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Happy August. Wow, where did the summer go? Here at So Salem, we’re already hard at work on our upcoming back-to-school issues (August 8 and 15) and our football issues (August 22 and 29). And that brings us to a programming note: If you’re an advertiser and wanted to be included -- especially in our football issues -- well, our advertising folks at advertise@sosalem.com will be happy to talk with you. Or, if you’d like to place a classified ad, you can click classifieds@sosalem.com.

We reach more than 90 percent of the households in Salem and western Roanoke County. (How do we do that? See below!)

And now back to news, and we have lots of it this week. In your Friday issue, you’ll see lots of places where we say “see The Notebook” for more. Well, here’s where to find that “more”:

* Salem opens door to big-box development
* Who will Salem’s quarterback be this season?
* Bear sightings -- we have two new ones, one near Upland and Franklin, and one in the Laurel Woods subdivision near Hanging Rock
* Photos from Jazz in July
* Photos from the Olympic team game. Above, you'll see some of the folks who were: Retired Salem High School softball coach, Jim "Shorty" Wright, who ran into a former player. Meaghan Berry.
* Photos of Salem swimmers at the RVAA championships
* Photos from Salem After Five

If you're still in a vacation mode, we're still taking your vacation photos and putting you on our Salem Summer '08 map.

So how can you get your news and photos in So Salem? Keep reading below!

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The Glenvar Youth Boosters has teamed up with Glenvar High School's soccer teams to provide a free soccer clinic to players ages 14 and under -- and we have a photo gallery of 17 photos from the clinic.

Here, Mallory Jengo from Glenvar Middle School practices with high school players.

The clinic was held at Green Hill Park on July 28th - July 30th and was open to all registered players for the upcoming soccer season.

The clinic gave players an opportunity to work with and learn new dribbling, passing and shooting skills and techniques from Glenvar High School players.

Photos by Erin Millar

Do you have sports photos involving teams or players from Salem and western Roanoke County? If so, you can share them at news@sosalem.com

Aimee and Lynwood Hall sent us this (doctored) picture of their daughter at the beach!

Aimee writes:

Archer went to the Holden Beach, NC this summer and is TOTALLY OBSESSED with mermaids. Lynwood being the Photoshop whiz that he is turned her into one. Enjoy!

Do you have vacation pictures from the beach, Virginia locales, or Europe? Did you snap a picture of you and your best bud before (or after) you rode on that killer rollercoaster?

If you stayed in Salem all summer, did you catch any (pictures of) wildlife? Check out pictures and residents' reports of bears making their presence known in Salem.

Send them to us at news@sosalem.com, and we'll put them up here on the blog (and we'll most likely put them in print!) Check out our Salem Summer '08 map to see where other folks in Salem have ventured.

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We've just updated our Roanoke Valley crime map with the latest offenses from Salem and Roanoke County -- and Roanoke, as well. The data includes offenses through July 27.

Last week, Salem reported four larcenies, one burglary and one aggravated assault. In western Roanoke County, there were three larcenies and one burglary.

Also, the Salem Police Department provides more detailed information than other localities -- so in addition to the Roanoke Valley crime map, we have a more detailed Salem crime map you can search, as well.

Follow the links above and you can see where they were and what they were. Our data delivery editor, Matt Chittum, has more information how you can use the searchable crime maps.

He also has a special question for Salemites. We've noticed fewer people seem interested in the more detailed Salem crime map -- even though it's got more interesting stuff. Matt would like to know why. You can read his post, and leave a comment, right here.

Also on our Datasphere collection of searchable data: The biggest trees in the state.

A truck crashed into a car dealership in Salem late Wednesday night, crushing the fronts of three cars at Hart Oldsmobile, police said. For more on this story, click here.

We’ve had several people from in and around Salem sent us reports -- and even photos -- of bears in their backyard. Here’s the creepiest one yet. Judy Bates sends us this photo she shot in May at her home in the Laurel Woods community near Hanging Rock -- that’s a bear clawing at the window in the middle of the night.
Judy tells us: “Beautiful, but a bit close for comfort. We have several bears that are evident multiple times a week in our yards, to the point of making us fearful of going out to walk pets, etc. We really don’t know what to do or what recourse we have in view of DGIF’s [Department of Game and Inland Fisheries] hardline stance that we live in bear territory and that they will not declare these bears nuisance bears.”

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Glenvar High grad Adam Clark is founder and drummer of the New England-based Afrobeat band The Superpowers. Before playing at FloydFest, he spoke with So Salem journalist Ryan N. Jones by phone.

Q. So how did The Superpowers get started?
A. I started the band in the spring of 2005 and we’ve just been chipping away since then.

Q. What made you want to start the band?
A. I had an extreme interest in Afrobeat music. It was music that I had been looking into pretty much exclusively for about a year. There wasn’t a band doing it in the New England area at all. So I was really into the music and wanted to play it and decided to start the band…not really with any long term intentions because you never know what’s going to happen with a band.

Q. Did you know all the band members before?
A. I went to school with pretty much all of them. Most of them I had met at New England Conservatory of Music. Part of the thing of having a big band is it hasn’t always been the same people. Six people have been there the whole time, but we’re on the third of fourth generations of band members.

Q. How many people are in the band now?
A. I don’t like to put any kind of specific number on it. We’ve done shows with seven or eight. It just depends on who can make the gig. We would all love to just be traveling and playing this music, but it’s just not happening right now. Sometimes we do gigs with seven people and we’ve done gigs with 13 people. If it were up to me I’d have 80 people in my band.

Q. Why so many?
A. It’s all about the sound. There’s a polyphonic sound that you get with having all these different parts ... Each person has a specific role. When you put it all together you get a grand sound that’s very epic, like in an African drum circle. You only get the context of it when you hear the whole.

Q. Explain Afrobeat.
A. Afrobeat is quick and dirty. It’s like James Brown’s band goes to Africa. Really funky guitars, psychedelic keyboards and a big horn section playing really powerful, epic horn lines. It’s like trance, with very specific written parts and long songs. It has everything to do with the universe and the rhythms of the world and trying to get everyone to unify.

Q. Is it hard to find acceptance playing this African-inspired music when only one member of your band is of African descent?
A. It can be difficult. [But] every African that’s ever seen us is always so excited to see a bunch of white boys just playing their asses off to this funky Afrobeat music. We put 110 percent of our blood, sweat, tears and souls into this music.

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Here's an e-mail we received today. Normally, we'd wait and hold letters for our print publication but the deadline for this Friday's issue has already passed and, well, as you can see, this is one we wanted to go ahead and share. It's from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater offering praise for the hospitality that Salem showed when teams from there have been in town for various Division III sports events:

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If so, let us know what you thought by clicking "comments" below. Or, better yet, if you have photos -- feel free to share them at news@sosalem.com

Kaytlyn Washenberger from Christian Life International won first place in Vocal Solo - Female at this year's National Fine Arts Festival, which took place in Daytona Beach July 21-24.

Kaytlyn received a gold medal, along with a scholarship package to Southwestern Christian University or Emmanuel College.

Kaytlyn attends Glenvar High School, she will be in 10th grade this year.

Submitted by Kathy Craddock