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The blogosphere - or the Republican neighborhoods in it, anyway - is abuzz with news of a "sex scandal" involving Democratic state senator and state treasurer candidate Ben Westlund and a former State Capitol aide.
Conor Oberst brought his newly formed Mystic Valley band to the Domino Room last night and played a set that showcased material from his soon to be released self-titled record, which he’s releasing under his actual name, rather than his Bright Eyes alias. Last night’s show may have disappointed those looking to hear a Bright Eyes hit list, but surely impressed everyone who can appreciate an artist like Oberst, who very well might be his generation’s greatest singer songwriter.
With the economy tanking, gasoline prices soaring, the war in Iraq dragging on and the war in Afghanistan heating up, Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden has trained his sights on … dangerous cigarette lighters.
Remember John Hummel, the local lawyer and Bend city councilor who abruptly resigned and launched a major career change? He's alive and well and blogging in Liberia.
We met at the Westside Tavern last December, a stool between us and Ferris Bueller's Day Off on the TV. Pointing to the screen he sighed, "The downturn of society…" I, however, considered John Travolta a sign of the Apocalypse, underscored by his contribution to Hairspray. Two beers and all of Francisco's money later, now seated side by side, we both agreed that the tipping point of America was Ronald Reagan.
Francisco Christich: the name of a friar or cult leader. Or an artist, nine-ball guru, father and friend. Francisco, the most modest human being I met in my nine months in Central Oregon. A song; the antidote to gloating galleries and braggart collectors, trust-fund artist managers - We both knew we'd spend much time together after that night at the Westside. Yet neither could have guessed how rotten it would end.
His entry to Bend was apt. It was a choice between here or Sante Fe;
"When the car broke down that kind of made the solution clear." That
was 30 years ago. Francisco will be 62 in September and shows every
second on this Earth. A scar under his gray hay hair from a car crash
20 years since (of windshields he offers, "They're hard - they win, you
lose."), ashy marks like cuffs around his wrists ("Some pigmentosis…"
he explains, then jokes, "Actually I got those storming the cliffs of
Normandy.") and a silky white beard Santa would wear if evicted from
the North Pole. An American mutt, Francisco's father was Mexican and
Slavic while his mother was Native American and French, "As far as I
know." Raised in East LA, it was his mother who sat him down at an
easel when he was four and told him to paint.
Democrats are hoping to make some of the oily scandal swirling around Alaska's Ted Stevens stick to his fellow Republican Sen. Gordon Smith.
Local musician Reed Thomas Lawrence announced the release of the video for his new song "Music" today. The video, shot entirely in Bend, was filmed and produced by the crafty folks over at Rage Films.
For a politician, going to a party's national convention is like a football fan going to the Super Bowl. So why (as politickeror.com reports) is Gordon Smith probably not going to attend the Republican National Convention in September?
What a difference the popping of a bubble makes. Two years ago, Bend made the Top 10 on Money magazine's list of the 100 Best Places to Live in America. This year we didn't make the Top 10.
A bank has begun foreclosure proceedings against the developers of The Shire, the Tolkien-inspired project off Parrell Road that became a sort of emblem of the excesses of the Bend real estate boom.
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