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This particular show you're listening to is called Oh Gee, PeeOhGee, I'm your neighbor, Jeremy, and I'm glad to be here with you for the next two hours as we consider this moment from a variety of perspectives amidst a variety of good music.
Like the track beneath my voice, that's Alexander Borodin’s masterpiece In The Steppes of Central Asia, performed by the Ukraine National Radio Symphony Orchestra
Theodore Kuchar conducted
And like the song we just heard at the top of the hour that was Emma's House by
Field Mice, Off their 1988 Sarah Records debut
Not sure who engineered that one but the production seems very balanced
And balance is so important, wouldn't you agree?
In fact balance is key
to maintaining a healthy ecosystem
or planning a party,
and basic bipedalism
The word balance comes from the latin word bilanx combining the prefix bi, meaning twice with the word lanx, meaning scalepan.
If you're having a hard time imagining what a scalepan looks like just picture
Lady Justice, Iustitia
who holds a sword in one hand
and scales in the other and
she does not see what is on the teevee
since she wears a blindfold
because justice must always be
impartial.
Remember that Justice has occurred only when everyone involved has gotten what they deserve
When balance has been restored.
Think about the systems upon which your own life depends.
What does your food system look like
Is it in balance?
What about your responsibility to water?
Does the flow go in only one direction?
Just some things to think about as we begin this first set with a Nicola Cruz remix of the Incan prayersong
Ch'Uwa Yaku Kaw sa y puni
which roughly translates to Life Is Always Where There Is Pure Sacred Water
That's by the famous Quechua singer Luzmila Carpio
right now on K B O O
[FIRST SET]
This is K B O O 90.7FM in Portland and in that last set we were considering perspectives on Balance. To end we just heard from one of our very own, the late great Dave Carter there in The Gentle Arms of Eden posing the question: can that which has no place to exist ever be in balance?
Prior to Dave Carter was young newcomer
Jake Vaadeland
with an ancient message:
Be Good Stewards
So what does Stewardship mean to you?
Before Jake Vaadeland we heard The Moody Blues with A Question Of Balance
And that followed a Saintseneca track titled Book Of The Dead On Sale.
In the Egyptian book of the dead the souls of the departed are judged by the jackal headed God Anubis who would weigh the heart of each against a feather of Ma’At the goddess of truth and justice. If the heart sank lower than the truth then the life spirit of the person would be eaten by Amit, a monster that devours the souls of the imbalanced.
Prior to Book Of The Dead On Sale we heard a spoken word piece by Aja Monet, titled
“A Perfect Storm”
Which followed Renata Flores who sings en espanol as well as in Quechua, the living language of the Inca.
The title of that track is Pachamama which is a complex and difficult to translate Quechuan concept relating to the maternal essence of the cosmos as well as balancing the divisions of time and space. Pachamama
The closest analog might be the Digger concept of Nada M’ter P’ter.
But best to treat each as unique,
for so they are.
Renata Flores followed Martika who pointed out the fact that you can't live without
Water, which is also the name of the track
Young Gen Xers and Elder Millenials may remember Martika as the stage name of
Marta Merrero, who got her start on
Kids Incorporated in the early eighties and whose birthday it is today. So Feliz cumpleanos a Marta
We’ll wish some more happy birthdays later in the show but before we move on to the good this day holds in its history let's first address and process the trauma and mistakes held
by this day as well
For it was on this day in 1944 that Soviets dispossessed and deported all Tatars from Crimea in order to steal their lands for plantation.
Crimea is a peninsula that extends into the north end of the Black Sea. The first people to inhabit the peninsula were Neanderthals who arrived at least 80,000 years ago. Modern humans have lived there for at least 32,000 years and it was an important refugia during the last glacial maximum.
It is also the homeland of the Crimean Tatars but when Russians invaded the peninsula at the end of WWII Josef Stalin ordered the immediate deportation of all Tatars.
The flimsy excuse given was that the 20,000 Tatars who fought for Germany somehow invalidated the 40,000 Tatars who fought for the Soviets.
Guess uncle Joe wasn't so good at math. Guess he wasn't so good at all.
No sooner had he given the order then Soldiers arrived at every Tatar home along with groups of Russian and Ukrainian settlers.
The soldiers limited the Tatar families to less than an hour in which to gather their belongings before they were all forced onto trucks and driven to the nearest train depot. The last sight some had of their homes was to see their goats and cattle being captured and their belongings being pawed over by the settlers who had come to replace them.
When the trucks finally arrived at the depot the Tatar people were forced into cattle cars with no water no food and only a single bucket for everyone in the car to use. They were stolen away along rail with no idea what awaited them at the end of the line. Many of the men were veterans of the Red Army who had been the first to liberate the nazi concentration camps. They had witnessed first hand the atrocities that lay at the end of similar tracks.
8,000 Crimean Tatars died in the cattle cars during the torturous three day exile to Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan, let us remember, is an entirely landlocked country in Central Asia. A Landlocked country.
The homeland of the Crimean Tatars is a peninsula surrounded by the Black Sea.VTheir culture and lifeways depend a great deal on this link to the sea. Uzbekistan was an alien system and tens of thousands perished shortly after arrival on the meager and marginal lands reserved for them.
So on the anniversary of this great sorrow and cruel attrocity let's take a moment to put ourselves in the position of the Tatars. Imagine you are taken away from the only homeland you've ever known, with not much more than the clothes on your back, banished for crimes that never happened to live without resources or support on land that is so marginal that even the native Uzbeks can't get it to produce a worthwhile crop.
Settler Colonialism is always wrong. Morally, ethically, anyway you weigh it
Just ask Jamala, the singer of this next song
A Crimean Tatar who will never forget this grave injustice
It's 1944, on your community radio Kay be oh oh Portland
[SECOND SET]
K B O O PortlaND
Your member supported community radio
If you're ready to become a member just visit kboo dot ef em forward slash give. Thank you to all our members
In that last set we were holding space for some of the pain and loss in the past begot this day ending there with Joy Division, whose front man Ian Curtis died this day 1980 by contested suicide.
From them we heard a Martin Hannett version of Love Will Tear Us Apart. That take was recorded just days before Ian’s death and the drums were rerecorded on the same day he left.
Some audio engineers, however, have expressed skepticism as to authenticity of the timing of the vocal track being recorded. They claim someone at Strawberry studios simply took some B-reel from the 1980 Pennine recordings, overdubbed additional drums and bass, then slightly sped the vocal track.
What do you think about that?
One person who knows all about speeding up vocal tracks was Ross Bagdasarian better known by his stage name David Seville, the Armenian mastermind behind Alvin & The Chipmunks. In addition to creating Alvin & The Chipmunks he also recorded a lighthearted slice of the American Immigrant life called Come over A My House which he cowrote with his cousin, the pullitzer prize winning writer William Saroyan who also died this day, 1981
Exactly one year after the deadly 1980 eruption of Mt Saint Helens which took the life of Geologist David Johnston who wasn't even supposed to be working that day
And Saint Helens took as well the life of Portlander Robert Landsburg a heroic photographer who visually documented the rapidly advancing pyroclastic flow, a wall of hot debris and lethal gas rushing toward him at 600 miles per hour. A professional to the end he used his final seconds to carefully rewind the film in his camera, and place the camera in its case and the case in a backpack and then he wrapped himself around the final fruits of his labor. Shielding it with his body to preserve it for the future. It is certainly one of the most unique records ever made.
God bless you, Bob
Mr. Landsburg is buried at skyline cemetery, where geologists and photographers alike often leave flowers and other small gifts to mark the major contribution and bravery of this Great Cascadian.
So rest in peace Robert Landsburg, David Johnston, William Saroyan, Ian Curtis, and all those who departed flesh May 18th
Well next up
take some deep breaths
and prepare to listen close,
Maybe even take some notes
Bloodhounds
because here comes
TODAY'S COLD CASE
Today's Cold Case is the 1983 disappearance of Joanie Leigh Hall from her hometown of Warrenton Oregon, a small coastal community at the extreme northwestern tip of the state, west of Astoria in Clatsop County.
It was September 29th, 1983, just a couple weeks into the school year when seventeen year old Joanie Hall was elected president of her Explorer’s Post.
The Explorer program is for young people who intend to work in Law Enforcement, it gives them access and opportunity to be privately mentored by Police officers.
Joanie is described as a very ethically oriented young lady who planned to become a police officer after graduation. Not out of a love of power but from a genuine desire to create a more just world.
That's presumably why her peers in the program voted her to the leadership position, making her the very first female to ever hold the post.
But then, less than 24 hours after this achievement, Joanie Hall would disappear
never to be seen again.
On the day of her disappearance her parents saw her for the last time as she departed for school at 6:30 AM. We know she arrived at Warrenton High School because her best friend Maggie ate lunch with her and made plans for later.
At 2:10pm Joanie left the high school to travel to Warrenton Grade School where she tutored third graders in a reading program at three o’clock. The road distance between the two schools is exactly 1 mile. It's a trip that takes 2 minutes by car and around 15 minutes to walk.
Joanie is next seen by several witnesses at 2:20pm exiting the car of high school student Mike Moore in the parking lot of the Warrenton mini mart. She goes inside, buys a soda and departs alone, walking west at 2:30pm
Twenty minutes later the owner of a nearby pizzeria, Karl Hurd reports seeing her talking to a boy he did not recognize in front of his shop at 2:50pm. Joanie and the boy were then observed walking west on 1st street.
Here's where things start getting really weird because at 3pm a local resident witnessed a girl being abducted by two males in their late teens or early twenties who forced her into a maroon Camaro. The driver had sandy hair and matches the description of Mike Moore.
The witness spoke with Sheriff's Deputy Gerald Basch who made a handwritten note of the call but curiously it was not included in his official report.
In fact the official investigation doesn't appear to begin until October 4th. Five days after Joanie was reported missing. Six days after she was elected president of the Warrenton Explorer post.
Gerald Basch was Joanie's advisor in the explorer program, he was also her neighbor and they worked closely together as mentor and mentee. He drove her to and from weekly explorer meetings and also frequently took her out for night time ride-alongs.
Which raises a lot of questions.
Like why would the police in general wait so long to investigate the disappearance of one of their own?
And why would Gerald Basch in particular not make Joanie's case an immediate priority?
Five days after she disappeared Warrenton Police Chief Bill Humphrey and Deputy Sherrif Basch went to the highschool and asked the students for information. Three boys volunteered and were first interviewed by Police Chief Humphrey
all three told him that they had seen Joanie Hall in the passenger seat of Mike Moore's car at 4pm
Yet in the report taken by Gerald Basch fifteen minutes after Chief Humphrey’s interview all three boys recanted the story they had just told the police chief. Now they claimed that it wasn't Joanie Hall they saw that day but another girl, Treesa Woods.
Deputy Basch fails to account for this sudden and coordinated change in the witness statement. And he also failed to follow protocol or even make a note indicating that one of the boys he was interviewing that day was his own son, Mike Basch.
It's certainly worth noting that Mike Basch had also been nominated to lead the Warrenton Explorer's post but had lost the race to Joanie the night before she disappeared.
When another Deputy, Gary Clark interviewed Treesa Woods about being in Mike Moore's car she was adamant that she would never even consider getting into a car with Mike Moore.
So up until they recanted their original statements these three teenage boys, Mike Basch, Gary Leer, and Jimmy Sears were the last people to report seeing Joanie Hall alive.
Within days of making the statement to his dad Mike Basch left school and unexpectedly moved out of state.
Now remember Joanie disappeared in September which means the school year had just started.
Which implies this move to California was sudden and unplanned.
Another suspicious move came when Gary Clarke, who had taken over the investigation began focusing on Mike Moore as a suspect.
He was told by Clatsop County Sheriff Al Eastman to back off of Mike Moore. He didn't.
When Clarke received a tip from a Portland psychic telling the police that Joanie's remains could be found underwater in the slough beside Oceancreek Cemetery, just a few hundred feet away from the Moore family plots he called out a dive team to search there.
But just as the divers entered the water Sheriff Eastman came driving up fast, jumped out of the vehicle and began reaming Clarke for deploying the dive team. Eastman used his authority to call off the search right then and there.
Now pulling divers out of the water when they’re already in the process of conducting a search is a very peculiar decision to make.
Forbidding the slough from being drained when it's such a remarkably simple process to undertake is also rather strange.
Eastman pulled Clarke off the case and then a local judge made the baffling decision to issue a protective order, sealing all records relating to Joanie Hall's disappearance for 75 years.
And that seems to be the end of the official investigation.
But the unofficial investigation continues.
In 2016 Mike Moore committed suicide near the Hall family home
In 2023 the protective order was overruled and the files were unsealed so anybody with several thousand dollars can now receive a copy.
It's hard telling not knowing but the evidence certainly indicates some clear leads
Maybe Joanie Hall was murdered by a jealous rival who felt humiliated at losing a race to a girl
Maybe she would still be alive if she hadn't joined the Explorers
Maybe Gary Clarke was the only good apple in Warrenton at that time
Maybe you have the investigative instincts necessary to return Joanie’s remains to her family
To all you Bloodhounds who undertake the task
I say, Good Hunting
Here's a song released near the time when Joanie was taken. From Tom Waits’ 1983 album Swordfish Trombones here's the penultimate track “Trouble's Braids” with a reminder that you cannot engage in evil acts without also calling to yourself the grave consequences of hard lessons due.
Right now on KBOO
[THIRD SET]
K B O O Portland
ad-free community radio supported by members like you.
We just heard In The River by Michael Been's band The Call
And prior to that was Terminal Culture by Passion Puppets, off their 1983 album beyond the pale. Released by Stiff Records
Stiff records was a great punk and new wave label started in the UK in the late 70s. Stiff was the launchpad for a lot of great artists. The Pogues, Kristy MaColl, Nick Lowe, Madness,and The Damned, just to name a few.
This next set will feature a few gems from the Stiff Corpus
Beginning with Ian Dury off his 1977 Stiff debut New Boots and Panties here’s an autobiographical track titled My Old Man
Right now on KBOO
[FOURTH SET]
K B O O, Portland
non commercial, non corporate community radio supported by members like you
In that last set we were featuring tracks released by early indie label Stiff Records
Ending there with a Jona Lewie track titled You'll Always Find Me In the Kitchen at Parties. Jona Lewie just celebrated his 79th birthday on the 14th. One has to wonder if he spent his whole birthday party just hanging out in the kitchen
Prior to that we heard Wild Rover by Pogue Mahone, who changed their name to The Pogues when they signed with Stiff Records in 1984. Ask your Irish friend why.
Prior to that we heard Sister Video by Lene Lovich, off her 1982 album No Man’s Land
And that followed Rags And Tatters by Wreckless Eric off his 1978 Stiff Records debut. Eric left Stiff Records in 1980 to regain control of his artistic process and he is still DIYing an ever evolving body of work to this day. Which is, incidentally his birthday. So happy birthday to well known rock and roll lunatic, Eric Goulden
In this next set we'll dish up two scoops and a slice for some of the other artists celebrating their birthdays today.
Beginning with Portland’s very own Page Hamilton who was born in the City of Roses, grew up in Medford, did his time in New York, traveled the world with David Bowie and now lives in L.A.
In addition to being an energetic and prolific front man he also plays well in the round, I particularly like the contributions he made as a player in Band of Susans and the direction he helped to move them in.
So Happy Birthday Page Hamilton
Here he is back in 88 grinding mists of diamond with Band Of Susans on the aptly titled track Birthmark
On Portland's community radio
K B O O
[PLAY FOURTH SET]
You're on 90.7FM
K B O O
this show's called
Oh Gee PeeOhGee,
my name's Jeremy
and in that last set we
were wishing some happy birthdays
To a few of the artists born this day
Ending there with Perry Como, who arrived 1912
from him was offered some good advice: listen and heed that Still Small Voice
A Still Small Voice followed To All The Girls I've Loved Before, a great duet from Julio Iglesias y Willie Nelson with an important reminder that if you really truly love someone then you really truly want them to be happy, even if that happiness is not with you.
That track is to celebrate the birthday of Albert Hammond, who wrote that song and so so so many more. From The Carpenters to Ace of Base, from Whitney to Celine odds are very good that you've put an Albert Hammond song on at le
- KBOO