Mike Bookey

mike@tsweekly.com
Posted inMusic

Screw Wolf Blitzer, Here’s Henry Rollins

Mike Bookey

He’s not joking around.Americans have watched Wall Street crumble to ashes bringing our
economy to a dangerous low, gas prices that have skyrocketed to a point
where soccer moms have to take out a loan to get the kids to school, an
election parading forward with a lot of talk about everything but
solutions, and two wars that have cost three trillion dollars and more
than five thousand American lives. To take a catch phrase from the
current campaign rhetoric, "It's time for some tough talk." The
Recountdown Tour which began in September is the latest spoken word
outing for hardcore orator Henry Rollins, a master at his unique blend
of talking tough, and will be coming to the Midtown Ballroom on
Saturday night. This newest engagement is not only a chance for him to
address the madness plaguing our country, but also, in his words, "to
celebrate the end of the Bush era."

The native of Washington, D.C.
began this recent tour in September and will be venting his disapproval
to fans across the United States and Canada. Though he could speak for
days on the follies of the Bush administration, which he has at great
length over the past two terms, the content of the Recountdown Tour
addresses the current parties battling it out for the Oval Office.

Posted inCulture

Our Picks for the week of 10/16-10/22

Mike Bookey

Catie Curtis
friday 17
This Boston native plays a sweetly blended mix of melodic vocals and crisp Americana guitar to produce a thriving brand of folk rock that you might have heard on Dawson's Creek. She's coming to the Old Stone as part of her national tour and for the female singer songwriter junkies out there, this is a must-see show.

Posted inCulture

Get Your Eyeballs Ready for BendFilm

Mike Bookey

Big Names at BendFilm
There are several facets of a film festival,
but in one respect, the festival can be split into two areas: there's
the excitement of film buffs taking in day after day of independent
cinema and then there's the filmmakers who show up in town to well,
watch other people watch their films. Oh, and those filmmakers are
hoping that the big names also in attendance take notice of their work.
This
year's BendFilm features the most significant gathering of industry
powerhouses in the festival’s existence. The most notable name
appearing is Tony Safford, head of Acquisitions Worldwide for Twentieth
Century Fox, which means he's been behind films like Little Miss
Sunshine and Thank You For Smoking. Before getting into the world of
acquisitions, Safford was the program director at the Sundance Film
Festival. So yeah, this guy knows how the festival world works - and
filmmakers are certainly hoping Safford takes a look at their flicks.

Posted inMusic

Big Sounds in Small Rooms and Rain in the Outback

Mike Bookey

Silver Moon in a Can?
Hey there Jake Bellows, You wanna Miller Lite?When Jake Bellows, the front man for increasingly buzzed about band Neva Dinova (see last week's issue for a full feature on the Omaha band), pulled a can of Miller Lite from behind his amp on the Silver Moon Brewing Co. stage and took a long pull, the crowd (Sound Check included) that had just had its attention super-glued to the triple guitar attack of the band cringed politely.

Posted inMusic

Seated, But Not Sitting Out: The subdudes go low key and lowercase

Mike Bookey

The subdudes dress for the occasion.According to the subdudes guitarist and lead vocalist Tommy Malone, the
band has decided to take a seat for a while. And he means that
literally. Just like their intentional lower-casing of their band's
name, the five-piece roots rock band with plenty of soul is stepping
back from their electric instruments to sit down in a quieter, softer
stage approach.

"We're liking this configuration so much that we're
thinking of making it a permanent thing," Malone says of the band's
seated and acoustic take on their current tour, which can be seen on
its new concert DVD to be released just three days after the subdudes’
Sunday night appearance at the Riverhouse Convention Center as part of
local radio personality Elise Michael's birthday party.

Posted inCulture

Make A Joyful Bosom Affair: One woman’s birthday gift is another’s force majeure

Mike Bookey

“A woman needs a man,” by Kristin ProvostLenora James was in a pickle. This last May, the Bend woman forgot to
send a birthday gift to a friend celebrating her "Happy Boobday."
James, inspired by the breast theme, applied paint to her breasts and
imprinted them on a blank canvas

She soon realized this was a
perfect fund-raising project to fight breast cancer. Members of James'
family had struggled with the disease, and she had just helped a close
friend cope with the Easter Sunday death of her mother. James soon
contacted the Sara Fisher Project (the breast cancer education and
assistance powerhouse based in Bend) and the Joyful Bosom Affair was
born.
The original goal of the Affair was simple: get women to
paint their breasts, press them onto a canvas and incorporate the
imprints into a painting. The paintings would then be displayed and
sold at the First Friday Art Walk on October 3 as well as the Bend Fall
Festival with the proceeds going to the Sara Fisher project.

Posted inCulture

Doing the Thing Right: Spike Lee scores with epic saga

Mike Bookey

Is that a head you got there?You gotta hand it to Spike Lee. He's willing to take risks. With
Miracle at St Anna, the risk is a larger-than-life mainstream war movie
that tries to hold onto his visionary/radical/art-house/civil rights
themes
From the first scene of an ex-Buffalo soldier watching The
Longest Day with John Wayne on TV, to a final scene of extremely
questionable merit, this is an epic saga of redemption cloaked in a war
story mystery. While working at the post office, Hector Negron (Laz
Alonso) shoots a man he recognizes from his past. Subsequently, the
head of an extremely rare statue is found in his closet. His story is
then told in flashback form, following the trials of the Buffalo
soldiers' of the 92nd Infantry Division. A big oafish soldier, Train
(Omar Benson Miller), carries around (for good luck) the aforementioned
statue head he found in some ruins. The soldiers, under the command of
Staff Sergeant Stamps (Derek Luke), travel out of radio contact to an
Italian village and hole up with an Italian family. The impending
arrival of German troops adds tension and the plot gets almost too big
to handle, but even when it meandered I liked it. The use of clips that
could've easily hit the editing floor captures the kind of idiotic
small talk that might prevail when doom waits around every corner.

Posted inCulture

A Wild Ride: Eagle Eye delivers adrenalized action

Mike Bookey

Run shia, run.Even if you normally pick up a double Americano on the way to the
movies, I would advise against it if your destination is Eagle Eye. You
may find yourself on your back with electric paddles on your chest and
a medic screaming, "Clear!" This movie is one all-out-Space
Mountain-on-acid-thrill ride where you won't need any supplements to
boost your heart rate.

Even veteran high octane cinema junkies may be
surprised at Director D.J. Caruso's ability to bury your head against
the headrest and put a cinematic G force on you that may cause your
date to scream.
After US forces bomb a Middle Eastern terrorist
target - despite computer warnings there is barely 50% probability we
have the correct target - we jump to Jerry Shaw (Shia LaBeouf) - a card
shark and copy shop employee whose prospects are dim. After an earlier
collaboration with Caruso in Disturbia and a major role in the last
Indiana Jones movie, LaBeouf moves into the action hero mold alongside
actors like Matt Damon and Daniel Craig. And LaBeouf handles the role
with both believability and style.

Posted inMusic

Slightly Not Stoned Enough to Come Up With a Shorter Album Title: Slightly Stoopid is back in Bend

Slightly Stoopid: With a name like that, they need balls like this. And also Dark sunglasses, apparently. Slightly Stoopid is back in Bend for round
Mike Bookey

Slightly Stoopid: With a name like that, they need balls like this. And also Dark sunglasses, apparently. Slightly Stoopid is back in Bend for round two this year and according
to Ryan "Rymo" Moran, the band is planning on another great show and
looking forward to partying down in Bend again. With the July release
of their latest album Slightly Not Stoned Enough to Eat Breakfast Yet
Stoopid, the Southern California group is prepared to release a slew of
new reggae-punk songs sure to get Stoopidheads moving.

It's been 12
years since the band's founders Miles Doughty and Kyle McDonald
released their first album, Slightly Stoopid, with the help of
Sublime's Brad Nowell. At that time, Doughty and McDonald were just a
couple of 17-year-old skateboarders who liked to get stoned and play
some good music. Not much has changed, other than the fact Slightly
Stoopid now plays to crowds that can number in the thousands.

Posted inNews

After the Storm:Humane Society of Redmond works to repair reputation, debt situation

At a Deschutes County Board of Commissioners work session on July 9, the true financial problems of the Humane Society of Redmond came to light.
Mike Bookey

At a Deschutes County Board of Commissioners work session on July 9, the true financial problems of the Humane Society of Redmond came to light. There was, of course, already plenty known about the monetary crisis the animal shelter had found itself in by this point, but the public was nonetheless surprised when board members told county commissioners that they had no other option but to close the facility…unless they could strike a deal with the county.
Since then, the county has floated the humane society more than $41,000 to keep its doors open and is discussing the possibility of loaning the shelter almost $1 million to keep the organization afloat. Call it a hometown bailout.
The initial meeting with the county came only a matter of days after the executive director of the Humane Society of Redmond, Jamie Kanski, said she was asked by HSR board members to resign in the wake of making the shelter's financial woes public. Fast forward to mid-September when the shelter announced that their current debt was in the neighborhood of $1.5 million. Just days later, HSR board president Dale Gilbert stepped down from his position amid criticism from HSR members.
These are the flash points of the long and winding saga that is the much-troubled story of the Humane Society of Redmond. In between the lines are stories of long-lasting financial and organizational mishaps, some downright bad luck, all of which is peppered with infighting between shelter members, board members and staff. Also lost in the shuffle is a focus on the programs and staff positions that were cut as a result of significant budgetary cuts.
But it's important to note, as new HSR board president Dr. Rachel Oxley, a Redmond-based veterinarian, notes that the shelter is indeed open today, and there is certainly hope for a shelter that some had come to think of as a lost cause.
"There has definitely been a focus on people rather than the animals, and I'm really hoping and have been working on bringing the focus back to where it should be," Oxley said.
She went on to say that the board is currently in the middle of several efforts aimed at not only reestablishing a sense of organizational structure to the HSR, but also rebuilding some trust from the community that has been lost as a result of the financial shortcomings.
 

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