Local lanes get music makeover
Rachel Cavanaugh
News Editor
Two years ago, Ben Scribner left Los Angeles for Klickitat County.
Loaded with a vintage electric piano, two amplifiers, a lead harp, home recording studio, and a set of 1000-watt speakers, the musician drove north for a change of pace.
The idea was to take over his parents’ bowling alley and turn it into an animated music venue. The classically-trained musician now runs Golden Lanes Bowling Alley, which he has revamped with new paint and lighting.
He said he hopes the renovation will bring some nightlife into town.
“Let’s face it – there’s not a lot of stuff to do around here,” Scribner said. “I’m trying to provide something to the city of Goldendale, to this area…This is state-of-the-art 1960. Places like this are getting torn down left and right.
“It’s a shame because there’s all this history and cool old stuff.”
Rather than seeing the space as a bowling alley that features music, he said he likes to think of it as a rock venue with bowling lanes.
The theme so far has been rockabilly – a genre that fits nicely into the retro look of the lanes. Earlier this year, the club hosted Wanda Jackson, considered by many to be the “Queen of Rockabilly.”
Last week, Scribner tested out a Rock Band video game tournament where competitors played karaoke-style guitar along to a 73-inch T.V. screen. The real thing will be on July 19.
Scribner is a lifelong musician, beginning, he said, when he inherited a horn from his grandfather. He played saxophone as a kid and went on to study jazz and film scoring at the Berkeley College of Music in Boston - one of the country’s top music schools.
He now has three sons, the oldest of whom is 16-years-old. He is already a musician, playing fiddle and mandolin gigs at coffee shops around Phoenix.
In recent months, Scribner’s bowling alley has acquired a following of kids and teenagers who hang after school or on weekends to bowl, do homework, play X-Box, or bang around on the drums.
He said his goal is to get kids excited about music and give them a fun, safe place to hang out.
That is not to say, however, that the joint can’t get rocking on a Saturday night: “It’s like rock star central here, that’s all I’m going to say,” he says, laughing. “I just want people to come in here and have fun.”
Eco-graveyard buries first body
A “green cemetery” in Klickitat County— thought to be the first ever slated for the state of Washington — has buried its first cadaver.
White Eagle Memorial Preserve, a 20-acre space near the edge of the Columbia Gorge National Scenic area, interred Ray Mitchell, founder of the non-profit Sacred Earth Foundation (SEF).
The Klickitat County resident died suddenly last December and friends have kept his body on ice in anticipation of the cemetery, which associates call an “afterlife community.”
The idea of the cemetery is to practice burial traditions in a more ecologically conscious way. According to the cemetery’s website, White Eagle seeks a more “holistic” view of death.
“We believe our bodies don’t belong to us, but to the community of nature and that is where they should return,” said project manager Daniel Dancer. “This is, of course, exactly the opposite of modern cemeteries which go to great lengths to preserve the body and keep it from returning and recycling back in to nature’s continuum.”
Burial plots are 20 x 20 feet in size – some of the biggest in the nation, according to Daniel.
The cemetery is divided into seventy-seven sections, each named after a species native to the area. Future plans include offering white dove releases, a horse-drawn hearse option for funeral ceremonies, and a small area chapel.
Management has begun a one-year certification process to become a conservation burial ground recognized by the Green Burial Council.
New pest for small grain growers
ANDREW CHRISTIANSEN
Reporter
Klickitat County wheat growers learned of a new threat to their crop during last week’s small grain variety trial field day. The cereal leaf beetle was reported as possibly present in a field near the Columbia River in Klickitat County. They also learned of an example of a successful biological control method that is being used in the state to control the insect.
Diana Roberts, WSU Extension area agronomist, updated Bickleton area farmers on the cereal leaf beetle and a tiny parasitic wasp, which looks like a promising method of control in Washington State University tests. The beetle, an accidental import from Eurasia, first found in Michigan in 1962, was found in Washington in 1999.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture imported the wasp, which is a natural predator of the beetle in Eurasia. After testing to ensure the wasp would not become a pest in this country, it was released to help control cereal leaf beetles.
WSU Extension worked with farmers at locations where the beetle was found. WSU established insectaries, three-acre plots where beetle and wasps can thrive, adjacent to the infested fields. As the new wasps emerge from parasitized beetle larvae, they spread across the field and deposit eggs in other bettle larvae. The insectaries also serve as a nursery to raise parasitized larvae which can be collected and distributed to other sites with beetle infestation.
Each parasitized larvae will hatch up to 26 wasps. If the habitat is suitable, the wasps will thrive and infect enough beetle larvae to minimize damage to the crop. The parasitized larvae die before reaching the adult stage, thus preventing further beetle egg laying.
WSU maintains 10 field insectaries as a source of parasites. Three of the sites were established in 2005 and one in 2004, the remaining sites are more recent. The level of parasitism at the three-year old sites was greater than 90 percent, indicating the wasp population was healthy and effectively attacking beetle larvae. The four-year old site had 85 percent parasitism and the population of beetles was reduced by 94 percent from 2005 levels.
On Monday, Roberts confirmed that cereal leaf beetles were positively identified in an oats field in the southwestern edge of the Klickitat County. Parasitized beetle larvae were to be introduced into the field this week.
The goal is to keep beetle numbers below an economic threshold which would justify treatment with insecticides. In most cases of dryland wheat, the benefit from pesticide treatment would not offset the cost of the treatment. However, high grain prices have motivated some growers in the state to opt for insecticide control of the beetle, especially in irrigated fields.
The cereal leaf beetle prefers oats, but attacks many grasses, including wheat, barley, timothy and grassy weeds, such as quackgrass and foxtail. The larvae and beetle feed on the upper surface of leaves, between leaf veins. The loss of green material gives the crop a frosted appearance and results in as much as 25 percent yield loss in Washington State experience.
The larva covers itself with slimy fecal material, giving it the appearance of a slug. Black streaks on your pants are tell-tale signs that you’ve walked through a field with cereal leaf beetle infestation.
The beetle adult is about one-quarter inch long with an orange thorax and orange legs. Wing covers and head are a metallic blue-black in color. Any suspicion of cereal leaf beetle should be reported to the Extension office or contact Roberts at robertsd@wsu.edu. |
