Mt Bachelor Marketing Director Departs
Mt Bachelor's marketing director Alex Kaufman has left the company in what he calls a mutual decision to separate. Kaufman who was known for his hands on approach to marketing helped modernize the mountain's social marketing campaigns, moving Bachelor aggressively in to the world of Facebook and Twitter.
Nice MTB Ride: Praising Peterson Ridge
A couple of years ago you would have had to really twist my arm or offer me a serious bribe to get me to ride the Peterson Ridge trail system in Sisters. That trail system was, as far as I was concerned, a mishmash of dusty fairly uninteresting singletrack.
Why The Feds Can’t Identify “Jason Evers”: Because he’s a robot
OK, so the U.S.
Spring Fling: giving back at its best
Every May for the past several years, the Central Oregon Trail Alliance (COTA) has sponsored an event called The Spring Fling. It's a day devoted to volunteer work building or maintaining local trails.
Deadbeats, Dudley's Dud and Jazz Heresy
Oregonians who like to get angry at their state government should aim some righteous outrage at this: According to a story that appeared in Saturday’s issue of The Oregonian, “tax scofflaws and assorted deadbeats” are cheating the state out of $2 billion a year in revenue. A 2009 report by the Legislative Fiscal Office said…
Win the New Horse Feathers CD, “Thistled Spring”
As you probably know by now, Horse Feathers are playing in town on Tuesday night at the Tower Theatre to kick off the PDXchange concert series. Here’s my profile of the band, which ran in this week’s print edition of the paper.
All the News That Fits Their Agenda?
The voters gave The Bulletin and the Source a smack upside the head on Tuesday, rejecting their and our editorial recommendations to re-elect veteran Deschutes County District Attorney Mike Dugan and instead replacing him with Patrick Flaherty. The Source’s editors took the rebuke calmly and quietly.
Music For Dogs: 5 for Fido Tonight at Mountain’s Edge
This isn’t music for dogs necessarily, but rather music that benefits dogs. The 5 for Fido event features a hand’s worth of local bands playing music to raise money for the Lost Dogs film project and the Central Oregon Human Society.
I’m Confessing: Floyd Landis comes clean and implicates others
Well, it took a few years filled with denial but pro cyclist Floyd Landis finally came clean this week and confessed to using Human Growth Hormone (HGH) and testosterone on his way to his to his winning and then losing his 2006 Tour de France title and being banned from cycling for several years. According…
Technobabble: fading further out of the electronic age
This week I attended a gathering that further helped me realize that I am ill suited for the electronic age. Not only am I a luddite but also not the least bit interested in wasting my time trying to keep up with the latest electronic gadgets, gizmos and stuff.
Controversial Land Use Cop Out in Bend
A state land use planner who has been a thorn in the side of the city’s long suffering UGB expansion proposal announced today that he is retiring early. Mark Radabaugh has served as the state’s point person throughout the city’s prolonged UGB process and has been a pointed critic of the city’s unprecedented expansion…
Win Tickets to Tribal Seeds at the Domino Room Friday Night
If you’re wondering why this blog has partially turned into a clearinghouse for free stuff, I can answer that for you: Free stuff is awesome. It’s better than candy.
Printemps: sure signs that it’s spring in Central Oregon
The first thing you have to remember when it comes to spring in Central Oregon is that it's always the season of weird weather. And while the international news services carried a piece earlier this week about it being the warmest spring worldwide in recorded history, the weather information gatherers must not have called Bob…
Drinkin' and Cussin': Local cast and crew take Lamppost Reunion live at McMenamins
Plays about reunions, be they family, alumni, or with old friends, are somewhat of a theater staple. You almost know what's coming without having read the scripted laughter, crying, anger and sentimentality. Theater in places besides a traditional theater or an off-Broadway black box isn't that new of an idea but, it's always refreshing. And…
Keep an Eye Out for Dark-Horse Dudley
Wow, what a weird election that was. In Deschutes County, voters tossed out a district attorney who'd been in office for two decades (Mike Dugan), rejected a bond to expand the jail, gave the boot to one county commissioner (Dennis Luke) and kept another (Tammy Baney).
Ready, Set, Go: PPP in the first person
My alarm goes off. It's 6:30 a.m. I feed the dog, down a bottle of Frappucino, eat a can of Chef Boyardee Overstuffed Beef Ravioli and three electrolyte capsules, and pull on my race outfit. All my gear is in the van. My trusty support person, Greg, is standing ready on his doorstep as I…
Students Speak: Local kids and their teachers step outdoors
In these days of short money and educational communities wondering how they're going to keep going on what they have, finding teachers getting the best bang for the buck is fantastic! If you were in Bend last Thursday, happened to walk into the theater at McMenamins Old St. Francis School, and took a minute to…
Gladiator in Tights: Robin Hood is not the stuff of legends
How many times and in how many mediums must we watch the saga of Robin Hood be botched? Among all the songs, movies, cartoons and TV shows, add one more with this boring one-note treatment of the band of not-so-merry men. Ridley Scott's Robin Hood is so hell-bent on remaining serious that it squishes the…
All Out of Love: Letters To Juliet is not funny or romantic, but it is a romantic comedy
The Taylor Swift song “Love Story” plays over the trailer for this movie, and as Letters To Juliet reaches its climax, the lyrics “You'll be the prince and I'll be the princess/It's a love story, baby, just say yes” thunder out over scenes of rolling Italian fields. If you don't like that song, you won't…
System-Wide Shutdown
As predicted last week, my underpants are full of crap. There are SO many TV season finales this coming week, and I'm SO overwhelmed, I've lapsed into a semicomatose state, wherein all of my bodily functions have shut down – except for life support and the ability to type this stupid column (which doesn't require…
The Right Recipe: Third Thyme's a charm at FivePine
With its warm hearth-like interior, Thyme's setting parallels its menu – bistro food that's comforting, rustic and modern. While the menu is not overly ambitious, it is creative enough to remind us of Thyme's lineage; the McCrystals, owners of Jen's Garden, aren't building a fine-dining empire, they are responding to the needs of the town…
The Right Recipe: Third Thyme's a charm at FivePine
With its warm hearth-like interior, Thyme's setting parallels its menu – bistro food that's comforting, rustic and modern. While the menu is not overly ambitious, it is creative enough to remind us of Thyme's lineage; the McCrystals, owners of Jen's Garden, aren't building a fine-dining empire, they are responding to the needs of the town…
The Reluctant Folkie: Horse Feathers' Justin Ringle didn't plan on becoming one of Portland's strongest songwriters, it just kind of happened
It's good to have a fallback. You know, something that might make you a little money, or a lot of money, when everything goes to hell. Justin Ringle had a fallback. But his fallback probably looks more like a dream job to most. Ringle, the songwriter and front man for whispery Portland folk act Horse…
Tyler Fortier: This Love is fleeting
Tyler Fortier This Love is fleeting Eugene-based singer/songwriter Tyler Fortier's fourth album, This Love is Fleeting, shines with Americana flare and folk-tinged rock numbers. Fortier's vocals are laced with just the slightest amount of rasp, which very well might leave you with a love for the record that is anything but fleeting. Fortier, who spent…
Our Picks for 5/19 – 6/3: Last Band Standing, Diego's Umbrella, Five for Fido, Tribal Seeds, Bend Bicycle Film Festival and more
Last Band Standing thursday 20 The marathon of live local music continues with a more rootsy, soulful lineup this week for round five, with Bobby Sims and The Blues Rockers, Eric Tollefson and the World's Greatest Lovers, Erin Cole-Baker, Hot Tea Cold and The Sofa Kings. $3/adv, $5/door. 8pm. Boondock's Bar and Grill, 70 NW…
The Trolls Invade the Mountain
The closing weekend at Mount Bachelor has become a pleasant Bend tradition – two days of fun, games and high spirits to celebrate the end of another ski/snowboard season and the beginning of another summer. As always, though, there are some idiots who let their spirits get too high and screw it up for everybody…
The City Taj Mahal
It was back in the heady boom days when Bend's duly elected officials found themselves faced with an offer that they couldn't refuse. Plunk down a few million bucks for a piece of real estate on the north end of downtown for a fancy new city hall that the city didn't need.
Hot In Buffalo: Barack in the Rust Belt, Petroleum lube, Polanski's chalet and Dio dies
The author has been sent on the road to discover a lost country formerly known as America. He is reporting from the Appalachian Trail, lacking wifi but well-rested to witness New Orleans' and BP's big “Oops!” on assignment for Or-Bust.com and The Source Weekly. Buffalo Cougars Hunting Obama During a visit to economically depressed Buffalo…
How to Stop the Leak (And the Corruption)
No solutions are out there on the horizon to resolve the economic and environmental disaster in the Gulf, so thought I had better solve it myself. The first step is to arrest the CEOs of British Petroleum, Halliburton and TransOcean. Appropriate their personal assets to compensate the families of the 11 workers who were killed…
Art Is Not For the Taking
I couldn't sleep last night. Not for worry of the economy, the oil spill, our government or other weighty subjects – though those are all worthy of insomnia. I couldn't sleep last night because my husband, Tom, had an art reception for a showing of his paintings at a downtown establishment and something went wrong.…
Something About Obama
The last sentence in your political endorsement jumped out at me. It states, “Likeable as Dudley is, Oregon can't afford to give the governorship to a guy who'll need on-the-job training.” In your 2008 presidential endorsement you could have used the same sentence only with three substitutions and you would have been right-on: “Likeable as…
