Culture Features

There are no elephants or other exotic species. There’s no lobster boy or bearded lady sideshow.
In fact there isn’t even a trademark big top tent at the Bend Circus Center, which is located in a non descript metal fab  building on Bend’s southeast side.
That’s all right with founder Brandon Huston who modeled his upstart circus academy on the modern European circus acts like Vegas veterans Cirque de Soleil. While there may not be a caged lion in the wings, Huston with his curled moustache is the clear ring master here at what he hopes will be an academy of sorts for circus arts like juggling, tight rope walking and even trapeze work.

Human anatomy printed on vintage dictionary pages. Cast iron horses jockeyed by real beetles. Earrings made of artificial teeth. The online wonder of Etsy is clearly not for the aesthetic conservative.
It is, however, the first place to go to quickly find something specific, like a birdhouse made from wine corks and stones collected from local vineyards and rivers.
Shoppers torn between the efficiency of online shopping and keeping dollars close to home are now turning to this virtual bazaar showcasing $61.9 million in handmade and vintage treasures, more and more since its inception in June 2012.

It’s the classic entrepreneur’s dilemma – how to turn a passion into profits. It’s a question that many homebrewers are apparently pondering. For industrious home brewers wanting to test the waters of production with an investment in the $5K – $25K range instead of the minimal $50K involved in starting a larger brewery, nano brewing provides a market test without losing ones’ proverbial shorts.
According to “The Great Nanobrewery List: From CA to MA,” from Hess Brewing in San Diego, there are 84 U.S. nano breweries in operation and an additional 51 still in the planning stages. Founder Mike Hess counts an average of two new nano breweries a week contacting him.

“There’s no pride in being a ukulele musician—you have to leave your ego at the door,” said Bob Rasmussen, founder of the Bend Ukulele Group.
And every Tuesday at the Broken Top Bottle Shop, a room full of passionate uke-heads do just that, cradling their tiny four strings to their chests, watching each other for cues and reading music from a preassembled playlist of songs that range from traditional Hawaiian ditties to Beatles’ jams.

Between the smell of freshly baked cupcakes from Ida’s and the salty bacon scent from Crazy Delicious, there aren’t too many streets in Bend that will tempt your palate or your wallet more than Galveston Avenue.
Last Friday was no exception, as the street hosted the first Galveston Street Project, an event that business owners hope will be a monthly celebration of the evolution of the street into one of Bend’s hippest locales.
Hoots and hollers could be heard as the Peddle Pub struggled up the slight hill, followed by a crew of bikers who waved jovially as they rode past the patio of 10 Barrel.