Let’s Find These Scoundrelly Bar Thieves
We at the Blender believe in good ol’ American justice — and every other kind of justice. That’s why we’re asking you, the Internet reading folks in Bend, to help us find the low-life couple that distracted local filmmaker Chris Kas, then proceeded to jack his leather jacket which contained his wallet, keys and a…
Riding Dry: good times at the Maston
If you're into taking an easy winter mountain bike ride, seize the moment and head out to the Maston Allotment where the riding of late has been excellent. Get out there soon as the continued dry weather and winds are already starting to turn some sections of the trail from hardpack into loose sand.
String Cheese Incident Returns to Oregon This Summer
String Cheese Incident, the venerable jam band which during its time in the touring circuit went from a bluegrassy, roots rock band to an almost-electronic act (while maintaining some Americana elements) just announced seven shows for this summer, four of which will be in Oregon. From July 29 – August 1, SCI will set up…
Conservation Groups Want Windpower Loophole Closed
A group of conservation groups including the Bend-based Oregon Natural Desert Association (ONDA) wants to Gov. Kulongoski to tighten windpower rules that allow companies to skirt rules that could lead to greater oversight and scrutiny of the massive wind power projects that have invaded Oregon.
Chris Berry Trio featuring Steve Kimock hit the Domino Room in Bend on March 6
Last spring we were treated to guitarist Steve Kimock’s latest project, Steve Kimock Crazy Train. It was a high energy show and now the talented ax man is back, but this time with the Chris Berry Trio, who are out on a mini-tour featuring the African based sounds of Zimbabwe.
Down And Out Or Coming Back: is Bend in as bad shape as we're being led to believe?
Down And Out Or Coming Back: is Bend in as bad shape as we’re being led to believe? Last Friday night a friend and longtime journalist who, like me, is slipping intoSenectitude, decided to give the Below bar at the new Oxford Hotel a try. Why not, we reasoned, see if the place is…
Video from Friday’s Quick & Easy Boys Show
There was a steady curtain of wet snow falling outside the Silver Moon Brewing Co. on Friday night, but inside things were pleasantly sweaty, with a packed house getting down to the sounds of Portland’s Quick & Easy Boys.
Colbert Won a Grammy…and That’s All I Cared About
If you slogged your way through the Grammys Sunday evening, you saw several things, one of which was a performance in which the Black Eyed Peas revealed themselves to be robots. Or at least half robot.
Going Deep-the 100-inch snow contest gets the El Nino Treatment
A couple of months ago the revival of the once popular “guess the exact date when the snow depth at Mt. Bachelor’s West Village reaches 100 inches” created some interest.
Anonymous Web Smears Get Smacked Down
Anonymous posters on websites, beware: You’re not as anonymous as you might think you are. That’s the tough lesson learned by people who posted unflattering comments about Tami and Kevin Sawyer on the KTVZ site after the TV station turned over their IP addresses in response to a subpoena from the Sawyers.
New Bend Band Capture the Flag Wants You in Their Music Video
Capture the Flag, the young up-and-coming pop punk band from Bend, are shooting their first music video on Saturday (Jan. 30) and want you to be part of it.
When the Fountain Runs Dry: Don't steal coins from the fountain of love, duh
When going to see a movie like When in Rome, the best plan of attack is to go in with low expectations, which is exactly what I did. Perhaps the most advantageous thing about seeing a movie when you're not expecting much is that if it's not as bad as you thought, then it could…
Video From Last Night’s Head For the Hills Show
As was to be expected, the Father Luke’s room at McMenamins Old St. Francis School was packed last night with a couple hundred Bendites who Tetrised themselves in to see Head for the Hills, the young Fort Collins, Colo.
Head for the Hills tonight at McMenamins for FREE!
Every time I hear Fort Collins, Colorado-based bluegrass band Head for the Hills, who are playing tonight for free at McMenamin’s Old St. Francis School, is coming to town I kinda get creeped out.
Being Positive
For the sixth year now, Daniel and Talya Pite will celebrate the life of their daughter, Hannah, by hosting Bpositiv, one of Bend's biggest art shows of the season. The first Bpositiv took place in January of 2005 and served as a birthday party for Hannah, who would pass away only months later from leukemia.…
wRite: Time Ball
“When Hemos Johnson (hereditary Hahwannis chief of Kingcome) was an old man visiting his daughter at Comox she took him to Elk Falls, a place he had heard much about but had never seen. He stood where he could behold the raging torrent in all its splendour, gazing in silent wonder at the majestic sight…
We've Been Friended! Four ways we can better Central Oregon
Are we cool or what? Last week, Facebook itself friended Central Oregon. On Thursday, Facebook officials were in Prineville to announce a new $188.2 million, 147,000-square-foot data center. (If you want to keep abreast of the project, you can become a fan of the Prineville Data Center on Facebook). The announcement, and some other recent…
Tax Measures Win; Right-Wing Whining Begins
The dust hadn’t even settled after the stunning victory of Measures 66 and 67 when the whining from Oregon conservatives started. In fact, Larry Huss, writing on the Oregon Catalyst blog, started wailing “We wuz robbed!” before the ballots were even counted.
A Poem for Winter: Kit Stafford and her “rain dear”
This being the winter season and all, with raindeer (intentionally misspelled) flying about, along with ice worms and snow fleas, well, I think you'll enjoy this… One of things I enjoy in life is watching a person with talent do his or her thing. For example, sitting in Soji in Sisters, fixated on the delicious…
Smaller: Not Always Better!
Ahem!! Three things of note before I express an opinion that will surely get me lynched. Note #1: The sixth and final season of Lost kicks off this week, y'all (ABC, Tues Feb 2, 9 pm)! In this very special episode we'll discover the downsides of detonating a hydrogen bomb. (Special guests: The kids from…
Last Temptation of Eli: Thumping the Good Book, Denzel walks the walk in Book of Eli
The Book of Eli gives us yet another post-apocalyptic end of the world saga. This time, Eli (Denzel Washington) walks through barren wasteland carrying a machete and a Bible. It's almost like Eli travels in the footsteps of Viggo Mortensen, who recently set down his own apocalyptic travelogue in The Road. With the washed-out landscape,…
Not Quite as Dumb as it Looks: Harrison Ford and Brendan Fraser inspire us with the true health care events of Extraordinary Measures
Now here's something strange: Extraordinary Measures is essentially a bad television movie played out on a big screen – a banal exercise in paint-by-numbers drama – and then, unbeknownst to itself, it's also a powerful cinematic critique of the American medical industrial complex. From the director of What Happens In Vegas, this is an idiot…
Forget Paris: The Saboteur fails in Nazi-occupied France
The Saboteur must have sounded like a brilliant idea when it was explained to executives at Electronic Arts, the game's publisher. “Like Grand Theft Auto, but set in Nazi-occupied France,” I imagine the pitch. “And the main character can climb buildings and dash along rooftops like Assassin's Creed, but instead of some quasi-mythical organization, he's…
Kitsch and Cakes: The Westside Bakery and Café's hearty morning meals
Gravy, potatoes and cinnamon rolls as big as my face: classic items that immediately make me think of an old-school diner. Both are available in plenty at Galveston's Westside Bakery and Café where it's always breakfast no matter the time of day. The menu features much more (with lunch options and baked goods), but with…
Kitsch and Cakes: The Westside Bakery and Café's hearty morning meals
Gravy, potatoes and cinnamon rolls as big as my face: classic items that immediately make me think of an old-school diner. Both are available in plenty at Galveston's Westside Bakery and Café where it's always breakfast no matter the time of day. The menu features much more (with lunch options and baked goods), but with…
Water World, Hold the Costner
There used to be a bartender in Denver who wore a button that said, “Ask me about water, no ice.” Only the truly daring would venture the question because the answer was a whirlwind of hate and distaste she had for those who didn't just take their water from the tap with some ice cubes…
Full-On Party: The happy hour funk (and honky tonk and rock) of The Quick & Easy Boys
It's a Friday afternoon in Portland and like so many others of us on this, or any other Friday afternoon, Sean Badders is trying to make it to happy hour in time. But he's not rushing to grab a cheap beer and some discounted hot wings. Rather, Badders is en route to meet up with…
How I Figured out Larry and His Flask are Getting Huge
OK, so I'm pretty damn sure that Larry and his Flask are opening some East Coast shows for Dropkick Murphys. How do I know this? Here's the story: Central Oregon's own acoustic Americana-meets-punk band is pretty much always on tour – the exception being their recent stay in town where they've been playing a string…
Spoon: Transference
Spoon Transference Merge Records
It doesn't take long for lead singer and songwriter Britt Daniel and the rest of this Austin-based outfit to establish on Transference that they're more than capable of picking up where they left off with the outstanding 2007 effort Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga. But it's where the band goes from…
Our Picks for 1/27 – 2/4: John Cruz, Ruins of Ooah, The Quick & Easy Boys and more
John Cruz wednesday 27 This Grammy-winning Hawaiian guitarist and songwriter descends on the Silver Moon for a rare Oregon appearance. Cruz is a legend on the islands, but also has a strong following on the mainland that includes folks like Eddie Vedder and Trey Anastasio, the latter of whom he collaborated with to create Trey's…
Poor Man's Whiskey Returns to the Domino Room in Bend March 13
I just got word that Poor Man’s Whiskey, the Bay Area band that’s secured Bend as its home away from home over the past three years, is coming back to the Domino Room on March 13. The last time the PMW came through town was in October when the band played its “Dark Side of…
Turf Warfare: The City Girds for a Fight Over Growth Plan
Anybody who has followed the Bend City Council for any length of time knows that the seven-member body doesn't agree on much. But when state land-use planners flatly rejected the city's proposal to expand Bend's urban area after five years of planning work, public meetings and countless hours of staff time, the city council took…
Wyden Takes On the Smurfers
To a chemist, pseudoephedrine is “a sympathomimetic drug of the phenethylamine and amphetamine classes.” To a cold or allergy sufferer, it's the stuff in Sudafed and similar remedies that unstuffs his stuffy nose. But to somebody who wants to cook up some methamphetamine, pseudoephedrine is a main ingredient. And that's a problem. Small-scale meth manufacturers…
Friends and Lovers: Prineville welcomes Facebook with open arms and pockets, a Supreme reversal and more!
The author has been sent on the road to discover a lost country formerly known as America. He is reporting from President Obama's State of the Union Address, offering hope in the form of hankies to Democrats – on assignment for Or-Bust.com and The Source Weekly. This Isn't Fake News Governor Ted Kulongoski didn't bother…
Hummerific!
We saw you, sir. You in your black Hummer, us leaning against a mighty Mt.
Where's The Help?
It is highly outrageous what is happening in this country right now. Money is being poured upon the wealthy elite (banks, insurance companies, etc.
These Troubled Times
In response to Ellie Light's letter, “He Never Promised a Rose Garden” (Jan. 20) I wholeheartedly agree. Candidate Obama was clear and forthright about the crises/issues facing our nation. He stated the importance of taking a first step though a solution might not be realized in his term. Most importantly he called for Americans to…
Don't Let Hate Be Our Export
The misconceptions and ignorance of the religious right equals wrong! An article in the Jan. 22nd Oregonian was about the courageous efforts of students at Southridge High School in Beaverton against proposed anti-homosexual legislation in Uganda. Southridge is a sister-school with St. Andrew Matala Senior Secondary School in Uganda. The bill would make homosexuality a…
