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Winter weather is finally here. And the shortest day of the year is fast approaching.
Nuthin’ fancy at the Cowboy Dinner TreeSilver Lake, Oregon is a place where the word cowboy means a job, not a style of dress. And for bonafide cowboy cuisine, the Cowboy Dinner Tree is The Real McCoy. The legendary, albeit out of the way, steakhouse is set off of one of Oregon’s Scenic Byways in the heart of the Oregon Outback.
It’s rugged country for sure. But it’s also a place where you can drive for many miles undisturbed in your thoughts as you reflect on the hearty souls who decided to take up ranching in this land of sagebrush, mountain lions and ferocious winds. The desolate landscape is surprisingly refreshing, and I enjoy its uncomplicated terrain in the same way I appreciate the simple, authentic food at the Cowboy Dinner Tree.
No Morton’s of Chicago is this. For $23.50 you get either a steak or chicken dinner. Sound mundane? Just wait. The steak is an aged top sirloin that is portioned into a true Cowboy Cut of 26 to 30 ounces. Twelve to 24 hours before it is served, the steak gets a special dry rub. What has now become your dinner steak is cooked over an outdoor barbeque to medium rare once you’re seated.
Nuthin' fancy at the Cowboy Dinner TreeSilver Lake, Oregon is a place where the word cowboy means a job, not a style of dress. And for bonafide cowboy cuisine, the Cowboy Dinner Tree is The Real McCoy. The legendary, albeit out of the way, steakhouse is set off of one of Oregon's Scenic Byways in the heart of the Oregon Outback.
It's rugged country for sure. But it's also a place where you can drive for many miles undisturbed in your thoughts as you reflect on the hearty souls who decided to take up ranching in this land of sagebrush, mountain lions and ferocious winds. The desolate landscape is surprisingly refreshing, and I enjoy its uncomplicated terrain in the same way I appreciate the simple, authentic food at the Cowboy Dinner Tree.
No Morton's of Chicago is this. For $23.50 you get either a steak or chicken dinner. Sound mundane? Just wait. The steak is an aged top sirloin that is portioned into a true Cowboy Cut of 26 to 30 ounces. Twelve to 24 hours before it is served, the steak gets a special dry rub. What has now become your dinner steak is cooked over an outdoor barbeque to medium rare once you're seated.
All For This?If you were to enter the word "Suterra" into your Google search bar, you'd get a long list of results, the third of which would read: Suterra Buys Bend Oregon - New Bio Weapon Factory… from a California based website. That's news to those of us living here in Bend who know Suterra as a small spinoff of one of Bend's longest running and most respected high tech companies, Bend Research.
The company, which employs less than 100 people, specializes in producing non-toxic chemicals that serve as an alternative to traditional pesticides by confusing breeding insects. But to hear Internet posters tell it, Suterra is a bio-weapons manufacturer on par with a pre-Gulf War Saddam Hussein whose operations are secretly funded by the Bush administration. This information is found on page after page of Internet material and the prolificacy of blogging on Suterra has increased in recent weeks after it became public that the company was working with the city of Bend on a deal that would sell the company a plot of land in the Juniper Ridge development.
It goes without saying that blogs have reinvented the way information is consumed by the public. But blogging has also allowed for a rampant spread of misinformation and it seems Suterra has been made into an Internet boogeyman of sorts. Suterra has been the target of a wide array of groups in Northern California where the company's pheromone-based pest control products were sprayed on entire communities. Now, with the company moving to Juniper Ridge, it seems that Bend's vocal group of bloggers have jumped on the Suterra blog bandwagon, in some cases teaming up with the California bloggers, creating a sort of perfect storm of unfiltered misinformation.
The snowball that is coaches and other big-wigs calling for a Division I college football playoff is getting bigger by the week, and the Big 12 Conference this season is making a case for a playoff all by itself.
This after a weekend that saw then No.
Besides bloodlust, we have great hearing and a keen fashion sense. "Surely it was a good way to die, in the place of someone I loved. Noble even. That ought to count for something."
Thus begins the new movie, Twilight, inspired by the first of four books about a young girl and her vampire boyfriend by Stephanie Meyers, and in the hands of virtually every young girl aged 11 to 20 in America right now. Four novels, seventeen million copies - get the picture?
I have to admit, I didn't read the book and went in cold. And I was mesmerized. The story involves a sixteen-year-old high school student, Bella Swan (Kristin Stewart), who leaves her single mom in Arizona to go and live with her policeman dad in Forks, Washington. It's a gorgeous setting for this film: grey, perpetually foggy, green, mossy, mysterious, and, most importantly for vampires, sunless.
Cry it out. This fun little movie is actually a light-hearted look at Hollywood
back stabbings and financial dealings. In other words, this could have
been a scathing expose on Hollywood corruption, but What Just Happened
just lets it happen and allows us to be the judge.
Robert De Niro
plays Ben (yes, just "Ben"), a producer trying to balance his work
while juggling a messed-up life involving two ex-wives and kids to go
with them. Ben has two big deals in the works: one is a Cannes entry
entitled, "Fiercely," starring Sean Penn (as himself), directed by
indie filmmaker Jeremy Brunell (a superb Michael Wincott). We only see
snippets of the cruel and violent ending scene of "Fiercely," which the
producers insist should hit the editing floor. Jeremy takes it badly,
promoting tension between producers and himself. The second deal is an
action picture starring Bruce Willis (as himself). Here, the dilemma is
that Willis, contrary to all advice, has put on weight and grown a
Grizzly Adams beard, adding extra girth for his concept of the role
then refuses to shave his beard.
Insert ego-stroking self reference. The phenomenon of the multi-platinum, mega-famous rap star is somewhat
of a dying trend, but you wouldn't know it by what's on the marquee at
Midtown for next week. The venue is host to not just one large-scale
rap show, but two in a row. It's former G-Unit member Young Buck
headlining a "Hip-hop Comedy Jam" on Tuesday night, then three members
of the storied rap group Bone Thugs-N-Harmony taking to the stage on
Thursday night.
We've spilled a good amount of ink in the past couple
of months about the influx in indie hip-hop making its way through
town, we haven't done the same for the big-name, commercial acts like
Young Buck and the Bone Thugs guys. This is largely because mainstream
hip-hop acts don't stop off in town too often. But this isn't to say
there isn't a want for these sort of tours. Hell, even if we're not all
that urban, we can still get all crunked up when we find it necessary.
Bend Area Transit hit some rough terrain in its early going - the worst pothole being its purchase of eight lemon buses from a slick used-bus salesman in California.
It was a costly mistake, and it happened because BAT officials didn't exercise due diligence.
Re-Nailin' Palin
Who you callin' turkey?Even though we've devoted a lot of Upfront and WTF
space to Alaska's most endearing governor Sarah Palin and we're pretty
sure that 75 percent of readers would like nothing more to never hear
her name again, we couldn't resist. Short of Palin actually dressing up
in a stars and stripes bikini and shooting a moose with a rifle while
waving to the Russians, Palin's recent "Thanksgiving Turkey Massacre"
video, which has become a staple of YouTube e-mail forwards says it all.
Some
background: As part of her duties as governor of the great state of
Alaska, Mrs. Palin must pardon a Thanksgiving turkey. Unfortunately,
the rest of the turkeys at the Triple D Farm & Hatchery outside of
Wasilla, were not as lucky.
The scene: While Palin talks about
her VP run and her appreciation for "good Americans who are just
desiring of their government to kinda get outta the way and allow them
to grow and progress and allow their businesses to grow and progress,"
a turkey is stuffed into a killing cone where its throat is slit and
it's bled out into a trough. While Palin answers a question about
budget cuts, another unfortunate fowl is crammed down the cone.
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