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.
By Phil Busse WebCyclery is an anomaly. It began in 1997, during the nascent days of online shopping. Amazon was only four years old and other (no longer existent) companies like 800.com were booming with the then-novel idea that everything could be sold online—even something as fitted and individualized as shoes or bikes or skis. […]
The entry in Wikipedia for the sport of “log rolling” or, its more popular name, “roleo” is barely more than 10 lines long. It provides a few rules and the most drab information about a sport once popular in mill towns throughout the Northwest and upper Midwest. But largely, the entry—and, for that matter, most […]
By Phil Busse From role and pretend play, to constructive and scientific play, toys for the younger set are going back to the basics—what Baby Phases-Tot2Teen (759 NE Greenwood Ave) owner Molly Ryan simply calls, “Back to nostalgia.” “It really has to do with imaginative play, and going back to the building blocks,” she says. […]
Although backcountry skiing is a common enough activity in Central Oregon, until Shane Fox and a couple of his buddies—”ski bums who build stuff,” he explains—started Three Sisters Backcountry, the idea of more formalized and semi-permanent structures in the backcountry was a novel concept here. Moreover, even though dozens of skiers have trekked out into […]
wednesday 19 Powderhound preview MORE SKI MOVIES—The locally sourced ski movie collection hosted by the local ski shop, Pine Mountain Sports, features your friends and neighbors skiing and soaring and slicing through powder snow. There’s also a raffle for ski equipment that benefits the Central Oregon Trail Alliance and Deschutes County Search and Rescue. 7 […]
Last year was a tough one for skiers—and even worse for ski resorts that simply don’t have the luxury of chasing snow. (Um, duh, they are mountains and sort of rooted where they are.). Hoodoo, one of Oregon’s first ski resorts, was hit as hard as anyone. But, Hoodoo Ski Area has a history of […]
Brad Chalfant moved to Central Oregon for the same reasons many young, outdoor enthusiasts do—to be a ski bum. And, for the past two decades, he has been trying to preserve the natural charms that first attracted him here—not to mention, actually expanding the number and acreage of such areas. When Chalfant first moved to […]
The cold weather may mean icy roads, but it also means that ice skating rinks have opened around the region. And there are plenty of options whether you plan to Apolo Ohno the skating rink (i.e. speed laps) or Kristi Yamaguchi (i.e. triple Salchow). Nope, not yet the bond-sponsored Bend Park and Rec ice rink […]
There are many forms of jazz, from gritty subterranean bebop to boisterous New Orleans parade music—and over the past few years, Jazz at the Oxford has done a remarkable job presenting a wide variety. Which is good: Unlike perhaps any other form of music, jazz relies on clubs to present its musicians—at famed clubs, like […]
Marcos Rodriguez already has a small chain of popular Mexican-Peruvian restaurants (Hola!), but last month he opened up a small diner along Third Street, something on par with a popular musician taking on a side project that allows him a bit more authenticity and a bit more latitude to move away from mainstream expectations. Sure, […]
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