Ducks @ Oregon - University of Oregon

Best Library Trip Ever

Peter E.

March 7, 2010 - 12:44 AM

Now I'm not one to exaggerate or embellish, but I am currently experiencing THE best library visit I've ever made. This is probably because my productivity is inversely proportional to the entertainment I'm witnessing, but nonetheless this Sunday afternoon is looking up.

 

I came to the library this morning in a glum mood, but as I began to set my things down at my normal perch on the third floor balcony, I saw my friend Mike in my periphery. Mike's finishing his "Info Hell" paper this weekend for the journalism school and I'm doing serious work on my thesis, so it's nice to actually be productive in the library with a friend (usually I don't do too well in large study groups). Thus, Mike and I settled down on the third floor balcony and went to work on our respective projects.

 

The next hour or so was productive writing my thesis, but then things took a sharp turn into awesome. I glanced out onto the lawn through the library's south windows to notice a band of medieval looking knights with foam bats and shields. That could only mean one thing: LARPers. LARP or "Live Action Role Playing" is basically a "real life" version of World or Warcraft or something. I don't really understand it nor do I really care to. However, it is extremely entertaining. From what I gather watching these folks battle it out for the last half-hour or so, there are some sort of rules, strategy, and teams, but in reality it seems like an excuse for these folks to let out some of their pent up nerd frustration by beating each other with foam bats, maces, and spears.

 

To give you an idea, there are about three different battles going on right now with tribes of about five grown men in brightly colored medieval shirts and kilts battling another tribe of five grown men in brightly colored medieval shirts and kilts. Interestingly, the people wearing simply jeans and t-shirts stick out like sore thumbs. I will tell you, it's awesome to see someone "get their legs cut off" and waddle around the grass field on their knees as a "warrior" that looks like the comic book guy from The Simpsons wails on him with a foam sword.

 

You are probably thinking to yourself: how does it get better than this? Let me tell you, it does. I had to take a break from the action to visit the restroom, so Mike watched my laptop as I made the trek through aisles of books to the third floor bathroom. I walked in to be greeted by sonorous snores resonating off the linoleum floor. There was a guy sleeping in the handicap stall (not actually handicapped from what I gathered). I took care of my business, but I had an internal dilemma: do I flush and possibly wake this guy, or do I not? I flushed and guessed right because this guy slept right through it. However, as I washed my hands I grew curious because it sounded like this guy was probably passed out on the floor, and I was a little concerned for his safety. So I snuck a tiny peak, you know, like one of those to see if you can see feet below the stall. To my surprise, he was seated on the toilet, pants around his ankles, sawing some serious z's. I left the bathroom and burst into laughter.

 

My expectations for what's still to come today at the library are up in the air because so far my expectations have been absolutely demolished, kind of like the warrior's legs/pride I'm watching right now.

 

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Out with the Old, In with the New

Peter E.

March 6, 2010 - 9:38 PM

It was a pretty significant week in Ducks athletics this week: opening of a new sports venue, closing of another, and the likely departure of a familiar face. All in all, it was a meaningful week in Ducks Athletics.

 

The first noteworthy event of the week was the Opening Day for Ducks baseball in the recently finished PK Park. The Ducks hosted Washington for two games on Tuesday and Wednesday, and I made my way over to the game to check out the brand new grounds. I visited PK Park last year, but the temporary bleachers detracted from the overall baseball experience. The finished product is definitely an improvement. My friend Mike and I wandered into the park through the right field entrance and ambled past the beer garden in right field (it was tempting but $6 beers prevented me from indulging). We then ascended a flight of stairs to the concourse level that stretches around the diamond. There were souvenir and food stands covered by a clean looking wood canopy that also covers the assigned seats (a nice feature for rainy days). It rained fairly hard Tuesday afternoon, but the weather cleared perfectly right before first pitch. Nonetheless, Mike and I decided to forgo the uncovered, wet student section for assigned seating. The game was well attended, but we tested different vantage points before settling down in the fifteenth row behind home plate. The game was pretty entertaining, and the Ducks took home the victory 6-2 with a productive first inning (scoring four runs) and some solid pitching.

 

With the opening of a new venue at the U of O, there came the closing of a beloved campus landmark: Mac Court. On a personal note, it was also my last basketball game as a student. It was a pretty sentimental evening with my last game in the Pit Crew, Senior Night for Joevan Catron and Tajuan Porter, and Mac Court's last game. The Ducks played a sloppy game against Washington State, but they comfortably beat the Cougars 74-66. Tajuan Porter hit a couple three pointers in the contest, and that makes him only five three pointers behind Salim Stoudamire for the Pac-10's all time record. The night was great to soak in Mac Court's atmosphere one last time and reflect on the great games and players I've had the privilege to watch over the past three years. I'm proud to say that Mac Court was the only basketball arena in my tenure at Oregon.

 

Finally, I learned after the game that this was probably Ernie Kent's last game as the coach of the Oregon Ducks. Local station KVAL Eugene reported that a source says that Ernie Kent was informed that he would be fired after the season on February 22nd, and he will coach through the end of the Pac-10 Tournament. As a fan, I'm ready for the change because I would like to see the Ducks become a regular tourney team year in and year out. Plus, the constant rumors and hope that Mark Few (of Gonzaga) will return to his alma mater to coach are titillating. I would really like to see a new face take this team to not just the tournament but go deep in it. It should make for an exciting spring as the search for a new coach begins. Mark Few and Tubby Smith (of Minnesota and formerly Kentucky) are high on the list, and I think either would be an excellent change. One way or another, there should be a lot of interest in the Oregon job. With experienced players, a new arena, and a new coach, I think there could be exciting things ahead for Ducks basketball.

 

Pictured above: Tajuan Porter gives the crowd a final bow in his Mac Court finale. Special thanks to Brian Davies of the Register Guard.

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Finding Roots

Peter E.

February 28, 2010 - 7:34 PM

College life is so transient, in flux, and not rooted. I have had three different residences in three years, and before this year I haven't really felt a connection with the Eugene community. However, now that I am nearing my last several months at the U of O, I have finally found a deep connection with the city, culture, and community that I don't want to leave. Nonetheless, it's soon going to be time for me to head to Tulsa, but yesterday I found some permanence in planting a garden.

 

My girlfriend Melissa and I traveled over to Gray's Garden Center to get some plants. We browsed the aisles for a long while figuring out which early season plants would be best to plant (and in turn eat). I am new to gardening, so it was a learning experience figuring out what we could plant that is appropriate and in season for Eugene's climate. On top of that, Eugene's winter has been unusually warm and sunny the last couple weeks, so it's difficult to predict what is in store for the spring. At any rate, sugar peas were a no brainer because they are ideal to grow this time of year (regardless of weather), but we struggled to decide on some leafy greens and herbs. After much debate we loaded our cart with lettuce, spinach, cilantro, rosemary, and Walla Walla onions.

 

Upon our return to Melissa's house, we went to work weeding our garden. Up until a couple weeks ago I hadn't realized that Melissa had any possible gardening space, but then she pointed out to me that she has a south-facing raised bed around the side of her house. It's a perfect little space, and the bed already has some lilies blooming (everything is budding and blooming so early this year!). We went ahead and weeded and tilled the soil, taking time to pose for an "American Gothic" picture, and spread some compost (of which I lent some of my own homemade blend).

 

After the prep work was done we went ahead and planted our crops. With any luck, we should have some produce to harvest in about a month and a half. It was a great way to spend an unusually sunny, warm February afternoon in Eugene. In addition, I learned more about the Willamette Valley hands-on by gardening, and I look forward watching the plants take root.

 

 

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In the National Spotlight

Peter E.

February 26, 2010 - 8:51 PM

Unless it's signing day for new recruits, your football program usually wants to keep a low profile during the off season. This has not been the case recently with the Ducks football team. We've got a record building that trumps the one on the field: violations of team rules, theft, assault, domestic abuse, and DUI. It sure makes me proud that the nation sees my fellow Ducks representing our school so well.

 

This is an embarrassment. These players are faced with tremendous expectations to win, play with pain, practice and train every day, and constantly perform under media scrutiny. However, that doesn't mean one's outlet for stress or frustration is beating women or DUI. Now granted some of these cases are still pending, but one should not even put themselves in a position to be scrutinized to begin with.

 

Eugene is a fairly sleepy town when it comes to problems with the law, so this recent string of arrests has been quite a rude awakening to the community. As my friend Ted commented, "these are violent crimes." Beating women, assault, and driving a car, a deadly weapon, drunk. Ted, an avid cyclist, put it in perspective, "This is a threat to the community. As a cyclist, it's dangerous to have people driving drunk because he could have easily hit someone, like me. They should take away his scholarship and get bike lights for the entire student body with the money they'd save."

 

Ted's assessment may be radical, but it does raise some interesting dilemmas with scholarship athletics. Eugene is a tight community, and, frankly, there's no need to drive in this town. In fact, many students don't own cars and bike everywhere (myself included). However, many students, as Ted suggested, do not own bike lights, and that's dangerous when biking at night (especially if idiots are driving drunk). Thus, there's a valid argument for reprioritizing allocation of university monies. If the University was to revoke scholarships for athletes that could not be decent members of the community or University, we'd easily have a pot of several hundred thousand dollars right now. Just think of the projects, scholarships to deserving individuals, and/or deferred upgrades to this campus could be realized! Unfortunately, this will most likely not happen because UO's budget and the UO Athletics budgets are separate entities. The UO's Athletic program is one of the few self-sufficient NCAA athletic departments (which is not entirely bad), but it would be nice to see more reciprocity between athletics and academics. To reiterate concerns I've emphasized, this is just another reason for donors to invest more in academics and student life.

 

As I've discussed before, athletic scholarships are a great way to allow many students to gain higher education that would not normally have the opportunity. Furthermore, it's an unfortunate business that college athletics bring in big money that exciting research or quality academics often can't match. Thus, the U of O works to find a balance between the two. As a student though, it's becoming increasingly difficult to accept that balance when the football team is rewarded with exclusive, beautiful facilities to train and study when they can't achieve the simplest task of being decent human beings.

 

I condemn their actions without question, but I also want to see them redeem themselves and represent this school positively. Chip Kelly is again faced with a difficult scenario dealing with discipline. I feel for him because it is not his job to babysit players on the weekends, they are [immature] grown men. However, he can instill values and life lessons that prevent this behavior in the first place. Nonetheless, I have learned through my experiences in Inside-Out (a class I took with inmates in the Oregon State Penitentiary) that people deserve a second chance. That said, there should be high expectations and a quick learning curve established from the outset so this behavior is minimized and remedied immediately.

 

The University is a pristine utopia of sorts with intellectual academia, diverse population, peaceful people, and beautiful grounds; let's maintain that dynamic. Absent from that equation is violence 359 days of the year (only 6 Saturday afternoons a year we permit it in Autzen Stadium). At the very least, let's keep the violence between the hash marks, and I suppose I should also specify within the 60 minutes of play (i.e. LeGarrette Blount).

 

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Avenue Q

Peter E.

February 21, 2010 - 8:24 PM

It's pretty scary how well this Broadway musical captures my whole consciousness in song (and foam puppets). Today my roommate Jeff, my girlfriend Melissa, and I went downtown to see Avenue Q. Avenue Q is the story of a puppet named Princeton, a 22 year old recent college grad, that moves into an affordable New York City neighborhood because "Avenues A-P were too pricey." Princeton and his newfound neighbors struggle with matters including love, employment, idealism, racism, and internet porn. As the last struggle may suggest, this is a comedy.

 

The Hult Center audience was rolling the entire show with the well scripted humor. With songs such as "Everyone's a Little Bit Racist" and "The Internet is for Porn," Avenue Q was very well done. It was absolutely incredible to see the the creators take the Sesame Street/Muppets aesthetic and convert it into adult humor.

 

 

Although it was a comedy, the musical does have serious undertones of race relations, coming out of the closet, settling down, and finding contentment with your career. In many ways this hit very close to home. The play both begins and ends with the song "What Do You Do with a B.A. In English?" In 15 weeks I'll have my B.A. in English, and I have many of the same inner struggles as Princeton: moving to a new city, starting a career, maintaining a serious relationship, and finding my "purpose."

 

Though the musical elicited many feelings of discontentment and confusion both in the characters and myself, it was a realistic snapshot of life that concluded with an optimistic message. Plus, I feel that I'm in a much better position that Princeton: I have a job lined up (that I want), and I have more direction. Nonetheless, it was a great way to confront some of my uneasiness while laughing at puppets portraying my uneasiness and putting it all in perspective. Without a doubt, I strongly recommend getting tickets to Avenue Q if it comes to your city.

 

 

 

 

 

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