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"Reedfayre"

Savoring the Taste of Reed

By Nisma Elias ’12 on June 26, 2013 10:22 AM

Minced pig trotters served on seaweed with a pepper aioli, offered a provocative mix of sweet and spicy. Photo by Leah Nash

Fresh bread, sweet honey, and a crisp wine to wash to all down. It’s not heaven, but it may be the next best thing: Gastronomy Northwest, the annual festival of food and drink produced by and for alumni, was held on Saturday afternoon of Reunions ’13: Reedfayre.

Making a piquant comeback from last year were David Autrey ’89 and his partner Amy Wesselman ’91 of the Westrey Wine Company, who served a delicate 2012 pinot gris and a refreshing 2010 pinot noir (you may have heard of their rising-star sons?). Also returning was the Clear Creek Distillery, operated by master distiller Steve McCarthy ’66 and his wife, artist Lucinda Parker McCarthy ’66. The Portland distillery employs mostly Reedies and specializes in brandies and liqueurs created from the fruit grown in the family’s orchards at the foot of Mount Hood. Their summery loganberry liqueur accented the natural tartness of the berry while perfectly satisfying the sweet tooth.

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Fanfayre ’13 Looks Back, Looks Ahead

By Nisma Elias ’12 on June 25, 2013 02:48 PM

Retiring profs, including (left) Pat McDougal [chemistry] and (next to him) Ellen Stauder [English] were honored at Fanfayre ’13. Photo by Leah Nash

Like Janus, the two-faced Roman god of beginnings and transitions, Reunions '13: Fanfayre looked back to the past and forward to the college’s future in its recognition of distinguished alumni and faculty.

The keynote speaker was Eduardo Ochoa ’73, former Assistant Secretary for Postsecondary Education and current president of California State University, Monterey Bay. Eduardo, who also holds degrees in economics and nuclear engineering, analyzed the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats facing liberal arts colleges. He emphasized first the rapid pace of social change and the pressing need for a better-educated workforce in every sector of the economy. However, the rising cost of tuition poses a huge threat. “Only two percent of the population attend liberal art institutions,” he remarked. Liberal art colleges with a strong reputation and sound financial position (such as Reed) can still draw the best students, which represents an opportunity, especially since these students can become future leaders. “Reed has to focus on their leadership development because God knows we need it, after what I’ve seen in Washington,” he said.

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Kant, Reed, and the Aesthetics of Stools

By Miles Bryan '13 on June 17, 2013 12:24 PM

Chilton Gregory One of the highlights of Reunions '13: Reedfayre was Alumni College, a multi-disciplinary series of conversations and outings for Reedies of all ages. Aesthetics was the theme of this year's Alumni College #2 (which took place after Reedfayre), and school opened bright and early on Monday morning with a conference on Immanuel Kant’s Critique of Judgment (1790), led by Jan Mieszkowski [German 1997–].

Mieszkowski started the conference with a question that is central to Kantian aesthetics: what does it mean to say that an object is beautiful? Naturally the gathered Reedies—including Harry Travis ’69, Lowell Weitkamp ’58, Carole Maxwell Stuart ’63, Monica Mayper ’73, and Chilton Gregory ’60—turned to the objects at hand: the stools they had built by hand under the tutelage of master woodworker Gary Rogowski ’72 the previous day. The group agreed that Chilton’s stool was particularly attractive, but Kant’s claim that a true aesthetic judgment was devoid of all interest provoked skepticism in some of the conference participants. Evolutionary biology, the Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky, and rose gardening were topics in the fiery debate on beauty and genius that followed.

In the afternoon the debate over aesthetics carried over to the kitchen, where the James-Beard-award-winning chef Diane Morgan ’77 took the same group of scholars through a series of recipes. Other sessions included:

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Getting Funky at Reunions

By Miles Bryan '13 on June 04, 2013 11:29 AM

Tezeta Band to funk it up at Reunions 2013.

Saturday night at Reunions '13: Reedfayre, June 12-16, doesn’t begin with the fireworks. This year, it starts with Tezeta Band, Portland’s premier Ethiopian-style rock band. Tezeta Band is a sort of reunion in itself: the band is composed of members of the Five Fingers of Funk, the hip-hop funk fusion band that rocked Portland in the 1990s.

Formed in 1992, with a career that spanned nearly 10 years, Five Fingers was the Pacific Northwest’s premier hip-hop experience, opening for the likes of De La Soul, The Roots, and Run DMC. Five Fingers wound down in the early oughts, with frontman-rapper Pete Miser leaving Portland for Brooklyn. The rest of the band stayed in the Rose City, however, and, after a few years pursuing their own projects, came back together in 2006 to explore new sonic territory: Ethiopia. For the last seven years the band has jammed on the unique fusion of jazz, rock, soul, and traditional African that defined Ethiopian music during its golden era of the 1960s and ’70s (captured in the wonderful album series Éthiopiques). Tezeta will be bringing all their influences on Saturday evening, so whether you’re a hip-hop head or a funk connoisseur, come on down to the SU and be prepared to boogie.

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Laughing without Lips: the Last Lecture

By Randall S. Barton on June 05, 2012 12:05 PM

The final Hum 110 lecture of the year is one of Reed's longstanding rites of passage. After eight long months of Homer, Plato, and Sophocles, freshlings often feel a little rowdy—and the fact that the lecture typically takes place on the Friday of Renn Fayre only amplifies the sense of mischief. (One year several students actually removed their clothes during the lecture.)

In 2003, professor Jan Mieszkowski [German 1997–] volunteered to give the last lecture on St. Augustine's Confessions, a duty he reprised until 2011 when the syllabus was revised. (St. Augustine may belong to the ages, but he no longer belongs to Hum 110.)

Professor Mieszkowski delivered the lecture, by turns provocative, funny, and profound, at Reunions 2012 to an audience of appreciative alumni.

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Grazing at Gastronomy Northwest

By Randall S. Barton on June 04, 2012 01:43 PM

Photo by Leah Nash

By Angie Jabine '79

Vegetarian banh mi, ice-brewed coffee, salted watermelon, and a luscious Imperial Black Saison beer were just a few of the delicacies that drew throngs of alumni to Gastronomy Northwest at Reedfayre '12. For two hours, the student union was packed solid with Reedies vying for sips and samples, while taking care not to tread on various toddlers underfoot.

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Griffin to Make Triumphant Return to Rose Parade

By Miles Bryan '13 on June 04, 2012 11:12 AM

After more than 75 years' absence, a Reed College float will once again join the Portland Rose Festival's Grand Floral Parade, taking place this Saturday, June 9.

Reed first entered a float into the Rose Parade in 1936; although Reedies have played many important roles in the festival since, our beloved institution has never again been represented by its own float.

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