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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.

pwbusse@yahoo.com
Posted inOutside

Newberry Volcano Turns 400,000 Years Old

And celebrates its 25th year as a National Monument
Avatar photo Phil Busse

The early 1990s were not the friendliest time for environmental causes. President George H.W. Bush was in office, and when talk turned to the environment, conservation was generally pitted against economic interests, with battle lines like Pacific Northwest forests—and the Spotted Owl—as a flash point for heated battles over which interest deserved more favor. Within […]

Posted inFood & Drink

Food Like Never Before

Bite Week offers extraordinary dining
Avatar photo Phil Busse

As part of Bite of Bend’s Bite Week, three different chefs will present special dinners. But really, these are more than simply a dinner; each meal is a mini-seminar on exotic and local foods, a journey (for one of the dinners, literally, out past Smith Rock!) and a you-had-to-be-there meal. Wild Rose‘s executive chef and […]

Posted inNews

Serving Justice

Six months into his first term, District Attorney John Hummel talks crime and punishment
Avatar photo Phil Busse

Deschutes County District Attorney John Hummel chatted with the Source about his term so far, and his community-based safety and justice initiatives. SW: In your first six months in office, what has surprised you the most? JH: I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the interest of grand jurors in crime prevention. At the conclusion of their […]

Posted inMusic

Bowie By Any Other Name

David Brighton tries to keep pace with a shapeshifter
Avatar photo Phil Busse

The paradox about being a David Bowie impersonator is that David Bowie himself is an elusive entity, constantly staying one step ahead of trends and transforming faster than the blink of an eye, famously killing off personalities like Ziggy Stardust only to pop up as another completely different incarnation. It is tough to mimic that […]

Posted inMusic

I Still Like To Hear That Funky Dixieland

The Doobie Brothers bring their bongs and boogie music to town
Avatar photo Phil Busse

In so many ways, the Doobie Brothers tell a Joan Didion history of California’s pop culture of the 1970s—and beyond. As the 1960s crashed to a close with doomed shows like Altamont—where self-appointed Hells Angels bodyguards stabbed to death a concert goer—the Doobie Brothers began to pull together their own band, with funky and catchy […]

Posted inSpecial Issues & Guides

Sudzing Up Summer

Beer events ffiill up the calendar
Avatar photo Phil Busse

Only a decade ago, the concept of a beer festival was little more than a plastic cup and a few taps. But, like the microbrew industry itself, the beer festival has matured. Still fun and still an opportunity to sample, these festivals have become increasingly sophisticated, with events like the Little Woody emphasizing the brewing […]

Posted inSpecial Issues & Guides

All the Summer is a Stage

Film and stage events to keep summer cool
Avatar photo Phil Busse

The idea of the drive-in movie theater is an icon intertwined with the nostalgia of the 1950s. By 1954, there were some 4,000 drive-ins in America, which accounted for roughly one-quarter of all movie theaters in the country. But throughout the ’80s and ’90s, many of those drive-in theaters closed, in no small part due […]

Posted inOutside

Call of the Wild Gives a Pep Talk

Emilie Cortes delivers OSU-Cascades’ commencement speech about risk and fear
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Emilie Cortes delivers OSU-Cascades’ commencement speech about risk and fear Emilie Cortes is a bundle of energy. She wasn’t meant for a desk job, yet she spent 17 years as a financial analyst before ditching her job in San Francisco to move to Bend and take the helm at Call of the Wild, a company […]

Posted inCulture

Summertime, and the Box Office is Humming

A few summer film standouts
Avatar photo Phil Busse

This summer is an odd mix of reprisals—Poltergeist, Vacation (really?), and Jurassic Park—as well as the normal dose of superhero films—Fantastic Four (messing it up once wasn’t enough?), Ant-man—but it also has a surprising helping of high quality documentaries. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (June 12): The likely contender for summer favorite breakout […]

Posted inNews

2015 Sisters Folk Festival Lineup: PRESS RELEASE

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Press Release 2015 Sisters Folk Festival Lineup Announced Sisters, OR ~ The Sisters Folk Festival announces the artist lineup for the annual Festival, September 11-13, 2015. This is the 20th anniversary celebration of the region’s most well-respected acoustic music festival. Produced in beautiful Sisters, Oregon, where “All the Town’s a Stage,” Festival passes are $120 […]

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