Eric Flowers, Author at The Source

A Place to Call Home ▶ [With Video]

Communal living project for veterans could serve as a model for solving the homeless crisis

by Eric Flowers February 17, 2021November 11, 2024

Bend’s newest neighborhood won’t have a homeowners’ association or a lengthy list of bylaws. There won’t be any open houses or bidding wars among prospective homebuyers. What it will have is a collection of individuals who have served their country but have since fallen on challenging times. Central Oregon Veterans Village is a chance for […]

News

The Year the Music Died

The music industry took a big hit in 2020. Will it roar back in 2021?

by Eric Flowers December 30, 2020September 20, 2024

It took a decade, dozens of artists, and hundreds of volunteers to transform the Four Peaks music festival from a bootstrap local gathering into a bona fide concert destination. But it took just one rogue virus a few weeks to bring it all crashing down in late March. That’s when Stacy Koff, festival founder and […]

Food & Drink

Little Bites: Hideaway Gives a Shot to Southeast Bend

After several months of interior makeover work, the neighborhood bar and restaurant reopened this past week as the Hideaway Tavern.

Eric FlowersOctober 3, 2012December 4, 2024

I recently moved out of northeast Bend, a virtual wasteland when it comes to food and nightlife. (The last vestige of culinary civilization, Little Pizza Paradise, picked up stakes and moved to Cascade Village Mall earlier this summer.) I didn’t improve my lot much by moving to southeast Bend, particularly when it comes to nightlife.
A few scattered pubs on Third Street and an outpost at Reed Market were an improvement, but hardly a sea change. To make matters worse, my favorite South side watering hole/pizza place and blues club, Grover’s, recently closed.

Culture

Tinseltown or Bike Town?

A few celebrities that have made their way through the area.

Eric FlowersOctober 3, 2012June 5, 2024

Rainn Wilson
Claim to Fame:
Had his stapler ensconced in Jell-0 by John Krasinski, aka Jim Halpert.
Last Known Location: Universal’s sound studio
Wilson, i.e. Dwight Schrute from NBC’s The Office, showed up in Sisters a few years back. A Northwest native who grew up in Seattle, Wilson keeps a relatively low-profile, but has made at least one cameo appearance on the Les Schwab stage in Bend. He walked out onstage with Portland’s The Decemberists and feigned as if to lead the band’s opening song. A few years earlier, Wilson riffed hilariously on Late Night with Letterman about a snake encounter at his Sisters-area home.

News

End of the Line at ALEC?: Controversial corporate bill mill faces challenge from public interest group

Eric FlowersSeptember 19, 2012September 14, 2024

A conservative corporate-backed organization that connects lawmakers with industry insiders to craft ready made laws could lose its non-profit status that allows it to wine and dine lawmakers like Central Oregon’s Gene Whisnant.
The American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, faces a challenge from the Washington D.C-based citizen advocacy group Common Cause, which alleges that ALEC is nothing more than a pipeline from corporate boardrooms to capitol steps.

News

Shotgun Wedding: Critics say new event rules open the door for abuse

Eric FlowersSeptember 12, 2012May 3, 2024

James Gindelsperger made a living flying through nuclear clouds as a member of an Air Force reconnaissance team that collected data on the Soviet arsenal. But that work didn’t prepare Gindelsperger for the storm of controversy that erupted when his neighbor put up a new barn and threw its doors open for weddings.
The result, said Gindelsperger, was dozens of partygoers parading across a joint easement and bands and DJs playing well into the previously serene summer nights.

Outside

Road Warriors: Masters Nationals return to Bend, South Sister stampede and SUP stuff

For the second consecutive year hundreds of mature bike racers will flock to Central Oregon for the USA Cycling Masters Road National Championships. This year it’s a five-day affair that will kick off Wednesday, Sept. 5 and run through Sund

Eric FlowersSeptember 5, 2012January 4, 2023

For the second consecutive year hundreds of “mature” bike racers will flock to Central Oregon for the USA Cycling Masters Road National Championships. This year it’s a five-day affair that will kick off Wednesday, Sept. 5 and run through Sunday, Sept. 9. Unlike last year, however, this year a “masters racer” is defined as those aged 35 and older. In 2011 the youngest master’s category was the 30 to 34 age group.
Other notable changes for this year’s edition include new courses for the time trial and for some of the crit races. Rather than race another time trial up and down the broken pavement of Skyliner’s Rd., race organizers elected to hold the race outside Prineville on the Crooked River Highway that will take racers upstream and into the Wild and Scenic Crooked River canyon.

Culture

Let There Be Wood: Little Woody takes beer making back to its origins

While O’Shea’s vision of a wood celebration with chainsaw carvers and lumberjack competitions never really came to fruition, the festival, which became the Little Woody has carved a niche for itself among beer drinkers and brewmasters.

Eric FlowersAugust 29, 2012September 5, 2024

Somewhat ironically, the inspiration for Bend’s barrel-aged beer festival started not with a meditation on wood, but as an homage to iron—steel specifically, according to one of the festival’s key developers, local brewer Pat O’Shea.
O’Shea said it was the experience of seeing his hometown of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania trying to preserve its 20th Century steel culture even as steel jobs were moving overseas in the 21st Century that got him thinking about Bend’s mill history and the town’s relationship to trees and wood products.
O’Shea eventually found himself at the local historical society poring over old photographs of the Brooks-Scanlon and Shevlin-Hixon mills and piecing together the area’s early mill history.

Culture

Art with an Altitude: Once a year event puts the focus squarely on artists

If you make your way down to the Old Mill this weekend, you’ll be greeted by the work of more than 100 artists, ranging from painters to sculptors to jewelers to fashion designers.

Eric FlowersAugust 22, 2012February 21, 2025

If you make your way down to the Old Mill this weekend, you’ll be greeted by the work of more than 100 artists, ranging from painters to sculptors to jewelers to fashion designers.
What you won’t find are dozens of bric a brac items, knick knacks and knock-offs that are ubiquitous to so many of Bend’s “festivals.” You also won’t find other attractions/distractions like rows of food booths, bouncy castles and live music.
And that’s exactly how Carla and Dave Fox, the founders and chief organizers of Art in the High Desert want it.

Outside

Too Hot to Handle?: Early season steelhead, schooled at Pronghorn and a Good ride.

It’s no secret that the annual steelhead pilgrimage has begun on the Columbia River, which has fish junkies trekking north in hopes of intercepting some of the early arrivals.

Eric FlowersAugust 8, 2012February 21, 2023

Come early August dedicated steelheaders know that what happens on the lower Deschutes stays on the lower Deschutes. And I won’t break that confidence.
However, it’s no secret that the annual steelhead pilgrimage has begun on the Columbia River, which has fish junkies like myself trekking north in hopes of intercepting some of the early arrivals, including the strong push of wild fish that make up a good chunk of the early “run” on the Columbia and tributaries including the lower Deschutes.

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