can America Get? Robert Reich is the former U.S. Secretary of Labor and visiting professor at the Richard and Rhoda Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley. Lecture delivered May 2005. <http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4623998755332523513> Some very interesting conjecture about possible outcomes, in his view inequality is a rubber band, which will either snap at some extreme or gradually loosen through implementation of progressive policies..
[xiv] Kids these days and their youtubes, honestly. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5WiE6MnmCM> I was tempted to rick roll you, but decided better of it, you’re welcome.
[xv] Witness the recent bailout bill, but this is such a pervasive phenomenon in our society that Congress can only shoulder some small fraction of the blame.
[xvi] Currently in places like Colombia, Israel, Egypt, Afghanistan, England, Indonesia, Pakistan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, etc., historically in China, Russia, Nicaragua, Panama, Phillipines, Chile, South Africa, Cuba, Haiti, Vietnam, seriously, I could keep going.
[xvii] The Vietnam War (or the “American War” as it is referred to there) alone accounts for 2 million dead in a completely futile and antidemocratic endeavor, that continues to take lives to this day in the form of unexploded ordinance and mutations caused by deforestation chemicals. (Chomsky makes an excellent point that cognitively, the US still believes that it was defending South Vietnam, when in fact US soldiers were invading it, killing mostly South Vietnamese partisans, and using a puppet regime for civil administration and the eventual failed “Vietnamization.”) No doubt a similar situation will pervade Iraq and Afghanistan for the next few decades due to the use of depleted uranium ammunition and extensive air strikes. Tally the deaths in America’s numerous other wars, various economic sanctions, the genocide of Native Americans, and the funding of militarists and authoritarians in the aforementioned countries, and lord only knows if we break positive in comparison to the amount of lives saved through the results of our few “good” wars and scattered economic aid. My biased guess is no, but really, no one will ever know, and its near useless to even try, as I just have.
[xix] Millionaires Fill US Congress Halls, Agence France Press, 6/30/2004. <http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0630-05.htm>
[xx] 638 Ways to Kill Castro directed by Dollan Cannell for Channel 4. 2007. <http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2695497521595164067> This charming documentary chronicles the adroitness of the CIA at fucking up assassination attempts (which are HELLAZ illegal by any and all standards).
[xxi] Barack Obama’s Top Contributers, Center for Responsive Politics 2008. Accessed 10/4/08 <http://www.opensecrets.org/pres08/contrib.php?cycle=2008&cid=N00009638>
[xxii] VIDEO: Stealing a Nation: Special Report by John Pilger on Diego Garcia, Granada Television, 2004. <http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3667764379758632511> Diego Garcians are better referred to as Chaggosians, but if I wrote, “Chaggosians, fuck off and die already”, even I wouldn’t have caught the reference.
[xxiii] Congressional District Analysis and Insight. Proximity, (who the fuck is that?), 10/4/2008. <http://proximityone.com/cd.htm> The largest states, incidentally, also have some of the largest multicultural populations – NY, CA, TX.
[xxiv] Private Property and the Limits of American Constitutionalism. by Jennifer Nedelsky, University of Chicago Press 1994. James Madison quoted therein “The Senate ought to come from and represent the wealth of the nation.” p.56.
[xxv] Reelection Rates Over the Years. Center for Responsive Politics, 2008. <http://www.opensecrets.org/bigpicture/reelect.php?cycle=2006> For Representatives the reelection rate is consistently around 90-95%, 98% in 3 of the last 5 elections. Senatorial races are more volatile, owing to higher stakes and more well-financed oppositions, but still get reelected on average about 80-85% of the time, at least in the last 26 years following the tumultuous “Reagan revolution.” Senator’s terms are also thrice as long, making their temporal staying power longer in relation to the representatives than the stats would suggest.
[xxvi] VIDEO: Conversations with History: John Pomfret, moderated by Harry Kreisler, Executive Director of Institute of International Studies at UC Berkeley. Recorded 1/29/2004 <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PO5KJxTAIjQ> What’s even more frightening is the the persistence of “deep government,” the bureaucracies that can successfully resist control by any elected authority or their appointees at that top of such organizations.
[xxvii] VIDEO: Conversations with History: Ronald Dellums, moderated by Harry Kreisler, Executive Director of Institute of International Studies at UC Berkeley, Interview with Ronald Dellums, former member of U.S. House of Representatives. Recorded 2/10/2000 <http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4067131032689627583> One of the few good apples from the House, representing Oakland, was Ronald Dellums. Here is an interview that shows what we should be expecting from our representatives. None of this “Jobs. Roads. Less Crime.” bullshit.
[xxvi] National Debt Clock <http://zfacts.com/p/461.html> This figure is derived from taking the net national debt (5,790,720,000,000$ as of 9/24/2008) and dividing it by the population of the US, a.303 million. See note vii. Honestly there are a bajillion ways to calculate the “national debt.” This is partly due to the intentionally confusing and misleading way the government accounting system works.
Taxpayers on the Hook for 59 Trillion. Dennis Cauchon, USA Today 5/29/2007. <http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-05-28-federal-budget_N.htm?csp=34> This article makes the claim that the debt could be much higher, if calculated using corporate standards, accommodating commitments already made for future payments. I’m trying not to be an ‘alarmist,’ any more so than I already have, and have used the lowball figure.
[xxvii] Joke stolen from a Mr. Fish cartoon titled “Obama’s New Direction.”
<http://www.truthdig.com/cartoon/item/20070212_mr_fish_obamas_new_direction>
[xxviii] Are we Politicians or are we Citizens? Howard Zinn, The Progressive, May 2007. <www.progressive.org/mag_zinn0507>
and it was freaking awesome.
If you’re on facebook, check out the photos by clicking here:
Album #1
and here:
Album #2
Thanks to everyone who came out and supported the Oregon Voice at our fundraiser show last Friday. Also thanks to the Campbell Club for hosting, the Party Tigers, The Daveys, the Arithmetic Danger Club, Last Trains and the band formerly known as The Mood for playing, and every staff person who helped out that night for holding it all together. We managed to collect a good amount of cash, which will go toward printing two more fabulous issues this year.
How’s it going, Voice readers?
Our website has now been taken over by Chris Olson, who’s decided to save us all from my minimal web-building skills and be our webmaster so that this nary-updated website could get a much-appreciated makeover. Thanks Chris. As for the rest of us, we’ve printed our second-and-third mega-combo issue, which is available for perusal on this website and in our boxes in and around the University of Oregon campus. It’s the one with the yellow cover. Watch out for issue 4, which will contain an interview with Greg Saunier of Deerhoof, among other fun goodies. We’re also in the process of setting up a dance party fundraiser to be held the weekend of April 6 and 7 with some of your favorite local bands. When we’ve nailed down a date and a line-up, it will be here. Check back for more details.
Your fearless editor,
Sara
4 issues from Volume 13 have been added to the archives section. These issues are from 2001/2002 and include some great stuff, like an interview with Weezer in issue 4, when they were at the height of their popularity, plus a lot of hilarious Minutia by then Editor (and creator of the Minutia section) Brian Boone. There is also a classic bong review in Vol XIII Issue 4, that is worth checking out. Some kick ass art in those issues as well, care of Brian Murphy.
Some of Oregon Voice Art Director Evan Meister’s artwork is on display this month up in Portland, starting October 5th at Floating World Comics so if you are in the area, check it out
Floating World Comics
1722 NW Raleigh #104
Portland, OR 97209
Evan did all of the cover’s last year, in addition to a lot of cool illustrations on the insides of those issues, so if you aren’t familiar, go to the “Archives” and check out Volume XVII. He is still the Art Director, so you’ll be seeing more of his work in the magazine this year.
