Baker City writer and illustrator Nancy Coffelt teamed up with publisher Elaine Cuyler to create her new book, “The Big Eclipse,” which uses charming animal characters and goofy jokes to help kids learn about the eclipse. Coffelt and Cuyler blew through all the books in their first printing and are filling orders with a second. We caught up with them on a grant-funded tour of libraries in Eastern Oregon.

A New Book Aimed at Elementary Astronomers

The Baker City writer and illustrator Nancy Coffelt teamed up with publisher Elaine Cuyler to create her new book, “The Big Eclipse,” which uses charming animal characters and goofy jokes to help kids learn about the eclipse. Coffelt and Cuyler blew through all the books in their first printing and are filing orders with a second.

Umbraphile and Author David Baron - 7:37

David Baron is a former NPR science correspondent and the author of a new book, “American Eclipse,” which tells the story of an eclipse that captured the nation’s attention way back in 1878. At that time, the celestial event offered US scientists one of their first chances to demonstrate that America was a science powerhouse to rival Europe. But Baron isn’t just someone who writes about eclipses — he also chases them, traveling around the world to see the rare events.

Tips and Tricks for Photographing the Eclipse - 15:25

Portland-based astro-photographer Jake Breed gives us a demonstration of best practices for getting a perfect shot during the two minutes of daytime darkness. Plus, helpful hints from an art educator who’s spending the whole week of the eclipse leading a workshop for amateur photographers, and a quick conversation with one astronomer from NASA about why this eclipse is such a big deal, anyway.

Portugal. The Man on Their New Album, “Woodstock” - 21:32

This week, an exclusive interview with Portland-based band Portugal. The Man.

Creating “Woodstock,” the band’s newest album, took a long time. They couldn’t stop writing, and pumped out about 40 songs, collaborating with the likes of producer Mike D from the Beastie Boys at Rick Rubin’s illustrious studio, Shangri-La. But then they decided to throw them all out and start again. The band explains how it all came together after they settled on the album’s name: “Woodstock.” Stay tuned for videos of the full live session, which will be published on opbmusic later this month.

Futurist Daniel Wilson Goes Steampunk in His New Novel, “The Clockwork Dynasty” - 20:15

Our favorite futurist has gone all anachronistic. Daniel Wilson, a New York Times best-selling novelist, robotics engineer, and Cherokee citizen, gave us forward-thinking science fiction page-turners like “Robopocalypse” and “How To Survive A Robot Uprising.” Wilson’s new novel tears across the centuries, from prehistoric China to Tsarist Russia to Victorian England and — briefly — the present day Willamette Valley, chasing after exquisite sentient machines. “The Clockwork Dynasty” is the story of a race of mechanical beings who’ve lived side-by-side with humans since the dawn of history.
Bag&Baggage Premieres a Persian Take on "Romeo & Juliet" Based Off an Ancient Poem that Inspired Shakespeare - 41:34

Bag&Baggage Productions in Hillsboro is about to premier an adaptation of "Romeo and Juliet" that opens new doors on a story that is even older than Shakespeare. A thousand years before Romeo and Juliet, Arab-language poets were telling the story of Layla and Majnun: star-crossed lovers whose spiral of obsession and longing turned fatal. The Hillsboro production does not rewrite Romeo and Juliet so much as present elements of both stories together, complementing and contrasting with each other. Listen to the full conversation with Bag & Baggage artistic director Scott Palmer and the assistant director for the project, Melory Mirashrafihere, here, and catch "Romeo & Juliet/Layla & Majnun" in Hillsboro through Aug. 5.

A New Collaboration for The Decemberists: Offa Rex

The Decemberists may have finally met their match. The band has been collaborating with British singer Olivia Chaney to reinterpret tradition Scottish, Irish and English songs under the name Offa Rex — a reference to an Anglo-Saxon king. The resulting album, “The Queen of Hearts," comes out July 14 and is produced by local whiz Tucker Martine, and you can see Off Rex perform live July 23 at the Aladdin Theater.

Kinetic Sculpture Racers Pedal On at Revamped DaVinci Days in Corvallis - 11:37

This weekend, Corvallis celebrates the return Da Vinci Days: the festival where art and science mix. It started 29 years ago in the spirit of Leonardo DaVinci — a man as much about math as Mona Lisa. Da Vinci Days includes a full-three day schedule this year filled with live music, lectures, poetry readings, and a competition that may best embody the ingenuity and play at the festival’s heart: the Grand Kinetic Challenge, a race over land and water in handmade vehicles.

Gallery 114’s Exhibition, “Human Being,” Centers Work by Incarcerated Artists - 22:04

“Human Being,” the art show on view at Gallery 114 in NW Portland, features paintings and drawings and mixed media works by men who are serving life sentences in prison. David Slader, a former attorney who has devoted his retirement years to painting, invited three guest artists, Jerome Sloan, David Drenth, and B. Pat, to show artwork created in their Oregon prison cells alongside his own work.

Boone Howard, PNW Rocker and Sound Engineer, Releases Solo Debut - 27:44

An accomplished musician and former front man of Portland rock band The We Shared Milk, Boone Howard is also a sought-after live sound engineer. Now’s your chance to check out both his music and sound engineering chops on his solo debut record, “The Other Side of Town.” You can find videos of Howard's opbmusic performance here.

Bend Arts Center Opens in a Changing Central Oregon Arts Landscape - 33:20

Atelier 6000, a studio dedicated to printmaking and book arts, re-opened this month with a new name signifying a much broader mission: the Bend Art Center. The Center will offer expanded class offerings and a broader range of art exhibitions, but the name change is also a signpost for the restless conversation in Central Oregon art circles about who speaks for art, and what needs to be said. We check in with the folks at the new Bend Arts Center, plus local artists and art advocacy leaders, about possibilities and limitations for art in the region.
U.S. Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith - 40:01

In June, Tracy K. Smith was named 22nd Poet Laureate of the United States. This is just the latest add to an impressive string of titles: in 2012, Smith won a Pulitzer for her poetry collection Life on Mars, she runs the creative writing program at Princeton University, and, this year, published a new memoir.
Arts Funding at the Capitol - 45:23

The legislative session just wrapped up, and we kept up on bills and funding packages so you don’t have to.

One success for arts advocates: six million dollars in lottery bond money for Main Street Preservation grants. We check in with folks at the Liberty Theater in LaGrande, which will benefit from the bill. Plus, more on legislation that mandates a consideration of regional differences when state arts grants are awarded, and a look at the Oregon Arts Commission, which is facing a 16 percent budget cut.

This weekend Corvallis celebrates the return DaVinci Days: the festival where art and science mix. It started 29 years ago in the spirit of Leonardo DaVinci — a man as much about math as Mona Lisa. At this festival you’ll be able to listen to live music, check out a lecture on 3D printers, hear poetry readings and ask an astronomer for star-watching tips — all in the same day.
DaVinci Days includes a full-three day schedule this year. Finances forced organizers to suspended operations for 2014 and 2015.
One event kept chugging, even when DaVinci Days was on hiatus — it’s a competition that may best embody the ingenuity and play at the festival’s heart. The Graand Kinetic Challenge is a race over land and water in handmade vehicles. We sent Liza Yeager out to answer the question: who is a kinetic sculpture racer? We also talk to board member Steve Clark about the festival's return.

The Decemberists may have finally met their match. The band has been working with British singer Olivia Chaney under the name Offa Rex — a reference to an Anglo-Saxon king. Their album, released on July 14 and produced by local whiz Tucker Martine, is called “The Queen of Hearts.”

It’s not often you find an artist whose work incorporates nature, meditation and a business plan.
Erika Bartlett is such an artist.

Devil-may-care side trips to imaginary cities, soul-searching conversation with graphic novelist Teva Harrison, and moments of wonder with Portland's premier soul interpreter.

Maria Semple on "Today Will Be Different" - 1:23

The world of Maria Semple's imagination is a glowing place. Her characters rocket off on madcap adventures; they collide at high speed; they teeter on the edge of emotional cliffhangers. Some passages crackle with the comedic snap she honed writing for TV shows like “Arrested Development” and "Mad About You," but at the center of her stories are quiet emotional truths. Semple’s last novel was the "New York Times" best-seller “Where’d You Go, Bernadette?” — a merry chase on the trail of a formidable heroine that's currently being adapted into a movie starring Cate Blanchett, Kristen Wiig and Billy Crudup. This year she’s back with another kind of caper, "Today Will Be Different," which in turn will be made into an HBO limited series starring Julia Roberts and written by Semple.

Rabih Alameddine on "The Angel of History" - 17:05

Rabih Alameddine possesses the kind of multifaceted mind we all aspire to. His career has spanned engineering, painting and writing, and his six books keenly bridge the Middle East and the West, religion and sexuality, history and pop culture. In "The Angel of History," Alameddine mixes many different currents to tell the story of a young Yemeni-born, gay man who weathers San Francisco’s AIDS epidemic through an unusual relationship with Satan and a gaggle of saints. Alameddine talks about the gray areas between good and evil, Satan as a protagonist, and the importance of remembering the past, particularly the hardest moments, in order to move into the future.

"The Angel of History" recently won the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Fiction.

Alexander Chee on "The Queen of the Night" - 35:47

Alexander Chee’s new book, “The Queen of the Night,” is a waltz through a kaleidoscopic 19th-century world of opera, romance and intrigue that the "New York Times" called a "post modern bodice ripper." It follow the journey of a 19th-century American girl from a circus to a brothel to the service of France's empress to the glamorous life of a star soprano. Chee tells us how he interwove his own characters with historic giants of France’s Second Empire, like Verdi, famous courtesans and the Emperor Napoleon the Third, as well as his own journey from boy soprano to novelist.

This week on "State of Wonder," singer Beth Ditto breaks out from her band Gossip, the Slants gets their big day at the Supreme Court, and we look back on Thara Memory's complicated legacy.

After Years of Fighting, The Slants Prevail at the Supreme Court - 1:23

This week the United States Supreme Court cleared the way for the Portland dance rock band the Slants to register a trademark for its name — something the Patent and Trademark Office had previously rejected, claiming it was derogatory. The Slants argued that their name reclaimed a racist slur, but the case also sets a permissive precedent for how the federal government handles trademarks using offensive language. It's prompted celebration from some groups—such as a well-known Washington football team—that use objectionable terms unironically.

Oregon Ballet Theater Centers Women Choreographers at Choreography XX - 6:33

It’s not at all rare for major ballet companies to go whole seasons without performing a single work created by a woman. Oregon Ballet Theater set out last year to change that with a new competition called Choreography XX. Of nearly 100 applicants, they chose three women from around the continent to create new works, set them on the company, and premiere them at free performances on June 29 and 30 in Washington Park's Rose Garden Amphitheater.

Powerhouse Singer Beth Ditto's New Solo Record: 'Fake Sugar' - 13:37

As the singer of the hit garage-turned-dance-rock band Gossip, Beth Ditto rose to international acclaim with the 2006 breakout “Standing in the Way of Control” and broke the record in Germany for the longest-selling hit single with “Heavy Cross.” While touring with the band, she also became a fashion icon for her unique style and unapologetic approach to her weight, posing naked on the covers of magazines, walking in Paris fashion shows, collaborating on a line of MAC cosmetics and even creating her own clothing lines. She also penned a memoir about growing up poor in the south. Now, Ditto is mining those roots in her first full-length solo record, “Fake Sugar.”

Playwright E.M. Lewis Stages a Different Kind of 'Gun Show' - 22:14

The Oregon playwright E.M. Lewis grew up surrounded by guns and learned to shoot on a date with her husband-to-be. But then she found herself on the other end of a barrel during a robbery and lost her husband to a gun wound. She knows firsthand the whole range of emotions guns elicit, and she’s loaded them all into a provocative play “The Gun Show.” The show debuted locally last fall, and it was so successful that Lewis and Vin Shambry, the actor who plays Lewis's character in the one-man show, are taking it on the road: first to Washington, DC, and then to a month-long run at the prestigious Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Hood River Teacher Rachel Harry Wins the Tony for Theater Education - 31:39

The Tony Award for theater education goes to... teacher Rachel Harry at Hood River Valley High School. Harry welcomed us in during the final week of classes, so we could see what sets her program apart. She's been teaching in Hood River for 30 years, forging close connections with her students and pushing them toward fairly high-level creative practice.

Remembering Jazz Musician Thara Memory - 36:46

Jazz musician and educator died last Saturday night after an extended illness at 68. He lived hard, impacted hundreds of lives, mentored star musicians like Esperanza Spalding, and spent his final months trying to clear his reputation after former students accused him of inappropriate conduct. We look back on his complicated legacy.
Omar El Akkad's "American War" Imagines - 43:40

As a former correspondent for Toronto’s 'Globe and Mail newspaper, Omar El Akkad covered the Arab Spring in Egypt, military trials at Guantanamo Bay, refugee camps in Afghanistan, and the Black Lives Matter...