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Posted inOpinion

The Official 9/11 Lie

Letter to the editor.
Source Weekly

Young parents are wowed by their children's abilities on the computer. Older parents are agog at their teenagers' facility with the cell phones, iPods, remote control devices and other gadgetry. Americans are enthralled with new technology.
Is ability to use technological gadgets an indicator of a person's overall intelligence? Ironically, at the same time that we have more and more technology at our fingertips, our knowledge of science appears to be on the wane.

Posted inOpinion

City Wasted Its Surplus

Letter to the editor.
Source Weekly

It comes as no surprise to me that Bend's real estate taxes have gone up, even in these extremely difficult times. Deschutes County has the highest foreclosure rate in Oregon. Many homes that can't be sold are sitting vacant with untended yards, causing an even bigger decline in neighborhood property values. A very large number of commercial buildings are also vacant. Judging by the signs in front of these properties, their owners are desperate for someone to take these properties off their hands. It's obvious that Bend is dying on the vine, which makes it a lot less attractive to potential buyers, resulting in less sales and even bigger decreases in property values. What is our local government doing to help Bend get back on its feet? Why, raise taxes of course!

Posted inCulture

True Lies: The Men Who Stare at Goats succeeds at silliness, but fails at journalism

The Men Who Stare at Goats succeeds at silliness, but fails at journalism.
Source Weekly

“More of this story is true than you would believe,” reads the caption at the beginning of The Men Who Stare at Goats, but let's be real: No one involved in this movie goes out of their way to give it the sting of veracity. If a movie can be said to have an attitude, this one would involve a shake of the head, accompanied by a hearty, “Ain't this some crazy shit?”
Director Grand Heslov and screenwriter Peter Straughan are adapting a non-fiction book by journalist Jon Ronson, it's true, and in that book Ronson explores several stranger-than-fiction characters and government operations. For the screen, Ronson has been turned into Michigan reporter Bob Wilton (Ewan McGregor), who finds himself emotionally distraught after his wife leaves him in 2003 for his editor, who happens to have a prosthetic arm. You'd be forgiven if you wondered whether this is the part of the story that isn't true (which it happens to be). And then you'd be wondering how you're supposed to know the difference.

Posted inCulture

Guns A Blazin': Borderlands delivers an endless array of firepower in a post apocalyptic shooting gallery

Borderlands delivers an endless array of firepower in a post apocalyptic shooting gallery.
Source Weekly

They say the clothes make the man. But on planet Pandora I think it's the guns that make the man. And the woman too. After all, it doesn't matter what gender you are or what you wear when midget psychos begin spewing out of a corrugated-tin shack like demented clowns tumbling from a nightmare car. As the little axe-waving maniacs come giggling, the only thing that matters is having the right gun.
Borderlands describes itself as an RPS – a role-playing shooter, combining a role-playing game with a first-person shooter. The result is a game in which guns define players more than any other statistics. Normally in a shooter, anyone who picks up a shotgun is potentially the equal of anyone else who has picked up the same type of shotgun. But Borderlands randomly generates hundreds of thousands of weapons, each with unique statistics, and scatters them through Pandora's post-apocalyptic landscape.

Posted inFood & Drink

We Got Spirit: Diego's adds evidence of a downtown Redmond revival

Diego's adds evidence of a downtown Redmond revival.
Source Weekly

There are two things that bring my husband and I into Bend regularly: walking and eating. Lately we've been searching out alternatives closer to home. As far as walking goes, our favorite trail within a 10-mile radius is along the Deschutes River at Eagle Crest or, if we decide to put up with the extra company, the Dry Canyon Trail.
Eating out in Redmond has proven more challenging. In fact, unless we grab our favorite Chinese take-out, we never seek out chow in this hometown of ours. I've avoided downtown Redmond for so long I didn't realize how far along its new facelift has come, transforming a small town frontage into an inviting area to shop, grab a coffee, or go out to eat.

Posted inFood & Drink

We Got Spirit: Diego's adds evidence of a downtown Redmond revival

Diego's adds evidence of a downtown Redmond revival.
Source Weekly

There are two things that bring my husband and I into Bend regularly: walking and eating. Lately we've been searching out alternatives closer to home. As far as walking goes, our favorite trail within a 10-mile radius is along the Deschutes River at Eagle Crest or, if we decide to put up with the extra company, the Dry Canyon Trail.
Eating out in Redmond has proven more challenging. In fact, unless we grab our favorite Chinese take-out, we never seek out chow in this hometown of ours. I've avoided downtown Redmond for so long I didn't realize how far along its new facelift has come, transforming a small town frontage into an inviting area to shop, grab a coffee, or go out to eat.

Posted inMusic

Recordings you may have missed but need to hear

Galaxie 500's debut, Today, is the sum of an odd confluence of events that conspired to make a genius record.
Source Weekly

Galaxie 500
Today
Released 1988

Galaxie 500's debut, Today, is the sum of an odd confluence of events that conspired to make a genius record. The Boston trio of school friends formed in 1986 with Naomi Yang (who was just learning the bass) and a sound that was atypical relative to the scene at the time. But with the guidance of famed underground rock producer Kramer, Today was released as a solid marker that the band had arrived.

Posted inCulture

wRite: Grape Popsicle

Source Weekly

This is Eskimo Nell's story. I barely know her. We met at a gem and mineral show in the Little America hotel in Flagstaff, Arizona at least fifteen years ago. I have not seen her since then.
I bought a raw opal from her. She gave me two more for free – a brown opal and a sun fire. She had dug them from her little claim in Australia.
The brown opal was the size of the nail on my fourth finger. It was a tiny puddle of glint, green and pale blue against the rough brown of its matrix.
The sun fire opal was a rough blue cylinder no bigger than the first joint of my little finger. The surface was matte. She had chipped off a sliver so the gleaming interior was visible. “Put it in water,” she said, “and set it in a window in natural light. That way you'll see the fire.”

Posted inCulture

The Imprint of Adam Haynes: From beer labels to landscapes, the local artist has an eye on the fringe

From beer labels to landscapes, the local artist has an eye on the fringe.
Source Weekly

Have you sipped a Deschutes Brewery Hop Trip recently?
If you have, you probably took a gaze at the bottle or tap label, and maybe without knowing it, experienced the work of Adam Haynes. Working as both a commercial and fine artist, the Bend-based illustrator's art can be seen on several lines of Deschutes brews and up on the mountain as the artwork for Gnu Snowboards. His intricate drawings of extreme riders that place the viewer in the snowboarder's boots, or on a bike at the top of a gnarly landscape, were the basis for the Nike 6.0 campaign, used on billboards and bus stops nationwide.

Posted inCulture

Our Picks for 11/4 – 11/12: The Nature of Words, Swollen Members, First Friday, Jim Witty Book Release Party and more

Our Picks for the week of 11/4 – 11/12, 2009.
Source Weekly

The Nature of Words
wednesday-sunday 4-8
It's time again for Central Oregon's biggest literary celebration and this year the festival has brought in some high-powered wordsmiths for readings, book signings, workshops and more. The lineup includes Sherman Alexie, Matthew Dickman, Charles Goodrich, Seth Katner, Karen Karbo, Jane Kirkpatrick, Valzhyna Mort and Kim Stafford. For a complete schedule of events, visit www.thenatureofwords.org.
Sherman Alexie Unplugged
friday 6
This year's Nature of Words features an appearance by this National Book Award Winner (for Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian) in an open forum where he'll read, answer questions and probably just run that hilarious mouth of his. Alexie's presentations are entertaining and sometimes delightfully profane – but in a good way. Ask him about the Seattle Supersonics if you really want to get him going. $45. 9am-11am Friday, Nov 6. Pinckney Center at COCC, 2600 NW College Way.

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