The job of an editor is, of course, or at least in part, to editโto remove excess. But while there is a certain joy pruning verbose stories to lean fighting machines, there is also a frustration when we simply do not have enough room in our newspaper for everything. This is one of those weeks. […]
Phil Busse
Phil Busse has done his tour of duty with alt-weeklies, starting in 1992 right after graduation from Middlebury College as the first environmental beat reporter for San Francisco Weekly. After a brief detour through the University of Oregon School of Law, Phil returned to writing as the first Managing Editor for Portland Mercury. In 2006, he started the Media Institute for Social Change in Portland, through which he continues to host a summer program teaching college students to produce documentaries.
Until he was 25 or so, Phil thought that he would be a spy, and took scuba lessons to prepare, and learned to drive a motorcycle and an 18-wheeler. Perhaps, then, it is unsurprising that his favorite holiday is the Fourth of July (he loves blowing stuff up). He feels at home with Joseph Conrad's fictional characters.
TEDxBend: Tchicaya Missamou
Here’s the dilemma: The organizers at TEDxBend want to keep the list of speakers a secret until the day of the event. They want you to trust them. And, here’s the problem: Even though the event isn’t for another month, tickets for this year’s TEDxBend, a day-long event of inspiring speeches and ideas, go on […]
Far From A Paint-By-Number
Commonly, Mike Leigh’s films have emphasized interpersonal tensions between characters, like in his breakout Secrets & Lies about a black woman tracking down her working class white birth mother, or Happy Go Lucky about a London school teacher’s whose eternal optimism goes against the grumpy grain. But, in Mr. Turner, his latest and perhaps greatest […]
Editor’s Note: In this week’s issue
It has been a fun week at the Source. While it would be easy to assume that researching breweries for our annual Beer Issue is fun because of the perks (and, yes, thanks Atlas, thanks Red Tank, thanks Sun River for the samples!), actually what has been most exciting about researching for these articles has […]
A Cider a Day
Aaron Cousins stands facing two shiny new fermentation tanks, the toes of his boots wrapped several times around with duct tape. He is wearing a black skull cap and dressed in a black sleeveless hoodie that shows off aqua-colored lines of a sprawling tattoo on his right shoulder. “Cider sales in the U.S. have doubled […]
Taking Center Stage
Ural Thomas has always been there. Since starting to sing and play music at age three, he has been in the vicinity of soul music history. The “middle” of 14 children (and named for the Ural Mountains in Russia), Thomas grew up in North Portland, in what had primarily been an African-American neighborhood until recent […]
A Good Problem To Have
Sunriver Brewing’s biggest problem is one that every business would like: They are growing faster than they expected. Ryan Duley, the marketing director for Sunriver Brewing, walks between rows of 15-keg capacity containers—eight on each side of the cavernous, cement-floor warehouse on the outskirts of Sunriver—and explains that a year ago the brewing company, which […]
Two Guys and a Bottling Company
Ask Levi & Strauss: It wasn’t necessarily the gold seekers who struck it rich, but the entrepreneurs providing ancillary services, like blue jeans, who made the really steady income. Of course, for the current craft-beer rush that analogy is a bit off, as breweries are making good money, but last September, longtime friends Jason Rickley […]
Sad News: former AG and UO president Dave Frohnmayer dies
I rarely exclaim out loud when I read an email, but I audible gasped when I read this note from House Republican Leader Mike McLane: โIt is with deep sadness that we learned today of the passing of Dave Frohnmayer. Daveโs vast contributions to the state of Oregon โ as a member of the Oregon House […]
Dutch Ovens, Sausage Making and Wild Beasts
Tiffany Haugen’s roots run deep in the Willamette Valley; five generations all told. Her grandfather, a former cattle rancher, is 102 years old and still lives near Springfield where almost all of the family members grew up. Haugen, a popular food columnist and cookbook author, explains that her grandparents knew each other growing up, and […]

