Kevin Mannix, who lost as a candidate for governor, state attorney general and congressman, has had a more successful career pushing get-tough-on-crime measures. But he’s finding it tough to get traction with this year’s entry – even among some of his fellow Republicans.
Dudley Kicks Mannix Measure to the Curb
Posted inNews
Video of The Autonomics from the Hump Day Hash at the Century Center
With such an awesome line up of music Wednesday night, you couldn’t go wrong wherever you ended up. I hit up the Hump Day Hash featuring The Autonomics at the new Century Center, and I’ve got to say seeing the venue, it’s got me pretty stoked for Bend Roots.
Posted inCulture
What's Your Cinderella Pint? Let our Brewfest bracketology be your drinking guide
Editor's Note: This Friday and Saturday beer drinkers from around Central Oregon and beyond will file into the Les Schwab amphitheater for the chance to sample craft beers from around Oregon and the Western United States as part of the 2010 Bend Brewfest. If you like beer, and we know that you do, this is simply The Place To Be this weekend as the hop-ified liquid goodness flows from the taps. In recognition of this great gathering of fermented malts, we're offering a different kind of guide to the event. In a nod to March Madness, we've developed our own bracketology methodology for you to rate and compare the two dozen breweries on hand. The match-ups are beyond arbitrary (they're in alphabetical order). So drink up and have fun filling out your brackets. We're all winners when beer is the game.
Posted inFood & Drink
In the Mix: Solid Hawaiian Fare comes to the Old Mill
Bend seems to have a connection with Hawaii. More than a few people I know have traded their surfboards and suntans for snowboards and four seasons (theoretically). But one thing islanders refuse to give up is Hawaiian cuisine and for that we can all be thankful. Hawaiian fare is no-fuss goodness – slow-roasted meats and fish prepared in Asian and Pacific Island styles, melding the Hawaiian population's various cultures. And Bendites are lucky enough to have not one, but two, authentic Hawaiian joints, Aloha Café and Big Island Kona Mix Plate, the latter of which recently relocated from a less than convenient 3rd Street location to a prime spot next to the Regal Cinema in the Old Mill, formerly occupied by Quiznos subs.
The new Kona Mix Plate is about half the size of the old store, but the location makes up for the lack of space. I recently visited Kona Mix Plate for lunch and the place was bustling with moviegoers and shoppers hankering for some island fare.
Posted inCulture
Finding Balance Julia Roberts takes the path to spiritual enlightenment in Eat Pray Love
For the last few months, I have been torn as to whether or not I wanted to read Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat Pray Love, before watching the movie adaptation. A few of my friends who've read the book dote on the incredible journey Liz takes to find herself. Others say it's filled with too much whining and that she's selfish. As it goes, I didn't read the book before watching the movie. Now I can't decide if I want to.
Posted inFood & Drink
Little Bites: Rumor Has It: New brewery and bar, fewer doughnuts and less froyo
The restaurant industry never stays the same, as evidenced by this week's rumor mill. First up is the Old Mill Martini Bar space above Saxons Fine Jewelers, which has been empty since the Martini Bar vacated it two years ago. We've been waiting patiently for another Old Mill bar that's open past 10p.m., and if rumors are correct, our patience will pay off in the next couple of weeks. We hear that a new bar called Level 2 will be opening another chic bar/lounge and will appease cocktail lovers who don't want to trek downtown as well as those seeking a nightcap after dining by the river. Aida Long, who is involved in 5 Fusion, will likely head the venture. We also hear that there may be another brewery arriving on the already competitive brewing scene. Take this with a grain of salt as it's a third-hand rumor, but an out-of-town established brewery is looking to open a brewpub outpost on the westside, possibly in Century Center. As Bend doesn't have any brewpubs that aren't local, it should be interesting to see the reaction to a newcomer. But if it's one of the quality Eugene or Portland breweries like Ninkasi or BridgePort, we wouldn't mind the addition – Central Oregon has plenty of beer connoisseurs to go around.
Posted inOutside
Ride of Your Life: Mountain Bike Oregon is a two-wheeled “Woodstock”
Would anyone pay close to $300 dollars to spend three nights camping at a highway rest area?Twice a summer, for the last four years, more than 300 people from all over the country and as far away as Australia do just that; many of them consider it a bargain. They come for one reason: Mountain Bike Oregon(MBO), a three day festival in Oakridge featuring some of the best singletrack mountain biking in the nation.
“There are miles of amazing single track. It's right up there with places like Moab, Crested Butte and Park City,” says Abbey Hippely of Santa Cruz Bicycles. Riders and industry reps agree – Oakridge has quietly developed a reputation as a premier mountain biking destination.
Posted inCulture
Bonnie and Clyde: The Musical
Innovation Theatre Works launched its first production in its new space, the Bend Performing Arts Center. Bonnie and Clyde: The Musical, directed by Brad Hills and produced by Chris Rennolds, the founders and artistic directors of Innovation Theatre Works, is a two-person play that takes us to the steamy heart of 1930s Texas as the infamous Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker meet, fall in love, and commence with a life of crime.
Married leads Jessica and Jeremy Bernard command the stage with not only their pitch-perfect singing, but also with their ability to create empathy for two lawless characters.
Posted inCulture
Best Seller
Hardcover Fiction 1. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest Stieg Larsson, Knopf, $27.95 The stunning third and final novel in Larsson’s best-selling Millennium Trilogy. (*11) 2. The Help Kathryn Stockett, Amy Einhorn Books/Putnam, $24.95. This wonderful debut set in the rural South of the 1960s is a February 2009 Indie Next List Great Read. (78)3. Star Island Carl Hiaasen, Knopf, $26.95. Hiaasen’s hilarious spin on life in the celebrity fast lane. (2)
Posted inCulture
A Mindless Summer Rampage: Crackdown can’t blast through its shortcomings
The same thing happens every day. The sun, rising unseen, illuminates Pacific City with a vague, generic glow. In this unwashed daylight, Pacific City’s buildings, which glower with foreboding imperialism in the darkness, are revealed to be charmless monoliths – a warren of cardboard box offices and oatmeal can towers. An occasional flock of paper scraps churn through the air in the otherwise featureless corners and alleyways. As the light emerges, so do the city’s sanest residents. I say “sanest,” though I would be hard-pressed to defend the mental health of citizens who insist on loitering in the streets like herd animals – a meandering obstacle course that the game admonishes me for mowing down.
Then the same thing happens every night. The streams of citizens evaporate as darkness oozes into the streets along with a dense backwash of mutants: pale, bulbous men studded with bony spikes, and wiry screaming women with frazzled hair. Outnumbering the healthy citizens, the freaks clog every corner of nocturnal Pacific City. Throwing punches at them results in a dense flurry of motion as I flit from one to the next, and it’s a simple matter to leap to the roof of a nearby building and target them with firearms. But that maneuver is likely to summon a carload or two of the game’s gang of human rebels, with their automatic rifles, endless ammunition and ability to track me across rooftops.The same thing happens every year. I find myself leaping from rooftop to rooftop, from skyscraper to street and back up again, as I bounce and climb around crime-infested cities. But unlike the truly epic scale of last summer’s inFamous and Prototype, the feeble heights and featureless skyline of Crackdown 2 present me with limited opportunities for super-powered heroics. I’m no longer impressed that I’m able to leap to the top of tall buildings in a single bound. In Crackdown 2 I’m merely a bundle of offensive maneuvers ricocheting around a mockup metropolis, pretending to save the day and night when all I’m really doing is going through the motions.