Culture
Posted inCulture

Sisters Rode-Ode

Intern

Sisters Rode-Ode
By Brad Lockwood
The "biggest little" rodeo is in town
"The Greatest Show on Dirt!"
According to JJ the Clown.
Imported princesses, Fort Dalles,
Umatilla, Jefferson…
Peer and praise until they're done.
Denim on denim, top to toe.
Wrangler pleats like rails,
U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Co.

Posted inCulture

Washed Ashore: Netherland offers an outsiders perspective on the Big Apple

Outlegged by news networks that never sleep, outsold by the juggernaut of visual entertainment, the novel doesn’t bring us the news as it once did.
John Freeman

Outlegged by news networks that never sleep, outsold by the juggernaut of visual entertainment, the novel doesn't bring us the news as it once did. Or it's easy to think so until you read a book like Joseph O'Neill's splendid, "Netherland." This wholly unexpected novel turns the city once known as Nueve Amsterdam inside out with the tale of a Dutch banker clinging to his crumbling marriage and family in the aftermath of September 11th. It is a fabulous, deeply enjoyable New York story about the fantasies that prop up daily reality - in other words, a deeply New York novel about that deeply New York penchant: new beginnings.
 
The man we're rooting for - and it's impossible not to cheer him on - is Hans van den Broek, a six-foot five, 40-something equity analyst. He spends a good deal of this novel holed up at the Chelsea Hotel, the bohemian landmark where Arthur Miller wrote some of his best known work and Andy Warhol once called home. Something essential has jostled free from Hans' marriage, sending his ex-pat wife back to England with their son, Jake. Hans stays behind, and pours his restless, misbegotten self into a cricket league out on Staten Island, where he meets - and befriends - a Trinidadian entrepreneur of sorts, Chuck Ramkissoon. It is Chuck's dream to build a world-class cricket arena - he doesn't like the word stadium - in Brooklyn.

Posted inCulture

Tipsy Business: Flair bartending in Bend without Tom Cruise

more than just another drink. Forget everything you know about the 1988 movie Cocktail. Marshall Fox, bartender at Bo Restobar, is the real deal. While
Intern

more than just another drink. Forget everything you know about the 1988 movie Cocktail. Marshall Fox, bartender at Bo Restobar, is the real deal. While he may not be prancing around Jamaica with Elizabeth Shue or catering to New York City elites with silly poems, he's doing something Tom Cruise never does in the movie - actually making great drinks without spilling alcohol all over. And did I mention he lights stuff on fire?
 
According to the Flair Bartenders' Association (FBA), flair has been practiced for over 150 years in the United States. In the mid-1800s, bartender Jerry "the professor" Thomas would pour flaming streams of scotch and water from one bar mug to another while making his famous Blue Blazer. Popularized by chains like T.G.I. Friday's in the mid-1980s and then blown up by the movie Cocktail, flair bartending quickly became a global bar phenomenon. The FBA started in 1997 and hosts competitions throughout the world proudly spouting their motto of "Service first, flair second, competition always."
Fox is bringing this alcohol-infused competition to Bite of Bend this weekend for your viewing pleasure. Professional flair bartenders from Las Vegas, Portland, Seattle and even Bend will go head-to-head in a six-minute battle, during which each bartender must make two drinks. Between competitors, Fox will pull members from the audience to teach them some flair and give away prizes.

Posted inCulture

Bourne to be Wild: The Bourne Conspiracy

I shoot you, you shoot me. We’re a shooting family. With three very popular books written by author Robert Ludlum and three very successful movies
Shawn Wallbaum

I shoot you, you shoot me. We’re a shooting family. With three very popular books written by author Robert Ludlum and three very successful movies based on them starring Matt Damon as the amnesiac hero/spy Jason Bourne, it doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out that this might make a really cool video game. Developer High Moon Studios has made a game for both the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 that combines elements of the book and film series. As one of the best cinematic action series of the last decade, it would take a game developer a lot of effort to make a game that's as compelling and action oriented as the movies. But, for the most part, they have done just that.
The Bourne Conspiracy is basically a retelling of The Bourne Identity with a nice prequel that could be made into a game or movie. The creators went all out on this one with using Bourne screenwriter Tony Gilroy, Eric Lustbader - the author of the newer Bourne novels - and the late Robert Ludlum's estate to bring out the best of both the movies and novels for this game. Unlike Matt Damon's rendering, the game's Jason Bourne is hard edged. While more physically and mentally scarred than Damon's Bourne, the character is still recognizable as a sleeper agent involved in project Tredstone.

Posted inCulture

Not Happening: M. Night Shyamalan’s latest thriller is all scenery and no substance

Intern

mark Wahlberg and the world’s largest bowling bag on tour. M. Night doesn't make horror movies; he makes long Twilight Zone episodes.
Shyamalan is known for his narrative twist and turns and surprise endings, but he can't conjure his way out of The Happening's poorly executed script. Most of M's tricks are here but the gimmicks are starting to resemble an aging genre hack. Even his obligatory Hitchcock-esque cameo isn't onscreen-the credits are the only place you'll find him.
Unfortunately right when the film gets eerie, it also gets stupid. Underdeveloped characters are complemented by dismal performances from the actors. The initial scene with Elliot (Mark Wahlberg) and Julian (John Leguizamo) is about as phony as movie dialogue gets. And Elliot's marriage to Alma (Zooey Deschanel) isn't remotely convincing. Soap opera dialogue runs rampant with idiotic attempts at tension-releasing comedic banter. The relationship between the two leads is so cute and demeaning that I almost left the theater. Wahlberg plays a guy who keeps it together in the face of doom, but his wimp voice and crybaby attitude dominate the entire evacuation sojourn. He more or less just walks through the role. He had a few chances to chew up the scene. Instead he's a perpetual one-note grimace. Deschanel just runs around batting her baby blues like some kind of coma victim showing us vapidity gone wild. Responding to the theory that terrorists have devised a toxin to make people kill themselves, Alma utters the ridiculous line, "Just when you think no more evil could be invented…"

Posted inCulture

Edward Norton Pumps It Up: Who needs steroids when there’s gamma radiation?

all this just for a free blood pressure test?Edward Norton finally gets to play a Hollywood hunk, albeit a large green one. The actor’s usual
Intern

all this just for a free blood pressure test?Edward Norton finally gets to play a Hollywood hunk, albeit a large green one. The actor's usual cool demeanor gets ripped in this film as fast as his muscles do, morphing from the research scientist Bruce Banner into Marvel Comics' super-conflicted-hero character, The Incredible Hulk. Not to be confused with director Ang Lee's 2003 take on the comic book character, this rendition is not a sequel; it's an entirely new version of the story. In what quickly evolves into a fast-paced paced political thriller, the first half of which bears resemblance to The Bourne Ultimatum, Norton's acting undergoes its own transformation. Not that he'll be an Oscar contender for this roll, but as Banner the actor's intelligence is infused with as much passion, wonder and determination as a film about a super hero will allow. While reinventing the Hulk, though, he's just kick-ass strong.
 
Following a secret US military science project gone awry in the nation's capitol, the action jumps to Brazil where Banner's earnest character draws us into what appears to be the life of an adventurous, backpack toting post-grad student. He hides out in a color-faded hovel with his loyal dog, while learning Portuguese, meditating for anger control, and working among the natives in a bottling company. I found this part of the film much more interesting-particularly visually-than I had expected. Like Jason Bourne, Banner is a fugitive trying to avoid the US government's radar, and eventually he's forced into a chase scene on foot, only instead of Bourne's Tangiers, we follow our man breathlessly as he races through a ramshackle barrio of Rio de Janeiro.

Posted inCulture

Our Picks for the Week of 6/18-6/27

The Source Staff

Anastacia
wednesday 18
Formerly of the band Threes, Anastacia has a new project going and this free McMenamins performance is her first appearance in a while. Rumor has it that, along with her all-star band of local musicians, she'll be dishing out a brand new bag. 7pm, McMenamins Old St. Francis School, 700 NW Bond St. 382-5174.

Posted inCulture

La Sirenita: Lori LaBissoniere’s expressive painting

Dog days in the studioBend, with its urban center situated just minutes from beautiful landscapes, is attracting a growing community of artists. One painter, Lori
Intern

Dog days in the studioBend, with its urban center situated just minutes from beautiful landscapes, is attracting a growing community of artists. One painter, Lori LaBissoniere is developing an expressionist style that contrasts with the mainstream aesthetic found in many polished art galleries. LaBissoniere and I talked on a Friday afternoon, one of the first (and only) really hot days this spring. Sitting in her cozy studio downtown, and having been inside teaching all day, LaBissoniere was feeling restless.
"We should have done this interview outside on a day like today," she told me. As a young artist, LaBissoniere is artistically adventurous, drawing on multiple sources of inspiration and trying new styles in her work.
When I asked her about her artistic influences, LaBissoniere mentioned Jaimie Lynn, a snowboarder and contemporary graphic artist. "I find inspiration from street art, and art that I happen upon by chance - not only from famous artists," she says.

Posted inCulture

Scrap This One: Marvel’s Iron Giant

Hey Rocket ManWhen the “Iron Man” video game was released in May, I wasn’t looking forward to it. It seemed like that there were a
Shawn Wallbaum

Hey Rocket ManWhen the "Iron Man" video game was released in May, I wasn't looking forward to it. It seemed like that there were a ton of superhero movies coming out, meaning that a slew of video games would soon follow. Unfortunately, most of these titles are either bad or even worse. I had hoped "Iron Man" would be different. Well, it is. It might not be entirely successful (to say the least), but Sega's adaptation at least tries to escape the usual formula. Instead of just a regular beat-em-up or a poorly thought out open-world adventure, Sega gives us a game that has parts of some really above- level games like "Battlefield," "Ace Combat 6" and "Hulk Ultimate Destruction." This sounds like the making of a great game, but don't get too excited. While Iron Man's shiny red and gold metal plating armor isn't riddled with the usual malfunctions, it still has a lot of flaws.
Some of the flaws are apparent right from the start. After the first cut scene, the game kick starts into arms tycoon Tony Stark's escape from a Middle Eastern terrorist compound in his prototype metal suit. It's a sub-par level that rapidly exposes the worst aspects of the game like fiddly controls, a loose targeting system and repetitive fighting animations. To make things worse, you're tethered to the ground and surrounded by canyon walls for the duration. It can be understood why some of the game's various issues proved difficult to solve. With the likes of hovering, flying, close-combat abilities and three different weapons systems to control, there was bound to be a bit of trouble getting it all mapped onto a controller. Sega's approach makes the game very difficult to come to grips with. For the first hour or so you'll struggle with the basics of flying and hovering. With more time after you'll still find it hard to keep fast moving targets in your sights. Gamers looking for a simple and casual game won't like this at all.

Sign up for newsletters

Get the best of The Source - Bend, Oregon directly in your email inbox.

Sending to:

Gift this article