Culture
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Life in the Express Lane: Stoner action flick with a conscience

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Truth is, we ran out of waterboards. The Apatow comedy train chugs along with a new installment, Pineapple Express.

You cannot get more of a skeletal plot here. Dale Denton (Seth Rogen), a 26-year-old process server with an inexplicable high school girlfriend, witnesses a murder while on the job and exits the scene leaving a roach of Pineapple Express, the ultimate killer weed. Turns out his subpoena target is the dealer that supplies his connection, Saul (James Franco). Soon they're on the run from cops, drug crime warlords, evil Asians, and whoever else crosses their path. Almost all the dialogue seemed or was ad-libbed, reminiscent of "Curb Your Enthusiasm," but lacking Larry David's Seinfeld-esque plot twists.

I have to admit there are some redeemable qualities James Franco was excellent as the weeded-out dumber-than-dirt dope dealer. As of late, Franco seems typecast to play the guy possessed with angst and inner turmoil in most of his characters (Spiderman, Annapolis) in contrast to his slacker role on Apatow's late 1990s television gem Freaks and Geeks. It was refreshing to see him in this role of weed-soaked, dim-witted, likable, grinning idiot-it was almost like getting to know Brad Pitt's character from True Romance. And Danny McBride (Fist Foot Way) as Red, the middle-man drug connection, steals the show playing part tough guy drug dealer part wimp-ass squealer.

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Our Picks for the week of 8/14-8/18

Mike Bookey

Mosley Wotta CD Release Party

thursday 14

Mosley Wotta, aka Person People's The Rook, aka Bend's walking talent show Jason Graham drops his new buzz-generating EP entitled "Scrap Mettle" and throws a big ol' party with some special friends to celebrate. The EP, consisting of five tracks of Wotta's now well-known precise and cerebral delivery shows the local hip-hop mastermind at his best: innovative, upbeat and funny when he wants to be. Bring your dancing shoes, your thinking cap, and any other figurative clothing accessories that might help you get down. 9pm Bendistillery Martini Bar, 850 NW Brooks St.

Bend Brewfest

friday-saturday 15-16

Beer! Beer! Beer! Yell it with us! Shout it from a mountaintop! Sing it while an angel accompanies you on a harp while you both ride on a majestic white cloud. That's how we feel about beer here in Oregon and we double that enthusiasm each year when the mother-loving Bend Brew Fest sets up in the Les Schwab Amphitheater. There's more than…wait for it…80 beers on tap from more than 40 different brewers. There's also killer music from the likes of Hillstomp, Upground and locals Leif James and Moon Mountain Ramblers. Gates open 4pm Friday, noon Saturday. Les Schwab Amphitheater, 344 Shevlin Hixon Dr.

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Hit the Ground

Thirty years ago, Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami owned a jazz club in Tokyo. It was a tiny place. During the day, he served coffee; at
John Freeman

Thirty years ago, Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami owned a jazz club in Tokyo. It was a tiny place. During the day, he served coffee; at night, the club became a bar. Murakami closed up himself, arriving home as the yolk-y sun was rising in the sky. It had never occurred to him to do anything else, let alone write fiction. And then, it did.

This charming, sober little book tells the story of how, shortly after Murakami embarked on a career as a novelist, he was blindsided by an even unlikelier idea: to go for a run. One can understand his surprise. At the time, he was smoking 60 cigarettes a day. He had never been an athlete. But he was a solitary person, and before long, he was hooked.

Runners will find a kindred soul on these pages. Here is everyman, hitting the pavement, falling into that peculiar mental void that opens up on a long jog. He endures the indignities of the sport, too. Completing his first marathon in Greece in midsummer, his sweat dries so fast, it leaves behind smears of salt. "When I lick my lips," he writes, "they taste like anchovy paste."

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Ladies Night: Menopause The Musical heats things up in Bend

Bra busters at 2nd street. How would you like to see a hilarious musical that ends with wily middle-aged women from the audience gathering on
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Bra busters at 2nd street. How would you like to see a hilarious musical that ends with wily middle-aged women from the audience gathering on the stage for a Rockettes-inspired kick line? What about the live seduction of one of the male audience members or a full-on Tina Turner performance? How about a bunch of songs about having hot flashes, cellulite and going through menopause?

All right, I know you're skeptical. A musical about menopause? How weird and potentially gross, right? This was pretty much what was going through my head as I hauled my 24-year-old self over to 2nd Street Theatre to see Menopause The Musical. Having never personally experienced "The Change," I had some serious doubts. In a theater filled with the stereotypical Menopause crowd - almost all women (there were exactly seven men, 11 if you count the employees) nearly twice my age, I definitely felt a little out of place, that is until the play started.

Director Maralyn Thoma guides Lyryn Cate, Rachel Deegan, Anne Du Fresne and Jackie Johnson in a musical comedy that makes hot flashes, memory loss, overactive bladders, vision problems, mood swings and wacky libidos seem horrifically funny and fabulous.

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Time for a new Soul? Soul Caliber IV

Next week in the stars cabaret vip room. In yet another sequel to the popular fighting game genre, Soul Caliber IV takes on the next
Shawn Wallbaum

Next week in the stars cabaret vip room. In yet another sequel to the popular fighting game genre, Soul Caliber IV takes on the next generation systems in style. Included in the original fighting character list is Darth Vader for the PlayStation 3 and Yoda for the Xbox 360, but each Star Wars character will be available on both systems through an online download. The third Star Wars character is called the Apprentice for the upcoming game Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. With the returning characters, there seems to be enough changes and tweaks to give it a fresh playing field.

Where Soul Caliber IV shows its true colors is in the character creation mode. As the player uses his/her custom character the more the game opens up and unlocks different fighting options. Variety in game play and characters seems to be the goal here, and the gamemakers seem to be right on target.

Depending on which version you choose, the Xbox or PlayStation version of this game, they seem to balance out each other in what they can do. The PS3 version allows you to download the entire game to your hard drive to give quicker load times, but a new download for the 360 will allow you to do this with ANY 360 game so this is a moot point. Of the guest Star Wars characters, Yoda on the 360 seems to be the better character to fight with. He can jump around and is more agile, whereas Vader is slower and harder to maneuver, especially when using combos. When using their force powers they can throw around other fighters. The one odd thing is that a character like Vader isn't able to use a choke hold and that Yoda isn't able to throw around BIG objects like an X-wing. The last and most mysterious Star Wars character is a new one from a game that's not even out yet, the Apprentice or Starkiller from Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.

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Cast This Vote Out to Sea: Sugary bipartisan romp goes nowhere fast in Swing Vote

And that’s how I plan to roll my way into the semis.Swing Vote is a schmaltzy fairy tale that dives deep into unbelievable land, reviving
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And that’s how I plan to roll my way into the semis.Swing Vote is a schmaltzy fairy tale that dives deep into unbelievable land, reviving the old Hollywood formula that if you do the right thing and follow your heart, everything will be fine.

Due to a malfunctioning voting booth, Bud Johnson (Kevin Costner), a lazy drunk oblivious to the political system, must re-cast his uncounted vote deciding the next president of the United States. News travels fast making Bud and his daughter Molly's (newcomer Madeline Carroll) white-trash life a whirlwind of attention thanks to the imposing media blitz circus.

This is far-fetched stuff, but the "one-vote-makes-a-difference" concept is spun by real newscasters. Cameos include Chris Matthews, Bill Maher, Arianna Huffington and Tucker Carlson, to name a few. I guess everyone jumped on the band wagon for this pathetic little Hallmark card of a movie to boost the American vote.

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Kung Fu Mummy: Latest incarnation should be permanently buried

seriously, does my foot smell bad?The Mummy franchise has risen from the dead again, but just barely this time. Riding on its past blockbuster success
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seriously, does my foot smell bad?The Mummy franchise has risen from the dead again, but just barely this time. Riding on its past blockbuster success and Brendan Fraser's comedy/adventure star power, the latest in the trilogy, The Mummy: Tomb of the Emperor, should have stayed entombed. Even if you're prepared to wrap yourself in layers of disbelief for two hours, the film's computer-generated yetis and 2000-year-old warriors are just too corny to resurrect the intrigue of the series' first installment, 1999's The Mummy (inspired by the original 1932 version, starring Boris Karloff).

Movie mummies are supposed to be scary, and Arnold Vosloo's character in the first two films was truly terrifying. Though Jet Li, as the ruthless ancient Chinese Dragon Emperor, slips in a few deadly kung fu moves at the beginning, his fearsomeness wears off soon after; throughout the rest of the film, the scariest thing director Rob Lohan (The Fast and the Furious) can conjure is the Emperor's skin continuously peeling off in clay-like layers, revealing what appears to be a glowingly molten body underneath. Beyond that, and his alternating incarnations as an unconvincing CGI dragon and monster, the Emperor fails to frighten. Steeped in lust and greed for power, ultimately he wants what all mummies want-immortality.

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Our Picks for the week of 8/8-8/13

Intern

World Hoop Day
friday 8
Bring your hoops to Harmon Park and help raise money to create quality hoops for underprivileged children in Central Oregon and around the world! The Hula Hoop craze continues to build and gyrating Bendites from young to old can be found pretty much everywhere these days. Relive your childhood and make some sweet hoops for a good cause. 4pm-6pm. Free, donations accepted. Harmon Park. 1100 NW Harmon Road.
Tiger Army
friday 8
Warped Tour Vets and AFI buddies Tiger Army are bringing their brand of psychobilly to our beloved Domino coming directly from a slew of dates in Finland, of all places. Check this week's Sound article for more information. Domino Room. 8pm/doors, 9pm/show. $15/advance, $17/door. 51 NW Greenwood Ave.

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Micro Cosmos: Silver Moon’s Noble India Pale Lager

The trend in IPA’s over the past few years has been to go obnoxiously big, as evidenced by one local brewery’s not so long ago
Intern

The trend in IPA's over the past few years has been to go obnoxiously big, as evidenced by one local brewery's not so long ago makeover of its IPA. This approach is generally embraced by Northwest drinkers who gobble up malt and hops like a pre-Subway Jared at an Old Country Buffet.

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From the Eye of a Dog: The Art of Racing In The Rain, By Garth Stein

The Art of Racing In The Rain by Garth Stein puts a canine in the narrator’s seat and gives readers a chance to experience life
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The Art of Racing In The Rain by Garth Stein puts a canine in the narrator's seat and gives readers a chance to experience life through the eyes of a dog. From the clumsiness of birth to the agony of old age, the character of man's best friend, Enzo, guides readers through love, loss and victory as he discovers his passion for car racing.

His owner, Denny Swift, happens to be a race car driver as well as Enzo's hero and some of their best times together consist of watching car racing videos. But as many pets often realize, humans desire to share their lives with other humans and Enzo finds he is literally the odd dog out. Much of his life is spent at home watching the Speed Channel on cable. But it is Enzo's quick ability to compare the sport of car racing with the lessons of life that captures the reader's attention. Throughout the book, Enzo often expresses his desire to spend his next life with opposable thumbs as a human being. But before he can think about reincarnation, he must help Denny get back the one thing they both hold dear.

While Enzo's opinions on evolution and his knowledge of television shows such as Law & Order seem a little far-fetched, readers will enjoy insightful statements from Enzo such as "your car goes where your eyes go," that are developed throughout the book. Stein's attention to detail when describing the bitter personality of crows, observations of Denny's in-laws and rides around a race track are what captures the reader. Most of all, Stein is successful at making us believe we're on hands and knees with a keen sense of smell. As with any good dog story, emotions run high as Stein tackles some of life's most painful experiences. But his playful illusions through Enzo's eyes otherwise keep the book light-hearted and humorous.
Garth Stein Central Oregon Appearances
12pm Friday, August 1. Paulina Springs Books in Sisters. 252 W. Hood Ave. (Signing only). 5pm Friday, August 1. North Soles Footwear. 800 NW Wall St, Bend.
5pm Saturday, August 2. Sunriver Books & Music, Sunriver Mall Building.  

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