Culture
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Our Picks for the Week of 3/25 – 4/2

The Source Staff

Freestyle Fiasco 9

friday 27
Benevolent local musical guru MC
Mystic is joined by DJ Wicked to host the ninth installment of this
all-out lyrical battle. There should be an explosion of rhymes blasting
from the mouths of our talented local rhymesters, all of it coming
right off the top of their domes. All ages, beer garden for 21+. $5.
Domino Room, 51 NW Greenwood Ave.
C.P.C.
friday 27
This
band very well might be Bend's best-kept secret. Although they fly
largely under the radar, C.P.C. (Concave Perception Chamber) provides
one of the craziest sonic presentations to be found here in town. Often
psychedelic but always wound around a skillful core, CPC blasts out
everything from prog rock to mathematically precise instrumentals.
Players Bar & Grill 25 SW Century Dr.

Posted inCulture

Climbing for a Cause: Jonathan Fessler heads to Nepal, camera in hand

The Source Staff

Heading for the peak…Last Friday afternoon, Jonathan Fessler was working busily to finish up
some editing work on local television commercials. But in a little more
than two weeks later, Fessler will be in Kathmandu, Nepal and prepping
for a climb of a 20,000-foot peak. It's a quick change, to say the
least, and not just in elevation.
Fessler, 26, a Bend-based filmmaker
who had been working for KTVZ and also shot and edited the recent
locally made short film "Age, Sex, Location," is part of a team headed
to Nepal for a project tentatively titled "Climbing for Heathcare."
Fessler is the producer and director of a documentary headed up by Les Zollbrecht and the
Mountain Leadership Institute, following six men traveling to Nepal to
raise awareness about the need for healthcare in an area where
residents must endure a nine-hour walk in order to receive care at a
hospital.

Posted inCulture

Take a Right: Relying on brute force Revenge-spree remake lacks substance

Mike Bookey

YOU WAVIN' TO ME?From the remnants of what was one of the most offensive, sadistic and
warped revenge flicks of the '70s, the grimy remake of The Last House
on the Left limps into theatres. The 2009 version gives us a gruesome
yet watered-down film, rendering it completely unoriginal in every way.

Wes Craven directed the 1972 original with a creepy, seedy home movie
effect that made us wonder if all the horrid things happening were
actually real. Craven (credited as producer here) based his tale on
Ingmar Bergman's Virgin Spring, using the slow-moving psychological
dilemma to opposite extremes putting all the stomach-churning cards on
the table. The result was one of the top drive-in classics: not only
did you gasp in disbelief at the extent of the sadistic rape and
murder; you shuddered at the vile techniques of revenge.

Posted inCulture

Art This is Not: Sketch comedy troupe proves YouTube is not meant for the big screen

Mike Bookey

DUDE, WHERE'S MY CAR? OH RIGHT…When you fork over nine bucks for Miss March, you're signing up for
graphic viewings of explosive diarrhea, deformed male genitalia,
animals pissing into champagne glasses, abuse of coma patients, jokes
about epilepsy, jokes about epilepsy combined with fellatio, racist
stereotypes, and about two dozen more isolated attempts at eliciting
cheap laughs from … someone?

To paraphrase Winston Churchill: Never
have so few punch lines been owed to so many setups. If you spend too
many bored hours scouring the Internet or the Independent Film Channel
("IFC" on your Bend Broadband dial), you may already know the
perpetrators of Miss March: It's the "Whitest Kids U Know" sketch
comedy team, helmed by writer/director duo Trevor Moore and Zach
Cregger. After a brief overview of videos on their website and
YouTube.com - along with sitting through their first feature-length
film - it's difficult to imagine them conjuring up a joke that doesn't
involve some aspect of the male member and its various uses.

Posted inCulture

Our Picks for the Week of 3/18 – 3/26

The Source Staff

American Nobody w/Anastacia
thursday 19
This guy, whose real
name is Brian Granse, turned some ears when he breezed through town in
February. Now, he's back again and kicking off another Central Oregon
jaunt with this show in Sisters with Anastacia. Hey, did you hear she
won the Source/Far From Earth Films Music Video contest? 7pm. $4. Three
Creeks Brewing Co., 721 Desperado Ct, Sisters.
Crystal Dragons
friday 20
This
will be the third installment of this insanely innovative artistic
presentation that features music, visual and performing arts and spoken
word. The show, which has a whimsical space man theme, is produced by
local artistic wizard Joe Kimmel and features the narration of Jonathan
Ludwig. Chalk this up as one of the coolest things you'll ever see
around here…even if you do have to head up to Redmond to see it this
time around. Doors at 7pm. 7:30pm-9:30pm Friday, Mar 20. Evergreen
Studios, 435 SW Evergreen Ave. $5.

Posted inCulture

Our Picks for the Week of 3/11-3/18

The Source Staff

Empty Space Orchestra, Monk
friday 13
Haven't heard much from
Empty Space lately? Well, that's probably because the instrumental
wizards have been locked in some sort of subterranean recording
facility working diligently on their new disc, Big Bang. This is one of
the band's only shows before their CD release party on May 6 and is
also their first show with their new lineup which sends Shane Thomas to
guitar and brings in Patrick Pearsall on bass. Also check out Monk, a
solid reggae-meets-hip-hop act out of Ashland. 8pm. $5. Silver Moon
Brewing Co., 24 NW Greenwood Ave.
Brazilian Carnival Party
friday 13
Get
a slice of culture in the Old Mill as you shake your round thing to
some Brazilian music. This fundraiser for the Latino Community
Association also includes dance, caipirinhas (the national cocktail of
Brazil) and more spicy fun. 9pm. $3. Old Mill Martini Bar, 360 SW
Powerhouse Dr.

Posted inCulture

A Video Collector’s Nightmare: I’m moving and it sucks

Mike Bookey

Moving… it's a video collector's nightmare. I am now in the process of
moving across town and in my day I bought out five, maybe six video
stores. That may sound outrageous, but I needed those movies to produce
Onslaughts.

What's an Onslaught, you ask? Well, I take lesser-known
movies and combine clips of action, gore, sex, bad dialogue, insane
rock music and schmaltzy TV themes to mind-numbingly fast edits that
blaze directly into your retinas. People have told me that it's like I
invented a new drug-after one Onslaught they have to have another. I
use my videos as an art form, so much so that at one point an art
gallery in San Francisco even had an Onslaught showing. Onslaughts
simultaneously. A cable TV station in Manhattan (MNN) showcased
27-minute Onslaughts for three years. I've made 26 two-hour Onslaughts
so far, each of which took 350 or more movies to make. You do the math.

Posted inCulture

Keeping a Watchful Eye: Watchmen scores and falls flat on a grand scale

Mike Bookey

Go ahead…The making of Watchmen was besieged with controversy and problems from
the get-go. Producers fought over rights, writer Alan Moore took his
name off the project, lawsuits flew-it was a messy Hollywood legal
battle on a grand scale begging the question: would it ever be
released?
With Zack Snyder (Dawn Of the Dead redux and 300) at the
helm, Watchmen is good for about two hours. There are amazing special
effects, exceptional acting and some of the best dialogue I have ever
heard, but then just when I told myself I could watch this all day,
Watchmen took a turn for the worse and never wholly recovered.

Posted inCulture

Still Kickin’: Street Fighter gets it done after two decades

Mike Bookey

Blanka would kick both of these guys' asses.The drive-in is jumping tonight. A low-rider with purple flames bounces
next to a Hummer topped with a row of girls. In the shadows, hip-hop
boys pump their arms, and Vegas-scale neon signs emblazon "DINER" and
"BURGER" across the sky.

I enter the ring of headlights with the
authentic swagger of a worldwide legend. As Ryu, I've been starring in
the Street Fighter franchise for twenty years now. My arms, as massive
as gnarled tree trunks, burst out of the ripped shoulders of my
karategi. My feet are bare and bigger than my head.
My opponent,
however, is new to the game. Named Rufus, he is an obscenely fat
American topped with a bright yellow braid of hair. His belly roils
like water in a bag, and his breasts wiggle violently as he kung-fus
himself across the arena.

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