Eugene Notes

A few notes from Eugene.

I'm really from Springfield, right outside of Eugene. My going to school at the University of Oregon creates for me sort of 2 home towns, or maybe one town with two very different sides. I certainly identify a lot more with Eugene than Springfield. But I can't deny that it's Springfield where I come from. And that's very different from Eugene. Very working-class. Very conservative. Very different identity.

Springfield has a rough edge to it. I don't know how many times in the last week I've seen someone walking on the street, who clearly has nothing going for them and thinking if I went to high school with that person. Wondering what got me out of here when they could never do so, not even to get into a countercutlural Eugene 5 miles away. I'm thankful but retroactively scared. It seems that it would have taken so little for me to fall into that. To still be stuck in Springfield with no hopes or dreams left at the age of 31 seems like Hell.

On the other hand, downtown Springfield is a place significantly revitalized since I left nearly 10 years ago. And it's not from some yuppified redevelopment program with a nice big Gap store as its centerpiece. Actually it comes from retaining its working class roots as Mexicans are owning more and more space along Main Street, and opening up some very tasty taco places let me tell you. I have little doubt that Eugene's best Mexican food is actually found in downtown Springfield, well unless you like the messy goo that passes for Mexican food in much of America.

Eugene is a lovely place. I think the University of Oregon is my favorite campus that I've been to, though the University of Virginia is obviously great (designed by Jefferson for Christ's sake) and the University of Washington and University of Colorado are quite nice too. But Oregon has the mix of pretty interesting buildings, lots of green space, huge trees, and just a general atmosphere of learning. On the other hand, the new business building is atrocious. The entrance to it is a glass facade that looks like the opening to a Bon Marche in Seattle or other high-end clothing store in whatever big city. Actually it looks a lot like yuppified, revitalized downtown Denver. Now I have no problem with architectural experimentation on college campuses. Higher education architecture has looked to the past for far too long. But really, the look of a shopping mall? God, that's ugly.

Oregon sports are pathetic. And I'm saying this as a big fan of Oregon football. But they still haven't gotten over the gimmick stage of promotion. They always come up with some really stupid saying revolving around ducks to promote the team. Sometimes they will do something around the color green. For instance they used to call themselves the "Quack Attack." Or "Everybody Duck." Really bad stuff. This year, they have a double whammy. They are calling themselves "The Next Green Monster" which is just fucking stupid. And they are trying to get new students "Induckted." Get it! Wow, how clever. The only good one they ever came up with was "Gang Green" and that was stolen by the stupid New York Jets. Anyway, I really wish Oregon would take the approach that Tennessee used when I was back there which was basically this. "We don't need any stupid goddamn slogans because we are just going kick the living shit out of you. And then, next year we'll do the same thing." Now that's how a winning program operates.

The counterculture in Eugene is pretty funny, even as I respect much of what it stands for. Growing up in a place like Springfield, which is 5 miles but many light years from Eugene, has bred in me a deeply ambivalent attitude toward the counterculture. If the counterculture is rejecting the kind of values that I grew up with, well, I'm rejecting them too. But of course the counterculture in 1968 is more than a little different than what it is in 2005. And it's really hard not to laugh when confronted with it. While in Eugene a friend wanted to grab some breakfast. So we stopped in at a breakfast place we saw. It was quintessential Eugene. The menu is entirely vegetarian. In fact, it was mostly vegan but given the option there was no way in hell that I was going to choose to eat some sort of vegan butter over the real thing. We must draw the line somewhere. And I draw it over butter and cheese. Anyway, the food was quite tasty. But the people in there were trying so damn hard to be sufficiently counterculture. No one working there didn't have multiple tattoos and/or piercings. In fact, I wonder if they would even hire someone like me, even if I were a genius at cooking vegan food and work cheap. Because I don't really scream counterculture. When I suggested this to my friend, he agreed and said that he didn't think there was an affirmative action for people like me to get hired at places like that, something that referenced an earlier conversation where I mentioned that I was one of the few white men in the country to have directly benefited from affirmative action, something I may get into on a post one of these days. Anyway, the walls were covered in hippie art including knittings of psychedelic mushrooms, which is such a stereotype. I wonder why people feel the need to try so hard to fit into any culture, but especially a counterculture which theoretically should foster and promote individualism, but really always has produced a conformity as stifling as what they rebel against. But hell, why am I complaining. My food was good.

Finally, a note on Eugene Emeralds baseball. Eugene has had a short-season single A team ever since I was a kid. I went to a lot of games in high school and college. I hadn't been back to one in 10 years. Nothing at all had changed. They still played the same hokey music. The recording of the national anthem was the same. The beer selection was much better than it used to be there. You still had to watch out to not get your head taken off by a foul ball, something that nearly happened to me. What I had totally forgotten about was that the real purpose of the games in Eugene is a venue for teenagers to go strut their stuff--boys and girls. It was a total riot. God, I love minor league baseball.