See This Film: Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars documentary tonight at the Tower Theatre
Tonight, the Tower Theatre is screening a documentary about the Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars, the reggae/Afro-beat band that will play at the Tower on May 18. The film tells the story of the band, which originated in the refugee camps of Sierra Leone — a country that was devastated by civil war and remains…
Dine and Drink: a guide to post-ride beer and eats
The routine since this past November has been a simple. A good friend and I finish every weekend mountain bike ride with the search for the best post-ride place to drink beer and have something to eat.
Poop Bombs, Adjective Bombs and Poll Bombs
Is there something about Bend that generates weirdness? The air, the water, the altitude? We’ve had the Pregnant Man, the Lawn Chair Balloonist, the Clothesline Lady – and now, the Mad Poop Bomber. Melinda Hoffman, a Bend entrepreneur whose company, The Bomb Squad, is in the business of removing doggie doodoo from people’s yards, got…
The OLCC’s Jason Evers is in Jail
You may have already heard about this from local bartender/restaurant owner who was doing cartwheels and high-fiving strangers on the street, but the embattled former regional manager of the Oregon Liquor Control Commission, Jason Evers, is sitting in the Ada County, Idaho, jail right now. According to a deputy at the jail this afternoon, Evers…
Oregon's Soak-the-Poor Tax Policy
Should a family living below the poverty level have to pay state income tax? Most states say no – but Oregon says yes. According to a report released yesterday by the Washington-based Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the income tax in this state for a family of four kicks in at $19,800.
The Rise of Decline: When things are bad, should we be praying for worse?
When Andrew Joseph Stack, a software consultant with a history of tax troubles and marital problems, crashed his Piper Cherokee into the Austin, Texas, office of the Internal Revenue Service in February, the crime was widely seen as a referendum on the national psyche. Stack, who killed himself and one other person while injuring 13,…
AG Finds No Crime in Bellotti Contract
Oregon Attorney John Kroger announced today that his office will not be filing criminal charges against the University of Oregon over its handling of the dismissal of former football coach and athletic director Mike Bellotti, who was given a roughly $2.3 million severance earlier this year by the school.
New Leif James Music Video
Yesterday, Tim Cash of Far From Earth Films stopped by my office and said he’d just wrapped up shooting a video for local blues rocker Leif James. Then this morning, I get an e-mail with a link to the video.
OIA Plots Oregon's Biggest Land Grab
Oregonians in Action, the “property rights” group that brought us Measure 37 six years ago, has come up with a new bright idea – and it’s a real doozy. OIA wants Oregon to emulate Utah, whose legislature in its 2009 session enacted a law that supposedly gives the state the power to use eminent domain…
Adventures of a Waterwoman Wannabe: Or how to hang incognito with Laird Hamilton
This is my final column in a three-part series based on Hawaiian values. By the time you read this, I will have traded my Mr. Zog's sex wax back in for Swix yellow. But at least I've replenished my stores of vitamin D and vitamin sea, too. PO'OKELA [poh'-oh-kay'-lah] – noun. Commitment to excellence In…
Damaged Goods: the short, unhappy life of political lawn signs
I've always looked on the political lawn sign as an innocuous, and not that effective, political statement. A “Vote for Ralph-the good guy” lawn sign probably won't sway a lot of people to vote for Ralph but none-the-less shows that he has a few supporters in the community.
Arts On! BGA Guide
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Survey: Bend Businesses Want More Handouts
The Bend Chamber of Commerce did a survey of its members and – surprise, surprise – most of them thought the city should be doing more to help people like them. According to The Bulletin’s account on Tuesday, about 64% of those responding to the on-line survey answered “no” when asked if they thought Bend…
Enter to Win Free Tickets to See Powerman 5000 in Bend
So you like Powerman 5000, don’t you? You probably wouldn’t click on this link if you weren’t. And there’s a good chance you also know that PM5K, as their fans know them, are coming to the Domino Room on Monday, May 3.
The Undertakers: How these beetles bring life out of death
Things would be one smelly mess around forest and field without the undertakers. Turkey vultures start the process of cleaning up larger dead animals, then the coyotes get their share, followed by weasels, mice and even our favorite campground pests, golden mantle ground squirrels. Anything smaller or left over is usually taken care of by…
Slicing and Dicing: Red Steel 2 takes a stab at a kung fu crossover.
Silhouetted in cowboy boots and a broad-brimmed hat, with a katana flaring out alongside his duster, the hero on the cover of Red Steel 2 looks like he's ready to kill whatever life is left in the fusion of Western and Eastern imagery – the same mix of cultural clichés that the movie Sukiyaki Western…
Selling Out: How to keep up with The Joneses in the modern age
The Joneses is Derrick Borte's first feature; he's otherwise an advertising man. The idea for this film originated in the contemporary trend in marketing which sees companies paying young, cool, attractive individuals to take their new product and go out into the world to sell it by “stealth” without admitting to being a salesman while…
Out of the Blue: Comic book fun is rejuvenated in The Losers
The Losers starts off with a laugh-inducing, somewhat jaw-dropping beginning that is guaranteed to take some steam out of the upcoming A-Team movie. Based on a DC comic book from the '70s written by Andy Diggle, and illustrated by Jock, I thought I might hate this cartoonish, nonstop action movie, but I have to admit…
Disasters, Death, and You
How many times has this happened to you: You're strolling along in the park, gazing lovingly at the beauty and wonderment of nature, when… WHAMMO! A meteor that's roughly the size of Texas and made out of rusty razor blades and used condoms smashes into the center of town! Everything's ablaze! Buildings are toppling! The…
Farm to Table CSA season kicks off
Over the last few weeks, Sarahlee Lawrence has been cutting up fifteen varieties of potatoes. She has pink ones, purple ones, blue ones and the standard run-of-the-mill white spuds. She's so excited about planting these bits of root vegetables for this year's harvest that her voice quickens. “We've got the full gamut of vegetables from…
Farm to Table CSA season kicks off
Over the last few weeks, Sarahlee Lawrence has been cutting up fifteen varieties of potatoes. She has pink ones, purple ones, blue ones and the standard run-of-the-mill white spuds. She's so excited about planting these bits of root vegetables for this year's harvest that her voice quickens. “We've got the full gamut of vegetables from…
Little Bites: Garden Variety: Cooking your way out of the CSA box
Does the weekly CSA box make you feel like a contestant on Iron Chef? The unknown ingredients? The suspense? The following recipe looks daunting, it's not. Serve with steamed broccoli or roasted broccoli with baby garlic.
Trashformations Art Thrown in River
A few weeks ago, I wrote an article about the Trashformations art project that takes place at Pakit Liquidators every year. While the art created from scrap metal, pieces of wood and discarded supplies was incredible, what struck me more than anything was the atmosphere of goodwill and community that the event seemed to breed.…
Version 2.0: AM Interstate wants to reintroduce themselves, and you should let them
There are some things that Cy Erickson doesn't want you to know – like how old he is or what he does for a day job. But if you want to talk to him about his main passion – his band AM Interstate – then he'll gladly answer any question you might have about the…
Boiling our Brains: Last Band Standing, Tony Furtado and Empty Space Orchestra
Last week in the Picks section, we coined the term The Weekend of Brain Boilingly Awesome Music™ (TWOBBAM™ for short) to describe the onslaught of music going down in Bend from April 22 to 25. So, you probably want to know, is Sound Check's collective brain boiled? Yeah, it kinda is. We began on Thursday…
Erykah Badu: New Amerykah Part Two: Return of the Ankh
Erykah Badu New Amerykah Part Two: Return of the Ankh Universal Motown Records
Erykah Badu is an island – thankfully. The longtime R&B artist seems completely isolated from trends, fads and unnecessary technologies on her latest record, New Amerykah Part Two. For an album that's peaking on top 10 lists worldwide, it's free of flimsy…
The Prolific World of Chris Haberman
Take a look at this number: 6,500. That's how many paintings Chris Haberman, the Portland-based artist whose work graces our cover this week, has sold in the past eight years. How many people do you know who have done 6,500 of anything in the last eight years? I don't think I've even brushed my teeth…
The Truth is Out There: The SpeakEasy lets Bendites tell their stories
“Something happened to you today. Some moment happened that related to the entire human condition.” This is how Guy Jackson kicked off SpeakEasy, an innovative addition to Bend's artistic landscape. Working as a cashier at Target, I get to see a whole lot of the human condition – more perhaps than I might like. By…
wRite: A self and nation divided
Hatred keeps on increasing to a point where both you and I burn ourselves in mutual hatred, and to the Buddha, the only way to solve it is that one party must stop…
– Ananda W. P. Guruge Awakenings: Asian Wisdom for Every Day
April 2001, I was on a solo road trip researching…
Our Picks for 4/28 – 5/6: Last Band Standing, AM Interstate, Blues Amuse & Brews 2010, Head for the Hills and more
Last Band Standing thursday 29 Some 500 people showed up at the first edition of Last Band Standing to lend their vote to their favorite local band and expect that trend to continue this week with performances by Rough String Band, Absofreakinlutely, High Desert Hooligans, Electric Moccasin Party and Boxcar String Band. $3/advance at BIGS,…
Ugly Sign
You know, there should be more signs like this around Central Oregon. Whenever we see something ugly on the side of the road – like this cell phone tower that looks a lot like a robot tree – we can pull over, pull out an “UGLY” sign and place it near whatever ugly-ass thing we've…
Taking on Dr. No: John Day Wilderness moves forward, City Council race taking shape
The latest Central Oregon wilderness lands bill took a step forward today clearing Sen. Ron Wyden's public lands subcommittee in a development that could set the stage for another wilderness showdown with Sen. Tom Coburn, aka Dr. No, the Oklahoma Republican who had previously held up the Badlands designation and thrown up procedural roadblocks on…
Election Endorsements: Wells Ashby for Judge
It seems that too often in modern political and civil life voters are faced with the prospect of choosing between the lesser of two evils at the ballot box. In the case of the race for the open seat in the local district county court, voters have just the opposite quandary. Two extremely well-qualified and…
What's Wrong With Arizona? Financial deform, alien invasions, lung fungus and much more!
The author has been sent on the road to discover a lost country formerly known as America. He is reporting from a holding pen in the Arizona desert, wearing an orange jumpsuit and learning Spanish, regretting that tanning session and tequila, on assignment for Or-Bust.com and The Source Weekly. Et Tu Obama? President Obama, speaking…
Questioning the War on Drugs
What is the purpose of the War on Drugs? Is it to reduce competition with Big Pharma and the tobacco and alcohol industries? Perhaps it is so banksters can enrich themselves laundering drug money to decrease their dependency on taxpayer bailouts? Or maybe it is an opportunity to provide jobs in the ever expanding police…
Buses Should Run On Sunday
Many times I have compared my advocating enhancements of Bend's public transportation to that of eating soup with a fork. BAT's fixed routes started out with unworkable schedules. It was not until nine months after my lone voice pointed out that fact before workable schedules were adopted. Not nine days. Not nine weeks. But nine…
Liberal and Proud of It
Conservative doctrine has gotten this place, Earth, into one vat of trouble after another. Some believe humans are a crisis species. That's bullshit. Conservative policies are consistently to blame. Old-school religious, sociological, economic and political agendas advocate elitism, racial bigotry, sexual bias, a lack of education, the blatant disregard of science and the advancement of…
Obama's Dirty Money
[I] Read your diatribe about Goldman Sachs. In it, you failed to mention that G.S. contributed almost one million dollars to B.O.'s presidential election campaign and about $4.5 million to the Democrats. The only way I can figure that this slipped by you is that you choose to be very imbalanced in your reporting. Oh,…
