Guest Commentary

Despite an economy that’s spread the fear of unemployment deep into the thinning pockets of students nearing graduation, it’s an exciting time to be young.

Politics and young adults united in wake of the 2008 election with nearly 24 million votes tallied up by Americans between the ages of 18 and 29. This was the second largest turnout by young adults in U.S. history.

Change rattled the youth back into politics, but the young fire that fueled much of Sen. Obama’s campaign now seems trumped by a media more worried about balance than correctness. And we, along with the rest of the country — politicians included — are getting sucked in. As a result, we’re on the bench while bureaucracy is stabbing at the big ticket: health care. And oh, what an embarrassing debate it’s become.

On a broad and sweeping scale, a brutal and disingenuous political process has silenced logic and given unqualified clout to media catch phrases, those red-hot ones like “socialism” and “death panels.” You can just feel a town hall crack and hiss when somebody mumbles such senseless rhetoric. It’s to the point where Sarah Palin has found a boisterous national voice via press announcements of her status updates. Thanks for that one, Facebook.

But that’s just the reality of the technological, media-storming times of today. Our parents’ generation has caught up to Comcastic 24-hour news shows, dedicated to partisan bickering. And it’s working. We’re eating it all up along with our five-dollar footlongs 
(toasted, of course).

Somehow, we’ve been twisted to fight for companies that profit from the sick. Health insurance companies don’t provide a service — rather, they only provide a great cost. Health insurance giants have run so far from ethics and compassion it seems unfair to categorize them with health care.

So why isn’t the president’s plan pushing these viruses out of the system? When he addressed Congress with his health care plan, he said he is going to keep what works and fix what’s broken. Health insurance is what’s broken and doesn’t appear to be going anywhere soon, or ever. As long as we have profit-driven health insurance, we’ll have a corrupt health care system with a bottom dollar backbone. Why aren’t we fighting this?

Youth in the collegiate environment have gained the power for progress in the past — 40 years ago Woodstock was one of many symbols of such a movement. Where is that movement here? Folks, this is our health we’re talking about. We are so afraid to embrace needed change that we cling to compromised reform.

The power for the change this country really needs is drowning in cloudy media muck. Controversy within politics has become more important to us than progress, and it’s sad. This very publication is used as a leveraging tool for young student politicians at this University much as the 24-hour networks are for the big wigs on Capitol Hill. It’s like the training camp for a Washington press conference, complete with rhetoric and all.

This summer I couldn’t help but pick up a copy of the ODE to read a headline that barked, “Friendism or no, president to appoint executioners.” Ah, the men wearing black masks, holding a noose.

Although, I admit, the massive mound of dirty politics surrounding former ASUO presidential candidate Michelle Haley’s attempt to remove current President Emma Kallaway from office was nearly worthy of the sexy executioner headline.

If you picked up the ODE this summer, you know all about this. You were, alongside me, suckling on the cheap headlines about bitter tactics best saved for reality TV. 

The ODE’s very own Robert D’Andrea concisely poked through the ASUO circus. “If there is anything Kallaway needs to learn beyond checking and sending e-mail,” he published in an early August opinion piece, “it’s how to feed the media beast before it
eats you.”

Of course, the ODE will continue to report the news as they see it. I guess that’s its purpose. And I suppose they are obligated to publish stories about said accusations of friendism, which I am still not sure is a real word. Is this balanced? Possibly. Is it correct? Not in my eyes. But it sure does make for good headlines.

Whether it be in the mass media or the student paper, politics seem to be more about drama than education and progress. We have to take the time to be truly informed. Then, the right thing will no longer be associated with the left or right. Morality, after all, is not above Republican nor Democratic principles.

If we, the youth, concentrate on ideals that are much simpler, like compassion, we simplify the debates. We can be the educated passion pushing for the change this country needs. It is, after all, an exciting time to be young.

Part of a campaign I designed as Vice President of Marketing and PR for the University of Oregon IFC (Interfraternity Council), this advertisement was designed for a Game Day special edition of the Oregon Daily Emerald. This particular issue was distributed before and at an Oregon Duck's football game. The aim was to market students to better understand Greek Life at the University of Oregon. 

Professor Eliot Grasso will use his first-hand knowledge to teach the first-time offering

This is not about River Dance or the St. Patrick's Day Parade. This isn't the popular culture, sensationalized spectacle of 80,000 dancers or bagpipes and kilts. 

"What is less understood is the soloistic aspect of the tradition," said Eliot Grasso, creator and teacher of a summer course in Irish traditional music. 

"Think of Bach or Mozart or Miles Davis or someone - there are certain individuals who need be studied because they were geniuses in music, and that is the approach we take to the traditional music course," Grasso said.

Today is the beginning of Grasso's exploration of the politics, history, and, more importantly, the music of traditional Irish culture. This class has never been offered before at the University.

"It's fantastic music that is a rich and artistic tradition that's worth studying," Grasso said.

Grasso received his masters in ethnomusicology at the University of Limerick in Ireland. While there, he researched current and past perspectives to traditional Irish music to compile a rare collective body of knowledge. 

"This was sort of the course I wanted to take, but that wasn't actually offered," Grasso said.

What sets Grasso apart is the addition of practical application to his knowledge. Both of Grasso's parents were amateur traditional musicians. He has been playing Irish music since he was seven years old, and he has dedicated the greater part of his life to recording, studying, practicing and performing Irish music on a professional level.

"Eliot is also a formidable practitioner of Irish music. He grew up with the sound of traditional music in his ear, and is now a world-class performer on uilleann pipes," Julia Heydon, Associate Director of the Oregon Humanities Center, wrote in an e-mail, referring to the national bagpipes of Ireland. "He also plays flute, whistle and fiddle. His playing is brilliant and imaginative, and his knowledge of this music (and of music in general) is both broad and deep."

The class is not intended to be a history course, nor is it a class intended only for musicians, Grasso said. It's more an evaluation of traditional Irish music, working its way out from the music to context. Students will create a comparative analysis of two Irish recordings and go to an Irish musical performance in Eugene.

"It's actually a really fascinating mix of music listening, musicology, history, politics and sociology all sort of meeting at this nexus of the CD," Grasso said.

The course, MUS 399, is one of the more unique classes offered in the short, four-week term this summer. Since the influx of Irish people into the United States in the 19th century, American culture gained a large Irish influence, Grasso said. Traditional Irish music has had a sizable impact on, and deep roots within, American music and culture, he said. 

The course will search through this Irish influence and grant students access to Grasso's knowledge and experience. 

"The course he is offering this summer," music professor Anne McLucas wrote in an e-mail, "while short, is jam-packed with wonderful music and the chance to access some of its history and performance practice."

Students will get to listen to a variety of traditional Irish recordings, as well as see and listen to musical demonstrations by Grasso.

"This is a rare opportunity for students who love Irish traditional music to learn more about it from a true master," Heydon wrote.
New course studies traditional Irish music

The band will rock the Eugene 08 festival stage 3 p.m. today

Eighties dance music hasn't been quite the same since Eugene was introduced to the highly energized dance harmony presented every time the Party Tigers hit the stage. Today at 3 p.m., locals will not be the only ones lucky enough to dance to the Party Tigers as the band makes an appearance in the Eugene 08 Festival.

The student band started when roommates Jess Andrews, on drums, and Nick Thomas-Low, on keyboard, started jamming together. Soon Miles Davenport, on guitar, and Chris Buehler, on bass, joined to complete the foursome. 

"I mean, we are tigers who like to party," Thomas-Low said.

The Party Tigers spent the last five months recording their EP, "OH SNAP!," which was distributed to fans for $2 at shows and for free download on its MySpace page.

The band no longer has hard copies, but it has been working to perfect the record.

"We remastered and remixed it so it actually sounds a lot better. We weren't really too serious about pushing it; we just wanted to let people listen to if they wanted to," Andrews said. 

"Or they can come hang out at shows - that's probably more important."

The seven-song EP featuring songs like "Mario Party," "I'm Lovin' This Party, Gurrrl," and "Patrick Swayze Driving Down the Highway In A Mint Green Convertible" has an offbeat cadence that reverberates and punctuates the musical transitions.

"Most of the songs are thematically written. Songs are named based on what they would feel like when you were listening to that song - like 'Patrick Swayze Driving Down the Highway In A Mint Green Convertible' went around a central theme," Andrews said.

"But a lot of it is just about the party."

The Party Tigers are deeply entrenched in parties. The band was formed and continues to play within the Eugene house-party and bar scene. Most of the band's practices and performances occur in party-induced conditions.

"We'd be getting a lot of shows at these parties and everything would just be raging and it would be an all-night kind of deal. So we would just play and rage again for four to six hours," Andrews said.

The Party Tigers acknowledge that environment is the force and inspiration for their distinctive, mind-bending sound.

"We had a six-month writer's block and we finally realized we weren't drinking when we practiced and wrote our songs," Davenport said.

"Once we started doing that, we wrote like five more songs and we were like 'Ah-hah, we found the missing ingredient!'"

The Party Tigers have a solid following in Eugene and are among the most popular student bands. Their friends and fans set the tone for the rest of the audience. The Party Tigers trust the Eugene 08 Festival set will be no different.

"We couldn't do our shows without our friends; they're an intricate part," Davenport said. 

"If people see other people having a good time, then it's going to be easy for them to feel comfortable and get up and dance. If we have our base of 20 friends that are at every show and they're dancing, then people will be like, 'Oh wow, I can get into this.'"

The Party Tigers are excited to play in a venue with such a great sound system and a jumbotron to heighten the eccentric stage presence and wardrobe. In many of the shows, Davenport is seen grooving in his tiger striped, form-fitting, spandex shorts.

"I've been deeply contemplating whether I want to wear tiger spandex shorts in front of all those people and then be on the jumbotron. I mean it's the Olympic Trials," Davenport said.

"But then again, then I could say I did that, which would be pretty cool."

As the afternoon sun peaks, the Party Tigers will rock the Festival; and have no fear, the band will keep the crowd entertained.

"We'll reel them in with our sweet tunes and sexy butts," Davenport said.

Party Tigers: sweet dance music, beer and sex appeal