Remembering A Legend

When I think about George Harrison, it takes a few moments to remember why he was so awesome. Then I recall the first time I listened to “Within You Without You,” “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” and “Love You Too.” That dude rocked, there’s no other way to put it. Not only was he an incredible songwriter — as seemed to be the trend if you were a Beatle — he was by far one of the most innovative musicians of the century. You have to ask yourself, would the Stones’ “Paint It Black” be nearly as cool if Brian Jones hadn’t heard Harrison’s sitar part on “Norwegian Wood?” Probably not.



After George’s tragic and untimely death in 2001 — at only 58 — the music world suffered a giant blow not unlike the one in the mid-nineties when Kurt Cobain (at the risk of sounding tactless) bit the bullet, and Jerry Garcia followed only a year later. It’s a depressing thing when a musician with such influence dies, like a part of your life is being swept away from you, but it does remind you that music, and therefore his memory, lives on forever. In honoring a fallen artist, nothing is more fitting than a living tribute, and that’s just what George is getting.

Cozmic Pizza will ring out Saturday with the legendary music of our pal George with the George Harrison Tribute Concert. The event was organized by Rob Tobias of Maya Love — a group that Tobias pulled together in 2005 for George’s inaugural local tribute — and the bill also includes Bindaas and the All Things George Choir. The festivities will cover pretty much every era of George Harrison’s music — from his years with the Beatles, through his solo career, and everything else he worked on during the years leading up to his death. Adorning these groups is an assortment of local talent, including but not limited to: Rob Tobias, Jerry Zybach, Jeremy Wegner, Larry Lynch, Tim Miller, Sean Brennan and Ankush Vimawalla.

Bindaas is perhaps the most exciting part of the night, as it will be this duo (Wegner, Vimawalla) covering George’s apprenticeship under sitar virtuoso Ravi Shankar, as well as the rest of Harrison’s stint studying the traditions of Indian music. Let’s not forget that his time spent soul searching in India eventually gave rise to some of the most innovative and unconventional music of the sixties and decades post.

The All Things George Choir is a choral group that focuses almost exclusively on George Harrison songs, and should prove an interesting highlight as well. It’s tough to imagine further innovations being added to George’s music, but as long as it’s got his style in mind it has to be good.

The most important thing to consider at a tribute show is whether the artist being honored would enjoy it. I’d say George would be down.

The George Harrison Tribute Concert starts at 7 pm Saturday, Feb. 26, at Cozmic Pizza; $10

EW 2/24

Wildlife Services: A Vicious Cycle

In 2007, Wildlife Services spent upwards of a $100 million in order to control predatory attacks. By the time the year was over, Wildlife Services had become responsible for over 100,000 animal deaths—coyotes, cougars, cats and dogs among them.

Every year livestock and cattle owners across the Northwest still call in the government’s Wildlife Services program in order to deal with predators that threaten their animals. For some, Wildlife Services seems like an excellent source to turn to when no other means of protection is available. Many others, however, see Wildlife Services as a nuisance. The general consensus among those who disagree with the policies of Wildlife Services is that the information readily available and advertised to the public is quite different to the reality found beneath the surface. For example, the extermination of rabid raccoons is advertised as a solution that Wildlife Services provides, and the public rarely disapproves of this activity due to the dangerous nature of rabies. However, by advertising such services, other happenings such as the indiscriminate killing of wolves, cougars, bears and coyote are swiftly thrown out of the limelight.


Photo: Cougar heads killed by Wildlife Services - predatordefense.org

Despite their attempts to protect the livestock industry, Wildlife Services has seemingly worsened the problem: Long time researcher of Wildlife Services, George Wuerthner, says: “Indiscriminately killing predators skews the age of a population over time…leaving a higher percentage of young, inexperienced predators that are far more likely to target livestock.” In this, Wuerthner explains the beginnings of a vicious cycle created by Wildlife Services: A livestock owner calls in a troublesome predator, several animals are killed (among them a large population of older, more experienced hunters) and inexperienced hunters are left to once again target livestock. After this, the cycle repeats.

Part of the reason that this cycle exists is due to the fact that there are no hunting laws in Oregon and so farmers and livestock owners often have no incentive to properly protect their animals. “In Chile, the farmers take protective measures like cattle sheds and corral fences to protect their livestock because there are laws against killing predators,” says Wuerthner, who recently returned from Chile. “In the Northwest there are no laws in place and so it’s easier just to call in Wildlife Services.”

Statistically, predator attacks play a far smaller part in the death of livestock than disease, poisonous plants and injury, but predators are treated differently because, well, you can’t shoot a disease. Death happens, but hunting and killing predators indiscriminately solves nothing—it just worsens the problem.

For more Information: http://www.predatordefense.org/USDA.htm