Well, hello again, KCIW
listeners, and welcome to Curry Cafe.
I'm volunteer Rick McNamer.
Every Sunday from three to four, your host,
Ray Gary, and I put together a panel
of guests to discuss various topics of interest
that impact our wonderful community.
And we have a big one today. So
and now here's Ray to tell us about
today's show.
Yes. We have a big, mover and shaker
who's gonna change the,
the entire fabric of this community and Crescent
City, but we'll get to him in just
a minute because I have couple of announcements
to make.
One is I have been trying forever to
put together a bit of a political show
here, and I can't seem to get
both sides to cooperate. So, if you're out
there and you would like to participate in
a political
conversation,
just get a hold of us, k c
I w dot org, and we would love
to have you in here.
My other announcement is I went to the
Checo Players,
show the other night and saw
out of Howard's head.
This is a three
at three play,
by Howard Patterson, who's a local person.
And I've been to a lot of plays
there, and I think this is the best
one I've ever seen. I've said after the
first one, I
I turned to the person I was with
and said, this is this is incredible. It
was very, very well done. I would highly
recommend you go see it. It's very different.
All three little plays are entirely different,
and they're very, very well done.
Okay. That's a good shout out. Good shout
out. Yep.
Okay. Now I'll turn the microphone over to
our guest today who we should,
all be pleased he's here. He's he's he's
hopefully gonna take care of one of the
one of my problems with this area. We'll
get into that later.
So,
mister Ralph, you will introduce yourself,
give us a little background or whatever you
wanna say, or
if you have some merch for sale or
if you wanna just plug something. The microphone
is yours.
Well, pleasure to be here.
Thank you for the invitation. Nick Roehl with
PPA,
the partnership
for the performing arts.
Our core focus is supporting youth and performing
arts in
Curry and Del Norte Counties,
and
we run a wonderful classical music series
up in Brookings. We have a concert coming
up at the end of the month at
the Seventh day Adventist Church, and,
we do a lot of good work helping,
helping bring the world to an area where
a lot of folks
don't have the opportunity to go to the
world. We bring the world to them through,
the different work that we do with,
all the different types of performing arts that
we support. So very happy to be here.
And that concert coming up,
Nick, is gonna be,
high school,
mostly high school,
kids? The concert coming up at the Seventh
day Adventist
Church is we took over a nonprofit
three years ago, a Brookings nonprofit
called Friends of Music. We're now on the
fortieth season.
And internationally
acclaimed artists,
we have
Dmitry Kuzov
and Yulia
Fedusova
Fedusiva,
on piano. So cello and piano,
February 22, 3PM.
Oh. $20, adults,
18 and under free, and,
they've got a wonderful program set up for
us. So
Wow. Don't just come yourself. Bring a friend.
That's that's a big deal. And, You bet.
If you're gonna bring a friend. World talent
right here in our community.
Yes. Yes. And then, they'll be doing outreach
in the schools the next day
after that. So not only do they perform
for the public,
the kids, they go into the band room
and work with the kids, and that's just
a golden moment, transformative moment for those kids.
That really sounds terrific. It does. Yeah.
Playing in the high school band that has
some really
well known talents and famous people.
And, you know, this and I'm glad you
we talked about this earlier. The community, what
we talked about, I think it includes,
Brookings, Harbor,
Crescent City because we're we just all work
together. It's just like we're all in one
place.
Yes.
And a great example of that is the
Wild River Symphonies. So it's really more the
the Wild River region
versus Yeah. Del Norte County, Erie County. The
Wild River Symphony has
true professionals in it. It's got the continuing
casual adult musician
and some of the,
up and coming musicians from both high schools
in the group, and and they do a
great job. And
they perform
a concert every spring and another every winter,
and they do one concert in, Brookings and
one down in Crescent City.
And,
so do do the Brookings and the Crescent
City kids get together then a lot
for that kind of thing? Absolutely. Oh, that's
great. They rehearse every Monday. So Together. Yes.
Together. Well, that's awesome. So
Yeah. And, you know, another example would be
when we had our our concert last September
at, Azalea Park, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy.
We that was pretty big.
Bigger than big. Yeah. Now we asked,
Corey Tamandong at Brookings Harbor High School and
Dan Sedgwick at Del Norte High School to
combine their two jazz bands to open for
Big Bad Voodoo Daddy. Those kids will remember
that Oh. The rest of their lives. Mhmm.
And,
at the end of that concert, those kids
owned the dance floor. It was,
no kidding. Just pure joy.
All the all us oldsters, you know, we
were we were out of gas. We were
off the floor, and the kids came in,
and they took over. Over.
Yeah. Have you noticed that how you run
out of gas sooner than you used to?
Yeah. And there's
every day I can't do that anymore thing
that I have to do around. I just
hired people to cut down brush and stuff
because I just don't wanna do it anymore.
Yeah. Life's not fair sometimes.
Right.
That's
one thing we're doing that's a lot of
fun, we're looking forward to, concert opportunities
here is,
PPA, Partnership for the Performing Arts. We recently
gifted a
contrabassoon
to be used between the two high schools
in Wild River Symphony. So this is an
instrument that is a full octave below a
bassoon.
It plays way down in the basement,
and,
we're not used to hearing that. This is
an instrument that a lot of colleges don't
have.
Most high schools would get their ITs to
have,
and we've got one to be shared here
between our high schools. And we're gonna have
a lot of fun with it. The
Wild River Symphony will program a piece for
it, and,
the,
both high schools, it'll be
one one school will get it for one
semester, one for another semester. It'll go back
and forth. They're gonna have a a whole
bunch of fun with it. And in,
March,
down at, I think it'll be at the
United First Methodist Church
United Methodist Church in Crescent City, we're going
to bring up a couple professional bassoon players
from Southern California. We've done it before, and
we call that group the Double Trouble Read
Company. But we're going to also,
bring in a couple bassoonists from the Wild
River Symphony, and we'll do a quartet with
three bassoons and one contrabassoon and things like
Peter Gahn,
Sorcerer's Apprentice, things like that, baby elephant walk.
Oh, man. We're gonna have a lot of
fun. So That sounds great.
And and and that was donated, you say,
to you? Or who who how did you
come by that instrument? I wrote a check.
I bought it, and then we donate it.
Now. Yeah. Okay.
Okay.
And is it, not knowing much about the
that type of instrument, is
it more difficult to play
or about the about the same?
It's a busy instrument for the left and
right thumb. Each each thumb has about seven
keys to work.
All the rest of the fingers have one
or two keys maybe. But, the good news
is that Corey Tamondong,
the director at Brookings Harbor High School, played
contrabassoon all the way through college. So he's,
very comfortable with the instruments. So
he'll probably be in the hot seat for
this bassoon quartet we put together Oh, wow.
Concert at the March. Alright. Show your stuff,
man. Yes.
Yeah.
I'm not familiar with that instrument, but to
say if it plays so low,
evidently everything it plays is probably very slow.
Right?
You wouldn't wouldn't wouldn't
deal with Flight of the Bumblebee or something
like that.
Oh, it has to do a little bit
with the facility of the player. Okay. Yeah.
Doesn't it all have to be balanced? Seems
to me if you're playing something slow, it's
easier than if you're playing it fast because
you can,
I don't know, less make less mistakes, but
I know absolutely nothing about playing an instrument?
Well,
you can learn, Ray. Well,
Sherry keeps telling me, well, this isn't a
g, and we were doing a c, and
I what
Where? Then then another friend of mine criticizes
another singer for saying that, you know, she's
good, but she's very flat.
And I have yet to have anybody explain
to me what flat means. Sounds good to
me. I don't know what flat is. Well,
we like you in the audience, and if
we're playing it.
Well, the rule of thumb is if you're
gonna be off pitch, you wanna be sharp
instead of flat. There you go.
Wow. We accept
above pitch better than we accept low pitch.
I used to record a show for for
Shirley Hyatt was one of our longtime
volunteers here. Also a professional
violin player. Oh, I I think does she
say she has perfect pitch? Yes. I I
have no idea what it is either, but
it's good. I mean, like, I'm the super
network. So I would she does. She would
announce the record and play the record, and
and I was recording.
And sometimes she would just be kind of
just cringing, making these faces. And and then
when it was over, she said talk about
how she could barely get through it. And
I said, you selected the music.
And and this is bluegrass music, and she
said they're out of key or out of
she again, she tried to explain to me
what that meant. I had no idea. But
but she yeah.
But evidently being out of key for that
particular kind of music is okay. But you're
our best friend then. You're a forgiving audience.
An audience of Ray Gary as well.
Sounds would be great.
Well, so so, Nick, I mean, you're a
resident. You've got an interesting background. You you
started in a why don't you give us
just a real
a little bit of your background
and how you ended up back here? The
color hit my canvas in, 1959
when,
I joined
band at my elementary school in Fort Dick.
And my parents bought me a cornet, and
I still don't know how they could afford
to pay for it. We, we didn't have
any money.
And,
that led to wonderful time in high school,
college, and so forth, and eventually to
a music retail career spanning almost fifty years
in Southern California.
And
2019,
when I sold all my stores, I looked
at the check and looked at my wife,
and I said the only reason I'm holding
this check is because my little elementary school
offered band for the first time, and my
parents found a way to buy me an
instrument. Well, it's not our money. It's their
money.
So we said we're gonna take this entire
check and
sign it over to a donor advised fund
to support performing arts and public education
in the area where I grew up. And,
we moved from down south back home here
to,
to the area and haven't looked back. We've,
given hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of thousands
of dollars worth of new band and orchestra
instruments to the districts up here.
We spearheaded the overhaul of Crescent Elk Auditorium
down in Crescent City that hadn't seen a
lick of work since it was built in
1929.
That's the largest
concert appropriate
indoor venue in Del Norte and Curry Counties.
Much too small, but Yeah. It's all we
have.
And,
our flagship project is raising in the neighborhood
of $50,000,000
to build a performing arts and civic center
that,
we can all enjoy.
Well, you you you spread your joy from
music to the other kids around here then
by doing all of that. I mean, you
can't
get much better than that, I don't think.
It's a it's a high privilege.
And and for
kids like me,
myself,
getting hooked up to music, my my little
story, and it's a little story, but finding
a little,
plastic ukulele in my grandmother's attic one time,
and we had a little booklet
to play some chords.
And, I mean, that started me off, man.
And believe me, I'm not like I'm a
famous rock guitarist, but it has given me
music pleasure up until now, and I'm in
my seventies.
And that opened the door. It did open
the door. And my parents like yours bought
me my first guitar. It was Christmas. I
was probably 10 or 11, and, you know,
it just went on from there, and and
they were behind me to,
to back me up if I wanted to
continue that. So And it's wonderful
stuff. I guess I had a similar situation
to my talented career.
My parents when I was about eight or
10 bought a record player,
and I've been doing that ever since. Well,
there's
playing records. Well, that's And you do that
on your Not records, it may be on
your two shows here that we have. Yes.
You bet. Yeah. Our parents are our unsung
heroes, you know, because Well, they certainly can
be, and I will say mine
were that too. It's just like your parents
were also. Well, my father, I think, was
a little disappointed because he was constantly telling
me to turn that damn music down.
He didn't care for little Richard or any
of those people, though.
I don't know why. I don't either. His
loss.
Well and and back to my parents again,
we had like, after the Beatles, I think
every kid in America almost had to join
a garage band. We had a few. And
we would practice at my house,
and, you know, they they put up with
that stuff. Mhmm. And and they enjoyed it
too. So
so
you now
so you started out with the with the
coronet. I wanna keep saying coronet,
but
you branched out into other instruments
beyond that?
It ended up jack of all trades, master
of none. I went from cornet to trumpet.
They're basically the same instrument. Trumpet is a
little bit brighter. Went to that in high
school. And then,
in high school, a a person remains a
very close friend today.
I could tell he was gonna be first
trumpet, and I was gonna be second trumpet.
That just didn't work, so I needed to
fix that problem. So I took up the
tenor saxophone
Mhmm. Continued to play the trumpet, but I
I I needed to be the first in
this section. You know how you are when
you're a kid.
And, and I took up the bassoon, then
I took up the flute. And
once I figured out in college that I
wasn't going to be a band director, that
shoe didn't quite fit, I went back east
and studied band instrument repair
Oh. And returned to Santa Barbara. That's how
I got into the music industry.
And the fact that I'd played all these
brass and woodwind instruments was very valuable because,
like,
I could test every instrument that I reviewed
versus just saying, Ah, it's okay.
Where back east did you go?
There was a repair school set up inside
a factory in Elkhorn, Wisconsin.
Oh, wow. Okay. A company that manufactured,
the Getzen band instruments and so forth. Okay.
Speaking of
YouTube fanatic.
Anyway, there's this two part,
YouTube
program,
by the guy that fixes Willie Nelson's guitar,
and he's just showing how he does some
of it. Now I'm a woodworker and a
And this is part of the guitar he's
had since he was young. Isn't that the
same guitar he's had since he was For
for a long, long time. Okay. I gotcha.
Right. Right. And he's fixing all these little
cracks and things like that, but
he still wants to keep that hole there.
He's not putting a pickguard there.
Used. Well used. Yes. Well, that hole is
the signature. Right? Yes. It is. Yeah.
Yeah. In fact, he mentions that that,
at some point, Willie Nelson was having some
kind of a problem with his body, and
and they bought him a regular strap that
that
hooks on either end of the guitar. I
don't know what you call that, but he
had, for years, used this thing that just
that hooks into the, the sound hole. The
sound
hole, and he he used the regular strap
for about two weeks and gave it back.
He didn't like it. So
little Willie Nelson,
little known fact there. Well, Willie's still out
there doing it. Good grief. Is he out
there? I think he's in his nineties. Yeah.
He Yeah. Incredible.
Great story. Yeah. Some somebody told me recently
that, he's kind of upset because his lungs
are finally
shot and he can't smoke dope anymore. So
that would be a big I didn't think
he'd ever quit that. No. What but it
didn't say he quit. He just said it
was harder on him.
So and Nick, you have so you've had
a long career in the music,
music musical instrument repair biz. Yeah. And that
was down in the Southern California area. You
said out of Santa Barbara mostly?
First store I was in Santa Barbara, and
then we had others, Agoura Hills,
Valencia.
Oh, you had a mobile Redland,
San Diego.
Wow. Around. Uh-huh.
Yeah.
I brought in my repair expertise, and and
they were all retail outlets. We did rentals.
We had repair techs at every store. We
went out and sent educational
sales associates to all the band rooms in,
about eight counties Southern California.
Wow. Stop in
and we might rent an instrument. We might
do a demonstration to help a kid with
a mouthpiece, do a whatever it happened to
be, shoulder to cry on for the band
director
and, provide a lot of service to help
local music programs.
Yeah.
And with that, how to cover a lot
of high schools in that, I mean, compared
to what we have up here too, and
I say that between Crescent City and Brookings.
I think we saw it on average 200
to 200 we were in 200 to 250
band rooms a week in Southern California. A
week? Wow. Yeah. Yeah. So
a lot of good business. We also dealt
with
a,
continuing casual adult musician and a lot of
professional musicians as well, and
a lot of success stories there, good stories,
fun stories. Yeah.
Carl Hunter, the tenor sax player for Big
Bad Buddha Daddy started coming in my store
in Santa Barbara when he was 12 years
old.
Oh, he's done. So I've known him for
a long time. Wow. And
watching kids like that grow up and you
see some promise and you say, I wonder
where that promise is gonna lead.
Yeah. And,
those kind of stories, they remind you of
why you get up and go to work
every morning. You know, you can you have
the opportunity
to
be of service to these people and help
them on the way, not be get in
their way, but help them on the way.
Yeah. I accomplished something important that makes it
work while getting up. Yeah. Yeah.
And and right now, you say you do
have a repair
facility at, Crescent City High School?
Yes. Back,
2020
before my wife and I my wife, Lisa,
and I, we
moved back here in January 2021. But in
2020, I
because the band director at Delmar High School
is
also happens to be from Santa Barbara and
grew up in my store taking lessons.
And,
he and his brother David, a very accomplished
pianist and trumpet player,
and her sister Grace.
Dan,
grew up taking lessons, but also when he
was going to Humboldt State and then Oregon
State getting his bachelor's master's teaching credential.
He worked six summers in my repair shop,
and I taught him basic repair. So because
he had this expertise
in 2020,
I I had a friend down in Southern
California closing their store, and they had a
fabulous repair department. I bought the whole thing.
And we moved it up here, and that
was the bones for starting a a a
repair
ban instrument repair facility at the high school,
and it's in a 20 by 50
square foot dedicated building at Delmar High School
right across the way from the, the band
room. And we teach,
two classes
five days a week, 25 kids,
study repair there, some go on to vocational
technical school, and,
we're also able to take care of all
the instruments that have been donated to the
district over the past six years.
And we do work for Brookings Harbor High
School and,
do contract work for other high schools as
well, Eureka High School and so forth. Oh,
really? Down that? Okay.
Now even some up in, up around Eugene
and so forth. Okay.
You know, that's one thing since I wasn't
in that that type of a band, but,
yeah, those instruments,
when high school for, like, a high school
band, are most of those donated?
Because the way the budgets and stuff work
nowadays, I don't know.
And those,
the oh, I can't even think of the
name. The instruments, they're not cheap by any
by any means.
Well, there are,
inexpensive
instruments, but in the industry, we call those
ISOs, instrument shaped objects.
Okay.
And,
when we came back up and started this
process,
at Delaware High School, as an example, they
were buying used instruments off of eBay, and
they really didn't have any repair tools and
so forth. They're just kind of
backyard mechanics trying to put them together and
make them work. And
the program
wasn't growing as it should because they didn't
have the inventory.
Yeah.
At both districts,
hats off to the superintendents.
They believe in music. They they believe in,
but we're rural. Right? And we don't have
a lot of money in these two counties.
So they only they did as much as
they could. Kids are growing everywhere. We got
great band directors just a little bit shy
on the inventory.
So,
part of PPA's
core mission for the first five years was
to get enough instruments in each district,
brass, woodwind, orchestral strings that any kid who
wanted to play, there's a quality instrument there
sitting for and waiting. That wouldn't
wouldn't hold back any kid who wanted to
to take a music class. Yeah. They didn't
have to buy their own. They didn't have
a mediocre,
inferior product. They had a good quality name
brand product.
And,
I got in by the skin of my
teeth, so,
my parents couldn't afford to buy me an
instrument when I was
starting out in, in the school. So this
is it's a personal victory for me as
well knowing that any kid who wants to
play can play. Yeah. That man, that that's
a big deal.
That that really is a big deal. Yeah.
So So we're we're pretty happy about that.
And you're right about the rural communities that
we do live in,
maybe not as rich,
monetarily,
but
I've noticed,
it's a very
art community,
whether it's Crescent City or Brookings.
Music, theater, we were talking about. A lot
of people are into the arts
up here, and I think that's a plus.
It's a it's a big plus. We go
to the the more urban areas. There's a
lot of more whistles and bells and shiny
things and things that get us distracted, sometimes
in a good way, sometimes in a bad
way. And I think here in rural America
that the performing arts,
all arts,
they're a little bit more important to us.
Yeah. You bet. And,
a lot of participation.
Yeah. And,
the kids in band here in, Brookings and
the ones down in Crescent City,
if you've ever been in school band, you
know it becomes
a secondary family to you.
And
if you happen to be
homeless, single parent, abused, suicide prone, whatever it
happens to be,
banned becomes the only reason you come to
school. It's a literal lifesaver.
I was gonna say probably save some lives
out there. Yeah. So
all kinds of
good things come out of it, and kids
who are,
in band, in choir, on average perform 15%
higher on their SAT scores.
So even if they do nothing with music
after high school,
they
enter adulthood more equipped to be
successful.
Reason to go to school, I would
that would have done me a lot of
good because I had so no reason to
go to school and did nothing while I
was there.
If I'd had,
well, played an instrument and had the band
guys to hang out with.
When
I don't know. I think we were about
in the fourth grade. Somebody came in to
give us all an aptitude test about whether
or not we could
be in the band, and I failed miserably.
You had to just
clap in time with the beat or some.
You're probably familiar with the test, and I
thought, oh, boy. I'm gonna be the next
Elvis.
And all my friends got instruments, but I
didn't. So But at the end but at
the end of the day, the
performers on the stage need the audience just
as much as the audience. Yes. Yes. So
that's my part. Yeah. Yeah. So if we
don't have both, there's no
it doesn't work.
Yeah.
Audience and critic.
That's my job. Oh, okay. Criticize everything that's
wrong. Alright. Speaking of audiences and people playing,
instruments,
as everybody knows, there's a lot of music
in this community. Every just about every night,
there's somebody playing someplace. But we have a,
thing at the at the, Checo Brewery.
Every Thursday night, there's an open night open
mic.
And just go in there and buy a
beer or not buy a beer and just
sit and listen to this for a couple
of hours. And we have some amazingly talented
people here that are just kind of hiding
out in the woods. But it's well worth
your while to
to go over there on Thursday night and,
listen to the music and meet lots of
nice people. Yeah. A lot of like like
like minded people. Yes.
Yeah. Lots of fun. Great reputation for that
night, isn't there? Yes. People have a blast.
And and when you hear open mic, you
think, uh-oh. You know? But
it's not it's not that at all. Just
about everybody that plays there is at the
very least good,
and then some are very, very good. So
Yeah. And I
I've been there a few times, and it
is it's a great atmosphere. Mhmm. Great atmosphere.
Everybody it's everybody seems to be at ease,
and, yeah, it's a good time. And it's
it's a large room, so you're not like
I went to an open mic recently in
a bar here,
and everybody's on top of everybody. And if
you wanna move away a little bit and
talk, you really can be
good. But this room is is large enough
that you could sit in the back and
talk and listen to the music or sit
up front. And Yeah. There's a dance floor
and
lots of fun. It's it's it's a good
time. Mhmm. Well, so, Nick, let's talk about
this partnership
for the performing arts. That's a very big
deal. I know it's an ongoing,
deal, and it's
long range.
We're gonna talk about it more, but if
you can look long range,
do you have an idea when you think
it might
be
I shouldn't well, completed and ready to,
rock and roll, so to speak. So we're
not so much talking about PPA. We're talking
about the performing arts, civic staff. Sorry. The
settings. Others. Yeah.
My bad on that. Yeah. Right. But that
but that's a big deal. That's gonna be
a big deal for this community.
Absolutely. It's gonna be a big deal. There
are so many groups. I mean, big bad
voodoo daddy Yes. When we brought them to
Azalea Park,
on the last day of summer,
it was a a high five figure bet
it wouldn't rain.
And it rained buckets eight days later. That
was a big issue. And there was no
place else we could hold it, so we
couldn't have a contingency plan, right, of
if there was bad weather. Right.
And up here, that can be an iffy
proposition.
Right? So the center will allow us to
bring groups in because
we can sell enough tickets
to pay for bringing bigger groups in, all
different styles,
and
we're not restricted
just to the summer months.
Yes.
We could go year round. When when I
introduced Nick, I said that one of the
things he's doing is,
like a change in the attitude I had
when I moved here.
One of the things I knew I would
have to give up because it's such a
small town is I would probably
never be able to go to a show
of somebody I heard from, heard about, or
but now he's building a big enough and
a professional enough, building
that those people will come. I think we
can get some fairly decent names here for
the size of that.
Yes.
A lot of different styles. It won't just
be, you know, the classical music series that
we have up in Brookings. We love that.
And
but we can bring in country western groups.
We can bring in jazz. We can I
mean, there's all different bring in dance, theater,
all kinds of different things? Right. So
because it is basically like, we talked about
a theater.
Of Yes. Seating how many people did you
say would 800
seats 800 people. So Great. And I'm holding
up pictures here of of, I don't know
if you can pick this up. Oh, there's
another camera. Well Okay. But, anyway, Ray Everybody
has got it to look at.
Wow. Look at that. Yeah.
No. But and and it's, like I said,
ongoing,
you were talking
how
how much
is
the estimate of the total cost?
Let's put it just at a round number
of 50. It Okay. It's in that neighborhood.
It'll probably go up a little bit. Things
always do. Yeah. But, we recently
completed an extremely
intensive
deep dive feasibility study,
and we looked at at the construction of
the center, the the ability to fundraise the
money,
the,
buy in
of the greater region to use the facility,
and the different revenue streams that
the performing arts and civic center would have
to keep the doors open once built.
Everything came back with a great report, and,
people want this Yeah. Willing to support it,
and
game on.
And can people
support it right now if donations are there
ways to to donate right now?
There is a wonderful, lovely
button on our website
that says donate. Well, hello.
Okay. And the website is?
Ppa
Okay. Delnort.org.
Okay. Easy to remember. Ppadelnort.org.
Yes. And and I can tell you that
the button works. Oh.
But that doesn't mean Nick isn't gonna lose
the check.
Right. He he called me up a couple
of weeks ago, said he wanted to have
lunch,
and I had no idea what that was
about.
And,
the lunch was him telling me that he
lost the check that he thinks I sent.
So
so now he has two checks, and I'm
not very good at keeping track of this
stuff. He'll probably cash both. That's a good
ploy. Yeah. Score.
Right on.
Well, PPA is a five zero one c
three nonprofit, so all donations are tax deductible
to the full extent of the law. So
Yeah.
And so let's talk about also the
the board of and I I have it
right now, the the performance arts, the board
members. Yes.
A little bit about we talked about one,
and we've had her on the show here,
Michelle Carrillo.
Yes.
So so Michelle isn't a board member. She
is on contract to PPA Oh, okay.
And is the head of our capital campaign.
And,
Michelle is CEO of a company called ThinkPlaceUS,
and she is just,
doing a fantastic
job for us.
Amazing woman.
And, we are so fortunate and so proud
to have her.
So,
it's like she's she's a member of the
family. Well, again and and we have have
her on the show too. She is an
amazing woman. Yes. Yes.
And, PPA currently has a 12 member board.
We've got a city council member. We've got
a school district board member and,
well, a number of people within our shared
communities that are also in an advisory capacity
Okay. That help us a lot. Wow.
Yeah.
So do people in Crescent City seem to
be pretty excited about this?
I would I would tell you everybody's excited
about it. Yeah. There's a place for everybody
at the center.
It's,
so many different things that we can offer,
not just live performances,
but as we were talking a little bit
earlier,
the the lobby itself can be used for
wedding receptions, for fundraisers,
things of that nature.
The
theater can be used for town hall meetings,
for
corporate retreats, for conferences,
for,
and all the different types of arts that
can be
poetry poetry,
theater,
choir, band.
Yeah.
Covers the gamut. Yeah. Covers the gamut. Yes.
A lot of different opportunities and a place
to meet in times of emergency.
We don't really have that in in the
area where Well, we don't. We can bring
800 people together in one room where they
can receive information,
ask questions, get them answered, and have a
sound system that
sounds like that.
All garbled and noisy and boomy, right? Yeah.
And as a, I don't know, I guess
unintended,
addition, I'm looking at these these drawings here,
or you don't call those drawings. They're they're
paintings. They're Renderings. Renderings. Yes. And each one
of them
contains at least one or two,
in one case here about five, pretty girls
walking around. So that might be some incentive
for donating to the
Of course, it would be. Yes.
And probably some neat guys too, but I
haven't oh, wait. Yeah. Yeah.
Well, it
like, we were talking too earlier about the
grants, a
performance center or building, whatever you wanna call
it like that.
It's it's gonna be,
it's good for people that want to
issue a grant.
Right? Yes. Because of all the positive,
things it could be.
And depending upon who's giving how much, of
course Well if we're getting into
big big donors,
$7.08 figures, then there's naming rights for the
center, you know, four parts of the center,
the lobby, the theater, the whole shebang
Yeah. Stuff like that. So who knows? You
know? Well, and we all we were also
talking about the big corporate,
meetings, if you will,
rather than taking place in
Southern Cal or Sacramento.
This
area just attracts people just for its beauty
alone.
Yes. I think. I mean, we the Wild
Rivers film, we talk about that. The directors
and the people that wanna put together independent
movie. It's just such a beautiful
area,
and so unique.
We have our lovely rivers. We have our
hiking. We have our rugged coast.
We have redwoods, redwoods, redwoods. That's what gets
us,
the fishing. But the redwoods are the number
one draw. That's that's why we have
international tourists coming here. Yeah.
Not to discount the other things, but that's
the number one draw.
And
from a, economic
standpoint,
the longer we can keep these people in
our area, the better it is for our
hospitality
industries.
Yeah. Get them to stay a night. Get
them to stay too nice instead of
staying overnight in Eureka, grabbing a hamburger at
McDonald's, going out to the Grove Of Titans,
and ending up in Coos Bay.
You know, so, we we make a dollar.
Right? Yeah. The other thing we have is
you can walk around in, December here in
a light shirt, pretty much.
We've, we've got some pretty mild weather.
You're not very likely to get snowed in
if you come here.
Not likely. It has happened, but not likely
is right. Not likely. No. Not very likely.
That's why I didn't say never.
Because Buzz is so picky. I don't know.
Oh, no.
No. And, of course, the other
back to the weather when the it's a
110 in the valley and all the way
all over the place, you can come here
and actually be outside in the afternoon, be
okay. Put a sweater on. And not only
okay, but enjoying all the all the beauty
that we do have.
Yes. Yes.
Well, you know, it it's I'm just really
glad to hear that the communities are working
together. We talked about this too. Brookings, Harbor,
Crescent City. I lump it all at
one because it's just,
it just seems like one big community up
here.
And that the high school
high schools,
like you said, the, band instruct the music
instructors
get along well and work with each other.
Very healthy competition between
That's great. You know, they they push each
other, and they'll go off to this competition,
that competition, Eugene, Portland, Santa Rosa.
And
one time they'll go there, and Brookings will
win over Del Norte, next time, Del Norte
will win over Brookings, and,
they just pull each other up. Continue to
pull each other up. It's just fantastic.
Right. You know? Healthy healthy rivalry
instead of,
just competition that doesn't take very far, doesn't
build. You know? Right. So Right. All good
stuff.
So so they do travel the high school
musicians, I mean, say they do travel quite
a way sometimes for performances
and competitions
and
Yes. Not often, but they do. I mean,
the travel budgets are travel budgets, but up
to Portland,
to the Green Center, down to Santa Rosa
is is a common one. Oh, wow. Some
more local stuff where down in Eureka or,
up to Eugene over to the over to
the Valley somewhere.
Okay. The places that have performing arts centers
will TikTok, TikTok. And I was gonna say,
hopefully soon we'll have one here in Crescent
City or there in Crescent City. Well and
and that will allow us
to hold festivals
that we cannot hold at this point.
Just the school district's
superintendent says, I'll be able to have things
happen here instead of me having to go
somewhere else all the time
Yeah. Because we'll have the ability to do
it. Yeah.
So, yeah, good things.
Well and, again, there's there's just a lot
of passion behind behind the music.
You know? Is this gonna do away with
the auditorium that they have at the high
school now?
Is it going to what? Is it gonna
do away with is it gonna replace it?
Well, there there isn't an auditorium
per se at the high school.
The, auditorium is at Crescent Hill Middle School,
and that will still be used. It's 385
seats versus 800.
So there are
some some things that will happen there, or
we can do,
non competing
events concurrently. Uh-huh.
A play at one, a concert at another,
something like that.
At the high school, there is a cafeteria
with this very low rage raised stage at
one end.
This was the laughing stock when I was
in high school back in the Paleozoic.
All our concerts happened in the gym, and
we hated it back then. I went to
a play in Crescent City. I guess it
wasn't the high school. It was a small,
typical auditorium. And one of the things they
handed out as you were
were coming in were cushions for the seats
because, evidently, they were kinda old. So so
so so that's Crescent Elk Middle School. And
if you went there, before November
2022,
that was the one I was speaking that
was in extreme disrepair before we spear spearheaded
the overhaul. Mhmm. But now on the the
seats were these plywood laminated seats from 1929.
If you didn't have the cushion, boy, you
just didn't have the cockpit at all. Right.
Yeah. So now there's nice comfy padded chairs.
Oh,
and how many is that seat? 385.
Oh, that's bigger than I thought it was.
Yeah. Yeah. But
the stage is very small even, for a
middle school there. The
the the stage at the,
Performing Arts And Civic Center will be seven
times
the size of that stage.
We can do anything we want on that
stage. It's really cool.
Hopefully, a world destination even for Crescent City.
Yes. Yeah.
Yeah. That's, yeah, that's wonderful.
Well,
so back to the
well, we were talking about
working with the the 5013
c's
Mhmm. You know, that which is
how how tough is that to get all
of that together
and start getting, you know, funding from for
that?
A lot of moving pieces in in in
in a five zero one c three.
It's significantly easier to form one than it
used to be back in the day. Twenty,
thirty years ago, there was a lot more
paperwork. It was kind of daunting.
Didn't take all that much work to form
our five zero one c three.
It's,
very crucial,
forming the board. It's difficult to find board
members.
There are so many nonprofits, and most people
who are on one board well, you'll find
that they sit on two or three boards.
And the, the doers versus the people that
just show up
are very taxed for their time, and,
that's a challenge.
We all fight for the the same great
board members
Yeah. In both counties. Being being a part
of a nonprofit with the board, we have
that same problem here, obviously. We're constantly looking
for volunteers, learning to do shows, but to
fill in, what I guess you'd call management
positions or
things of that nature,
the boring stuff.
Yes. The boring necessary stuff. Yeah. But to
get everybody on the board to agree to
something, it can be,
pulling teeth there. Yeah. There's a similar challenge
with the service organizations like
Elks and Rotary and Kiwanis.
I'm in the Rotary in Crescent City, and
I presented a Rotary in Brookings up here,
but
those memberships are dwindling.
The people are older. They're aging out, and,
the people that will join a service group
like that are the same people that will
join a nonprofit.
Yeah.
So they're also competing for the same people
to join their organization. So it's tough in
that regard. And the same donations from the
same people as well. Yeah. People who give
money and people who don't. So Yeah. I
had a I had an interesting comment from
a fellow
a business owner,
several months ago. We were
we do a car show down at Lucky
Seven every summer to raise money for the
center project, and
this,
business owner was we're outgoing getting raffle items
for the for the car show.
The guy says, boy, I get so tired
of these people coming by and knocking on
my door,
and all they do is see me once
a year with their hand out, and then
they ever come back and give me a
business. I said, that's that's part of our
rural penalty, and you have to embrace it.
If you're in a big earth and he
said, I bet you had that problem all
the time down in Santa Barbara. I said,
it never happened to me once. Nobody asked
me for money. There's too much money down
there, and
too many people doing a good job. The
boards are easy to form because there's so
many people to choose from. Right. Up here,
we have a lot more need, a lot
less money, fewer resources,
and don't blame the guy or the gal
who's knocking on your door.
They're working for you. Oh, yeah.
You can elect to give or to not
give,
but,
don't shoot the messenger there. They're out there
doing good work. They're donating their services.
Right.
He and then he went
to, I get
it.
Well and there again, the the trade off.
Do do you really wanna live in an
in an area that you
can pick and choose, I guess, down there,
but you're in,
what I would call, like, mass humanity?
I'm kinda where I moved from in the
Sacramento area, not quite as big as Southern
California.
But
the trade off to being up here in
a rural rural area, I think it's so
much better up here.
Yes. We get to peel away all those
layers of sophistication
that we
that develop when we live in a very
urban area. Right? We get down to more
of the basic person and,
you know, such a joy. It is. You
don't need those things. You know? But my
grocery store's about five miles away and the
hardware store about the same and things that
I I go to.
Where I lived in Alaska was a 100
miles to buy a nail, so
this is better. And the weather's better.
Yes. Yes.
Well and, Ray, you've talked and you talked
about it too, like, just at
the the Checo brewery, just the atmosphere, the
camaraderie.
Yeah. It it is different. Yeah. It's a
lot different.
Now we don't get those kind of experiences
in the big city.
No. We don't.
It's all too impersonal. You don't know anybody.
Everybody you know, everybody knows everybody here. Yeah.
For better or for worse. For better or
for worse. Right. It's good things in bed.
I guess it could work. It gets you
at times. Yeah. You can't go sneaking around
with some snake or something and then nobody
knowing about it.
Well, like I said, though, Nick, it's a
this project, boy, when it finally does come
to fruition, I think it's gonna be just
a huge boost for everybody.
Everybody.
Not just the people
in Crescent City, but up here and and
the people who come in to to enjoy
what we have here.
Yeah. So the way the calendar will work,
we'll have a full time program director, obviously,
and that position will be,
we'll have that person in place a couple
years before the center opens because
you have to get groups in the pipeline
for two years sometimes. Just our classical music
series, we're already wrapping up the booking for
our, you know we've got 26, 27 on
the books, and we're working on 27, 28.
Because that's what that's how you need to
play the game. Otherwise, you don't get the
artist. You don't have the the as many
choices. So
we'll have to have groups booked and have
them in the pipeline ready to perform.
Otherwise,
the center will be open. There'll be nobody
on the stage.
Yeah. Don't want that. But do you you
have people
now,
you said, already booked? Did I hear that
correctly?
That's for the classical
series that we do up here in Brookings.
Oh, okay. Yeah. We're we're Okay. I'm sorry.
Okay. I gotcha. But it would be this
90%. You're right. You have to have that.
Yeah. Well And,
the the basic philosophy of the center is
that,
students first, community second, for profit third, which
means
the school districts will have first shot at
the calendar,
Community
groups will have second shot at the calendar
calendar, and then touring groups and so forth,
corporate, whatever it happens to be, will have
third shot. The good news is we're rural,
so there's gonna be room on the calendar
for everybody.
Yeah. No kidding.
So
looking ahead,
maybe it's fantasy, but let's say you finally
get a a target date where you feel
or you think it might be completed.
Let and let's say within a year of
that date,
would you start trying then to book people
to come in,
or do you have to have it
already built before you even do that? Well,
I think 2029
is a fair time to say that the
that, that that's our target to open Oh,
okay. Is in 2029.
2029. Alright.
Which means we'll have to start putting people
in the pipeline next year.
Oh, wow.
You know? Yeah. Just write the contract so
that, you know, if what I've hit the
unexpected
Michelle is doing a great job for a
2026 is gonna be a big year in
the fundraising process.
I'm just not to put the, the weight
on her shoulders. There's a whole team between
the board
and what Michelle does and her team and
the acceptance of the community overall.
I spend a lot of my time meeting
with a lot of people in Delaware and
Curry Counties to promote this project, and,
everybody's very positive about it. We're gonna we're
gonna make it happen. It's,
there's no
no doesn't
you won't find that in my dictionary. Nowhere
can Well, that's that's huge for what you're
doing. That's for sure.
2029,
can't put it down to the month, but,
let's say 2029.
And, Alright. So we have to start the
booking process a couple years before that. Yeah.
Wow.
Before we
get to the end and forget to do
it, could you, give the website one more
time? Or Oh, yeah. Please. Explain how we
get money to you or what alley we
can meet you in, slip you a check?
Unmarked singles are always great,
in bundles of 1,000,000.
Yeah.
The website is ppadelnort.org,
and PPA stands for the Partnership for the
Performing Arts.
Ppadelnort.org.
No spaces.
And we expect the donations to be flowing
in from here on out. You got the
KCIW
bump?
Yeah. It's very, very valuable
Right. In this community.
Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah.
So we're we still have about five minutes.
Let's go
back to,
well, I had a I had a note
that I had, and now I don't have
that note. Who are you looking forward to
booking?
Oh, do you have ideas already? Yeah. Of
course. I mean We have to hurry up.
Most of my favorites are dying off, as
we speak. So
Well, right now, we're looking for,
the we we had
summer's last blast September, big bad voodoo daddy
at Azalea Park last September, and now we're
looking for artists for this coming September and
focusing heavily on country western. So,
a number of different groups, it's who's got
their tours scheduled along the West Coast that
we can pick off on one of those,
or who can we coax to come out
with Big Bad Voodoo Daddy? They didn't have
a tour. They built it around us, but
that's because I've known half the band for
forty years. I had a little bit of
an end there.
Got a friend that knows Asleep at the
Wheel
very well. Oh, I love that. Them in.
One of my favorites, Asleep at the Wheel.
Saw that a couple times in Sacramento.
Yeah. Yeah. So that would be you know,
a group like that would be fun. We'll
see what we get. Great. We're out there
looking. And,
yeah. Good. Big bad voodoo daddy. Everybody wants
them to come back. They had such a
great time.
I would recommend Arnold Guthrie if he's still
singing then.
Yes.
You think of him as being somebody of
the sixties, but I've seen him several times.
Different show each time. He's very, very funny,
very, very good, very
Yeah. He's excellent. He's an excellent show. Yeah.
He's more as much a storyteller as he
is a singer, and he does both of
those very well. Yeah. I'm old enough. I
grew up listening to Woody instead of Arlo.
Yeah.
Well, yeah. The, I caught some of the
Woody myself.
Yes.
The the Arlo fans are replacing those old
Woody fans, I think. But
anyway, he was very, very good.
And the other one I would have recommended
was Janice Ian, but she's retired.
Yes. Yes. My friend who knows I've got
a friend who's very close to Asleep at
the Wheel. Yeah. And he's had a mastering
he has a mastering business in Nashville, and
he's done all the mastering for Janice Ian.
So Oh, really? Oh, he did. I I
met her once, and she said she liked
my hair.
So
she's a lovely lady.
Tell her to write a song about it.
Well, I'm I'm curious because I I am
a huge fan of Sleep at the Wheel
for for many years. How do you
how did you come across them, or how
do you know of them?
You know, that group dates back to the
nineteen seventies. I Right. I still have their
first album.
Wow.
Wow. They've been on our radar for a
while. Okay.
Great repertoire, the different things they do. And
Yeah. Well, I don't even know what to
rockabilly or whatever. What would you call that?
I I don't even know. I don't know.
Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys. Number that?
The version.
Right? Right. Right.
The
Miles and Miles of Texas, I think that
I have them on my Pandora as a
matter of fact. Yeah. When that comes up,
all the
kind of genres that fit that
boat, if you will, come on to play.
But, yeah, that's some good stuff. I don't
know if you wanna have a laugh for
ole poly.
You know, that was the other day, kinda
reminded me of my childhood.
Eating
eating nothing but biscuits and I know the
song. Okay. That's right. Very good. Very good.
Yeah.
What's and now I'm I'm talking about it,
and I can't remember the name of the
the lead guy, the big tall,
I can't either. Oh, my lordy. How bad
is that?
Okay. But people coming to the center, the
whole point is the variety. We have to
bring variety to the quality for everybody.
So,
most people here speak country western, so certainly
we'll
we'll focus on that, but also the jazz
classical
folk. All of it. All all of it.
Right? You know, the older I get, the
more I I like it all. Yeah. I
and I've talked on this show before,
about my first intro to music was my
dad's country and western albums that he would
play from,
Bob Wills, you were talking about, Patsy Cline,
Johnny Cash. That was my first hearing of
music, and I still love that old Yes.
That old country stuff. And we wanna bring
in some good dance troops. I mean, Delanort
and Curry County both have some great dance
programs.
Really?
Didn't okay. Absolutely. Yeah. Well, that's exciting stuff.
Very exciting stuff. And theater. And I'm
we we can expand our theater so that
it's more back in the day, that was
a very vibrant, strong class in our high
schools,
and we need to get back to that.
And then there's,
career technical education opportunities in costume design and,
cell building and all that kind of stuff.
All kinds of things we can do to
be of service to our kids. Okay. Well,
that's I tell you, we got some exciting
stuff coming, and we're running out of time
down to thirty seconds. Thank you, Nick Roehl,
for being our guest and talking about what
should be a boon to this community here.
Well, an honor and a privilege to be
here. I I appreciate the invitation, and, thank
you. Thank you. You're all listening to KCIW
one hundred point seven
in beautiful Brookings, Oregon.
Thanks for listening. You betcha. Thank you again,
Nick. Deep bows.