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Posted inCulture

Be a Doll: Christine Alvarado’s creations are hardly toys…and they aren’t always smiling

Artist and doll-maker Christine Alvarado lifts the lid of a sturdy box, then a layer of bubble wrap like she's gently peeling a blanket from
Source Weekly

Artist and doll-maker Christine Alvarado lifts the lid of a sturdy box, then a layer of bubble wrap like she's gently peeling a blanket from a sleeping child. Staring up is a delicate creature – Brighid, Bride to the Wind – dressed in a white paper gown with a veil of paper dragonflies surrounding her face. Brighid was inspired by an assignment of sorts, an online community challenge to illustrate the Four Elements through the creation of a doll.
Doll making is a long-lived tradition, with endless cultural connotations. For many artists and collectors dolls are a sophisticated form, more sculpture than toy. Alvarado, who has been developing her art and selling her dolls for the last two years, has taken the tradition and infused it with her own unique perspective. She has chronicled the process on her art blog, Du Buh Du

Posted inOpinion

The State School Board Flunks Out

Source Weekly

“If at first you don't succeed, lower your standards” makes a funny bumper sticker, but it's a rotten way to run a public education system.
For some years now, Oregon's public schools have not been a shining example of educational excellence. Early this month, 71 Oregon schools – a record for the state – were identified as “inadequate” according to the standards of the federal No Child Left Behind Act.
For the past 10 years, Oregon also has been issuing its own “report cards” on schools. When the 2008 report cards came out, many of them were the kind that, in the old days, would have meant a trip to the woodshed for the kid who brought it home. Two-thirds of the state's biggest high schools got grades of “satisfactory” or “low,” the equivalent of a C or D. A record number of 12 schools were graded “unacceptable.”

Posted inOpinion

Road Trippin’: Notes on America from the interstate highway system

The author has been sent on the road to discover a lost country formerly known as America. He is reporting from a town called “Little
Source Weekly

The author has been sent on the road to discover a lost country formerly known as America. He is reporting from a town called “Little Valley” (which is actually a little valley) in New York, totally sane, sober, and unfamiliar with rain after a lovely summer in Bend, on assignment for Or-Bust.com and The Source Weekly.
A New Bar for Bad Behavior
Phillip Garrido liked building in his backyard – storage sheds covered with camouflage and other extremities that his neighbors questioned. And authorities overlooked, despite the fact Garrido was a registered sex offender in Antioch, California, and visited on several occasions by police and parole agents. Oops! He was hiding and raping Jaycee Dugard on-site for 18 years, since kidnapping her at the age of 11 and fathering two children with the now-29-year-old woman. Authorities are presently digging in that same backyard for the remains of several unsolved murders and missing persons. Let's hope they have better luck and look a little harder this time.

Posted inCulture

A Different Kind of Art Festival: Art in the High Desert puts the artists in charge of the show

There is an obvious difference between the Ringling Brothers and Cirque Du Soleil, not that both don't have their place, audience, and fascinations. Bend's festival
Source Weekly

There is an obvious difference between the Ringling Brothers and Cirque Du Soleil, not that both don't have their place, audience, and fascinations. Bend's festival season seems to cover a similar spectrum, and while the community may have gotten used to the consistent presence of artisan carnies in town, the Art in the High Desert festival is channeling Cirque. This week, one hundred or so white tents will be stationed beside the river across from the Old Mill, pedaling unique art and high craft work ranging from complex jewelry, quirky found-object sculptures, luminous photography, and brightly glazed ceramics. The participating artists were selected through a unique jury process, with considerations made toward the creativity of the work, as well as the craftsmanship and vision of the pieces; requiring the level of artistry to be passionate, dedicated, and graceful.

Posted inCulture

In Der Fuehrer's Face: Tarantino goes great guns in Basterds

After all the rampant previews clogging up my TV, Quentin Tarantino's newest epic Inglourious Basterds arrived with a $37.6 million box office debut. This movie
Source Weekly

After all the rampant previews clogging up my TV, Quentin Tarantino's newest epic Inglourious Basterds arrived with a $37.6 million box office debut. This movie is way better than I expected. Even with all its messed up parts and incongruous plot-holes there is some redeeming beauty. Basterds is a cinephile's dream with obvious references to all movies great and small. Although clearly influenced by The Dirty Dozen, any Spaghetti Western and Pekinpah's Cross of Iron, Tarantino seems heavily anchored in his director chair rather than lifting from other movies (including his own). Still he adds super hero writing and chapters as a signature style but the cohesiveness enables three remarkable stories to intertwine.

Posted inCulture

It's Hip To Be Square: Humpday takes bro-mance to another level

When will cinema stop being obsessed by sex? Sex scenes these days are so predictably present, and so predictable, they may as well start slotting
Source Weekly

When will cinema stop being obsessed by sex? Sex scenes these days are so predictably present, and so predictable, they may as well start slotting in audience toilet breaks – just to keep it real. Do filmmakers still collectively think we have no clue what happens when naked people rub up against each other? On-screen relationships were much more interesting when actors had to keep one foot on the bedroom floor.
Humpday is a film obsessed by sex like a toddler is obsessed with presenting what they've done in their potty. To its credit, Humpday came out of the Sundance Film Festival, and hardly any DV-made, Sundance films actually make it to theatres. Film critics tend to believe people will see Transformers despite the reviews, but a small, independent film can be helped greatly by a good quote for the posters. Sad to say no such quote will be provided in these prudish paragraphs.

Posted inFood & Drink

Bested Again

The beloved “Best Of” issue – everyone in the restaurant industry awaits it with an appetite. The rumors fly, the questions gnaw; who is going
Source Weekly

The beloved “Best Of” issue – everyone in the restaurant industry awaits it with an appetite. The rumors fly, the questions gnaw; who is going to get what this year? And then for one week, a year's worth of dedication and voters' fickleness is presented in grandeur, and it's the talk of the town for days until something more interesting comes into play – like whether we'll dredge Mirror Pond or if they'll ever finish resurfacing the parkway.
But should someone needed to know who the second best bartender in Bend is, well that's when I would blow off my fingernails, polish them on my shoulder, and proudly proclaim that I was the person they were seeking. Because, you might not know this, but for the life of me I cannot win that category. Cocktail show, cocktail classes, cocktail column, Las Vegas cocktail contest, radio promo, none of this is enough in today's highly competitive popularity contest.

Posted inNews

Cow-free at last: A landmark agreement preserves an Oregon gem

Deep in the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument of southern Oregon lies my favorite wildflower meadow. This summer I need to step carefully, to avoid the lush
Source Weekly

Deep in the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument of southern Oregon lies my favorite wildflower meadow. This summer I need to step carefully, to avoid the lush clumps of Jacob's Ladder blossoms and the delicate columbines, their blooms nodding in the breeze. I breathe in the scents of the wild: the spice of the conifers, the earthy aroma of the wet meadow itself.
And today, for the first time in all my visits, the breeze carries no whiff of cow. Today, the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument is virtually cow-free.

Posted inOpinion

Ponderosa's Sudden Eco-Resort Conversion

When you give a three-year-old a present and he angrily stamps his feet and says he doesn't want it, then changes his mind five minutes
Source Weekly

When you give a three-year-old a present and he angrily stamps his feet and says he doesn't want it, then changes his mind five minutes later and demands the gift, it's predictable. But you expect somewhat different behavior from a group of grown-up businessmen.
To fill in the back story: During last winter and spring's legislative debate over a bill to protect the Metolius Basin from destination resort development, legislators offered a sort of “consolation prize” to the two would-be resort developers, Ponderosa Land & Cattle Co. and Dutch Pacific Resources.
Ponderosa, which wanted to build a vast resort including a golf course, was

Posted inCulture

Block and Tackle: Latest Madden is a welcome change of pace

Q: So, Madden, I've got to say that I feel like I've really gotten to know you. You've been around for most of my gaming
Source Weekly

Q: So, Madden, I've got to say that I feel like I've really gotten to know you. You've been around for most of my gaming life. You're a 21-year-old franchise now. Does that mean you're graduating from keggers to legal liquor? Or is Madden 10 just a $60 beer-run to update the team rosters?
A: Football hasn't really changed in the last 21 years, except in the roster. So it's important to have a realistic football game using real-world players. And I think this year that's apparent in more than just statistics. For example, big guys are now actually bigger. They've got bigger heads, more weight. Now when Hefty Mendoza tackles Bucky Underslung – or whatever their names are – it actually looks like a big guy wiping out a little guy.

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