The Chelan PUD recently offered three public meetings for the customer-owners to discuss the Rate Structure change.  A total of 15 people participated in the meetings held in Leavenworth, Wenatchee and Chelan. Public meetings generally don’t attract much attention unless they deal with property taxes or perhaps a school district’s proposing to drop athletics. 

Government organizations are required by law to hold public meetings before many decisions can be. That is a positive. The lack of attendance at the Chelan PUD meetings is not unique to the PUD. Meetings are not the first choice for most people in terms of spending an evening away from home. It is my opinion that most of the public meetings don’t change the actions of organizations and therefore many people see no reason to attend. Too often the public meetings present carefully prepared presentations that frequently intimidate the attendees. The fear of revealing one’s ignorance prevents many people from making public statements.  

Unfortunately, it appears as if most public meetings are conducted to meet the law rather than to honestly solicit input.  

Boards and Commissions have a tremendous responsibility to receive input from the people and to utilize the input to inform the management and to formulate decisions. A more effective way of obtaining input might be through emails or bill stuffers. Perhaps the public meetings are a legal requirement but they don’t appear to be the most effective way to generate input.

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“Taxman.” “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.” “Something.” “Here Comes the Sun.” “Beware of Darkness.” “All Things Must Pass.” “My Sweet Lord.”

All classics. And all from the mind of George Harrison.

The quiet Beatle may have spent just 58 years on the face of this Earth, but he left behind a lifetime of great music — and great guitar playing — for the rest of us to enjoy.

From the stabbing verses of “Taxman,” to the sheer beauty of “Here Comes The Sun,” to the wailing slide on “All Things Must Pass,” Harrison was a master at work, concentrating on what worked best for the music instead of wowing the audience with his chops.

That’s not to say he didn’t have some serious ability tickling the tiny strings. Check out the solo in “Something,” which is an exercise in taste if I’ve ever heard one.

Being that he was in that one band from Liverpool with those two mop-tops that wrote about half of the world’s greatest songs together (and some goofy-looking dude named Ringo), it took some time for listeners to recognize Harrison’s songwriting skills. But I will say it, right here, right now, that Harrison’s own “Here Comes the Sun” is the greatest Beatles song of all-time. And in my book, it trumps Zep’s “Stairway” on the list of greatest rock songs ever (Stairway denied!).

The thing with Harrison is that he was never content writing songs full of power chords, or cowboy chords, or barre chords. He instead leaned on diminished chords, which he lovingly referred to as “naughty chords,” to give his tunes a different feel than the other superstars of that era.

And then there was what happened when George stepped out on his own. His debut solo record “All Things Must Pass” is easily the best solo offering from any of the Beatles, and The Concert for Bangladesh is the best DVD in my collection — not to mention an amazing accomplishment and a testament to Harrison’s charitable heart.

George Harrison - Something (The Concert for Bangladesh)

Essential George Harrison album: George Harrison - All Things Must Pass

Further listening: I’m pretty sure you have a Beatles album kicking around somewhere.

Further watching: George Harrison - Here Comes the Sun (The Concert for Bangladesh), George Harrison - Wah Wah (The Concert for Bangladesh)

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No. 8

Saturday, August 16, 2008

I’ve got to be a little selfish on this one, and I hope you’ll forgive me. Wenatchee AppleSox owner Jim Corcoran gave me the incredible honor of throwing out the ceremonial first pitch before Game 1 of the WCCBL Championship series against the Corvallis Knights. Apparently Carrot Top and the guy from the Verizon commercials weren’t available. I was copying down the starting lineups like I always do, when Corcoran’s lieutenant Ken Osborne approached me out of the blue. The conversation went something like this.

Ken: Do you want to throw out the first pitch tonight?

Me: Qdkapfrkjpeaireuparte???!!!

I was gushing like a popped zit. I was so nervous that I made WSU quarterback Marshall Lobbestael look like Joe Montana. Alright, I’ll stop.

Waiting next to the Sox dugout before my big moment, I had to rub dirt on my hands to keep the sweat quotient down. The worst thing I could possibly do was bounce it to the plate. It’s just so unmanly.

I toed the rubber and let it fly. When I tell the story to other people, I say it was a high strike. That’s garbage. It might have been a high strike for Manute Bol, but I got it there, and the catcher didn’t have to reach that high out of his crouch to catch it.

It was an absolute dream come true for me and I am equal parts thankful and bewildered that the team let me do it. I have the commemorative photo and the ball, autographed by Sox manager Ed Knaggs, sitting on my desk as I type this. Every time I look at them, I smile.

We’ll be back to the real countdown tomorrow.

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Last Sunday I had the privilege of attending the grand opening of the Town Toyota Center. As I pulled up to the building 30 minutes before start time, I was struck by the long line of cars waiting for their spot in the parking lot. It was the event of the year.

I purposely selected a seat about halfway up in the stands. I wanted to get a perspective on what it might be like to watch a show with a general ticket. I was incredibly impressed by the acoustics and the fact that there truly does not appear to be a bad seat in the house. From my seat, I could see the ceremony perfectly, while feeling like I was close enough to the ice to practically reach out and touch it.

I believe we’re lucky to have such a state-of-the-art facility in our neighborhood and I can’t wait to catch my first show at the new Town Toyota Center.

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A couple of days ago, I was caramelizing onions to make these sliders (which were totally worth the small effort, by the way). As they were cooking, the scent of caramelizing onions was intoxicating and reminded me that I’d been planning to make French onion soup for quite a while. So, when I hoofed it to the farmers market yesterday I was thrilled to find Walla Walla onions for sale.

Now, all I need a are a couple of French onion soup bowls, or broiler-safe bowls. That takes more effort, and more money. I might have to make do without special bowls and just let the cheese melt from the heat of the soup. I want to make the soup soon, the weather is really calling for it.

I’ve always kind of wondered if on cold, rainy fall days, or after recent snowfalls if restaurants go through more soup than average. Do they plan ahead, basing soup quantities on weather forecasts? Or am I the only one who almost exclusively eats soup when the weather dictates?

On another note, The World is in search of your favorite soup recipes for a hopefully soon-to-be-published story on soups. So if you have one (doesn’t have to be original) please share it using this recipe submission form. If you’d rather not fill out the form, just e-mail me, feil@wenworld.com, with your recipe and the story behind it.

Personally, I’m hoping the weather stays soupy.

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For a story on growing garlic, I had originally thought I could focus enough light through a bulb to make it translucent. But actually shooting the bulb, I found it too dense to have light shining through.

I think I nice effect could be to have an x-ray taken of the bulb and then blend a photograph of it over the top. You would be able to see the cloves inside and also the outside color. I may try that in the future.

But for now, I found out the picture I could get from shooting, with backlighting, one clove to be interesting.

If room on the page we’ll also include a few images of the whole bulb.

So to get these pictures, I had a focussed light from the back side, and a reflective piece of white cardboard from the front left. I hung the garlic from the ceiling, held in place by a sheet rock screw, fastened into the top of the garlic. Then I took the screw out using photoshop.

It’s a photo illustration to begin with so removing objects that I put in the picture is an okay practice.

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I generally have a tough time finding something interesting and newsworthy to photograph at car shows. Generally what I find are people either sitting or standing around, looking at cars. I guess this IS the activity of the event.

So I was pretty happy to be blessed by seeing  2-year-old Ryan Daggett in his car-like stroller. I spent quite a bit of time with he and his family as they walked around, looking at the show. The photo was picked up by the Associated Press.

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After enduring a wet, cold evening of shooting football in Peshastin last Friday, I downloaded my images and had a closer look at the picture I had intended using in Saturday’s sports cover. It was a shot of the Cascade defensive coach celebrating another one of Chelan’s fumbles and Cascade’s recoveries. On the camera’s screen, the image looked pretty interesting and surprisingly sharp but in the computer, there was some motion blur that made me nervous about putting it on B1.

I thought the image was very telling and fit the pandemonium of the Cascade sidelines as they took the lead in the game.

But I had this image of one of the actual fumbles that caused the turnaround in the game.

It’s such a sharp image, and one that conveys the feeling of the game - how Chelan let the lead and the game slip away - that I thought we should run it instead.

I was hoping that the picture of the coach would be used as a jump or secondary photograph but tight space in the section knocked it off.

Check out the rest of the images on my PHOTO GALLERY.

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No. 9Sept. 9, 2008This is how important Eastmont’s girls’ swimming victory over Wenatchee was: Wildcat sophomore Logan Howard was so nervous that she vomited on two separate occasions during the meet.Thankfully, not in the pool.Eastmont ended Wenatchee’s streak of 22 consecutive dual meet victories, a string that lasted four seasons.And the Wildcats got their historic victory in epic fashion. Kelsey Bruggman, Danielle Boatright, Howard and Carmen Robb swam Eastmont to a win in the 400-yard freestyle relay (the final event of the meet) in a 95-91 victory. 

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 Years ago, my mother, a wonderful cook, had a recipe for a company dish: Breast of Chicken with Sauce Supreme. Boneless chicken breasts were coated with mayonnaise, rolled in dried bread crumbs and baked, then served with a white wine and mushroom cream sauce. It was the preparation of the chicken breasts which came to mind recently when I was preparing some fresh snapper, or rock fish, from our local Safeway. While I usually prepare Snapper Vera Cruz, this time I wanted a lighter, white-wine dish, and that’s when I thought of the chicken recipe.While I didn’t want to bake my fish, I thought the mayo would hold the Panko crumbs on the fish so I could saute it, so I heated two tablespoons of olive oil in a large, non-stick pan, rubbed the fish with the mayo–less than a tsp for each piece–and coated it with the Panko seasoned with pepper, and a my own blend of dried garlic, chives, onion and salt. After cooking a few minutes on each side at medium heat, it was mouth-wateringly crisp and brown and ready to serve, this time with the corn, tomato, avocado and onion salad (mentioned in a previous blog) and a non-oaked or very lightly oaked Chardonnay. With it I like the local Wedge Mountain or the Ryan Patrick, and also the Columbia Crest Grand Estates. www.wedgemountainwinery.com , www.ryanpatrickvineyards.com This is also my favorite way with halibut when I want a fried fish effect with little added fat and a crisp exterior. Considering the price difference right now: Oct. 8, halibut $12.99 at Costco and rockfish $3.99 at Safeway, the choice is easy. And the rockfish is fresh and mild. Just be sure you use needle-nose pliers or fish tweezers to remove the bones before cooking.   

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