Mike Bookey

mike@tsweekly.com
Posted inCulture

Our Picks for the week of 11/12-11/19

Mike Bookey

Drift
thursday 13
Summer-run steelhead are spread throughout
the lower river and most local rivers and lakes are still producing
good trout, but it's time to put the fly rod down - at least for a few
hours as the latest fish porn feature rolls into town in the form of
Drift, an hour-long fly fishing documentary that includes footage from
right here in Central Oregon. The segment, which highlights the
increasingly popular sub-sport of spey fishing, was filmed last year on
the Deschutes River with legendary guides and spey gurus John and Amy
Hazel. The film was produced in conjunction with The Drake, a
Colorado-based fly fishing magazine, and the local showing benefits the
Upper Deschutes Wastershed Council and Oregon Trout. Doors 5:30, Film
6pm. $10 McMenamins Old St. Francis School, 700 NW Bond St.. Advanced
tickets at ortrout.org.
Music For The Fallen
friday 14
Veteran's
Day just passed and the local music scene is paying tribute to the
families of Central Oregon's fallen soldiers with this crossover show
featuring music ranging from metal to hip-hop. The lineup includes:
Relative, No Cash Value, Snap Point, Pov City, Trevor G and The
Collektive Cartel. 8pm. $10, $1 off with non-perishable food donation.
Domino Room, 51 NW Greenwood Ave.

Posted inNews

Outside the Spotlight: Doug Sokol is gone, but his spirit endures

Sokol behind the board at the barnDriving the road into Pine Meadow Ranch is as close to a fuzzy postcard scene as you’re ever going
Mike Bookey

Sokol behind the board at the barnDriving the road into Pine Meadow Ranch is as close to a fuzzy postcard scene as you're ever going to find in this region. This time of year the trees are exploding in oranges and light reds as Whychus Creek runs calmly under the wooden bridge that leads to the ranch. It's quiet - even as the wind whips down the eastern slopes of the Cascades and against the side of an 80-plus-year-old barn. And this is the place that Doug Sokol devoted much of the last year of his life toward and it's a barn that caught the eye of the entire town of Sisters.
Doug had been hosting musical events in the barn on his family's ranch, many of them loosely organized, for almost 20 years, but it was last year that he and Rebecca, his soon-to-be-wife, made a full effort to transform the barn into a music venue with a state-of-the-art sound system and enough room for a couple hundred revelers. People came to the shows featuring well-known regional and local acts and soon Doug and Rebecca were getting a call nearly every day from musicians inquiring about booking a show. But soon the Barn, as it's known, ran up against the county officials, who said that the venue was not properly zoned for for-profit events and the shows subsided. It was a blow to the local music community, but nothing like what would follow.

Posted inCulture

The Didjeridude: Tyler Spencer puts a new spin on an Aboriginal Australian instrument

Mike Bookey

Tyler Spencer and a prized didjTyler Spencer was only 15 when he stumbled across a metal tube in his
parents' basement and happened to blow into it, creating a unique
resonating sound. While the tube was actually a piece of exercise
equipment, Spencer's father told him about an Australian Aboriginal
instrument called the didjeridu. Spencer began scouring reference books
and other materials, eventually creating his own out of a pine log for
a school project. Fast forward 15 years and Spencer now makes and plays
this ancient instrument for a living, having even gone to Australia's
Northern Territory and studied under the highly respected Aboriginal
elder Djalu Gurruwiwi. Based out of his home on Bend's east side with a
recording studio just off of the workshop where he creates his
instruments, Spencer is bringing ancient Australian traditions to
Central Oregon and he's doing it with style.

"I make very high-quality didjs for people very serious about playing …
it's kind of my duty to pass on my experience and what I've learned,"
he says.

Posted inCulture

Lifeless Haunting Will Shock No One: You’ve seen this one before…on every channel

Mike Bookey

Scissor sisters. I almost don't know what to say about this innocuous entry into the
thriller genre except that it's as about as mediocre as they come, as
generic as it gets, and predictable beyond a shadow of a doubt. My
first thought was proven to be true that any movie with "Haunting" in
the title and especially "the Haunting of…" is doomed from the get-go.
Just check out Internet Movie Database (IMDB.com) if you don't believe
me. This movie was so below my level of consciousness that it didn't
even have enough power to make me mad. I just sat there and so did the
movie.

The Haunting of Molly Hartley, follows, you guessed it, Molly
Hartley and her pesky haunting and does so as follows: Molly (Hayley
Bennett) is attending a new high school in a new place with just her
dad. He says "let's have a fresh start" at breakfast, foreshadowing
things might not go so well. They've moved to the same community as her
mother's mental health facility and soon Molly has headaches,
hallucinations and troubles all stemming from the fact that mom jabbed
a pair of scissors in her chest years ago and was put away. Molly is
basically haunted by her mom…constantly, via flashbacks and what seems
to be present day escape visits.

Posted inFood & Drink

Quick Bites: Good, Cheap Eats on Northbound 97

Not to worry, the world still revolves around Bend. But for times when you are forced - by death or marriage - to leave Bend,
Mike Bookey

Not to worry, the world still revolves around Bend. But for times when you are forced - by death or marriage - to leave Bend, where will you eat along the way?
For many years, my trips northbound on Highway 97 to Portland or Seattle were punctuated by visits to Pepe's in Madras. I swore up and down that Pepe's was the only decent food to be had between our fair berg and the Northwest's culinary utopias. When I say decent, I just mean food prepared by real cooks - versus pimply faced teenagers - in an owner-run establishment. When Pepe's temporarily closed last year, I reluctantly embarked on a deeper search into my roadside dining options

Posted inFood & Drink

Quick Bites: Good, Cheap Eats on Northbound 97

Not to worry, the world still revolves around Bend. But for times when you are forced – by death or marriage – to leave Bend,
Mike Bookey

Not to worry, the world still revolves around Bend. But for times when you are forced – by death or marriage – to leave Bend, where will you eat along the way?
For many years, my trips northbound on Highway 97 to Portland or Seattle were punctuated by visits to Pepe’s in Madras. I swore up and down that Pepe’s was the only decent food to be had between our fair berg and the Northwest’s culinary utopias. When I say decent, I just mean food prepared by real cooks – versus pimply faced teenagers – in an owner-run establishment. When Pepe’s temporarily closed last year, I reluctantly embarked on a deeper search into my roadside dining options

Posted inMusic

Party on Bend, Party On: GWAR, a snowboarding movie, metal and Jackass antics all in one sitting

You should see these guys on a snowboard.In today’s Ritalin-filled youth culture, it seems that the under 25 crowd can be hard to please. We’re
Mike Bookey

You should see these guys on a snowboard.In today's Ritalin-filled youth culture, it seems that the under 25 crowd can be hard to please. We're hard to shock, hard to motivate and hard to entertain with an attention span that seems to get increasingly shorter every year. The economic downturn isn't exactly helping the entertainment scene either. This could be why more and more promoters are pulling out all the stops to try to get people in the door for shows. Case in point: this week, Midtown hosting a joint movie premier and metal show complete with major product giveaways and a TV personality to host it all.

Youthful Bend snowboarding and metal enthusiasts start the night off with Toxic Holocaust, move on to Kingdom of Sorrow, view Mack Dawg's Down With People, get tossed snowboarding gear then end the night spattered in (fake) bodily fluids and blood from their GWAR "experience" all while being entertained by Jackass's "Danger" Ehren McGehee.

Posted inCulture

Meet Joe the Painter: Joe Kimmel takes post modern retro

Mike Bookey

It’s possibly one of the last few sunny Sundays this fall, but Joe
Kimmel is inside, working hard in his studio. Thirteen wood panels lean
up against the concrete walls of Kimmel’s space, many of them still in
progress.

"I definitely have to look at it as coming to the office," says Kimmel,
"whether it’s to make progress or just check in." It is obvious through
our conversation that while it may be artwork, it is what Kimmel lives
and breathes.

Posted inOutside

And No Juice Box, Either

It was a scene right out of Pop Warner football. A player makes a good play, then commits a dumb penalty and the coach summons
Mike Bookey

It was a scene right out of Pop Warner football. A player makes a good play, then commits a dumb penalty and the coach summons him to the sideline for an earful.

The
player's benched. He pouts a little bit. And after the coach has some
time to think, tells the player, "You know what. Why don't you head on
home. I don't want you on the field right now."
Except on Sunday,
this wasn't Pop Warner football. It was new San Francisco 49ers Head
Coach Mike Singletary putting his stamp on the woeful team he inherited
after coach Mike Nolan was fired.
The moment of clarity for
Singletary happened after 49er tight end Vernon Davis caught a short
pass in a game the 49ers were losing to Seattle. After the play, the
Seahawks defender started chirping and Davis slapped his facemask,
drawing a 15-yard personal foul penalty.
Singletary benched Davis
after the play. According to ESPN.com, Singletary told his oft-troubled
tight end, "I told him that he would do a better job for us right now
taking a shower and coming back and watching the game than going out on
the field. Simple as that."

Posted inCulture

Bloodbaths and Buzz-cuts: Inner turmoil reigns supreme in gritty cop drama

Mike Bookey

The Norton effect. A family of Irish cops and police corruption… sound familiar? Yes,
Pride and Glory has all the makings of a formulaic, seen-it-before
storyline, but at the hands of writer/actor/director Gavin O' Connor
(Tumbleweeds) it takes on an original, seedy life of its own. This is
actually a pretty good movie.

Dark and disturbing from the beginning,
there is not one lighthearted moment. From the initial body-laden
bloodbath of dead cops and drug dealers to the yelling, crying,
relentless violence and inevitably bitter end, this movie doesn't let
up. Shot in gritty and grainy blue hues depicting the evil beating
heart of NYC, Pride and Glory takes its stand among such movies as
State of Grace, Serpico, King of New York, Training Day and (the
underrated) Monument Avenue.

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