September 2021 • vol 22 • issue 271 rsh’s Free Museum Ma ! 100 Years of Weird and Wonderful HIPFiSH THIS OCTOBER P18 MONTHLYalternative press serving the lower columbia pacific region Interact with a Terra Obscura Psychopomp new poetry at the Earth & Ocean Festival Mary Lou McAuley p16 Sept 16-19 immersive beach theatre, land art installation, sky art, raku, fire dancing, galleries and more— COMEBACK: connecting art and Sage’s POETRY VENUE. Yay! environmental stewardship p7 Salon Sensibilities p8 Since 1987 finnware Dedicated to Nordic style and quality. Visit our Portland Location at finnware.com • 503.325.5720 Nordia House 1116 Commercial St., Astoria OR • Open 11am - 4pm Mon - Sat Imogen Gallery contemporary works 240 11th street, astoria, or • 5 0 3 . 4 6 8 . 0 6 2 0 mon – sat 12 to 5pm, sun 12 to 4, closed tue/wed • imogengallery.com Belly Dance A Artisan Crafts • Stationery • Ceramics with Celestine Jewelry • Cards • Arts Jessamyn Gypsy’s Durham Whimsy HERBAL Hair Cutting APOTHECARY Color Services Monday—Thursday : 11—5 Spring into Spring Brow Waxing Friday & Saturday : 11—6 with a new look! & Coloring Sunday : 11—2 503.468.0308 at Salon Stellar, 2921 Marine Dr. Astoria CAll for an appt. 503.791.7285 1296 Duane St. Astoria Enter into the Visit Downtown Astoria Gypsy's Caravan on the 2nd Saturday of every month for art, music, • exotic teas and herbs We offer weekly classes and general merriment! • unique fair-trade imports by local artists, NEW HOURS: workshops by nationally Wednesdays, 7pm to 8:15pm Food and refreshments will not • nutritional remedies at the AAMC, $10 drop-in 12 noon to 8pm be served. Participants are • natural body care known artists, studios and 342 10th St (2nd Floor). encouraged to follow social Presented by distancing guidelines and to & aromatherapy meeting space, Your first class is free! the Astoria Downtown please wear masks. 2 classrooms and a large * All genders, ages, and Historic District Relax, Explore, Enjoy! levels are welcome. Association gallery showing fine *Coin belts, zills, 503.338.4871 art and crafts. veils, & music are 503.338.4871 AstoriaArtLoft.com provided. Hrs:Hrs: Tue Tue -- Sat 11am 11am to 5pm- 6pm closedclosed sunsun - -mon mon Hrs: 10am to 4pm, Tue - Sat [email protected] For private lessons, performances: Aug astoriaartsandmovement.com 11391130 Commercial St. St. astoriadowntown.com 106 Third Street, Astoria Or. 97103 503.325.4442 503.791.5657 14 Astoria, OROR 97103 97103 SEPT 21 hipfishmonthly.com 2 A Special LIVE Event Series presented by Coast Community Radio and HIPFiSHmonthly an Intimate venue presented by HIPFISH KALA PERFORMANCE SPACE 1017 Marine Drive in Astoria 503.338.4878 First Person: Authors Talk welcomes Deborah Reed Sept 24 FIRST PERSON: AUTHORS TALK is an interview show featuring Swan features conversation about all things writerly. Each month, Host Heath- a 93-year-old er Hirschi interviews a local writer live on the KALA stage, with titular charac- questions from the audience and a few surprises. In September, ter, artist Violet we welcome Fall with guest Deborah Reed, novelist and owner Swan. For nearly of Cloud & Leaf Bookstore in Manzanita. A few years ago, Reed a century, Violet bought the well-loved bookstore and is now a vibrant contribu- has lived and Now serving: Herbal Elixirs tor to the Coast’s literary community. painted on the Oregon Coast, “translating tragedy and hard- Reed is the author of seven novels, including most recently, ship into art,” and now Violet reckons with secrets about to be Pale Morning Light with Violet Swan and The Days When Birds revealed. An intergenerational novel, Pale Morning Light with cen Come Back, both published al S t B Violet Swan explores Violet’s life as art, including her escape n len by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. so d from rural Georgia at fourteen during World War II. Violet’s life, r in She taught novel writing at “inspired by nothing more than the way she imagined it to be, e g the Hellenic American Univer- would turn out to be her greatest masterpiece.” P sity in Athens, Greece, and Deborah Reed’s other recent novel, The Days When Birds the UCLA extension program Come Back, also is inspired by the Oregon coast. June, recently Essential Middle in Los Angeles. Reed also was divorced and sober, returns to the coast of her youth and must Oil Bar Eastern the co-director of the Black decide what to do with her late grandparents’ home, “a place Delights Forest Writing Seminars at haunted by memories of her childhood”. She meets Jameson, Albert-Ludwig University in who begins renovating the cedar shingled house. Drawn to Herbal Vintage Freiburg, Germany. She now each other, June and Jameson circle close but both are fear- splits her time between the ful, gripped by their pasts. The Days When Birds Come Back, Apothecary Instruments Oregon coast and Berlin. like June’s house itself, is “a graceful testament to endurance, 1428 Commercial St. Astoria, OR Reed’s complex character- rebuilding, and the possibilities of coming home”. ization and well-paced story- Thursday—Monday : 11—5 • 503.468.0795 lines create engrossing tales Please join us for a conversation with the talented Deborah that examine the nuances of Reed on Friday, September 24. Doors open at 7:30, show at daily life, art and memory. 8pm Tickets: $15 Available at the door and online at www. a KALA production Pale Morning Light with Violet brownpapertickets.com. Friday, Sept 24, 7:30pm Storyteller Social Tickets: $15 Will Hornyak irst authors talk Mostly Grimm: Tales from Distance the Darkest Side of the p Brother’s Collected Stories Seating Oct 22 KALA shows will comply with social distance seat- e A favorite guest artist at KALA, Will’s last ing of tables 6ft. apart. r scheduled performance in March 2020 was The room is ventilated, in MASTER STORYTELLER WILL HORNYAK celebrates postponed due to Covid-19. KALA hopes to addition to ceiling fans. the Celtic New Year of Samhain with stories from s be welcoming back his treasured storytelling Our capacity is limited. All the darkest side of the Brothers Grimm (among oth- powers, more than a year and half later. shows in August and early ers) along with poems, songs and lore in honor of A New o September have been the “thin times” of the year. For mature audiences, “Storyteller par excellence....Will Hornyak Monthly postponed. age 14 and older. takes listeners across a spiritual threshold... Series! n We will monitor the ulti- About the Storyteller: From Irish myths and Rus- transports audiences young and old into an mate safety of producing sian fairytales to Mexican folktales and Oregon tall amazing world of imagination.” a lively conversation all things writerly tales, Will Hornyak weaves a wide web of oral tradi- The Oregonian events at this time, as we tions into thoughtful, engaging and well crafted move forward. First Person Host HEATHER HIRSCHI “Warmth, wit, wisdom....Will Hornyak is a performances. Will has performed throughout We ask that our attend- perennial favorite. ” Rebecca Hom Director welcomes Guest Author DEBORAH REED the United States and been a featured teller at the ees provide vaccination Forest Storytelling Festival National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, Ten- cards, and maintain mask nessee. He lives in Milwaukie, Oregon but resides Friday, October 22, 7:30pm. Doors open safety while moving about Vac Cards Required. Socially Distanced Table Seating. Limited Capacity. in the venue. Stay safe, mostly in his imagination where facts rarely intrude 7pm. $15. www.brownpapertickets.com. Tickets On Sale : www.brownpapertickets.com upon a good story. Tickets on sale Oct 1, 2021. stay well, stay tuned. Doors open 7:30, Show at 8pm KALA 1017 Marine Drive Astoria 503.338.4878 COCKTAILS! 3 SEPT 21 hipfishmonthly.com f hf RUSSIAN GOLD MEDALISTS RETURN TO ASTORIA outside the box FUTILE INTERVENTIONS STEPHEN BERK SOME FORTY-SIX YEARS AGO, together with most Americans, militant Islam in the states along its southern border. Vladimir I watched U.S. diplomatic personnel and some of their South Putin warned George W. Bush against going into Afghanistan fol- Vietnamese allies struggling to board a helicopter on the roof of lowing the 9-11-01 attacks on the World Trade Center, which were the American embassy. They were abandoning Saigon as it fell to attributed to Osama Bin Laden and his militant Islamist organiza- communist North Vietnam and its South Vietnamese allies in the tion, al Qaeda. Afghanistan is a country of high mountains, mak- National Liberation Front. The Vietnam War (1955-75) was the lon- ing it very difficult for a foreign army to invade and carry on war. gest military conflict growing out of the Cold War between Ameri- Bush not only sent troops to Afghanistan, but also Iraq, where can capitalism and its proxies, and Russian (Soviet) communism his father, George H.W. Bush had previously sent troops to fight and its proxies. After Vietnam reunified under the communists, its Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, who had invaded Kuwait. The elder LOWER COLUMBIA government and economic system evolved from the Soviet model Bush had removed Hussein from Kuwait, and the second president to a state combining features of socialist government with those of Bush ultimately killed him. But Hussein’s Iraq had never been the POETRY COMPETITION a market economy. From 1989-91, as the Soviet Union fell apart, problem. The U.S. faced twenty years of stiff Afghani resistance Russia and its neighbors in Eastern Europe also adopted the chief from the militantly Islamist Taliban while training the Afghan army Open in features of market capitalism. to counter the Taliban. After twenty years of fighting the Taliban The almost half century of Cold War was supposedly won by and training the Afghan army, U.S.