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.
The choice between drinking beer from a can versus drinking from a bottle has been a distinguishing feature in the beer debate for nearly a century, almost as a distinct indicator about taste and class as choosing to wear cut-off blue jean shorts or Brooks Brother slacks. But with gathering momentum, that attitude has shifted […]
In The Player, the wonderfully dark 1992 comedy about the movie business, an aspiring screenwriter takes to task Tim Robbins, who plays a fast-talking and stoic Hollywood producer. “You would probably even give The Bicycle Thief a happy ending,” the writer says, scolding Tim Robbins for the tenancy of Hollywood to turn even the most […]
The Medford City Council could not even wait until the ink dried on Oregon Senate Bill 1531, which allows cities and towns to enforce restrictive regulations on medical marijuana dispensaries. On Thursday evening, without even formally giving notice of its motion, the city council in Medford became the first to take such a motion when […]
Deschutes teams up with Lone Pine for a glass full of winBy Thom Pastor A downtown pub exclusive, Deschutes Brewery’s new collaboration with Lone Pine Coffee Roasters is a luxurious—and unfortunately limited—coffee stout, aptly named Brewers Alley Coffee Stout. Local roasters Lone Pine have a unique style and taste that set them apart from other […]
Until Tuesday evening, the race for Deschutes County District Attorney—potentially the most interesting and probably the most important current race for office—had been largely silent. Still eight months away, the challenger John Hummel, a former defense attorney who has been campaigning since October, has been trying to pull the incumbent Patrick Flaherty into the ring, […]
The Past is a French film populated by Ahmad, a mopey but kind Iranian man; his soon-to-be ex-wife, a smolderingly beautiful and tense French woman; her teenage kid from some off-screen lover and a second child from another man, her morose lover; and his curly haired troubled son. But even with that crowded house, the […]
To conclude The Grand Anderson—which really has just been foreplay for Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest (out on March 7)—the Source presents probably his most popular film, The Royal Tenenbaums . . .and yes, it is a costume party! And by “party” we mean “contest.” Winning outfit receives a day pass to Mt Bachelor. Losing […]
Long before the city became a mecca for some of the best and most creative chefs in the country, James Beard was born and raised in Portland. Born in 1903, he was raised during Portland’s first big population boom, when the Lewis & Clark Centennial Exposition attracted tens of thousands of new residents. He claimed […]
Jim Miller tosses around terms like “behavioral economics” and “corporate wellness rewards program” when what he means is: Get off your butt, get out of your cubicle and exercise! A successful entrepreneur, Miller recently relocated to Bend from Seattle—and brought with him his latest business, a surprisingly simple idea that is trying to nibble away […]
At a recent conference in New York, I sat on a panel with Chris Eyre. We were talking to a group of high school filmmakers. Eyre grew up in the Klamath Falls area and broke into the business with the runaway success of the first film he directed, Smoke Signals, widely heralded as the best […]
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