Carolyn Lamberson: Favorite stories of 2015
As features editor and sometimes arts writer, I can’t complain too much about my work. I get to talk to cool people about the cool things they’re doing. Here are a few of the stories I most loved doing in 2015.
I do a lot of these 20-minute phone interviews with artists who are coming to town. A lot. A couple times this year, however, I had the opportunity to interview artists for a second time in my career. I first interviewed Brandi Carlile in 2005, before she made it big, when she was an up-and-comer touring the Interstate 5 corridor in a van, and when I was the entertainment reporter for the Register-Guard in Eugene. Before we talked about her tour that was coming to the Knitting Factory, we reminisced about a story she once told me about an earlier visit to Eugene. She and her band were opening for Shawn Mullins, and a bar fight broke out in the alley behind the club. A bar fight. At a Shawn Mullins show. In peace-and-love Eugene. This anecdote didn’t make my story this time around, but it was a nice break-the-ice moment and allowed us to talk about some really interesting things.
2. Review: Eagles’ long, rich history thrills audience at Spokane Arena.
We don’t review a lot of concerts. Mostly we hit the super-big rock events. I wasn’t even planning on attending the Eagles concert this time around, as I’d seen them on a previous reunion tour. So when we started talking about possibly reviewing this one, I figured why not. The thing about the Eagles is I’m not a huge fan. I like the songs I’ve heard on the radio my entire life, but I don’t go out of my way to listen their music. Still, I came away from this show with a respect for the Eagles. There’s a reason that “Hotel California” and “Take It Easy” are so memorable: They are really great songs. And to see a bunch of really great songs performed by really great musicians? It’s a thing to behold. Was it my favorite show of the year? No. That would be Sleater-Kinney at the Knitting Factory in February. Still, I’m glad I went.
3. Alton Brown’s serious about playing with his food
I admit that anymore I’m pretty blasé about doing these “celebrity” interviews. This was not one of those times. I watched Alton Brown’s show “Good Eats” for years. Even bought one of his Kosher salt cellars, and still use it daily. So when the opportunity to talk with him arose, I jumped. The challenge for a reporter in these situations is to keep that fandom in check. Ask smart questions, let the person answer, write your story. Nice and professional. And I didn’t even bristle when this Georgia boy called me “Ma’am.”
It’s no secret that Spokane is home to some terrific writers. Early in 2015 I got to write about two up-and-coming local writers and their first novels. S.M. Hulse’s “Black River” is one of my favorite books of 2015, and she was as delightful in person as her main character, Wes, is taciturn and troubled. We met at Boots Bakery, and talked for nearly an hour, about Eugene, where I lived a couple different times, and where she attended graduate school, about newspapers (her dad is a retired assistant sports editor for The Spokesman-Review) and the joys of research.
5. Sharma Shields’ debut novel makes fantastical footprint
The other local writer I profiled early in 2015 was Sharma Shields, whose debut novel “The Sasquatch Hunter’s Almanac” was so weird and so wonderful. I knew this would be a tricky story to write. Shield’s backstory – as a defrocked Lilac Festival princess back in the ’90s – would need to be revisited. The challenge would be to find the balance, to talk about how that past shaped her present, and how it shows up in her writing. I was pretty happy with the result.