News
Folkies forever
THE FOLK MUSIC revival of the 1960s with its storytelling songs and right-on harmonies enthralled Bill Klausman ’66 so much that he started his own group while a Portland State student. Klausman (second from left) never stopped performing, and for the past 36 years his band the River City Ramblers, have kept the folk genre alive. The band includes drummer and alumnus Jerry Severson ’63 as well as four other musicians. They give performances throughout Oregon and Washington and will be on the road this fall. Read about them at www.rivercityramblers.com.
Front line therapy
PSYCHOLOGY PROFESSOR Jan Haaken and her film crew followed a U.S. Army Combat Stress Control Unit from stateside training to a base in Afghanistan. The resulting documentary, Mind Zone: Therapists Behind the Front Lines, investigates the dilemma military psychologists face in war zones: protect the mental health of soldiers, but return them to front lines as quickly as possible. Mind Zone, Haaken’s fourth documentary, will screen in Portland in June.
V for vegetables
FREELANCE GRAPHIC ARTIST Joe Wirtheim ’10 has combined his artistic and progressive sensibilities to create Victory Garden of Tomorrow, a series of self-commissioned, World War II-style propaganda posters in praise of homegrown food. The posters caught national attention a little over a year ago in Martha Stewart Living magazine. At its core, Wirtheim’s work taps a historic sense of American optimism to encourage sustainable changes in how we live today.
Jazzed up
NAOMI LAVIOLETTE started playing the piano when she was 4 years old, but it was her time at Portland State earning her master’s in piano performance that kicked off her love of jazz vocals and piano. Now, the classically trained musician and singer has released a self-titled debut album described as a mix of Sarah McLachlan and Madeleine Peyroux. The CD release party at Jimmy Mak’s sold out, and LaViolette, who lives in Wilsonville with her husband and two young children, plans to soon tour the West Coast.
New Works
A REBEL’S RUBA’IYAT: TALKING THE TALK/WALKING THE WALK
By Ralph Bunch (Political Science emeritus faculty), Odin Ink, 2011
WALKING THE CLOUDS: AN ANTHOLOGY OF INDIGENOUS SCIENCE FICTION
By Grace Dillon (Indigenous Nations Studies faculty), University of Arizona Press, 2012
STOP SIGNS: RECOGNIZING, AVOIDING, AND ESCAPING ABUSIVE RELATIONSHIPS
By Lynn Fairweather ’00, MSW ’05, Seal Press, 2012
LYNDA BARRY: GIRLHOOD THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS
By Susan Kirtley (English faculty), University Press of Mississippi, 2012
RIFF RAFF: A JACK VU MYSTERY
By Doc Macomber ’84, Floating World Press, 2011
THE DISTANT ECHO OF A BRIGHT SUNNY DAY
By Pat O’Brien ’75, Strategic Book Publishing, 2012
THAT’S NOT IT
By Nancy Ellen Row ’89, CreateSpace, 2011
IN THE GARDEN
CD by Little Hexes Anmarie Trimble MA ’98 and Amy Spreadborough (University Studies faculty), Little Hexes, 2011
THE COMPLETE IDIOT’S GUIDE TO BELLY FAT WEIGHT LOSS
BY Claire Michaels Wheeler (Community Health instructor) and Diane A. Welland, Alpha Books, 2012
WE WANT TO HEAR about your books and recordings and your future exhibits, performances, and directing ventures. Contact the magazine by emailing psumag@pdx.edu, or mailing Portland State Magazine, Office of University Communications, PO Box 751, Portland OR 97207-0751.