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Show The Emery County Review, Tuesday, June 17, 2008 B1 VOICES Celebrating the People and Lifestyle of the San Rafael Swell Area ANNALEE’S CORNER Artists’ creations celebrate the diverse landscape of Green River, past and present. Canyon River Runners Art Show underway in Green River Annalee Thayn The John Wesley Powell River History Museum is again holding the Canyon River Runners Art Show. This is a fine art show featuring oil and watercolor paintings, and sculpture about the Green River area. Artists from many places celebrate our diverse landscape, wildlife, and outdoor activities related to canyon areas in either historical or present time. The Art Show has attracted a wide age group of participants; the younger participants are students at Green River High School. The artwork ranges from amateur to professional. The Art Show has been made possible due to the generosity of Joe Venus, the curator of The River Gallery located inside the John Wesley Powell River History Museum. Many of the prizes given come from Venus’s pocket. Venus himself is a phenomenal artist and has had showings all over Utah and the United States. His work can be recognized instantly. He spends a lot of time on research before he begins a project to make sure that the person or animal he is portraying is as life like as possible. The prizes have already been awarded. Winners are listed below: Professional: Honorable Mention- Serena Supplee, Sensational Surge Third Place - Arlo Johnson, Chimney Rock Country Second Place - Jo Baxter, Sunny Side Up First Place- Valerie Orlemann, Bear Lake Best of Show - Jonathan Frank, Serpentine John Wesley Powell Award - Richard A. Miles, Afternoon, Lee’s Ferry Sculpture: Utah Chapter Safari Club International Wildlife – Cliff Green, Last Chance Amateur First Place – Afton A. Sorensen, Prickly Pear in Nine Mile Canyon Second Place – Kathy Paulsen, Canyon East of Springville Shirley Venus Award – Megan A. Hansen, OK…Hit it… The artists will be able to pick up their work starting June 29 to July 5, between the hours of 8 a.m. and 7 p.m. Make time to come to the museum and see what talent and beauty exists around us. You still have time to vote for The People’s Choice Award. The winner will be announced at a later date. EARTH AIM The Glass Project Photo by James L. Davis The Val Jensen Band. From left to right, Richard Murdoch, Ron Jones, Kay Jensen, Val Jensen, Jim Hill and Phyl Johnson. ‘Modern Day’ Country The Val Jensen Band enjoys the chance to get together and play a few songs and are all for audience participation James L. Davis T he groupies start showing up about half an hour before the band takes the stage. The fact that most of the groupies qualify for the senior citizens’ discount and that the stage is simply a section in front of the front window of the Star Grill and Fun Center, doesn’t matter a bit. On Tuesday nights in Huntington the Val Jensen Band enjoys the limelight as an audience of regulars gathers to tap their feet, clap their hands and enjoy a trip down memory lane with country music from an age gone by. There are six regular members of the band, although on any given Tuesday that number might grow by two or more, depending on the inclination anyone in the audience may have to join in, which suits Val Jensen and his band fine, just fine. That’s how most of them came to be in the band in the first place. Val and fellow band member Phyl Johnson have been playing together since the band’s inception in 1995, or thereabouts. When the group actually became the band that is now the Val Jensen band is hard to pinpoint. Richard Murdoch, who plays the drums, played with Val in another band and joined up with him again more than 10 years ago, as did Kay Jensen. Ron Jones and Jim Hill joined the band later and together the six make up a band that doesn’t take themselves too seriously, but seriously enjoy entertaining their audience. And if the audience wants to join in for a song or two, nobody has any they enjoy because the audience is so appreciative. “You can go out there and really mess up and they still appreciate it,” Val said. Although they like to say that the band has been around longer than many marriages, the group plays together because they enjoy playing together, not because they are in pursuit of fame and fortune. “That would get in the way of the fun were having,” Jim Hill said. Although some in the band have had some formal music training, most started playing because they loved music. Their playing and singing evolved from there. “When I was 12 my mother said I couldn’t sing and I’ve spent 59 years proving her right,” Phyl said. The band made their way to the recording studio last summer and cut their first album of country classics. They are - Phyl Johnson preparing for their second album soon. “They sell like hotcakes, $2.99 a stack,” Phyl ice Mounteer the band has to continue joked. playing until the very end, whatever Walking into a recording studio that might mean. The band doesn’t in Orem the good-natured country appear to have an argument with the band was a little shocked to see what verbal threat, or contract, whichever the process was like. you might prefer to look at it as. “They could control everything. On their Tuesday play nights they It surprised us how good we soundcan usually count on 60 or 70 of the ed,” Val said. devoted to gather at the grill to listen “If we had known we sounded to their take on country classics. The that good we would have bought the band plays music from the 1920s to bus,” Phyl said. the present day. But since they didn’t buy the tour “With 1950 being the present bus, their groupies will continue to day,” Phyl clarified. gather at the Star Grill to tap their When they aren’t playing at the toes, clap their hands and share in a grill the band can be found at any of song or two from the distant past of a variety of events around Emery and country music to the present day… Carbon counties. They play often which is somewhere around 1950. at Turnquist Retreat in Elmo, which “When I was 12 my mother said I couldn’t sing and I’ve spent 59 years proving her right.” Denise Reid The day feet are wrapped in barely-there shoes is the day all the shattered glass becomes noticeable. On walkways, parking lots, under sand or on a remote hillside, you may stumble upon broken glass. The sound of glass shattering is exciting for the duration of the explosion only. The shards can cut for a long time after. Sure, there are accidents where someone may drop a bottle. But, it may be that much of the broken glass on the ground is a result of vandals, carelessness or the excitement over the sound of glass shattering. Consider recycling glass whenever possible. As of now, no curbside recycling for glass exists in this area. Sauce jars can be washed and used for a variety of household storage uses. Collect the Ker style jars and use as drinking glasses for a country style dining experience. A reusable stainless steel beverage container helps reduce the need for disposable containers. Recycling for aluminum cans is available in this area and is a better alternative to tossing out glass. Visit utahrecycles.org to find the nearest drop off locations or contact a local city sanitation office for available recycling. At the very least, please don’t break glass in public places for pleasure. The Glass Project is one of many community recycling projects listed on The Solutions of Moab website, moabsolutions.org. Since 2003, The Glass Project has removed thousands of bits of broken glass from the earth floor. objections. “Anybody that wants to come up and play can come up and play,” Val said with an easy grin. “It never was the plan to make a lot of money.” “Which is a good thing, because we haven’t,” chimed in Phyl. “We never bought the tour bus,” he said with a deadpan look that makes you pause to wonder if he is joking or completely serious, or completely seriously joking. It doesn’t help that Val seems to enjoy acting as though everything Phyl says is completely serious. The band has played at the Star Grill and Fun Center for more than two years now and according to Jan- CASEY’S WORLD YouTube: Broadcasting the World Casey Wood YouTube is a website that hit the web running in 2005 and has never slowed down. It is an influential tool in ongoing political campaigns, both in the nation and throughout the world, one of the most accessed URLs on the web, owned by the largest company on the net, and is a place where everyone can share how they view the world in the form of a video. Yet still some wonder, “What is YouTube?” Between worldwide access, social involvement, high profile management, and oh yeah, free access to all, YouTube gives opportunity, pleasure and recognition to all who seek it. YouTube is the most widely used and accessed video-sharing website to ever exist, and grows daily. With everything it offers, it leaves little to be desired by most people. YouTube gives any person the opportunity to upload and share their video with anyone who desires to view it. It then allows the viewer, uploader and any third party who desires to, to discuss how they feel about the video, rate the video, or, if desired, create a video response to what they have watched. YouTube has few setbacks, the primary one being a maximum of ten minutes or at most 1 gigabyte of footage to be uploaded. It supports the most widely used video formats, such as .AVI, .WMV, .MP4, .MPEG, and .MOV files, as well as the 3GP format, which is used by most mobile phones. It allows users to access any appropriate content, and refuses access to any content being deemed “inappropriate,” such as pornography, nudity, defamation, harassment, commercial advertisements and material encouraging criminal conduct. The videos are accessed via search, where users can search out any content they care to see. For any content believed to be potentially offensive, users must verify that they are over the age of 18 before viewing such material. YouTube makes viewing and sharing videos simple for the longtime computer user or those new to the web, and provides features to give the common user the easiest and fastest access to any material they may need or desire to view. Youtube essentially gives those using the web the opportunity to communicate and interact using more than just text, because if a picture is worth a thousand words, imagine the vocabulary of a video. |