astoriadave, Author at Astoria Dave

Poet, memoirist, travel writer Suzanne Roberts to speak at Astoria Library

Poet, memoirist, and travel writer Suzanne Roberts will speak at the Astoria Library (450 10th) on Wednesday May 4, 2022 at 6pm, in the library’s first program for adults.

She will read from her new collection of essays, Animal Bodies: On Death, Desire, and Other Difficulties, and sign books, as noted in Our Coast Weekend. Her other works include Almost Somewhere: Twenty-Eight Days on the John Muir Trail (which won the 2012 National Outdoor Book Award), her travel essay memoir Bad Tourist: Misadventures in Love and Travel, and four poetry collections.

May 1, 2022 by astoriadave Literature

Weekend Amusements (May 5-8, 2022)

Thursday (May 5, 2022)

Thursday Talks: Ales & Ideas

Fort George Thursday Night Lecture Series

Join Jenni Newton and Heather Douglas this Thursday, May 5, 2022 in the Lovell Showroom at Fort George Brewery (1438 Duane Street) as they present Caring for the Whole Student: Social Emotional Learning with an Equity Lens.

The pandemic has impacted all social systems in some way, but the effects on PreK-12 schools provided a magnifying glass onto preexisting concerns. Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) is a framework for schools and staff which helps guide students in their own development of skills essential for success in families, work, social groups, and communities. Resilience, empathy, ambition, curiosity, belonging, awareness, connection, and purpose—along with many other SEL components—can all be fostered while teaching more traditional academic content.

The presenter, Jenni Newton, Ph.D., will share methods and strategies used to support students’ relationships at work, home, and with friends. After the slide presentation there will be a Q&A.

Doors open at 6pm, and food & beverages are available. This event is all ages and there is no cover!

Friday (May 6, 2022)

Thumbelina

The Astoria School of Ballet presents two performances of Thumbelina this Friday, May 6, 2022 at the Liberty Theater (1203 Commercial).

Published in 1836 in Danish, ‘Thumbelina’ or ‘Tommelise’ is one of Hans Christian Andersen’s most famous fairy stories. Don’t miss Astoria School of Ballet dancers performing in this adaptation by Director Margaret Wall.

Admission is free! The two performances are at 2pm and 6pm (doors open at 1pm and 5pm, respectively).

Saturday (May 7, 2022)

Clatsop County Master Gardener Association presents All Aboard plant sale on Saturday, May 7 at the Barbey Maritime Center, adjacent to the Columbia River Maritime Museum (1792 Marine), from 10am to 2pm. All Aboard is sponsored by the Astoria Riverfront Trolley/Old 300, honoring regional service organizations.

Products for sale include hanging flower and strawberry baskets, colored pots, and flower starts. In addition to the plants, art work by area elementary school students will be on display and live music will be provided by the Astoria High School Jazz Band.

Sunday (May 8, 2022)

Astoria Sunday Market Returns!

The Astoria Sunday Market kicks off its 22nd season this Sunday, May 8, from 10am to 3pm. As usual, the market will take place every Sunday through mid-October on 12th Street downtown, between Marine Drive and Exchange.

Astoria Sunday Market, at the heart of Astoria’s Downtown, combines fresh produce, local arts & crafts, food, music and more in a lively downtown street market atmosphere. The market features up to 200 vendors each week offering locally-made products that have been hand-crafted, grown, created or gathered by the farmers, craftspeople and artisans featured each week. In addition, the Market has a lively food court with regional entertainment making this the gathering place each Sunday for locals and visitors to the region.

April 27, 2022 by astoriadave Weekend

Astoria Pizza Tier List

I asked my boys and their friend to rate pizza in Astoria for an Astoria Dave blog post, and one of them suggested we organize them in a tier list. Well, I had no idea what that was, so I googled it and low and behold it is a thing. My ignorance of the concept can be explained by my abundance of age and lack of experience in video game culture (which stopped capturing my interest a couple decades shy of the turn of the last century).

The boys (fourth graders at Lewis and Clark Elementary) are all picky eaters, so we decided on reviewing plain cheese pizzas. After several weeks of pizza discovery (outings and orders and discussion) they reached a consensus on which tier each pizza belonged to and thus guided me in assembling the tier list above. Below are our candidates and some of the boys’ tasting comments.

S-Tier

This is the top tier. The best of the best. According to wikipedia the ‘S’ tier may mean “Superb” or “Super” and may originate from academic grading in Japan.

Fort George

Fortunately the boys’ favorite is also the household adults’ favorite – plus there’s delicious beer! Unfortunately it’s also the most expensive pizza in town. But did I mention the beer?

The boys’ reviews:

– I like how their cheese is pretty stretchy.
– The wood burning oven has really good char and all the flavors are really good.
– Best goldang pizza there ever is.

A-Tier

Geno’s Pizza and Burgers

Geno’s is a delightful old-school neighborhood pizza parlor, with good burgers and pie too!

The reviews:

– The cheese is also really stretchy, which I like.
– The one with the good claw machine? Amazing! A-tier.
– Cheese is good but their crust isn’t.

B-Tier

Costco

– Pretty good, but sometimes they have too much flavor on their sauce
– Oh yeah that’s the good stuff.
– Cheap and pretty good. B-tier.

Sahara Pizza

– I like it except for the onion.

C-Tier

Domino’s

– Pretty good.
– I give it c-tier because it’s just Domino’s.

Fultano’s

– Meh.

Voodoo Room

– Pure sauce, I can’t taste any cheese.
– Too spicy.

[Editors Note: Personally, I rank Columbian Theater / Voodoo Room pizza closer to the top, with Fort George, but the boys are the final judges of this particular tier list.]

F-Tier

Tony’s Galaxy Pizza

This is the pizza served at hot lunch at Lewis and Clark Elementary school on Fridays. The consensus:

– Tony’s Galaxy Pizza sucks.
– Tastes like cardboard.

So there you go! At the moment that is what these three Astoria fourth graders think of the pizza in town. We hope to update this tier list in the future, and stay tuned; we are planning future fourth grader Astoria tier lists covering hot dogs, ice cream, and french fries.

April 24, 2022 by astoriadave Food