“Kent Couch: Helium Hero or Balloonatic?”
That's the provocative headline on a blog post in Great Britain's The Guardian newspaper about Bend's own Kent Couch, the gas station proprietor who flew a lawn chair attached to 150 giant helium balloons from Bend to Idaho on Saturday.
Things Are Stranger Here?
Is Bend, Oregon on its way to becoming known as the national capital of weirdness?
Wrong Address, But Right Neighborhood
Blogger Jeff Mapes at The Oregonian discloses that the Jeff Merkley campaign made a boo-boo in its latest attack video against Gordon Smith: The posh home on Country Club Drive in Bethesda, MD that the video identifies as Smith's actually isn't.
Battered Bend Builders Beg Bend for a Band-Aid
Builders in Bend want the city to kick-start their stalled industry by giving them a break on Systems Development Charges.
Don’t Rock the Mountain
Lettter of the Week This week’s feature letter comes from Evelyn Dong who presents us with a contrasting viewpoint on the Tumalo Backcountry proposal — from a skier’s perspective. Thanks for the letter Evelyn.
Whiskey, Wednesday and Alice Cooper
Guest Artist Jack Daniels not Pictured.Whiskey was the drink of choice last Wednesday at the Midtown Ballroom. Yes, this is still very much a beer town, but the harder stuff came out to greet a pair of Southern-flavored acts in Drive-By Truckers and openers Dead Confederate. The brown stuff made an appearance on stage as…
Cascades Theatrical Co. and the Tower Theatre Ponder: Ya wanna put on another show?
Dee Torrey: Man on a mission.Executives at the Cascades Theatrical Co. (CTC) and the Tower Theater are contemplating future big-budget musical productions in the wake of the "success" of their first collaboration, Urinetown: The Musical (UTM). UTM completed its two-weekend run May 11.
Rickey Minder, who played UTM's Little Sally, said she appreciated the opportunity…
Pigeons vs. Soccer
HEY, IT COULD HAVE BEEN BUD COLLINS… Apparently the only thing dropping from Wimbledon faster than Americans and top-seeds are the pigeons. Championship officials last week hired an assassin to take out pigeons who weren't scared of by the two hawks originally hired to rid the area of flying rats. The dive-bombing birds were a…
Snakeflies in the Grass: Why you shouldn’t exterminate your friendly flies
Pretty, ain’t she?If the photo above gives you the shudders – and unfortunately, many people have that innate fear of "bugs" – relax. I met that harmless, adult female snakefly last week in the Sisters Library after it was energetically swiped off the back of 10-year old Tanner Head's neck. When he got over what…
Surf Is Where You Find It: Estrogen, waves, triathlons and more
A WOMAN'S TOUCH Paul Van Camp awaiting a wave with Haystack Rock in the background.On Thursday mornings, for years if not decades, I've grabbed a Source and flipped immediately to this page to catch Bob Woodward's commentary, usually enriched by a story connecting past and present and occasionally spiked with an edgy throwdown. More recently,…
Guitar Hero to Go!
With a popular franchise like Guitar Hero it was only a matter of time before game makers took a stab at crossing over to another platform. Well, game developer Vicarious Visions has answered the call with a guitar-like attachment for the Nintendo DS that allows obsessive guitar heroes to play the game (Guitar Hero: On…
Dead or Alive
Jolie in a shot from the new Whitesnake videoYou are going to have to set aside common sense to enjoy this movie. It'll be no fun if you question the logistics of Wanted, with its dopey dialogue and ridiculous plot. Better to sit back and enjoy the ride while this flick delivers a ton of…
Horsing Around in Mongolia
The wrath of KhanAs Kazakstan's first entry into the Academy Awards (2008 nominee for Best Foreign Language Film), the epic historical drama, Mongol, will enthrall horse devotees, history aficionados (who can argue afterwards about its authenticity), or anyone else interested in a visually incredible depiction of life on the steppes of 12th century Central Asia.
Be a Guest at your own Party
When talking to Lisa Glickman about her new endeavor, she draws a distinct line between her work and that of a personal chef. Personal chefs, she says, are geared toward daily food preparation or small family events. She also says she isn’t a caterer, as she does not have specific menus items to choose from…
Be a Guest at your own Party
When talking to Lisa Glickman about her new endeavor, she draws a distinct line between her work and that of a personal chef. Personal chefs, she says, are geared toward daily food preparation or small family events. She also says she isn't a caterer, as she does not have specific menus items to choose from…
Let Freedom Ring — in your ears
As tends to be the practice of this publication on the eve of any party-intensive holiday, we would like to take this opportunity to bully you into following our recommendations for a good time. In the past, we've given you plans for a perfectly ridiculous St. Patty's Day and laid the pavement for a marathon…
Jumpsuits, Sideburns and $1,000 costumes
Where does the leather end and the man begin?Danny Vernon prefers to be called an Elvis "tribute artist," rather than an "Elvis impersonator." He's clearly aware of the connotation that accompanies the word "impersonator" and is pretty serious about what he does. This is why when I ask him to slip into his Elvis character…
If It Weren’t for the Stones
All Hail the King and LucilleIt was the summer of 1969 and there was a party goin' on backstage at Ravinia, the outdoor concert venue 30 miles north of Chicago. The classical music squares running the joint, they'd never seen anything like it: For sixty years, backstage had been the site of oh-so-sedate and oh-so-cerebral…
Armed in Oregon
You've just arrived at work, interested in coffee more than conversation, and a coworker enters, setting her purse down – BOOM! A gun explodes, bullet flies, nearly hitting you - Where are you? The sheriff's office, where everyone is armed? A rural factory where busting-off a few rounds after work isn't uncommon? No, you're a…
First There Was A Mountain: A new proposal could change the face of winter
A solitary moment.As a rule, backcountry skiers don't tend to make a lot of noise. Aside from the occasional powder whoop, they tend to tread pretty lightly. The same principle holds true away from the slopes where backcountry enthusiasts tend to keep a low political profile. But a new proposal from a group of backcountry…
Our Picks for the Week of 7/3-7/10
Central Oregon Blues and Crawfish Festival thursday-sunday 3-5 You'll get a pretty good rundown of this festival in the Liner Notes column, but if you need more convincing, here's a good chunk of the lineup: John Lee Hooker Jr., Kenny Neal, Ty Curtis Band, Big Fish, Jon Maclennan, T-Bone Stone, Lisa Mann, Blue Moon Society,…
One Good Oil Spill Deserves Another
Order in the Court! Baby rapers, oil spillers and gang-bangers be heartened! Gitmo be gone, but the new and utterly bought and sold Supreme Court handed down decisions that will impact us for decades - Much like the President Bush, who nominated its two new Justices, Chief Roberts and Count Weirdly Alito. Let's take a…
Gordon Smith and the Cascade Festival
The US Senate is often called the world's most exclusive club. Sen. Gordon Smith belongs to an even more elite club - the Society of Republican Senators from West Coast States. It's so exclusive that Smith is the only member. Oregon's junior senator would like to remain in that club by winning a third term,…
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Letter of the Week
This week's top letter comes from Jim Anderson, the sage of Sisters, who laments the proliferation of litter from free shoppers circulated by our local daily to pump up its circulation numbers. The blue bags truly are an eye sore, Jim. But we're not talking trash when we say that…
No Shortage of Lazy Journalists
Greetings. And arghh. Your perpetuation (deliberate word choice … hint hint) of this morning's "Oregon Man's Invention: Commute Generates Electricity" in the Bend Bulletin is yet another example of how high energy prices makes reporters and editors stupid. Okay, perhaps not stupid … but certainly it seems to render them so un-critical that…
A Different Kink of Bud Takeover
Belgian brewer InBev makes a bid to buy Anheuser-Busch for $46 billion. That's a $46 billion company that was once banned in America for producing a product that a bunch of puritanical religious fanatics touted as evil.
Road Outrage
The Bend PD and The Bulletin should both get The Boot by perpetuating the myth that cyclists "cause the majority of the problems." The PD gets it for making a sweeping generalization that is contrary to statistics (ODOT statistics say 56.
Outdoor Cats Are A Plague
It is time that people in Bend wake up. I live by the Old Mill District and I have had almost no songbirds around this year. I live by the canal, yet I have not seen any gold finch. My chickadees that nested last year did not come back to the birdhouse when they…
Facts Don’t Support ID Case
Scott Weber (Letters 6-18) always attempts to present something as science but without scientific evidence! His recent letter (Source Jun.19) pans evolution and supports Intelligent Design (ID).
Smith vs. Merkley: Punch and Counterpunch
Over in Portland and the Valley, Gordon Smith's TV ads portray him as a friendly, mild-mannered, bipartisan sort with a strong tinge of green. On the other side of the Cascades, the spin is a little different.
