Author Archive

Peter Gandesbery

Peter Gandesbery

Peter M Gandesbery was born, and grew up, and attended college in various parts of California before arriving in the Rogue Valley in 2001. He started playing the trumpet at the age of 9, and pretty much replaced this with the bass guitar at the age of 15 after discovering Pink Floyd, the Who and the Buzzcocks. From then on things have gotten a little hazy with some minor achievements in education, whitewater kayaking and playing in various bands in Sacramento, including the Tattooed Love Dogs and then leaving Sacramento to spend a few months in Costa Rica. After returning to the U.S. he moved to the Rogue Valley with his wife, with whom he started a surf rock band. (the Delineators.) His literary inspirations are plentiful, but he counts among his favorites Philip Roth, Carlos Fuentes, Mark Twain and T.C. Boyle.

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Do you ever read about wines and wonder what the heck the experts are talking about? You’re not alone. Experts don’t always know what they are talking about either, and when they do, it often involves a lot of big expensive words in the hopes that you, the reader, will

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Sometimes it seems that there is a law of physics that determines the quality of a swimming spot that goes something like this: The higher the quality of the spot, the farther you have to drive to get to it. Obviously this is not the case, since if it were,

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Have you ever observed how hardcore tourists travel? They spend the day visiting as many locations as they possibly can, with the attitude firmly implanted that relaxing is for wimps and dead people. If you are going to visit Crater Lake there can be more to it than just driving

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Illinois Valley Comes Alive With Dead Folks for Z Day 5k In the world of zombie films, there is a major divide between slow, shuffling George Romero-style zombies, and Usain Bolt-like undead sprinters Danny Boyle pioneered for 28 Days Later. As weird as this may sound on the surface, let’s

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Pushing Boundaries at The United Bike Institute Ask the average person what Ashland is known for and they’ll say ‘theater.’ Ask the average bike mechanic and you’ll get a very different answer: The United Bicycle Institute. The school has eight full-time and four part-time guest instructors, and typically sees 800

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  For the uninitiated, Pisco is a popular liquor from South America made from grapes in a distilling process similar to brandy. It typically is in the 40 percent alcohol range and is made in both Peru and Chile. More importantly, it’s a pissing match for the ages. Chileans will

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Game of Rapids   Don your booties and skirts. King of the Rogue, the Rogue Valley’s only current whitewater competition, will take place Sat., July 11 in Gold Hill at Tilomikh Falls (aka Powerhouse Rapid) this year. The race, promoted by Stephen Kiesling, is not just a race to encourage

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  Medford nonprofit LifeArt has a brutally simple mission: use art to prevent youth suicide. The organization, which partners with various schools and government agencies (such as Jackson County Youth Suicide Prevention Coalition), has been around since 2009. Phil Ortega, the founder of LifeArt, believes the kids will have better

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‘Merica, ‘Anada and ‘Exico Much as it can seem like it at this time of year, America is not the only country in the world. We even have other countries totally, ahem, “touching us down south” like creeps. And since those neighbors can direct influence on our cultural, economic and

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Pairing Local Bands with Local Brews By Peter Gandesbery, Jeff Hill and Josh Gross FACT: Beer makes everything better! [Editor’s note: that’s not medically accurate, but sure, why not.] Especially music. However, not all beers make every experience or type of music equally better. Ya gots to pair that shizzle,