PICK: Polecat at Pickin’ and Paddlin’
AMERICANA—With Polecat, the musical sum is far greater than its parts, as the quintet patches together rock guitar chords, Celtic fiddle playing, and twangy crooning. Ideal for outdoor venues, the band brims with enthusiasm—this is music for howling at the moon. Part of Pickin’ & Paddlin’; free demos. 4- 9 pm. Tumalo Creek Kayak &…
PICK: Wanz at Alive After 5
HIP-HOP—Mackelmore & Ryan Lewis have proved to be a steady and rising star to hitch one’s wagon to. In addition to providing a platform for previously unknown singer Mary Lambert with the “Same Love” hook, the group has helped shine a light on longtime hip-hop musician Wanz, who sings the hook for “Thrift Shop.” Wanz,…
PICK: Pat Benatar
wednesday 30 Pat Benatar ICON—”Hit Me with Your Best Shot,” “Love Is a Battlefield,” “We Belong” and “Invincible”—enough said, really. The queen of the power ballad might be on the fairground circuit, but that doesn’t mean her songs have lost any of their punch nor has her voice lost any of its signature fire from…
PICK: Trivia!
GEEK’S DREAM—Tuesday (for no particular reason except that the day and the activity start with the same letter) has been declared Bend’s trivia epicenter. Three fun drinking trivia options at The Lot (6 pm), Astro Lounge (8 pm) and Platypus Pub’s Geeks Who Drink (8 pm) offer up rotating hosts and challenging categories from comic…
PICK: Shrouds & Shadows
COVER BANDS—It’s just another manic Monday, but the dark Brit-rock sounds of Joy Division (Dead Souls), Siouxsie & the Banshees (Spellbound) and Sisters of Mercy (Reptile House) bring the catharsis with their gothic ’80s lullabies. Pretend you never left your moody teenage years (or your bedroom). Paint your nails black, dig out your leather jacket…
PICK: The Cheeseburgers
COVER BAND—Bust out your Hawaiian shirts and salt those rims, Eugene-based Jimmy Buffett cover band The Cheeseburgers is bringing a taste of paradise to the high desert. Whether you’re a Parrothead or a reluctant fan, you probably know most of the words to Buffett’s many gulf-and-western songs of tropical escape. It’s summer. Kick back and let the…
PICK: Heart of Oregon Corps Cornhole Tournament
CORNHOLE—Perhaps the most egalitarian game ever invented, cornhole does not discriminate against size or strength, and really, sober as well as drunk participants can be equally successful lobbing the game’s small bean bags through tiny holes. Yet in spite of this come-one, come-all attitude, it is high time to determine the region’s best cornholer. 1…
Film Review: Is it possible our reviewer could hate the new Zach Braff film anymore?
Stop Trying to Relate to Me Zach Braff Is an Emotional Terrorist Who Must Be Stopped by Alison Hallett The definitive takedown of Zach Braff’s new movie has already been written: On the website Badass Digest, Devin Faraci wrote that Braff’s work is “aimed directly at the suburban lizard brains of slightly disaffected honkies who…
PICK: Deschutes Dash
SPORTS—Bend can be an intimidating city for the novice (or wannabe) athlete. The Deschutes Dash bridges the gap between the jocks and the jock-nots with a weekend of competitions at every level for a variety of sports—triathlon, duathlon, aquabike, and 5K/10K runs. There’s even a Splash N Dash obstacle race for kids and plenty of spots for…
PICK:The Newberry Event
friday 25-sunday 27 The Newberry Event MUSIC FESTIVAL—In a valiant effort to defeat multiple sclerosis, the Newberry Event brings together local bands, camping, art, beer, food and the gorgeous landscape of southern Deschutes County know as “Newberry Country” for a fundraising event like no other. Music from Louis Landon, Vagabond Opera, Brewer & Shipley, Pigs…
Movie Review: Begin Again
Twice Begin Again: Like Once, but with Mark Ruffalo! By Eric Snider Surely you remember Once, that lovely indie drama from 2006 about the Irish guy and the Czech girl who connected through music, and who eventually sang their pretty song at the Oscars? Remember how sweet and plainspoken the film was, how its raw,…
Editor’s Note: This week’s issue
On the surface, Central Oregon is as normal as apple pie. About the biggest oddities are people’s very detailed obsessions with their sports and health. But this week we tapped a bit beneath that normal-seeming surface and found a few oddities—most in the form of roadside attractions. It was a fun week for us, looking…
Fire Update: The rain helped, the lightning didn’t
Central Oregon MORNING Fire Update YELLOW Highlight indicates changed information since the last Update Central Oregon- A Red Flag Warning for abundant lightning is in effect until 5 p.m. this afternoon for lands within the Central Oregon management area. From approximately 3 p.m. yesterday through this morning 59 new incidents were reported to the Central…
Fire Reports – afternoon updates
Central Oregon Interagency Dispatch Center 4550 SW Airport Way Prineville, OR 97754 Contact: Media Desk: 541-416-6811 NEW! NEW! NEW!!! Email: Centralorfireinfo@gmail.com Twitter: @CentralORfire For more information visit: CentralORfireinfo.blogspot.com FIRE NEWS—Central Oregon Interagency Dispatch Center For Immediate Release: July 22, 2014 1:45 p.m. Central Oregon MORNING Fire Update YELLOW Highlight indicates changed information since the last…
Tuesday Tracks: Jenny Lewis, The Voyager
Jenny Lewis started her musical career as the adorable red-headed front woman for indie rock group Rilo Kiely, singing about her Johnny’s, her whiskey, her sex and her anxiety. Count her a precursor to a Lena Dunham figure. Writing songs that revealed the troubled stories of the hipster women of pop, giving the ladies a…
What in the World: FAA Halts Flights to Israel, Wawona Recalls Fruits, EPA Mis-Tweets
NO FLY LIST: Planning a poorly timed visit to Israel? The Federal Aviation Administration went ahead and cancelled that for you. The FAA has banned U.S. airlines from flying into Tel Aviv for at least 24 hours after a rocket strike landed about a mile from the airport this morning. (CNN) BAD FRUIT: If you recently purchased…
The Week-nighter 7/21-7/24
Get out after work this week and check out these great events #inBend. Monday 21 Eff Cancer Benefit BENEFIT—Cancer is the worst. Not only is it a creeping menace that always seems to strike the nicest people, but the medicines used to stop it in its tracks are brutal and costly. Ugh. On the bright…
What in the World: MH17, Obama’s Executive Order, the Death of a Governor, Escaped Inmate, Poetry, and Christopher Walken Dancing
MH17: The search continues for evidence in the case Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17, shot down over war-torn Ukraine. All eyes are currently on pro-Russian separatists, who are totally helping their cause by allegedly impeding the investigation. (CNN) JOBS: President Barack Obama signed this morning an executive order barring federal contractors from discriminating against employees based on gender identity…
Central Oregon MORNING Fire Update
Central Oregon Interagency Dispatch Center 4550 SW Airport Way Prineville, OR 97754 Contact: Media Desk: 541-416-6811 Twitter: CentralORfire Email: coidcincidentinformation@gmail.com For more information visit: CentralORfireinfo.blogspot.com FIRE NEWS—Central Oregon Interagency Dispatch Center For Immediate Release: July 20, 2014, 10:30 a.m. Central Oregon MORNING Fire Update YELLOW Highlight indicates changed information since the last Update Fire Name…
FIRE NEWS, from Central Oregon Interagency Dispatch Center
Ochoco Complex- New Complex Ochoco National Forest Service Prineville BLM Oscar Fire 17 miles E of Post Lava Fire Near the junction of FS Road 22 and FS Road 4210, near the NW corner of Big Summit Prairie Fox Fire 3 miles NW of the North Fork Wilderness Study area, near FS Road 4230. Broadway…
Balloons Over Bend 2014
Balloons Over Bend kicked off this morning with a balloon launch at Riverbend Park. I had a bird’s eye view of the event, from the basket of the Re/Max balloon. Check out our photos from this morning in the slideshow and get a piece of the action at this evening’s Night Glow or tomorrow’s morning launch.…
Ghost Writer Wanted for First World Problems Blog
Craigslist finds, #firstworldproblems, support group, rich people
Fire Reports
Bridge 99 Complex Bridge 99 – ½ mile east of Lower Bridge Campground, 9 miles north of Camp Sherman off of FS Rd. 1490 Bear Butte 2 (formerly #318) – adjacent to Jefferson Creek and west of Park Creek drainage within the Mt. Jefferson Wilderness. Deschutes NF 6,369 acres 5% contained Firefighters had a successful…
What in the World: Malaysian Flight MH17, California Drought Hypocrisy, and Nelson Mandela Day
TRAGEDY: The Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 reportedly shot down near the border of Russia and the Ukraine is believed to have been carrying as many as 108 AIDS activists and researchers en route to the 20th International AIDS Conference in Australia. While many are hopeful that the number is much lower than that, a number of…
Q&A with Jessica Hernandez and the Deltas, Playing Tonight at Parrilla
Jessica Hernandez and the Deltas, Show us your spokes, Parrilla, live music
What in the World: Hump Day Video Edition with Weird Al, Jenny Lewis and Jon Stewart
“Weird Al” Yankovich (remember him?) is back with a new album, and eight days worth of video releases to support it. Today’s video, “Word Crimes,” which takes on Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines,” is an obvious contender for Stuff Journalists Like. But it’s also great because it allows us to listen to that catchy melody without feeling dirty. …
Cascade Lakes Roundup
Named after the collective bodies of stunning and cold water in our mountains, Cascade Lakes Brewery is celebrating 20 years. With few things as beautiful as a mountain lake and few drinks as enjoyable as fantastic beer, how good is the Cascade Lakes lineup after two decades of business? Currently, Cascade Lakes is brewing about…
Float Like a Butterfly
For 28 years, my wife Sue, our family, and her team of volunteer helpers, have been counting butterflies in Central Oregon for the North American Butterfly Association (NABA). The season begins with the Ochoco Count in late June, when the team conducts a day-long search in a 15-mile circle that includes Big Summit Prairie, east…
Dumb and Dumber
Nathan Woodworth was an actor before he could talk. “I’ve always had a weird compulsion to imitate people,” says the 22-year-old Sisters native. “Before I could talk I was walking like the scarecrow in Wizard of Oz and my parents thought something was wrong with me. They took me to the doctor.” Woodworth, who will…
Mating Rituals of the Millennial
Obvious Child will always be known, first and foremost, as “the abortion comedy.” That’s the pitch, the premise, and the novelty of writer/director Gillian Robespierre’s great new film: It’s about a young woman who has an abortion and doesn’t feel bad about it. In defiance of every film trope about abortion, which insist that soul-searching…
They Dreamed a Dream
One of the toughest challenges about producing live theater in Central Oregon is that right when an actor feels like he or she is in that sweet spot—where all the moving parts are perfectly in sync—there are probably only one or two shows left in the run. With a limited number of patrons to fill…
The Balcony is Open
Roger Ebert made me want to be a film critic because he loved movies as much as I did. More even. Every time he sat down to watch a film, he wanted it to be incredible. That optimism was infectious, and even as his career moved into an internet era where film criticism is too…
Our Picks 7/17-7/24
thursday 17 Ringo Starr LEGEND—Fifty years after the Beatles re-invented what it meant to be a rock-and-roll band, Ringo Starr has emerged as the least likely of the Fab Four to be the most relevant and enduring musician of the group; yet there he is, still more a band member than a front man, but…
Film events
Monty Python Live (Mostly): One Down, Five to Go Aside from the gone too soon Graham Chapman, most of the crew from Monty Python are still alive and kicking. Join Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam, John Cleese, Michael Palin and Terry Jones as they come together in what they’re calling their very last live reunion. Tickets…
Killer Tofu
Dr. Ray Seidler, a retired Oregon State University professor and former microbiologist for the Environmental Protection Agency, is on a mission to educate local communities about what he says are the dangers of allowing genetically modified organisms into the food supply unlabeled and unregulated. The scientist says he was spurred to action after reading an…
Greater Than the Great Lakes
Lake Michigan is pretty awesome. But you know what, it is cold. Like jump in, jump out, polar bear frigid. Lake Superior? Yeah sure, lives up to its name. But it is BFE, near absolutely nowhere, and not a good microbrewery within a three hour drive. Lake Erie is polluted and Lake Huron forgettable. I…
Lodging by the Lake
From Henry David Thoreau to Joss Whedon, a cabin in the woods is at turn tranquil and creepy. All around the Cascade Lakes—and slightly beyond—there are numerous retreats—most decidedly more Thoreau than Whedon—that offer everything from rustic to romantic getaways. Cultus Lake Resort A slew of small cozy cabins, many with indoor and outdoor fireplaces.…
On Top of the World
World of Water is hundreds of miles from the ocean, but stepping into the cluttered and busy front office, it feels just a few steps from a Santa Monica surf beach. Lynette Remund is talking on the phone to a customer. “You’ll send over the EKG,” she says, somewhat cryptically, and then adds, “and yes,…
Smooth Sailing
I have fond memories of sailing on Elk Lake as a child. Scratchy red life jacket up to my chin, the Rolling Stones’ “Sympathy For the Devil” blaring from a battery operated cassette player on the deck of the boat, wind blowing in my hair, learning the meaning of the phrase “Come about” the hard…
Shining Starr Trivia
As a member of a minorly important British pop group that got its start over 50 years ago, Richard Starkey went from a Dickensian, impoverished and sickly child banging on biscuit tins with sticks, to Ringo Starr, one of the world’s richest and most infamous drummers. “Before Ringo, drum stars were measured by their soloing…
Like Snow Skiing, But Warmer!
The two happiest days of a boat owner, I was once told, are the day you buy the boat, and the day you sell it. I disagree. The happiest days of a boat owner should be the days inbetween buying it and selling it (or, in the case of my last waterski boat, when it…
The Source Suggests 7/17-7/24
The Source Suggests Champagne Charlie A horror-jug band with a gravel-gargling singer, Champagne Charlie doesn’t take it easy on the creepy minor keys or the malicious, moustache curling content. A Tom Waits-esque growl howling drinking man’s songs, the Denver band will play opener to ska-rockers with a flair for the dramatic, The Back Alley Barbers.…
Tumalo Creek Kayak & Canoe Recommends
Tumalo Creek Kayak & Canoe is, of course, great access for rentals and direct access to the Deschutes River, and is known for their free Wednesday evening summer concert series, Pickin’ & Paddlin’. But it is not all Deschutes River for Bend’s paddle board mecca. James Fredericks, Manager for Tumalo Creek Kayak & Canoe, recently…
Minnesota Gold
I’m convinced that there’s something in the water that makes great Minnesota musicians. Gloom pop group Low are out of Duluth, the riot grrrl punk act Babes in Toyland formed in Minneapolis, alt-punkers Hüsker Dü are from St. Paul. Not to mention Atmosphere, The Replacements, Bob Dylan and Prince; the wellspring of musical talent in…
Cast Your Rod
When fishermen from around the world are traveling hundreds of miles for just a weekend—just a few days!—to fish Central Oregon’s famous lakes, really, driving 30 minutes doesn’t seem like that big of a deal. With postcard perfect backgrounds and diverse challenges, the lakes here are a fisherman’s playground. Crane Prairie Reservoir The Deschutes River…
Detroit Rock Pretty
Like her musical style, which is adding to already favorite genres and classics, Jessica Hernandez and the Deltas also add to the meaning of the word “hybrid.” Raised a baker’s daughter in Detroit’s famous Mexicantown, her fresh-faced genre-bending band mixes pop, blues, gypsy-folk, rock, big band and jazz with distinctive soulful vocals. It calls Rock…
Freedom: Just Another Word for Nothing Left to Lose
Five summers ago, leading up to its passage, so-called Obamacare was the focus of town hall meetings across the country. Many of those community meetings turned as ugly and unruly as an English soccer game, with shoving and shouting matches. Even after the wide-reaching Affordable Care Act passed a year later, that venom did not…
Out of Town 7/17-7/24
portland thursday 17 Tiny Ruins New Zealand indie folk band Tiny Ruins started out as a solo project by Hollie Fullbrook, and even though the group’s second album features a full band, its languid, dreamy sound is still carried by Fullbrook’s bird-like warbling. Alternately channeling the sound of a whistle in the wind and a…
Letters 7/10-7/16
IN REPLY TO “TROUBLE ON THE REZ” (7/10) Oh brother… [The] Gorge [casino] was the best solution for the Tribe…Worst decision ever to sideline it. It did not touch our land, removed gaming from the Reservation, which depletes Tribal Members income. Gaming is an addiction that is destroying the Reservation from within. Which is worse…
Go Here! 7/17-7/24
While there are plenty of terrestrial ways to enjoy Central Oregon, sometimes leaving the ground is the best way to understand it, whether that means getting a (literally) bird’s eye view of the High Dessert expanse, or just being thankful to having both feet planted firmly back on it. Summertime in Central Oregon offers plenty…
I’ve Never: Shot a Gun
As the first child born to overprotective parents, I am naturally predisposed to approach life with caution. As such, I’ve always had a healthy respect (read: mild fear) for anything that can cause loss of life or limb. Chief among those agents of potential death and destruction—guns. (Cue eye rolls from all the native Central…
The restaurant formerly known as Angel Thai
The name change for Orchid Thai along the outer reaches of downtown Bend does not seem to mean a décor change—it is still paper umbrellas, fake flowers, and delicate Asian artwork. Nor has the menu seemed to change much—which isn’t really good or bad; just something in-between. The menu seems to be essentially the same…
Speed Cycle
The 35th Annual Cascade Cycling Classic has arrived. Like many cycling events, it brings a large number of people and bicycles to the area. But unique to this event is the massively popular criterium race, which takes over the downtown core with the whir of sleek bodies and spinning wheels—and throngs of captivated spectators. “For…
