Preview of "Music Down in My Soul"



Posters for the performance have been posted all over campus


Close your eyes and let it sink into you, the shadowy sweetness of the voices. It had started with a pounding thunder like the rhythm of waves heard from a cliff above the beach. Slowly it had drowned into a whisper faded from a long distance away. And then it was gone.

"Drop the 's's!" cried the conductor.

LBCC's student choirs have been practicing all term. Jessica Wilson a member of the Concert Choir said everything they do has been working up to the performance next Thursday on June 2. It will be called "Music Down in My Soul."

The choirs have other performances, such as the Albany Sings! which was on May 26; but this will be only LBCC students. And as Wilson said "They're really good."

Songs will include the sweet and sad and the rollicking and funny. James Reddan the choir director said he chose his songs to include something "for everybody." They'll sing the Ode to Krispy Kreme by Take 6. Then they will also sing How Can I Keep from Singing? which is based on an old Quaker hymn.

"Every emotion possible is explored in this concert," said Reddan.

The concert is called "Music Down in My Soul," after one of the pieces they will perform. But Reddan believes it's more than that. Much of this concert he said will be about the way music touches people's souls.

Diana Hancock plays the piano on Thursday. She has been playing and singing in choirs since she was seven. In fourth grade choir her teacher was sick and Hancock played to replace her. She has seen many choirs and different musical groups. Hancock thinks the LBCC choirs are good.

"I think they'll do great on Thursday," she said. "Everybody in the choir is really dedicated and they are very well trained."

They practice in SSH-213. The room is big and sparsely furnished. There are a few chairs around the room, the chairs for the singers lined up on stairs, two grand pianos, three normal pianos and one organ. The walls are replete with awards, pictures and plaques from as far back as 1987.

When they practice the swelling of their music can be heard from the courtyard.

Their conductor loves them. He glows when he talks about them, scolds, conjoles, pleads and jokes when he talks to them. He almost dances when the music becomes exciting.

The LBCC choirs do a special at home concert every term. They also travel across the U.S. to compete. On May 4 they were in Reno, Nevada for an international competition. All 4 groups that went won silver medals. The Chamber Choir was 0.29 points away from a gold.

The Chamber Choir is the group that is going to the Olympics. In July 2012 there will be a special music concert in Southwark Cathedral in England as part of pre-Olympic festivities. It will be a mass choir from around the world singing with the London Philharmonic orchestra.

Reddan said LBCC's Chamber Choir had also been asked to do special solo concerts. One of these will be at a famous cathedral called St. Martin's-in-the-fields.

When asked why students should come to "Music Down in My Soul" Wilson had a simple answer. "You'll hear some really good singers and there will probably be someone in the choir you might know."

At-a-glance:
"Music Down in My Soul"
Place: The Russell Tripp Performance Center
Date: June 2
Time: 7:30 p.m.
Tickets are $7 for general admission, $5 for students and seniors
To purchase: www.linnbenton.edu/go/tickets

Victoria Fridley: Writing Center Director

It was right above “ Be the next LBCC Student Poet Laureate” sign and across from a list of the “most persuasive words.” Someone had scrawled it in blue on the white of the board.

“Art is always talking. A good artist just listens.”

If that is the case then Victoria Fridley, Writing Center director, is an amazing artist. For the last three and a half years she has been striving to find out what students need for writing success and making that available to them as soon as possible.


Fridley reigns over the Writing Center gracefully from the desk in the corner that has her name on it. The files are impeccable. The tea cup has a little plate over the top to keep out dust and sits on a table coaster. Even her pencils are organized. 


This is the person that made the Writing Center what it is. Her efficiency and her talent for making things run smoothly has turned her job into something so quietly organized no one seems to notice what's going on. She's always in control. Even on the days the Center overflows with students her voice is still quiet and she gives the same enthusiastic interest in your work as she would on an easy day. 

Danyelle Sullivan, a student who uses the Writing Center for help with her hybrid class, said if the Writing Center closed, “It would be horrible.”

One of Fridley's writing assistants, Gary Brittsan, said he knew what makes her happy, it's when "she's working with a student and the student has that moment of realization when everything clicks."

Watching Fridley with a student you see what her husband called passion. Michael Fridley said no matter what she’s doing she brings passion and compassion to it. He loves that about her.

He said that he’s “proud of her achievements and her humility with which she makes her achievements.”

The Writing Center as we have it now is one of her achievements.

Q: How have you changed the Writing Center in the time that you have been here?

Fridley: The person who was in this position before me, Greg Rather, was a part time English faculty and he was wonderful. He let me bring my own ideas. One of the immediate things was to change the look of it. When we started we kind of had these ugly partitions up and a couple ugly kinds of nonfunctional tables and I wanted to get some small round tables for our one to one work. I wanted to rearrange it constantly to make it more appealing. We changed the whiteboard to a place where students can share their poetry and quotations they love or to draw. I created the Writer’s Wall so faculty and staff and classified and students can share their writing with each other. We put chocolates on the tables. We keep trying to improve what we do. I’m very excited that next fall we’re adding another way that students can use our services. We’re going to allow students to make 30-minute appointments. That’s going to be really nice.

Q: What made you want this job?  

F: Many things actually. I really love writing. I love helping ease the anxiety and insecurity that a lot of people feel about writing. I love to teach but the thing I don’t like about teaching is grading. So I love working in the Writing Center because I can teach by explaining and by guiding students with their writing but I don’t have to evaluate it in terms of putting a grade on it; and that frees me to focus on composition. I also have a lot of students again and again and you really get to know what they’re working on, what their style is like and your approach and help for them is very personalized and I love that.

Q:Tell me some of your background in writing.

F: I got my MFA at Davis’s playwriting. I had the opportunity to have three of my plays produced when I was there as a student and learned just a lot. It’s certainly not a practical degree. It’s about as practical as poetry in terms of making any money from your work. It’s difficult to get any productions of your plays but it was wonderful. It was a very creative time. One of my plays had several productions and it’s being used in hospitals and some grief training groups across the country because it’s a play about two mothers whose children have leukemia, one who’s child is dying and one who is newly diagnosed. Doctors and social workers and nurses really wanted me to do something with it. I thought about it as a play. It was going to be produced at a theatre company with a playwrights group I belonged to. But they wanted it to be videotaped. I had not really thought about that until people asked me, but I did get it videotaped. And then Dr. Donna Wong, who wrote the leading book on pediatric nursing, wanted me to write a discussion guide on it and to promote it. Now it’s available for sale again. It’s been converted to DVD format.

Q: Do you have a best memory of your job?
F: The really incredible moments that I treasure have been with students. Like to have a student start out a session with me saying they're a horrible writer and they hate writing and then in the process of looking at their work we are able to identify some really beautiful strong things and all of a sudden there's this light that comes on, you know the "I can do this!"It is just the most rewarding job. 

 

Q: Tell me something about yourself most people wouldn’t really guess.

F: I wouldn’t say necessarily most people. Because I’ve always been in really people-intensive jobs and I really like people, when I tell someone that I’m shy or introverted they don’t really believe me. But I am: very shy and very introverted. I have come to realize that you can work very well with people and really enjoy people and still be introverted.


At-a-glance:
Who: Victoria Fridley
Family: Married 24 years to Michael Fridley, with a 20-year-old son named Daniel
Education: B.A. in English, Master's at U.C. Davis, MFA in playwriting
Favorite thing in the whole wide world: Books
Pet peeve: Her husband leaving things on the floor
Failings: A self-professed coffee snob 

Visit from Author Rick Borsten

Caleb Tremain was struggling through the forest, the dark heavy around him. His breath came harshly, too loud, and he tried to muffle it. He had to be silent; he had to hear the Thing that was coming up behind him. The Bear. The chase between the man and the bear was a crucial point in Rick Borsten's new novel, Insane for the Light, which he read from last Thursday in North Santiam Hall.   The reading was in NSH-207. The classroom was big enough for the thirty odd people that came to hear him. There were students from a short story class, a few teachers, people from around campus and older folks who knew Borsten and liked his work. Steve Scheetz used to be his boss. He came to support Borsten because they're still friends. They go out to breakfast on Friday morning. Borsten teaches him golf. Borsten started by introducing his new novel, Wobbly in the Buddha Fields, which includes a character, a certain Dolores Ludlow. He sketched her brilliantly with vivid pictures and short words. He seemed to enjoy the reading himself, laughing a little bit at the funny parts. Then he went on to a much larger selection from Insane for the Light. This piece was set back in the 1850's in the Sierra Mountains. It was a story about a logger called Caleb Tremain and his struggle with a giant tree. Borsten did his research well. With well chosen description and characters he brought back the old days. He used the right terms for the logging equipment, of course, and even wrote a song with logger slang from the 1850's. Tremain triumphed over the tree and the bear; Borsten stopped reading and hinted to the audience  what would happen in the end. Time was opened up for questions. People wanted to know where he found his ideas and characters, where he liked to write and how he managed to actually publish. Most of the audience seemed to love his work. Kate Carr, a student, said, "I don't buy hardbacks of anything I don't absolutely adore." She bought both of Borsten's books in hardback.  Borsten is a Corvallis author whose first novel, The Great Equalizer, was published in 1986 by Permanent Press in New York. It was rated 4.40 by goodreads. In 1987, the book was a finalist for the Oregon Book Award. This is Borsten's fourth year reading at LBCC. Terrance Millet, a short story teacher who shared his class time with Borsten Thursday, said he is an excellent person for young writers to learn from. " He's an accessible writer with great stories about how to be a writer and how writers live." He loves what he does. It shows in his enthusiasm, in the way he became caught up in his own words as he was reading.  He works at a part time job so he has time to write. "You get a rush, " he said with a smile, "when things fall together."

At-a-glance: What: Valley Writers Series Next talk: Jed Wyman When: Noon, Wednesday, May 11

--for more information:

Jane White--- whitej@linnbenton.edu Lucette Wood---woodl@linnbenton.edu

LBCC brings Career Fair to the Valley

WANTED. The ads are on store windows or in the back of newspapers and too often they are even in hiding.

Every college student is on the lookout.

Last week, on April 14, the "Wanted" ads came to LBCC.

The 33rd annual Career Fair filled the Activities Center gym with the roar of many voices. The high heels of well-dressed employees from more than 50 businesses tapped the blue tarp on the floor. The whole gym smelled faintly of the tarp's rubber.

But nervous job seekers didn't seem to notice. They were on the go, searching for the right business, stammering or achieving that perfect introductory speech.

"It's a little confusing," said Patty Evans, a job seeker, "It's like a rat race." She said she should have done more background research before coming. That had been part of the counseling services plan. They had offered sample questions to ask employers, information on the businesses that were there and a list of career planning services.

From looking at the economy it seems that the number of jobs is limited, but many of the businesses were hiring.

Milly Sage, from the Valley West Health Care Center said, "We always have jobs."

T Mobile was looking for retail and customer service representatives.

Edward Jones wanted financial advisers and a branch-office administrator.

At first glance it looks odd that they brought these jobs into a college instead of offering them first to the working adults. It wasn't all because they wanted degrees. None of the jobs from the companies above needed anything but a high school diploma.

Sage knew the answer. She said that she is always offering jobs to the public.

Chrystal Hart, at Edward Jones said, "We just want to reach out to anybody who's ready and willing to go to work."

Carla Raymond, Career Fair coordinator said she advertised hardest at the college but the fair was open to the public because it is the largest one in the valley.  So college students weren't the only ones there. Charity Dillon had the job fair recommended to her by the Department of Human Services as a place to look for a career. 

Kim Hallock from a company called Flakeboard said there was "a lot more people that weren't students...but the mix is good."

Hallock  was pleased with the fair. She said that her company had found some people worth following up.

Wendy Frank with Team Mobile agreed. Her company has been coming to this fair for a long time, "Because," she said, "It's a very consistently busy job fair. We've always been able to hire people."

ATI Wah Chang had a few available positions and found  some people they wanted to follow up with.

The Career fair is to bring businesses and potential employees together. And it was right to have it here because that's what college is about. As Raymond said, "Success means to go to school and get a job. Success is really important at LBCC." 

At-a-glance:
Tips to finding the career that works for you:
1) search the web
2) find out as much as possible about the company you're interested in
3) talk to employees of that company
4) observe the work place
5) ask managers questions that are direct and pointed
6) check out the company's website
7) trust your instincts
--from U.S. news, "7 Ways to find your perfect job"

The Horse Team

Photo courtesy of LBCC Equestrian Team

The stallion snorted at himself in the arena mirror. He danced back and forth on slim dappled legs and suddenly reared, throwing his head back to see over the white wall. The thunder of his voice echoed through the barn.

The stallion was borrowed for  the breeding season at the LBCC Horse Center. The center is too busy to have them here now but this is where the Equestrian Team practices for their horse shows and competitions all over the Northwest. Lately their competion has been quite successful.

But without the horses there wouldn't be a team.

They are Esther and Lola, Hazel and Kadene, Rita and Molly, a Belgian draft mix. Molly weighs almost 2,000 pounds. Kadene is old, 28 years old. Rita was born and trained here at the Horse Center. She was named after the former LB President Rita Cavin.

 The nineteen members of the Equestrian Team practice in the arena where the stallion was being held. Jenny Strooband, their team adviser and the department chair of agricultural science teaches them. During their training season there is one or two practices a week in the white arena on the heavy sand.

The E-Team is training for competitions that the other members of the Intercollegiate Horse Show Association in their area host.

They've traveled as far as Canada. Danielle Saunders, a former member, told of a cold early morning during a show there. She said that while watching the expert riders warm up,  "I thought, that's what I want to do, that's what I want to be."

Every year the E-team hosts a show  at the Linn County Expo Center as part of their fund raising. They make up to $9,000.

Much of that money is used to cover travel expenses. E-Team members do not have to pay even for their hotel rooms. When their captain, Cole Newman and rider Halley Beaver went to Texas for the Western semi-finals, their tickets were paid for.

To Newman one of the best memories of riding was when he learned both he and Beaver made it past semi-finals and to nationals in Kentucky. “I was just really excited,” he said “It means we’re one of the top 12 teams in the nation."

"I think it's only going to get better. "

Membership on the E-team is only $35 a year, but they ask their riders to allow at least a $100 because of other expenses. Strooband said compared to the 11 other teams in the region that is cheap. The University of Oregon horse team membership dues are $300.

A limited number of beginners are allowed. You don't even have to own your own horse.

The long clean row of stalls by the arena smells of the horses' breakfast alfalfa. There is a low rumble of munching. Strooband’s favorite horse, a Canadian Warmblood named Oscar, finished his breakfast a little early. He was standing in his stall with a green blanket over his black coat, tall and arrogantly handsome. Oscar is also ridden by the E-team.

After breakfast the horses are let out. There are three acres of pasture, green against the white gate and the red barn. There they play, dance, and eat.

They are ignorant of their destiny. Do horses understand making it to nationals? 

At-a-glance: 
What: LBCC Equestrian Team
Officers: Jenny Strooband, advisor, Cole Newman team president
Where they meet: Horse Center
Contacts: Jenny Strooband, 541.917.4767
For tryouts: email jenny.strooband@linnbenton.edu

Study Jam story

If you haven't yet studied for finals...the time is now!

Actually it's gone. But so many of us still need to catch up. That is expected. That's what Study Jam is for.

On the weekend before finals, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturday and from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday, the Learning Center will be open. Vikki Maurer said why: "We're here to help."

Everything you need to study will be available. The LC has been hosting this since the fall of 2008 and they know what to do. White boards will be empty, scratch paper and table space, library books and friends to study with will all be there. You will be able to use computers in the both the LC and the library.

Sometimes teachers will drop in to work with their students.

Tests, for some of us, are so easy to put off. That's why during Study Jam the testing center will be open until 5 p.m. on both days.

The Math Angle will be open.

 Destaney Jefferson, a student in her first term, knew exactly was the scariest part about finals was. "Math," she said and added, "If I fail I'll lose my financial aid."

 The Math Angle provides more study space just for this subject and a chance to ask all the questions you need to and have them answered.

But the Math Angle is only for students in MTH 095 and below. For those who aren't signed in at the Angle the Math Help desk will also be staffed from 12 a.m. to 4 p.m. on both days.

And while you're studying, if you sign up soon enough, you can send your children, free, to a Kids Jam at the Periwinkle center.

Most of all Study Jam provides a helpful, encouraging atmosphere for the stress right before finals.

And, you might be interested to know, you pay for it.

Eric Fleming, a Student Government representative, explained how the ASG, who helps host Study Jam,  is given part of every tuition dollar to provide services students want. "We've always had a very good turnout" he said but added that if students don't come they'd have to cut Study Jam back.

Part of any extra money goes to a big drawing  at the end of the weekend. Up to 20 people are awarded prizes.

ASG, as a good host, brings food. Free breakfast fruit and muffins, vegetables and pizza are provided.

Fleming said, "We know we have a good turnout when the food disappears."

Let's make it disappear this time.

Books I want to Write: from Chris Brogan's Topics

If it was possible to change the world with 10,000 words what would you say?

The world has changed already. For those who want to change it back there is almost too much to say.

Something that really bothers me about this changed world is the materialistic belief that this is all that exists: just what you can see, think and touch right now. I want to write a book about a man who believed that and changed.

This rationalistic being fell through his solid little world onto another planet. He found to his surprise that something else, quite superior and beautiful, existed. And a flaming sort of way his whole worldview changes. That's what fascinated me about the idea; the way this one belief can control so much of a man's mind.

But to be a mere supernaturalist is dangerous. It's too powerful for us to play with. So, I'd write another story. This one would be about the raging battle in the world of good and evil.

A Catholic priest moves to a middle-sized town. There is other pastors and such there. But he's different. A long time ago he was set on fire with the knowledge of this battle between good and evil. He's unable to pass by any suffering, any evil, any single person. His heart is in pain with the thought that so many people will be slaves to evil and fear. He prays and fasts and talks to town leaders about secret gangs, talks to gang leaders about the Higher Council of One. But he is also fighting the same battle with himself. He too is in the spiritual realm. 

And it wouldn't be enough to create a theological dualist. The next of my books would talk about God. But it takes a genius to handle that Subject rightly. All I could do is give a list of books that do it like I think it should be done.Goodness is so beautiful. God is so good.

But who would listen? The world has changed too much already. There's no hope of a person turning it around.