The Passionate Life: Getting philosophical (and sun tanned) with Noah Gundersen and The Courage

Posted inMusic

The Passionate Life: Getting philosophical (and sun tanned) with Noah Gundersen and The Courage

Mike Bookey

In the back yard of Angeline's Bakery in Sisters, a young and dreadlocked Noah Gundersen and an even younger Abby Gundersen stood on a small stage, playing deftly arranged, intensely emotive folk songs and rarely looked up from the wooden deck below their feet to meet the gaze of the capacity audience rapt by their music.
The scene was a late-afternoon performance at the 2008 Sisters Folk Festival where a then teenage Gunderson played a supporting role. Now the organization is bringing Noah Gundersen and his new band The Courage back to town for the Winter Concert Series this weekend. But the Noah Gundersen coming through this time is far from the seemingly meek wunderkind we saw two years ago. He's older – still young at 20, but older nonetheless – and he now will gladly rock whenever he feels the need.

Posted inMusic

Shearwater: A Golden Archipelago

Source Weekly

Shearwater
A Golden Archipelago
Matador Records

When Jonathan Meiburg decided to leave behind his shared writing duties in Okkervil River to focus more on Shearwater (a side project he and Okkervil band mate Will Sheff started in 1999), the result was the critically acclaimed Palo Santo. Less than two years later, with the release of Rook, Meiburg and Shearwater mainstays, Thor Harris and Kimberly Burke, showed even more evidence this band could go to any musical landscape they deemed fit. So, with Shearwater's sixth album, and third in a series relating to mankind's impact on the world, A Golden Archipelago is colossal in not just the physical land it covers, but the emotional, larger-than-life adventure, and grief-stricken scope it seeks. The best album to date in this new decade, Golden displays Meiburg and company fit for any stage.

Posted inCulture

Our Picks for 2/24 – 3/4: Ignite Bend 4, Warm Gadget, Polar Plunge, and more.

Source Weekly

Ignite Bend 4
thursday 25
The multi-media bonanza that crams a mountain (or several mountains, also known as a mountain range) of information into entertaining and topical five-minute slideshow is back now for the fourth time in Bend. Topics vary incredibly and chances are, you'll learn something. Free, or $3 suggested donation. 7pm. Tower Theatre, 835 NW Wall St.
Warm Gadget
thursday 25
Bend's most bizarre yet exhilarating band is back at it with this just-announced show at the Moon where they'll dazzle you with their electronic meets industrial sound. DJ Moksha opens. $5. 9pm. Silver Moon Brewing Co., 24 NW Greenwood Ave.

Posted inNews

Park It, Buddy: City parking crackdowns, the Bus Project and a Salem summary

Eric Flowers

The city of Bend plans to crack down on downtown parking scofflaws by boosting fines for repeat offenders. The city council voted last week to jack up fines by as much as four times for repeat violators who are caught abusing the two hours of free parking by hopscotching around downtown parking spaces. The practice has drawn the attention of the city council, which has invested millions of dollars into the downtown parking garage to free up spaces for customers along the streets and in the remaining surface lots.
Under the proposed system, parking offenders would see their fines increase over the course of the year as they rack up parking tickets. Anyone with five or more violations would see their parking tickets double, from $22 to $44. Those with more than 10 violations would see their tickets triple to $66 and those with 15 or more violations would see their fines go from $22 to $88 per ticket.

Posted inOpinion

The 911 Board's Weaselly Maneuver

Source Weekly

For a six-year period in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Oregon's state slogan was “Things Look Different Here.” Although that was replaced in 2003 with “We Love Dreamers,” many things still are different here – including the way public officials are able to hide things that are the public's business from the public.
The Deschutes County 911 Service District has been having some real problems lately. In early December the district's board of directors put its executive director, Becky McDonald, on paid leave and launched a personnel investigation. The board hasn't offered any explanation of why the director was sidelined or what's being investigated.

Posted inOpinion

From Vancouver to Kandahar: Shaun White spins, Tiger counts his sins, and more!

Source Weekly

The author has been sent on the road to discover a lost country formerly known as America. He is reporting from the land created by Mr. Cheney, where myth and facts entwine – on assignment for Or-Bust.com and The Source Weekly.
Olympics, Ughh
Haven't our standards for Olympic “sport” sunken rather low (or gone too extreme for other countries to compete) and why do metrosexuals seem to be everywhere? Apolo Ohno is now “the most decorated” U.S. Winter Olympian (Eric Heiden, puhleeze… ) Shaun White is totally kickass and his “double McTwist”1260 was astonishing – but is it sport? Fellow snowboarder Scott Lago left the Olympics voluntarily with a bronze after sexy pics of him and a fan hit the porn-net; skier Bode Miller finally got gold and has the most alpine Olympic medals of any American skier in Vancouverยญ – after taking the year off and considering quitting. Our hockey teams are on top, as are we; time for “amateurs” again, eh?

Posted inOpinion

This week's number: 150 million

Source Weekly

The number of dollars that Bank of America has agreed to pay the SEC to settle claims that the banking behemoth failed to disclose to its own shareholders the massive bonuses and mounting debt at Merrill Lynch when B of A acquired its rival. The revelations of Merrill's debt in the wake of the deal sent B of A stock tumbling and the company scrambling for a $20 billion dollar bailout.

Posted inOpinion

Letter of the Week: A Bomber By Any Other Name

Source Weekly

This week's letter comes from Mr. A. Plum who wonders why the media is having such a hard time applying the label of “terrorist” to the man who intentionally flew his plane into the Austin IRS building last week. Thanks for the letter, Mr. P, we couldn't have said it any better. You can pick up your winnings, a bag of Strictly Organic coffee, at our office, 704 NW Georgia.

If someone flew an airplane into a building full of people to protest the Afghan war, it would be called an act of terrorism. However, when Mr. Joe Stack flew his plane into an IRS building and killed people, the news media calls it, “the accident” and “the incident.” The local Texas prosecutor declared that Mr. Stack was not a terrorist. But what should you call it when a man pens a manifesto proclaiming, “violence is the only answer,” then kills people because they work for the government? Mr. Stack's wife apologized on the news to “everyone affected by the incident,” but was careful not to use the term “victim” when referring to the people her husband murdered.

Posted inOpinion

To Hell In A Teapot

Source Weekly

Our glorious brave Teapotty Patriots need not worry about our Great White Nation. Our obscenely rich ruling class and their obedient wealth worshippers will stop at nothing to protect and extend their enormous power, wealth and God-given free-market program, from which all poverty and misery flows to the rest of us! Their blessed tax-gobbling, multi-trillion dollar war machine, and its 800-plus publicly funded military bases around the world will bravely continue its perpetual wars, invasions, bombings, droning, slaughters and tortures for all who dare to resist the largest war machine ever seen on this small vulnerable planet.

Posted inOpinion

The Politics of No

Source Weekly

It is very evident that the Republican Party in Washington is playing the game of saying “no” particularly when it comes to any medical care bill that is presented by the Obama administration. The same attitude seems to apply to many other areas of what Obama is trying to do to get us out of the financial mess that we are presently in. My question is: Is it more than differences in political philosophy and partisan politics?

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