When Christie Glennon started selling real estate about a decade ago in Central Oregon, the market was hot—second homes were leaving the shelves at a head-spinning pace, and for her first couple years, she worked as a licensed agent for Wyndham Worldwide in vacation property ownership. But when the housing bubble burst, roughly halving the […]
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.
Posted inBest Of Central Oregon
Best Band
Corner Gospel Explosion
The sound is familiar, yet entirely new: For the past three years, Wilderness has been at the forefront of Bend’s local music scene with an alt-country noise-pop that wildly merges slamming drumbeats and soaring guitar riffs. But in January, drummer Bradley David Parsons stepped forward, along with Wilderness bass player Nick Graham and his brother […]
Posted inFood & Drink
Want Some Barbecue With Your Drink?
A tale of two breweries and two food trucks
A year ago, the food cart Broken Top BBQ settled into its spot along NW Colorado, in the parking lot adjacent to Mountain Supply—just an easy three-block stroll from our offices. It was like Christmas in summertime: fall-off-the bone ribs, slow-roasted pork brisket, spicy barbecue chicken sandwiches. Owner T.J. McNabb had recently relocated from Portland, […]
Posted inCulture
Art Watch 8/5-8/12
For the past five years, local photographer Gary Calicott has been capturing the candid and expressive emotions at local music shows. He has collected hundreds of images of favorite bands like Larry & His Flask and, on Friday, many of those photos will be displayed at The Tower Theatre—and (silently) auctioned off; all, appropriately, to […]
Posted inMusic
In Spite Of, or Because Of
Ziggy Marley makes his own name—and own music
It’s hard to explain Ziggy Marley without talking about his dad, the prototypical reggae singer whose name is so recognizable that the (excellent) documentary about his life three years ago needed only his last name as a title. Bob Marley’s image is so iconic, with dreadlocks slicing through the air, it can easily be caught […]
Posted inCulture
Burning Books
Forest fire adventures sizzle in Smokejumpers
In Julian Smith’s first book, Crossing The Heart of Africa, published in 2009, he (literally) followed the footsteps of Ewart Grogan, a distinguished Englishman and late 19th century adventurer who bushwacked 4,500 miles from Sudan to South Africa. And, in his most recent book, Smokejumper, released in mid-July, Smith shadows another, more contemporary adventurer, Jason […]
Posted inOutside
Run, Slap, Run
Cascade Lakes Relay: The most funnest run in Oregon
Seven years ago, Carrie and Scott Douglass ran the Golden Gate Relay together, one of the burgeoning number of approximately 200-mile running races that split up the chore among a dozen or so runners. Since then, they also have run the Bourbon Chase and Reno-Tahoe Odyssey Relay, and these events have become not just a […]
Posted inOutside
The Newest Water Sport: Flyboarding!
Hoverboards are so two years ago, McFly!
As October 21, 2015 approaches—the exact date Marty McFly programmed into Doc Brown’s time traveling DeLorean in Back To the Future II—there has been a certain buzz about what has and hasn’t come to fruition in the perceived future, and a certain amount of bellyaching that the hoverboard promised in that movie has yet to […]
Posted inNews
Chance Meeting Builds a Bridge To Kenya
Local nonprofit adopts an orphanage
Arriving in Oregon from Kenya—his first time in America—just three days before our interview in early July, Jackson Mwanzia looks like any other tourist in Bend. He is sitting at Jackson’s Corner, drinking tea, wearing a light baseball hat; rectangular eyeglasses rest on his broad nose. “I am from Kenya,” he announces, standing up to […]
Posted inOutside
What’s Making the Bend Elks So Hot?
With the best record in the league, hometown team wraps up its regular season
As the season moves into its final stretch, with only two weeks remaining before the playoffs, the Bend Elks have already clinched the division title, with nine fewer losses than the second place team, division rivals Corvallis Knights. In fact, the team is so strong this year that they have nearly as many wins as […]
