The evening of May 12th was a time of mixed emotions for many KUPL listeners, including myself.
Things got started in the Bing Lounge at 5:30 with KUPL’s first “happy hour”. Attendees were treated to free beer, wine and food, which was plentiful and excellent.
At 6 pm, a mini concert was provided by up and coming country artist Glen Templeton. I’d only heard Glen’s song once or twice on KUPL, and liked what I heard.
Not only did Glen sing a number of songs, he told the stories behind them, and of his life in great detail. You felt as though you’d known him your whole life just listening to him talk.
Glen’s passion for what he does shines brighter than a neon sign at night. You can just tell he’s eager to have people know about himself and his music. At the same time, he seems to be a very humble person as well. I say this because of some of the things he said while talking to the audience. He was quick to introduce the two musicians with him, (Drew Lambert and Ronnie Paul), and to let everyone know that they’d all been friends for a long time. When it came to the music, and what was to be released on a CD, I don’t think there was one time Glen ever said, “I”, “me”, or “my”, even though he’s a solo artist. He always said, “we”, “us” or “our”, which was in reference to himself, Drew and Ronnie.
One of the interesting things I learned about Glen is that, for two years he played the part of Conway Twitty in the musical about Twitty’s life. He then sang Conway’s “Goodbye Time”, almost dead on a ringer for Conway himself.
Don’t think Glen is getting by on sounding like someone else though; definitely not the case. While he can sound like Conway, Glen has his own distinct voice, and knows how to use it, whether on a slow song, up-tempo, or in between, the guy can sing it. My favorite song of the evening was “Devil in the Mirror”. There was just something about it that made me want to hear it again and again.
Over all, I walked away from the Bing Lounge that evening a new fan of this man. If he ever comes this way again, I’ll definitely be going to that show!
While things were winding down in the Bing Lounge, another KUPL event was getting ready to start a few blocks away in Pioneer Square.
There had been talk in the days since the death of Osama Bin Laden about how to deal with the situation. The day of his death, KUPL opened up their phone lines to let listeners express how they felt.
The discussion carried over to the “Simon in the Morning” show the next day. It seemed to be a general consensus that while people were happy that Bin Laden was dead, we shouldn’t celebrate the fact. Instead, we should celebrate those who helped bring him down, and those who gave their lives trying.
From all the talk, feelings and emotions, it was decided that a candlelight vigil be held in honor of the 271 soldiers from Oregon and Washington who gave their lives over the past 10 years.
Walking into Pioneer Square, it wasn’t hard to tell where the vigil was to be held. One corner of the square was set up with a KUPL tent, the KUPL truck and later a Portland City fire truck. KUPL staff were out among the crowd passing out stickers for everyone to wear, and Rockstar had cans of their energy drink available to those wanting one. One moving piece on display was a portrait of a fallen soldier that had been painted by a woman. The soldier had been her daughter’s fiancé, and he’d been killed overseas.
The vigil began at 7:30 pm with Scott Simon, Jolynn Winter and Earthquake Jake, from “Simon in the Morning”. They told about how the vigil came to be and what events were planned for the evening.
The primary reason for the vigil was to read all 271 names of the soldiers who had died. The reading would be done by various dignitaries from the area; including Lars Larson from KXL, Kacey Montoya from KOIN-TV, retired military personnel, Mrs. Oregon and others.
Music was also provided. “Amazing Grace” done by a bagpipe group from Vancouver, Washington; and musician Kurt Van Meter doing an acapella version of “If You’re Reading This”, and an acoustic version of “Have You Forgotten”.
Before the reading, Scott Simon introduced a woman who’s with an organization known as “Blue Star Mothers”. She had their flag with her, and all the details of it were explained to the crowd.
A gentleman was also introduced and thanked for being the one to compile the list of soldiers’ names to be read.
One of the happier moments of the evening was the story of a family who knew soldiers who’d been in Afghanistan. The topper of their evening had yet to happen. After attending the vigil, they were heading to the airport to pick up their son who was returning from Afghanistan that night.
While the introductions were being done, the KUPL staff passed out candles to those in the crowd. Then the morning team lit their candles, and those of the people in the front row. Those people in turn lit the candles of those around them, and so on, until all the candles were lit.
Once the candles were lit, Lars Larson stepped up to the mike, speaking about some personal experiences in his family, before beginning to read the names of the fallen soldiers.
Each person reading had a two page list with the name, and rank of each soldier, as well as where they were from. When one person ended their list, another took the mike to begin their list. This continued until all the names had been read.
In all, the entire ceremony took approximately an hour. Talking with Scott Simon afterward, he expressed that he hoped they’d, (KUPL), done enough; that the vigil had helped to provide some closure for people. I think it did, and I told Scott so.
Personally, I was amazed at how everything came together so well for being done in such a short amount of time. Two weeks really isn’t a lot of time to put something like this together, yet the people at KUPL managed to do it, right down to the stickers I mentioned earlier. (It’s the picture at the start of this part of the blog.) Just coming up with a design, and getting them made takes time. To me, it was kind of like the icing on the cake…Not only did KUPL pull off a nice memorial to our fallen soldiers, they rallied together and got it done in a short time frame.
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