Nature of Words Announces 2011 Author Lineup
The Nature of Words, Bend’s literary festival just released the lineup of authors who will be present at the 2011 edition of the festival, which takes place between November 2 and 6. Here’s the lineup that was announced tonight at the festival’s Book Plate event: Augusten Burroughs (keynote) This writer is best known for the…
Oregon Super D Series Comes to Bend
(By Laura Winberry) Saturday: Pump up your 4th of July weekend by rolling over to 10 Barrel’s Urban Pump Track Jam this Saturday, July 2. Sponsored by the Oregon Super D Series (oregonsuperd.com), registration for the day’s event runs from 11am until 2pm, with pump track shred sessions starting at 3pm, and a $10 entry…
Glenn Beck’s Last Show is Tonight
Glenn Beck, who for the past few years has been Fox News’ resident conspiracy theorist, is wrapping up his time on the network with his final television broadcast tonight. Beck fans, however, will still be able to see the emotional (he cries a lot) personality on a subscriber-based webcast beginning in September.
Woody’s Road Trip Part 2: The 3,000 mile summer
This is part 2 of Bob “Woody” Woodward’s great American road trip story. It’s like On the Road, but with granddaughters in tow. Following a family caucus, a unanimous decision is made to stay in Las Vegas for one more day. Weighing heavily in the decision is the fact that the hotel swimming pool is…
The Traveling Camera: Native American Portraits
We went to the Pow Wow in Warm Springs hoping to create some portraits of the attending dancers. I have been shooting Indian country for more than 20 years, so this time I tried to create a studio situation right on the field.
Little White Lies or Half Truths?
Last month, the school district announced that they cut eight administrative positions. What they didn't announce was that a year ago, one of the individuals took a position in Portland and they never filled the position. Other administrators absorbed that workload. Also, three of the positions were elementary assistant principal positions, but in reality they…
Save the Carrots!
Dear Aaron Kirkpatrick, in response to your public slander of me (people have sued for less, by the way), I choose to support you in your cause to save the misunderstood carrot. While I personally prefer to focus on defending animals – in this case, objecting to school programs that teach 5th graders how to…
Our Fresh Poop Is Always Straight But Never Homophobic
Monday, June 20 What could possibly go wrong? Tennessee Valley Authority, oblivious to Japan's Fukushima reactor disaster, plans six new nuclear plants in eastern Tennessee. At least there won't be a big tsunami risk … Big day for the Supremes: US Supreme Court's conservative majority strikes down massive sex discrimination class-action lawsuit against Wal-Mart ……
The COCC Anti-Tobacco Nannies
Smoking and chewing tobacco are unhealthy things to do – nobody disagrees with that. And breathing secondhand smoke is unhealthy too – virtually nobody disagrees with that. Motivated (presumably) by a noble desire to discourage students from smoking or chewing and to protect non-smokers from exposure to secondhand smoke, Central Oregon Community College appears to…
July is National Ice Cream Month: Thanks Ron!
Ronald Reagan is the new black. His name has been thrown around ad nauseam by political members of both the right and the left, particularly during recent election years. Even Obama claims to identify with him. Now we know why — Proclamation 5219 (note Proclamation 5218, pretty ironic). The Gipper, in his infinite wisdom, declared…
Jose Antonio Vargas is a Hero: What an illegal immigrant can teach us about America
I first met Jose Antonio Vargas in the fall of 2008, in the midst of the historic Obama campaign for the presidency. At the time, I was a fellow at the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, where I was researching the impact of the…
Smoke Screen: A threatened crackdown hasn't deterred Deschutes County's medical marijuana movement
With a pair of sunglasses on his head, a surf shop T-shirt on his back and sandals on his feet, Brent Goodman arrives at his office in attire that's casual, even by Bend's standards. But then again there's nothing traditional about Goodman's office. A former commercial realtor, Goodman is one of a handful of entrepreneurs…
Our Picks for 6/29-7/7: Ween, The Sweet Harlots, Bookplate Auction and Reception, First Friday and more
Ween saturday 2 Two years ago, a band came to the Les Schwab Amphitheater and played one of the most ridiculously hilarious and musically diverse sets in the history of the venue. They were called Ween and we're damn pleased to say they'll be back in town on Saturday night to rock our faces off…
Inde-Hemp-Dence Day: What could Toots and the Maytals possibly have to do with Oregon politics?
“So give me an idea of how this thing will work. When does it start? What's the format?” I ask, partially because I'm a reporter and I'm supposed to ask things like that, but also because I've seen plenty of posters and advertisements for the touring reggae event called Hempstead World Music Festival, yet I'm…
Helms Alee: Weatherhead
If the cats with lasers for eyes on the cover and throughout the liner notes of Helms Alee's new record, Weatherhead, aren't enough for you, then perhaps the gravelly riffs within are. The Tacoma band's follow-up to their excellent debut, Night Terror, shows how unboxable this Tacoma trio is.
Little Bites: Judging the Bite of Bend: I'll tell you the winner after I finish everything on my plate… and yours.
The Bite of Bend had something for every appetite – $1 bites of food from restaurants across Central Oregon, desserts ranging from cake to frozen yogurt, massive quantities of beer (more than 50 kegs were consumed during the weekend) and a mixology tent where, according to my red-faced friend, “They let everyone drink all weekend…
Timber Ho!: Bend is starting to love the Portland Timbers and you should, too
In case you weren’t paying attention, both of the United States national team’s first-half goals against Mexico in the Concacaf Gold Cup final soccer match were announced by loud cheering, bar banging and bell ringing at Sidelines Sports Bar and Grill on Saturday night. This was appreciated, given that I missed both scores even though…
Charles Finn: Life’s Ups and Downs
I took a punch in the gut recently. First one in quite a few years and it hurt, hurt bad. What happened was the phone rang, I answered it, my wife told me the bad news and I made the decision not to throw up. I wanted to throw something at least, anything, and take…
Out on a Limb: Art house flick Tree of Life hangs heavy on the art
I dig Terrence Malick. Rarely have we seen such a director go out on a limb, taking chances few artists dare to make. Since his classic Badlands, starring Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek chronicling Charles Starkweather's 1958 murder spree, Malick has made only three other movies (Days of Heaven, Thin Red Line and New World),…
Transcendence on Horseback: Buck tells the story of how one man overcame adversity
Documentaries are most successful, or perhaps most gripping, when the story has a well-developed and intriguing character. Viewers connect with these real people, and what you're watching is more or less their actual lives. Buck, which won the Audience Award for documentaries at the Sundance Film Festival, follows the life of cowboy Buck Brannaman, who…
We Waited 15 Years for This?: Duke Nukem Forever proves a disservice to an otherwise great franchise
Duke Nukem Forever has finally appeared, more than 15 years after Duke Nukem 3D. And I’m not sure what annoys me more: That I waited for the game or that I paid $65 for it. Duke Nukem Forever may be the biggest disappointments I’ve ever played. It’s not that it doesn’t work. The technology functions…
Me, Patriotism and You
My Fellow Americans: Every year at this time – despite my editor's heavy sighs of exasperation – I shove aside my usual nattering about television to expound on a subject you obviously don't give two donkey plops about: PATRIOTISM!! [Warning: You're about to find yourself on the business end of a stern lecture. It's best…
Friend or Foe?: The truth about the black widow
Of all the spiders that crawl, creep, fly and jump about in Central Oregon, black widows are the most feared. There are others that can kill you, some quicker than the black widow, like Australia's the funnel-web spider, but throughout the entire world, black widows (latrodectus mactans) get the most press, and they should. It's…
Hitting the Lottery?: Congrats NBA fans, here's a bunch of draftees you've never heard of
Few sport-related events are as bizarre and endlessly confusing as the NBA Draft, which comes just a few weeks after the end of the nipple-twistingly long NBA season, at the precise moment when the needle on most fans' Give-a-Damn-o-Meter is fluttering between “whatever” and one of those thumbs down/fart sound combinations that was the ultimate…
Dumpstaphunk Video From Bite of Bend
I would guess that there were at least a few Bent Blog readers down at the Bite of Bend on Saturday night to see the thunderously funky set from Ivan Neville’s Dumpstaphunk. The New Orleans band’s set struck me as one of the most impressive shows — especially free shows — I’ve seen in Bend…
