Oregon Brewers Festival Starts Today, Runs Through Sunday
Pour me another. The 26th annualOregon Brewers Festival starts today at Portland Waterfront Park(noon-9 pm most days) and runs through Sunday, July 28. Entrance is FREE and a 12.8-ounce tasting glass is $7. And this year no shitty plastic cups, which make delicious beer taste like a toy store. Glass only, this year. One dollar…
Central Oregon is on Fire!
A plume of smoke in Warm Springs yesterday. That haze over Pilot Butte? That tingle in your eyes and nose? The clouds visible north of town, and now south? Two separate human- caused wildfires are blazing through Central Oregon and neither are well contained. The Sunnyside Turnoff Fire started mid-morning Saturday near Warm Springs. It’s…
Honeymoon Over For AirBnB and Bend
AirBnB and other informal services where residents rent out their homes have remained in an ambiguous space, largely unregulated by the same agencies and rules that govern hotels. But as those rental have grown in numbers (and market share), so has grown the City’s interest in taxing them. Last Friday, the City of Bend sent…
VIDEO: Obnoxious Tour Fan Gets What He Deserves on Alpe D’Huez
Fans have become increasingly brazen and inched dangerously close to the riders competing in big stage races, like the Tour de France. This is particularity troublesome when the riders are crawling up big mountains at slower speeds. Fans feel like it’s acceptable to break there concentration and running alongside, etc. Yesterday this happened during stage…
Optum Pro Cycling Team Silent Auction at Goodlife Sunday
Team Optum loves a good cause. One of the strongest teams at this year’s Cascade Cycling Classic, Optum Pro Cycling presented by Kelly Benefit Strategies, is hosting a silent auction 6 pm Sunday, July 21 at GoodLife Brewing to support World Bicycle Relief, a far-reaching bike charity program. The nonprofit seeks to empower and strengthen…
Council meeting fizzles in heat of summer
Sharply dressed, members of the Bend City Council could have conducted business set to Justin Timberlake’s “Suit & Tie” Wednesday night. (Listen while you read, really, it might spice it up) However, discussions weren’t quite as sharp, as the topics went from moderately interesting to humdrum. Trees were a point of discussion during the work…
Pump the Breaks Hardcore Fans: Cancelled Show Turns Into a Cluster that Gets Mention in the LA Weekly
A blog post entitled “Hardcore Show Cancelled Amid Arson Threats,” posted earlier today on the L.A. Weekly website details a cluster of events that ended in a cancelled metal show in an Bend backyard. L.A. based power-violence band, ACxDC (for all you squares out there, that stands for Antichrist Demoncore, and yeah, they like to…
The Weekend Starts When I Say It Starts
That’s it. Put a fork in me. I’m done. The weekend officially starts tonight and (thankfully) there are plenty of opportunities tonight to dance it out, lose yourself in the adrenaline-fueled world of the Tour De France or discuss important issues outside our own (sometimes, but not always) insignificant concerns.The Chicago Afro Beat Project plays…
One Day at a Time
MONDAY 8 Once an absolutely darling teen heartthrob, now an insufferable 19-year-old prick, Justin Bieber is apparently doing everything he can to attain the ultimate pinnacle of douchiness. TMZ unveiled a video today depicting young Mr. Bieber and a gaggle of his backward baseball cap-wearing buddies leaving a nightclub through the establishment’s kitchen…when Justin stops…
Letters 7/10 – 7/18
In reply to "Best Of Ballot (Survey, 7/4)" Dude…La Pine? You have Sisters, Redmond, and Sunriver on your survey, but not La Pine? Best Breakfast: Wickiup doughnuts!! Best Staycation: Paulina snowshoeing (and lodge, etc.)! Give folks a voice and they might surprise you. —Josie Hanneman In reply to "Don’t Be a Dunderhead (Boot, 7/11)" No…
Hot Dog!
A 4 am alarm comes around quickly—especially after a few Thursday-evening-celebration pints at Crux. The early start is new to me but old hat to my guide, who regularly rises in the predawn chill (yes, it is chilly in summertime) to guide on Mount Hood. On this particular day, we were in search of corn—the…
Glory Days…Still
Bruce Springsteen knows a thing or two about America. From a shotgun shack to the Superdome, he embodies the American Dream through cinematic lyrics that say more in one line than most musicians say, well, ever. Springsteen is a cold light beer at the end of a long day of manual labor. His music rings…
Great From Any Angle
Frances Ha is a perfectly simple, straightforward little film, but there's an awful lot to say about it. Whichever way you turn the movie, it catches some light: This way, the plight of millennials; that way, the stylistic nods to French New Wave. There’s a whole trend piece to be written about the young female…
What The Sequel?
Forget about the big commercial music festivals people pay big bucks to attend. Sometimes the smaller, more “experienced-based” events are the better choice when it comes to summertime fun. That’s the idea behind the electronic dance festival known simply as WTF. Sure there is music. Lots of music. Big names too. But WTF is about…
Jumping Flea
It’s a small guitar from a small island chain, but it’s responsible for an entire musical culture that transcended continental isolation. Yes, a ukulele. From July 19-21 an entire festival dedicated to the miniature instrument with a rich history will be held at Runway Ranch in Bend. Conventional historical thinking traces the instrument’s origin to…
Out of Town 7/17 – 7/25
seattle friday 19 Black Flag The original kings of the DIY punk scene Black Flag are back on the road this summer in two incarnations—one going as simply FLAG with original vocalist Keith Morris, original bassist Chuck Dukowski, drummer Bill Stevenson (a member from 1983 to 1985), and guitarist Stephen Egerton of the Descendents; and…
Summer Adventure
An introduction… Floating down the Deschutes River, along the lazy stretches in Bend, that phenomena is on display as invisible convection current shimmer as the air rises from the warmed earth into the atmosphere. It is an image and an attitude that quintessentially belongs to summertime—an effervesce, a symbol of letting go, ephemeral and expanding.…
A New Moon?
Silver Moon Brewing, established in 2000, is finally getting a makeover. The exact look, though, is hard to pinpoint, as new co-owner James Watts has been decidedly coy. Here’s what we know: On June 25 Cycle Pub owner James Watts, along with Snap Fitness owner Matt Barrett, bought the brewery from its founder, Tyler Reichert.…
Lighter than Air
It is 6:02 am when I arrive at RC flying field. I am two minutes late, and already the hot air balloon is swelling with air. Its hand-painted high desert mural of old-growth junipers and raptors are billowing in the wind as if they were alive. Several people are swarming around the balloon like ants…
Welcome to the Hood
Remember when Brother Jon’s first opened on Galveston Avenue? It was awesome (and remains so). Nearby residents finally had a comfortable neighborhood spot that serves everything from mac and cheese, to RPM IPA, Rainier and Bulleit Rye on the rocks. Now, Newport Avenue neighbors have something similar in what is the second food cart-turned-brick-and-mortar success…
Sheer Cliff Scaling
Just because Central Oregon summers can be hotter than two rats humping in a wool sock, that's no reason to abandon the cliffs. There are plenty of well-shaded, quality, and crowd-free summertime climbing areas in and around Bend. By midsummer, if climbers want reasonable friction and minimal sunburn, they have to get a little more…
Middle of Nowhere
Antelope, Ore., started its downward spiral into ghosttowndom after a mysterious fire sparked up in the bowling alley in 1897 (we’re guessing it wasn’t started by the automatic ball return). The town, located between Bend and The Dalles off Highway 97, was at its peak that year, population 170, with a blacksmith shop, a drugstore,…
How to Jump your bike
Editor’s note: Whether hopping over a log or hopping a tabletop on Whoops Trail, jumping (or hopping) is a necessary skill every mountain biker needs to master. For a little confidence boost—and some technical know-how—we connected with jumping pro Lindsey Voreis for a how-to. Jumping bikes is fun! But getting your wheels off the ground…
No Fear Shakespeare
Though they be but little, they are fierce! Bend Experimental Art Theatre has rounded up a group of young actors, ages 6 to 18, and in a three-week intensive camp, put together a production of a Midsummer Night’s Dream in original Shakespearean language. Impressive. “These kids know are off book quicker than adult actors,” said…
Bend’s Buzzing
Almost two years ago, Fred and Kim Rivera started Backyard Bees of Bend, fittingly, in their own backyard. The business offers beehive items anyone looking to get started would need. But, more than anything, Kim said they started the business as a way to mentor amateur beekeepers. “It’s captivating,” Kim asserts. “Instead of going to…
Our Picks 7/17 – 7/25
wednesday 17 Point Break SWAYZE SUMMER—Kathryn Bigelow’s action/surf/adventure film Point Break is, obviously, one of the greatest movies of all time. Catch the 1991 classic, starring Keanu Reeves, Gary Busey and, of course, Patrick Swayze, with his golden locks and glistening pectorals, FOR FREE, while sipping a cold one. “You know I can’t handle a…
Standoff!
The mood was tense during Monday’s Mirror Pond Management Board meeting as its gathered members, one after another, put Pacific Power representative Angela Price on the spot. The meeting was originally arranged so that project manager Jim Figurski could share the findings from the latest community survey. But what followed could only be described as…
Protecting Our Liquid Gold
We live in a desert. Water is precious. That much should be agreed upon. Fortunately, we have a newly formed Central Oregon Conservation Network (COCN), a dream team collection of area environmental organizations, which is watchdogging how the region and regional agencies manage this resource—and, more keenly, what infrastructure is being planned and installed to…
