Mount Hood

Jubilee’s just desserts

Rebecca Meyers | Lifestyle editor

There’s a new place in town — specifically, in downtown Independence. The previously empty corner store on Monmouth Street is now Jubilee, a dessert bar that also serves coffee, wine, mimosas and beers. The shop, under the same owner as Salem’s Sugar Sugar, is noticeable by its simple lit window sign.

In my opinion, Jubilee has a lot of pros. For one, it’s very open inside and a lot of effort clearly went into the appearance and feel of the shop. It’s a cute place with a laid-back atmosphere, which perfectly fit the lazy afternoon when I went.

The menu is clearly laid out and categorized by sparkling drinks, coffee and tea and desserts. The desserts, consisting mostly of baked goods such as cupcakes and tartlets, are the main attraction so far. While not all of their options are gluten free, they still have a number of them on their display, such as the chocolate cake. I tried one of my favorite combinations with their dark chocolate caramel filled tartlet, which was rich but very enjoyable. I also sampled their butterscotch crumble cupcake, which was a little sweeter but had a good balance between the sweetness and the more bitter chocolate crumble; I almost wished I’d gotten that instead.

The making of Jubilee is still in progress, however, a detail to consider when visiting. Their hours may be inconsistent, but they are currently open most days from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. They are also still working on honing their recipe for the ice cream jubilee, a kind of homemade ice cream that they plan to have as a main selling point on their dessert menu.

The only main downside to Jubilee is the lack of foods other than dessert. The drinks menu is ideal for a brunch, but as of now the food options are limited to sweets without any breakfast foods. However, the business is still new and it will be interesting to see if they decide to expand the menu. It will also be interesting to see if what they choose to do with the back room, which is currently only used for reservations for private parties.

Overall, I enjoyed my visit to Jubilee and will likely return in the future, both for a butterscotch crumble cupcake and to see if there are any changes.

 

Contact the author at howllifestyle@wou.edu

Photo courtesy of Ashlynn Norton

Interview: Auditing classes for personal growth

Rebecca Meyers | Lifestyle editor

If there’s anything nearly all students can relate to, it’s the stress of class requirements, grades and graduation. This is often related to the further stress of thinking about where graduation will then take us, and our entrance into the real world.

Some students, however, have already been into the real world and have found that it still leads back to Western. In most cases, these nontraditional students are also aiming for a degree of some kind. This is not the case for student Paul McNeil, who is taking classes purely for the purpose of continuing his education. As this is an experience I can’t relate to, I asked for an interview to get a different perspective.

With a backpack full of textbooks, McNeil, despite the age difference to most students, seems to fit in with the college kids lounging in the Werner University Center — maybe because he has been attending college classes for years, and not just at Western. He continued studying long after earning a degree in physics, a major he picked because, according to McNeil, “it challenged me the most.”

“I could drop into any department (at Western) and find something interesting to study,” McNeil said in regards to the contrast in his classes. Though his physics degree took him through careers in technology and engineering, he now takes courses such as Economic Geography and Transnational Migration. He was drawn to these classes by the desire to learn about “how the world is set up financially,” he mentioned, and how this affects global inequality and society.

McNeil audits the classes, meaning he doesn’t have to worry about a grade — although, as he points out, the instructor is still free to call on him and ask for contribution to the discussion, and so the familiar mantra of “make sure you do the reading” is echoed in this situation.

As a senior citizen, McNeil also gets to audit classes for free with permission of the professor. This is a point he emphasized, as it is a little known fact that others might be able to take advantage of. He revealed there are other additional benefits of auditing classes.

“My initial thought…was that getting a student card would allow me access to the university’s library database,” he said, appreciating the extensiveness of Hamersly Library and noting that not every library has such range.

Overall, the conversation, for me, turned out to be a much needed reminder that studying for a degree is important, but continuing education for personal self growth is as well. Before parting, McNeil commented that students these days have a wealth of information at their fingertips, and that it can be beneficial to explore all options: “Students shouldn’t feel so pressured to choose …there is so much information to explore, and finding the right thing can take some time.”

 

Contact the author at howllifestyle@mail.wou.edu

Youtube channel Girls Play features WOU alumnae

Chrys Weedon | Entertainment Editor

According to the 2016 census, Monmouth’s population is about 10,000 people. The Girls Play Youtube channel’s subscriber count currently sits at about 246,000, which is 24 times more people than the population of Monmouth.

Girls Play is a channel that has been building a following for six years. The group also has a considerable following on Twitch, a streaming channel where viewers can interact live with streamers. Many women have joined and left the channel over the years, but the current team is about 10 people. One of the original members, Larson, was working at Target and attending Western when the channel was born.

“One of my friends realized ‘hey, there’s no girls in this platform, and especially a group. How cool would it be if we could get a group of girls in this niche that’s starting to grow and see what we could do with it?’” said Larson.

The channel started in a bedroom, and in the beginning it was just a hobby. Larson commented that for the first four years, she was only recreationally making videos while also working and going to school. But as their following grew, it became a full time job.

“I’ve only been full time two-years with this,” Larson commented, “it was very hard. Even though we look big and professional now, it’s still a struggle and I don’t think a lot of people ever realize that the struggle at the beginning is real.”

Natalie Doerfler, a junior theater major at Western, joined the channel about a year ago.

“Now people are recognizing Youtube and Twitch as actual jobs and you get paid to do them,” Doerfler said.

Although maintaining the channel takes a lot of work, Natalie enjoys being able to do something she loves.

“It’s become about just hanging out with friends on a Youtube channel and on Twitch, and just being able to play video games,” commented Doerfler.

The Girls Play channel has videos on a diverse group of video games.

“We’re… variety, which was originally why we liked the idea of the girl group,” said Larson, “because you have so many different personalities, whereas a lot of channels especially are very solo focused.”

Specific challenges come along with being a group of women online in a Youtube genre that is dominated by men.

“There are gonna be the men who come into chat and talk about how much makeup you’re wearing and how distracting it is,” said Doerfler, “and then you’ll have another guy come into maybe a different stream where you’re wearing a little bit less makeup and they’ll judge you for how little makeup you’re wearing.” But, in the end, the girls say that the community they’ve built is worth everything.

“We are completely relying on the community to keep (the channel) going,” Larson said.

Doerfler said the most important thing about the channel to her was to engage with other women within the gaming community.

“I think it’s important to show men that, hey, this is happening and it’s okay for you to enjoy this as well,” said Doerfler. “I just want people to see that women are having fun with video games just as much as men.”

 

Contact the author at howlentertainment@wou.edu

Video courtesy of Chrys Weedon

Photo courtesy of Paul F. Davis

Folk musician John Gorka visits Western

Chrys Weedon | Entertainment Editor

John Gorka was born into the world of music in a small coffeehouse in Pennsylvania in the 1970s. The coffeehouse, Godfrey Daniels, was a hotspot for musicians and a place that Gorka frequented often, even living in the basement for a time. There at Godfrey Daniels, he met a myriad of musicians who inspired him and he quickly started writing his own music.

Gorka’s first album, “I Know,” was released in 1987. He released his 14th album on January 19, 2018.

Gorka visited Western on Jan. 18 as a visiting artist. As part of the Smith’s Fine Arts series, Gorka came to play his music and share the wisdom he has gathered through his years of making music and touring.

“Of course, I’ve been influenced by mainstream stuff. But I think of myself as something of an insider, and I have always felt that it was better to really strongly affect a small number of people, than to reach a big number of people only superficially or temporarily,” said Gorka in a story in the Huffington Post by journalist Brian D’Ambrosio.

Gorka’s songs are strongly characterized by the storytelling element. Each song takes the listener on a journey. Songs like “Mennonite Girl” and “Edgar the Party Man” are both examples that show off Gorka’s storytelling abilities. Along with his more structured, storytelling songs, Gorka has multiple pieces that are more funny and lighthearted, like “People my Age” and “Like my Watch.” On stage, Gorka is jovial, cracking jokes and telling stories about his travels and his music career.

Behind the scenes, however, Gorka is shy and subdued. Earlier in the afternoon on Friday, Jan 19, Gorka held a song writing workshop to impart his knowledge of the craft and share his writing techniques. He often deflected attention to his instruments and his songs.

“Personally, I wanted to push myself out of my comfort zone,” commented Sage Kiernan-Sherrow, a junior pursuing an English degree with a literature concentration.

“What I got out of it was that you have to be comfortable forcing yourself to create even when you don’t want to,” said Kiernan-Sherrow, “and experimenting with your work when you’re stuck.”

The songs of John Gorka are clearly products of many different influences, but they all have a strong theme of honesty through each one of them. Each melody, each lyric, feels like a secret memory or poem. Gorka’s music can be found on Spotify and iTunes. His website can be found at johngorka.com.

 

Contact the author at howlentertainment@wou.edu

Photo courtesy of Ashlynn Norton

Book review: “The Water Cure”

Chrys Weedon | Entertainment Editor

“If the men come to you, show yourself some mercy. Don’t stick around and wait for them to put you out of your misery.” These are the words of King, the caretaker and creator of a supposedly utopian compound in a world that is plagued by male violence and intense radiation. Here, with their mother, three women liver: Grace, Lia and Sky. King has vanished, apparently killed by the dangerous world outside.

Only Grace still has faint memories of the outside world. Lia and Sky were too young to know what the world is really like. Convinced from a young age that certain death awaited them beyond the borders of the compound, the girls stay with their mother and reminisce about the past, about the years when women would travel to them by sea to be healed.

In order to be cleansed, guests would endure different “therapies” of King’s own design. These included purging, being held underwater for as long as possible before drowning, and burning effigies representative of each woman’s trauma. These all led up to a final therapy — the water cure. For a final time, a woman deemed truly healed would be held underwater within an inch of drowning; if she survived, she was ready, and would travel back into the world.

Grace, Lia and Sky grew up enduring these therapies, all the while learning of the violent and chaotic nature of men, who would hurt you if they got the opportunity. When three men wash up on their shore, tensions rise and the sisters are forced to adapt to their new lives among them. When their mother disappears, the girls start to understand their own strength and capacity for desire.

Author Mackintosh’s descriptive ability and complex writing makes this novel intriguing. The many layers and metaphors in the novel deserve a comprehensive analysis. The distinctive voices of Grace and Lia, who take turns narrating the book, alternate so fluidly and naturally. Mackintosh clearly has a strong command of language. The fact that “The Water Cure” is her first novel is very promising.

Overall Rating: I would strongly recommend this book, but would advise caution. There is some imagery of abuse and sexual assault that could adversely affect some readers.

 

Contact the author at howlentertainment@wou.edu

Photo courtesy of penguin.co.uk

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