Culture
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Blown Away: New racer Split/Second lets you level the competition

Every year, some trend in videogaming comes from behind and delivers an outstanding streak of games.
Source Weekly

Every year, some trend in videogaming comes from behind and delivers an outstanding streak of games. In 2009 there was an abundance of beautiful fighting games: Street Fighter IV for arcade fans, Fight Night Round 4 for sports lovers, DISSIDIA Final Fantasy for franchise fighting, and the decent Tekken 6 at the end of the year. The year before that was all about outstanding PSP games. Now 2010 is turning out to be the year of outstanding racing games.
Every system has its own solid racing title. The Wii has the venerable Mario Kart Wii, but the PS3 is catching up with this year's excellent kart fantasia ModNation Racers. 2010 has also given the PS3 and 360 MotoGP 09/10 for serious bike racing simulation. Split/Second joins the group as an arcade-paced racing game with an abundance of combat and explosions. Crashing airplanes, capsizing ships – the stuff of Roland Emmerich and Michael Bay movies as seen from the inside of a racecar in less than five minutes.

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Get Out of My Brain, Mother!!

As a father of at least a couple dozen out-of-wedlock kids, I believe I can speak with some authority on the subject of child rearing. Tip #1: Don’t call it “child rearing.” It’s disgusting.
Source Weekly

As a father of at least a couple dozen out-of-wedlock kids, I believe I can speak with some authority on the subject of child rearing. Tip #1: Don't call it “child rearing.” It's disgusting. Tip #2: Children are much like amoebas in the brain department, and therefore only require two things: the right to (a) stay up all night and (b) eat as much candy as possible. Offer them a Zagnut bar or an hour less of sleep, and you can get them to wash your car for a year. Tip #3: Kids will believe everything you tell them. For example, my mother told me that when I was a baby, she implanted a microphone in my brain, which would let her know what I was thinking every minute of the day. This totally psyched me out, and even though I was pretty sure “brain microphones” were a scientific impossibility, it worked like a charm. My efforts at mischief became clumsy and insecure. For example, when I'd try to steal candy from the cupboard, I'd invariably make enough noise to alert my mom, who would hop out from around the corner yelling, “AH-HAH! Your brain microphone told me you'd be doing that!!”

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Our Picks for 7/14 – 7/22: Steve Miller Band, Tour Des Chutes, Halestorm and more!

Source Weekly

The Poison Control Center
thursday 15
There's a hell of a lot going on Thursday night (White Buffalo at the Silver Moon and The Aggrolites at the Domino Room, just to name a few), but there's another show worth checking out down on the south end of town and it involves Poison Control Center, an Iowa-based power-pop act. They're instantly quirky with great Built to Spill-like hooks and a crazy live show. 8pm. Mountain's Edge Bar, 61131 S. Hwy 97.

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All About Bend! 50 things this Phoenix resident learned about Bend by being here for 67 hours

50 things this Phoenix resident learned about Bend by being here for 67 hours.
Source Weekly

1.Before arriving in Bend, my knowledge of Oregon consisted of Pac-10 athletics and the Oregon Trail computer game I was mandated to play in fifth grade.
2. At no point is one presented the option of fording a river when traveling to Bend.
3. The Redmond Airport requires passengers to walk on the tarmac.
4. When ordering a beer, customers must provide an ID, and then list the basic ingredients of an IPA.
5. Bend is half the temperature of Phoenix, which is my hometown.
6. Oregon has trees.
7. Bend looks much like Flagstaff. I confirmed this conclusion with a Flagstaff native living in Bend.
8. Operating a phone and a motor vehicle is not a good idea in Oregon. In fact, it can land you in a world of hurt.
9. I am an amateur gas pumper and therefore unqualified to fill a tank of gas in the state of Oregon.

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On a Bender: The elements go haywire in The Last Airbender

Director M.
Morgan P Salvo

Director M. Night Shyamalan became a Hollywood success with the hauntingly supernatural Sixth Sense in 1999 before stumbling badly with critical disappointments like The Village and The Happening, and now The Last Airbender, which again veers far from his earlier success. It doesn't help that he's hamstrung himself with the subject matter; this family-friendly adventure flick is based on a successful Nickelodeon animated TV series.
The story kicks into gear when the Fire Nation launches a brutal war, leaving Aang (Noah Ringer) caught between combat and courage. He soon discovers that he's the lone Avatar (not the blue, James Cameron kind of Avatar, though) with the power to manipulate all four elements. He teams up with brother and sister (Jackson Rathbone and Nicola Peltz) and a flying behemoth that looks like a big sheep to restore balance to their war-torn world.

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Let's Talk Twilight… I Mean, Television!

For reasons unknown, I’m often accused of using this television column to talk about anything except television.
Source Weekly

For reasons unknown, I'm often accused of using this television column to talk about anything except television. First of all, the name of this column is “I Love Television™” not “I Write About Television™” (although that's an awesome name for a television column, isn't it?). Secondly, there are other things in this world besides television, guys! Say for example, the Twilight series. Have you seen Eclipse yet? Aren't Jacob's abs AH-MAY-ZING? Isn't Edward a pasty-face fop? And isn't Bella the stupidest person in the world? Seriously, she spends the entire movie whining, “Edward! Change me into a vampire! Change me into a vampire!” Why should he? So she can nag the shit out of him for the rest of eternity? Bella would be, like, the worst vampire in the history of vampires – and yes, I'm including Count Chocula! At least he likes chocolate! Bella is stupid, doesn't like chocolate, and the only thing she sucks is a person's will to live.

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Our Picks for 7/6 – 7/15: Pacific Northwest Polo Invitational, The Rob Show, The Aggrolites, Bend Summer Fest and more

Pinback Presents: The Rob Showthursday 8You probably are wondering why the name of this show has changed over the past week.
Source Weekly

Pinback Presents: The Rob Show
thursday 8
You probably are wondering why the name of this show has changed over the past week. Well, here's what happened: This was supposed to be a show featuring the two Pinback collaborators, Rob Crow and Zach Smith, who were going to play the band's songs with programmed tracks behind them.

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To Love and Be Loved in Return: Twilight’s Eclipse proves to be the best of the series

The Twilight Saga hits its stride with Eclipse.
Anne Pick

Hundreds of pre-teen and teenage girls, moms, a few boyfriends (who were dragged kicking and screaming, no doubt) and a plethora of twenty-something's who know better than to love Twilight, but do anyway, stood in line outside of Old Mill 16 on Tuesday night for the midnight premier of The Twilight Sage: Eclipse. The weather gods decided to give us a taste of what Bella goes through while camping in the film with a chill. Not to that extreme, of course, but it is officially summer and I'm pretty sure it was warmer during the November 2009 debut of New Moon. But whatever, it was worth the wait and besides, as the Source Weekly's senior Twilight correspondent, it was my duty to be there.

Posted inCulture

King For A Day: Despite lack of access, author gets the dirt on DreamWorks rise and fall

DreamWorks was monstrous, misfit, and idealistic.
Source Weekly

DreamWorks was monstrous, misfit, and idealistic. The upstart studio was the progeny of three industry giants: director Steven Spielberg; record company mogul and billionaire David Geffen; and Disney animation head Jeffrey Katzenberg, the driving force behind the idea to make a new studio from scratch.
DreamWorks began building on a lofty foundation. At the Oct. 12, 1994 press conference announcing the partnership, Spielberg said, “Together with Jeffrey and David, I want to create a place driven by ideas and the people who have them.'' The studio was to champion works based on merit, not commercialism. Like the founding of United Artists in 1919 by Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin, and D.W. Griffith, it was to be an artistic haven amid Tinseltown's money-grubbing rabble. It was to be different.

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Back to the Old Days: The Wheeler County Bluegrass Festival provides a slice of small-town charm for the Fourth of July

A few minutes past noon, the parade takes shape down by the courthouse.
Bob Woodward

A few minutes past noon, the parade takes shape down by the courthouse. Vintage cars line up behind a group of 4-H kids, the county princess arrives on horseback in full cowgirl regalia, war veterans mount a flatbed trailer attached to a tractor and an artfully restored pioneer-era stagecoach is pulled into place.
Once organized, the parade starts its eight-block circuit of the heart of Fossil (population 469 and named for its paleontologic riches) in celebration of America's independence as well as marking the mid-way point in the annual Wheeler County Bluegrass Festival.

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