Culture
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Word Up!: Suzanne Burns and others get literary at Word Café

Welcome to the Doll Hospital. Local writer Suzanne Burns reads from her flip book at Barber Library. The first reading by Dave Eggers I
Mike Bookey

Welcome to the Doll Hospital. Local writer Suzanne Burns reads from her flip book at Barber Library. The first reading by Dave Eggers I attended exploded midway through, as
two dwarfs dressed in medieval armor burst into the San Francisco
bookstore, battling through the crowd. The event ended then and there,
and we all knew Eggers had hired them. Larry Brown and I downed a
bottle of Jack Daniels before our (and one of his last) readings in
Oxford, Miss. Slurring throughout, the crowd gave him a standing
ovation afterward. So we went back to the bar to down another.

Posted inCulture

Clash Around the Campfire: The Future is Unwritten gives a glimpse of a punk icon

Cooler than you.There’s no doubt Joe Strummer was a cool guy. I wouldn’t have wanted to be in The Clash with him, but I would’ve
Mike Bookey

Cooler than you.There's no doubt Joe Strummer was a cool guy. I wouldn't have wanted to be in The Clash with him, but I would've definitely enjoyed sitting around the campfire telling stories with him, which is exactly how this outstanding documentary, Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten, is woven together.
I was shocked and saddened when I heard he died. I thought he was on the comeback trail but sadly, he succumbed quickly and without warning to a cognitive heart condition and was-poof!-gone.

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From Sociopaths to Special Effects: My 2008 Academy Awards predictions

It was a year of exceptional films and acting performances in 2007, possibly the most competitive Oscar field ever. Three Best Picture nominees are based on major novels. Cinematography and special effects soar to new levels.
Mike Bookey

can’t you hear me knockin’?It was a year of exceptional films and acting performances in 2007,
possibly the most competitive Oscar field ever. Three Best Picture
nominees are based on major novels. Cinematography and special effects
soar to new levels. Both veteran and novice actors roll out an uncanny
breadth of talent and emotion. So, at the end of Sunday night's 2008
Academy Awards, who will be left clutching those coveted gold
figurines? Here's my roundup of the Best Picture nominees, as well as
some biased predictions of who will win other awards.

Posted inCulture

A Waterlogged Plot: Scenery can’t rescue Fool’s Gold

I told you we’d be able to find something worthless on the bottom of the ocean.All that glitters may not be gold, but if you’re
Mike Bookey

I told you we’d be able to find something worthless on the bottom of the ocean.All that glitters may not be gold, but if you're willing to check your
brain at the door, you’ll find a brief respite from winter in the new
romantic/action comedy, Fool's Gold. Director Andy Tenant (Sweet Home
Alabama) leads us on a treasure hunt set in the Florida Keys. (It was
actually filmed in the Bahamas and Australia's Great Barrier Reef.) The
result is a watery plot embedded in warmth-inducing scenery.

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Two-Wheeled Movies: WebCyclery Movie Night keeps their cycling series rolling with Pedal

The Source Staff

Hell hath no furry like a New York City bicycle messenger.Although snow is still on the ground and most folks have their bikes
tucked neatly away in the storage shed for another month or two,
cycling is never quite on the backburner in this two-wheel obsessed
town. Riders who can't actually get out on the road or trail burn away
the cabin fever by talking about cycling, reading about cycling, and
perhaps most entertainingly, watching movies about cycling - which is
where WebCyclery comes in.

Posted inCulture

Running with the Devil: Devil May Cry 4

Shawn Wallbaum

The clear cut number one in ’07It seems like game publishers don't make original games anymore, just
sequels to hit games, and Capcom is no exception. Its latest release
"Devil May Cry 4" is the third sequel to the hit game Capcom released
on the Playststion 2 back in 2001. The original was a forerunner in the
extreme combat genre and a predecessor to hugely popular games like
"God of War" and "Blood Will Tell." While the concept may not be
revolutionary, "Devil 4" is largely up to the task of reinventing the
genre that it helped to establish.

Posted inCulture

Caveman vs. Cavewoman: Defending the Caveman gives a one-man look at relationships

The Source Staff

Barney Rubble is going to want that TV back.There are some differences between men and women - far beyond what you
may have learned from a nervous junior high school nurse in your first
sex education class. And whether you like it or not, these
dissimilarities are funny and there's never been a shortage of writers,
television producers and comedians to cash in on the topic. But
somehow, someway, people are still laughing, and that's why Defending
the Caveman is still packing theaters.

The one-man show that has been
performed around the country since 1991 and eventually became the
longest running solo play in the history of Broadway, is again dragging
its club into the Tower Theatre-and with perfect timing…the show plays
on Valentine's Day and the day after.

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This is Still Cowboy Country

Rick Steber is a local literary hero, the author of more than 30 books, many of them set in Central Oregon. But it still took
Mike Bookey

Rick Steber is a local literary hero, the author of more than 30 books, many of them set in Central Oregon. But it still took more than 100 pages for me to start to care about the main character in his new novel, Forty Candles on a Cowboy Cake. The novel focuses on a character with the awkward handle of Waddy Wilder, a buckaroo on a ranch outside Sisters. It didn't help that Waddy is a malcontent, unhappy with the scourge of developers, but equally irritated by environmentalists working on behalf of "an army dressed according to L.L. Bean, Cabela and Eddie Bauer."

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Year-Around Film: BendFilm and the Tower team up to revamp The Series

The Source Staff

BendFilm and the Tower kick off the Series with the Breast Cancer DiariesFor a few days in October, the Tower Theatre becomes home to the
BendFilm festival, packing the historic venue with diehard film buffs,
as well as locals who just like to get a taste of independent cinema
without leaving town. But when the festival closes down, documentaries
and out-of-the-mainstream feature films, although not completely vacant
from our cultural landscape, are much tougher to find.

While some
might think of BendFilm as an entity existing only during that long
weekend in October, the organization has teamed with the Tower Theater
to present a bi-monthly series of independent films from the festival's
library and beyond. Kicking off Indie Reels is The Breast Cancer
Diaries, a film documenting a woman's battle with the disease.

Posted inCulture

Air-Power to the People: Pirate Radio USA gives media to the masses

Mike Bookey

These pirates don’t have scurvy.This is one of those highly entertaining, insightful, humorous,
fact-filled documentaries that can be enjoyed by those on both sides of
the political fence, despite its clear agenda.
I saw this movie
at the BendFilm Festival and was glad to see our local community radio
station KPOV 106.7 FM bringing the documentary to McMenamins on
Wednesday. As a DJ on KPOV, I confess that I'm somewhat biased -
sharing an affinity for the free-speech rights of local broadcasters
over large media conglomerates, having volunteered at the station for
more than three years.

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